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Monthly Archives: September 2015

Around the dial: Jack and Eliza, Don Dixon and Marti Jones, and Chris Corney

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Around the Dial

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Chris Corney, Don Dixon, Jack and Eliza, Marti Jones

Jack and Eliza “Hold the Line”   jack and elizaThis Brooklyn duo have an eerie vocal presence and their songs largely consist of a great trebly guitar and their overlapping singing, which is sometimes harmony, sometimes countermelody. Jack sounds quite Shins-like on this track but there is also a Mamas and Papas feel, if that group had gotten into some darker material. This song is drawn from their solid 2014 debut EP No Wonders. Their new album is Gentle Warnings and features a few tracks from the EP. Another solid song featured on both is “Secrets.”

Jack and Eliza website

Don Dixon and Marti Jones “Why, Why, Why”   martijonesdondixon                                        If Don Dixon had only ever recorded the song “Most of the Girls Like to Dance (But Only Some of the Boys Do)” I would have been happy. But fortunately he has continued to record, sometimes with his very talented partner, Marti Jones. This song is from their joint 2011 album Living Stereo and features a great chorus that largely describes my marriage.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/09-why-why-why.m4a  Don Dixon and Marti Jones Facebook

Chris Corney “America”   Chris Corney AMCorney leads The Ravines, who have a great new album that I plan to write about soon. But this track is from his 2012 solo album, Airways Mansions. Though from Bedford, England, there is something very American to me about Corney’s sound. Too poppy to be Springsteen-esque and yet the song establishes its cinematic quality right from the start – you can see the montage rolling by: factories, dilapidated fences, old cars, etc.

Chris Corney website

Poprock versus power pop

27 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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Bleachers, Buddy Holly, Marshall Crenshaw, power pop, The Beatles, The Smithereens, the Steve Miller Band

On the blogosphere there is already a clearly demarked niche music genre that combines melodic pop melodies with the classic rock and roll combo of electric guitars, bass and drums: power pop. Said to have been coined by no less an authority than Pete Townsend of The Who, the term ‘power pop’ is now applied to any band with jangly guitars, swooping background harmonies, and a strong melodic hook. My blogroll features two such sites (Absolute Powerpop and Powerpopaholic) and there are many more. So why cast my efforts under a different label like poprock? Well, simply put, I think poprock is a broader, more inclusive term. Or, to put it another way, while all of power pop could be considered a form of poprock, not all poprock would be characterized as power pop.

For many bloggers, power pop has become a kind of music esthetic: a certain kind of guitar sound, a particular combination of instruments and vocals, etc. Poprock, by contrast, is less rigid. It is less a genre than a sensibility, crossing over different styles. Sure it is defined by strong melodies and as a category it would make little sense if it didn’t relate to the rock and roll cannon. But rock and roll itself was a bastard child of multiple influences: south Chicago electric blues, Appalachian mountain fiddle solos and harmony vocals, western swing, and so on. What differentiates its many sub-genres is the balance of influences. Thus poprock takes a bit more of the swing and country than the blues while still set within the classic rock and roll combo. Here I’m thinking of Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Steve Miller band (in the hits era), Marshall Crenshaw, The Smithereens, and, more recently, Bleachers.

So don’t get me wrong – I love power pop. It’s just that I like a lot of other things too.Bleachers website

The mysterious power of Ezra Furman

21 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Artist Spotlight

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Ezra Furman

homepage_large.15e7c082I have seen the future of rock and roll and he is a self-described cross-dressing bisexual Jew from Chicago. I’m only just kidding. Rock and roll, though regularly proclaimed to be dead, survives because somebody comes along and recombines its various influences in new ways. Ezra Furman is one of those guys. His music mines 1950s doo wop and sax solos, throws in hefty dose of early 1960s melodic melodrama, oozes 1970s pre-punk, and ties it together with an earnest reedy vocal style. Imagine if Dylan had gone electric but remained political, or Jonathan Richman had stayed the course on reinventing the Velvet Underground – you start to get some sense about what Furman is doing and capable of.

One of the many things I find impressive about Furman is his rock and roll chops. This is not some sloppy DIY punker making a late conversion to hipster indie cool, or an earnest singer-songwriter giving his angst the band treatment. Right from his 2007 debut you can hear how solid his grasp of rock and roll forms is on tracks like “She’s All I’ve Got Left.” 2008’s Inside the Human Body features a very Dylanesque “The World is Alive” and Velvet Underground/early Jonathan Richman-ish “Take Off Your Sunglasses.”

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/04-mysterious-power.m4aMysterious Power

By the time Mysterious Power rolls out in 2011 Furman has expanded the melodic range of what he is doing: “Fall in Love with My World” manages to be plaintive without being pathetic, “Hard Time in a Terrible Land” sounds like a punked-up Pete Seeger, while “Mysterious Power” turns a simple guitar part into Furman’s most catchy and solid single to date. Subsequent albums turn out more polished singles, like the double A-side “My Zero/Caroline Jones,” songs that manage to channel the early 1960s vibe by working in whistling and sax solos. And I’m only featuring the stuff I like. Furman has a load of material that would fall into a more straight up alienated punk groove (for people who like that sort of thing).

