People in Planes-Last Man Standing

[Crushcrushchris]

Goes for adds January 27th.

[pen]

Bad choice. This was a great lead-in track, but not a single. They should've gone either with "Better Than Life" or given "Pretty Buildings" a wide release. Actually I think the latter would do really well. Unfortunately, we're dealing with Wind-Up here and they don't always make the best decisions.

[Rich P.]

Talk about bad choices... I went to a concert of People in Planes in September and they didn't play If You Talk Too Much My Head Will Explode. Figured it would be last, but when they started packing up the equipment, I couldn't believe it.

[pen]

Did they play anything from the first album?

[Rich P.]

I own the album with Talk Too Much on it and was listening just about exclusively to that album on my commute for about a week before the show; I recognized about half of the songs that were played. Is the new album their second? That would make sense; a little less than half old songs and a little more than half new songs.

The show was at the Mercury Lounge in New York City. I was surprised because there were only about 100 people at the show, I would have thought they'd play a larger venue. I also missed out on a golden opportunity to hob-nob with the band: As I was coming home, I took a peek at the flyer for their new album and noticed that the sun on the album artwork is almost a dead-ringer for the tattoo I've had for five years!

[pen]

It's their second album as People In Planes, I don't know if they're still playing anything from their Tetra Splendor days.

[jvandyck87]

"Pretty Buildings" is amazing.

[fran182]

Today, it reached top 50 on Mediabase Alternative:

63 50 PEOPLE IN PLANES Last Man Standing 144 89 55 0.424

18 stations playing.

[jvandyck87]

This song has grown on me a lot and is now up there with "Pretty Buildings" as my favorite of theirs. This song has been bouncing around outside the top 40 of alternative over the last few weeks. I hope it can somehow manage an entry on Billboard Modern Rock, all it needs is a couple more stations to add it.

[fran182]

Today, it reached top 40 on Mediabase Alternative:

44 40 PEOPLE IN PLANES Last Man Standing 234 228 6 0.701

[jvandyck87]

Last week it dropped back down to #43, but this week it has resurfaced in the top 40 at #39 with a +29 bullet. Billboard Modern Rock? Maybe? My guess is it's still just hovering outside.

[pen]

They really really should've gone with "Pretty Buildings" or "Better Than Life" or something with more kick. I'm surprised this is getting this far but I'm sure they'll have a struggle going much farther.

[My Life Is A Stereo]

This is quickly becoming my favorite song from them or at least contending with If You Talk Too Much.......

[jvandyck87]

#40 at Billboard Modern Rock this week most likely, given it's #40 at R&R which is usually identical.

[jvandyck87]

A few stations fell in love with this song this week, all Clear Channel...all not monitored by billboard, so the boost probably won't show up there but it's pretty significant at mediabase alternative:

38 33 PEOPLE IN PLANES Last Man Standing 323 244 79 0.898

...Bitchin'

[Matt4319]

Apparently I missed the memo that this sounds absolutely nothing like "If You Talk Too Much...". That was decent, but I think I like this better after only 2 listens.

[jvandyck87]

Apparently some of the billboard stations got behind this too as it's up from #40 to #34 this week. That's only one spot below where "If You Talk Too Much..." peaked.

Yeah I remember hearing "If You Talk Too Much..." and thinking, these guys are an above average indie band...whatever. But with the three singles off this album I'm now a big fan of both their albums.

[lockebox]

Gareth Jones' vocals are immaculate throughtout the album, albeit that some of the melodies fall slightly short of the mark. This sounds like a top 20 song to me, doubt it'll get that high though.

[jvandyck87]

It's up to #28 this week with a small negative bullet which is good considering it's Memorial Day weekend.

After finally listening to a few more songs off the new album, this so far was the best choice other than "Pretty Buildings." "Better Than Life" refers to wet dreams and stuff, which might be off-putting to enough people that it would struggle to do well at radio. It is musically pretty spot on though.

"Falling By The Wayside" should have been an Alternative/AAA/Hot AC hit off their last album.

[ticketman]

'Pretty Buildings' will most likely not go out to radio as a single. I heard it was originally tested at the beginning and programmers at radio didn't like the 'come out of the closet' and 'so when you reach the top, just throw yourself off' lyrics, regardless of what they really mean. So the track was never released to radio.

[pen]

May 25, 2009 11:39:15 GMT -5 ticketman said:

'Pretty Buildings' will most likely not go out to radio as a single. I heard it was originally tested at the beginning and programmers at radio didn't like the 'come out of the closet' and 'so when you reach the top, just throw yourself off' lyrics, regardless of what they really mean. So the track was never released to radio.

Are you serious? What, is radio run by a bunch of homophobes, or what? And considering that radio has played songs with much worse (and more intentional) connotations, I'm surprised that they'd really be all that concerned.

[ticketman]

Yes, I'm serious. I heard that programmers had issues with the song lyrically in the markets it was to be tested in. There was concern over it the possible connotations over 'come out of the closet, let's talk about it' and then 'when you get to the top, just throw yourself off' being extremely touchy due to the high suicide rate and tendencies for gay youths.

It's not homophobic, but rather the extreme opposite. Do I think it is stupid? Yes. But again, that's why I heard the track did not go to radio despite being the first track pushed out of the gate to fans.

[pen]

May 25, 2009 16:58:26 GMT -5 ticketman said:

Yes, I'm serious. I heard that programmers had issues with the song lyrically in the markets it was to be tested in. There was concern over it the possible connotations over 'come out of the closet, let's talk about it' and then 'when you get to the top, just throw yourself off' being extremely touchy due to the high suicide rate and tendencies for gay youths.

It's not homophobic, but rather the extreme opposite. Do I think it is stupid? Yes. But again, that's why I heard the track did not go to radio despite being the first track pushed out of the gate to fans.

Okay, well, that makes a little more sense at least in terms of what they find concerning about it, but at the same time, anyone with half a brain cell can listen to the song and understand that it is not about asking gay people to go off themselves. And at any rate, people don't just do things because they heard it in a song, they do things because they have mental problems or issues. I really don't see why people are unafraid to take risks when it comes to songs about fucking but not for a beautiful song like this.

[ticketman]

I stopped trying to understand radio years ago.

[jvandyck87]

Every person I show them to, I show "If You Talk Too Much," "Falling By The Wayside," "Pretty Buildings," "M'aidez" and "Last Man Standing".......and "Pretty Buildings" and "Falling By The Wayside" are easily the two that the most people gravitate to. And considering the decent success that "Last Man Standing" is enjoying, those songs look like top 20 alternative hits. It's obviously too late for "Falling By The Wayside" but if "Last Man Standing" can make enough of an impression, I really would love it if programmers would take the risk with "Pretty Buildings." After all, they played "Bodies" by Drowning Pool before September 11th. And if that's the reason programmers don't take risks, well then the terrorists and the school-shooters have beaten us.

[Nicholas2.0]

Heard this song again the other night. Still not getting why it's doing better than "If You Talk Too Much..."