Take Off Your Sunglasses

This year’s Perpetual Motion People brings all these disparate influences together into a surprisingly coherent and solid package. Again, the range is impressive: from the folksy spiritual quality of “One Day I will Sin No More” to the weirdly melodic and unpredictable “Can I Sleep in Your Brain.” 1950s sax and doo-wop stylings return on “Pot Holes,” a hilarious political commentary on phony civic boosterism with lightening word play and a fade out ‘waa-ooh’ vocal that would make Del Shannon proud. “Ordinary Life” sounds like a great lost John Lennon song.   And the video single for “Restless Year,” while not my favourite song on the record, does capture the frenetic, unpredictable energy that is Ezra Furman.

Restless Year

Furman is booked for a show in Toronto October 10th at the Silver Dollar – this promises to be an ‘I was there when …’ event, not to be missed!

Ezra Furman website

Around the dial: Lame Duck, Sleeper Agent, Bob Mould, and The Hello Sequence

19 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Around the Dial

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Bob Mould, Hello Sequence, I Can Make a Mess, Sleeper Agent

Today’s songs range from relatively new to a decade or so old. I blame my Rip Van Winkle experience of dropping out of popular music consumption around 1993 as the pressures of academic work increasingly squeezed out other interests. So a lot of my new music is not necessarily new, just new to me.

I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business – Lame Duck

gold-rush-coverI will admit that my interest in this song initially stemmed from my curiosity about the band’s name. Apparently the moniker has now been shortened to just I Can Make A Mess, which gives off a different vibe. “Lame Duck” is from I Can Make a Mess’ 2011 album Gold Rush. It opens with shimmering U2-like guitar sounds but quickly develops into a pleasant vocally driven tune.  I Can Make a Mess is just one of a number of projects from Ace Enders.

I Can Make a Mess/Ace Enders Facebook

Sleeper Agent – Love Blood

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This 2011 song has a host of great hooks but as I kept listening to it I thought it really reminded me of something. But what? Then it hit me: at the 30 second mark the song is strongly reminiscent of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” at the bridge where Debbie Harry sings “In between what I find is pleasing …” only Sleeper Agent have cranked up the speed and the impact of the hook.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/04-love-blood.m4a

Sleeper Agent Facebook

Bob Mould – See a Little Light

Bob_Mould_-_Workbook

Husker Du was one of those bands that anyone interested in the alternative music scene in the 1980s was supposed to love but they never really grabbed me. Too indiscriminately noisy for my tastes. Besides, music was my respite from alienation, not its soundtrack. Mould’s solo stuff I have found more melodic and engaging.  “See a Little Light” is from his 1989 debut solo album Workbook.

Bob Mould website

The Hello Sequence – Everyone Knows Everyone

I love the bleating harmonica that anchors this song, overlaid with smooth vocals that remind me of 1960s groups like The Association.

Hello Sequence Facebook

Gregory Pepper is not a problem

14 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Artist Spotlight

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Gregory Pepper

chorus_cover_rgb_sm_1_1_1Gregory Pepper is a hilarious, depraved, acerbic modern vaudevillian, a master of multiple styles, apparently loyal to none. On the four albums and one EP credited to Gregory Pepper and his Problems, he effortlessly shifts from genre to genre, one minute doing seeming novelty songs like “The Price is Wrong,” the next launching into the dementedly necrophilic “Dearly Departed.” On a number of songs Pepper skewers pop culture (e.g. “Smart Phones for Stupid People”) but isn’t afraid to skewer himself from time to time (“At Least I’m Not a Musician,” “Whose Dick Did You Have to Suck”). Our focus is on his poprock contributions and they are impressive.

Featured here is the Bond-esque “Drop the Plot” from 2009’s With Trumpets Flaring, the sunshine poppy “Breathe In” from Escape from Skull Mountain and the disarming “Restless Legs” from his EP, My Bad. From his most recent album, Chorus! Chorus! Chorus!, we hear his Fountains of Wayne-like “Welcome to the Dullhouse.”

 

Pepper appears in Toronto October 1 at the Smiling Buddha.  Gregory Pepper website

Good Old War: Broken Into Better Shape

12 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Artist Spotlight

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Good Old War

good-old-warI discovered Good Old War via the single “Broken Record,” released in advance of their most recent album Broken Into Better Shape. I loved it! It had a zany, somewhat frantic arrangement and a host of great melodic hooks, punctuated by background vocals right out of a Schoolhouse Rocks segment. Additionally, as someone often accused of being a ‘broken record,’ it was fun to revisit a term that has become increasingly anachronistic with the eclipse of vinyl. But the song left me wondering if the band might be little more than a novelty act. A perusal of their back catalogue suggested not.

Their prior three albums were to various degrees acoustic folk or folk-pop in orientation. Their first album, Only Way to Be Alone, melded harmony vocals, acoustic guitars and some great melodic electric guitar lead lines on tracks like “No Time” and “That’s What’s Wrong.” Their next release, Good Old War, went in a more folk and harmony vocal direction, while album number three, Come Back as Rain, upped the pop dimension, particularly on songs like “Can’t Go Home,” “Better Weather,” and “Over and Over.”

But that didn’t prepare me for Broken Into Better Shape, which in all respects – production, songwriting, performance – is an advance on their previous efforts. It is also their most poprock record. There are so many great songs here but I have featured four that showcase the range of styles. “Broken Record” is fun poprock, “Fly Away” shows what Good Old War can do with layered vocals, “I’m the One” has a great repeated guitar riff that anchors the song, while “Never Going to See Me Cry” has a driving hypnotic quality and some great lyrics.

For those near Toronto, Good Old War will perform at an intimate venue September 28, 2015, with tickets available here.  Good Old War website

Around the dial: Guster, Woods, and Jeremy Fisher

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Around the Dial

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Guster, Jeremy Fisher, Woods

Guster – Simple Machine (Digital Single)guster

Guster burst onto my scene with their 2003 album, Keep it Together. Initially I was taken with them for the title track of that record, which had been featured in an episode of Fox television’s teen drama The O.C. I bought the album, which features so many great songs (“Amsterdam,” “Diane,” “Backyard,” etc.) and saw them in concert at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. But their earlier and subsequent work didn’t grab me as much (“Satellite,” and “One Man Wrecking Machine” from their following album notwithstanding). But this most recent single is great and more striking in the digital single variation featured here.

Guster website

Woods – Tambourine Light

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This band has great album titles: How to Survive In (the Woods), At Echo Lake, etc. In needle-dropping my way through their eight-album catalogue, this song made me hit repeat. I love the mid-1960s trebly lead guitar sound of the simple but compelling riff used here to hook in the listener.

Woods website

Jeremy Fisher – A Song in My Heart

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Fisher is a spot-on reincarnation of Paul Simon, if he were still writing great songs. From his latest album, 2014’s Lemon Squeeze, “A Song in My Heart” kicks off with a beat reminiscent of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” or Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll” only to shift gears into an infectiously catchy hook that anchors the song. Try not to smile as he sings “There’s a little song in my heart …” But just as Fisher settles us into his hook, he shifts the direction of the song again. Great organ instrumental fill three quarters of the way through basically echoing the main hook.

Jeremy Fisher website

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Taking stock of The Vaccines

06 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Artist Spotlight

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The Vaccines

IMG_4780The British music press has gone nuts over The Vaccines and for good reason. They have managed to channel about four decades of rock and roll influence into a sound that is both familiar and fresh at the same time. Recently here in Toronto they put on a stellar show, with the mostly young audience singing along to material from all three of their albums (the photos here are from the August 28th show at the Opera House).  Their first album, What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? (2011), has at least four standout tracks: “Blow Up,” “Wetsuit,” “Norgaard,” and “If You Wanna,” the latter with a killer poprock chorus. 2012’s IMG_4813Come of Age is a bit more stark, addressing Britain’s economic and social malaise in “No Hope,” “Weirdo,” “All in Vain,” and “Lonely World.” The album draws creatively from 1950s sources, particularly on the vocals for songs like “Lonely World” and “Teenage Icon”. In 2013 they released an EP, Melody Calling, marking a departure into a more dreamy pop style on the title track. This year’s English Graffiti takes all these previous elements but combines them into a more solid, confident sound, ranging from dreamy pop (“Denial”), to solid singalong fun (“Handsome”), to up front guitar riffing (“20/20”).

Hard to pick out just a few things to highlight from their catalogue but here are two songs, one from What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? and the other from English Graffiti.

The Vaccines website

Audio

Should be a hit single: Family of the Year “Make You Mine”

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Should be a Hit Single

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Family of the Year

family-of-the-yearI wanted to kick off this blog with a song that would capture the fun, joy, and exhilaration of poprock music.  This recent song from Family of the Year does the job.  In my alternate universe poprock world this song would be a giant hit, blaring out of AM radios across the continent.  Family of the Year have made much pleasant pop music on previous releases, gaining some attention for their contribution to the Boyhood soundtrack (“Hero”) and with the lush Beach Boys-esque “Summer Girl” from their first release.  But nothing that takes off quite like “Make You Mine”.  The song kicks off with a simple piano riff, which is immediately echoed by the rhythm guitar, drawing you in with a classic poprock hook.  The lyrics pay tribute to summer love, even if they are somewhat ambiguous about the singer’s intentions.  For instance, when he says “All the boys and all the pretty girls, summer time I’m going to make you mine” is he suggesting he’s just not that fussy about which gender he ends up with?  Such a sentiment would not be out of sync with today’s youth.  The best of poprock makes you feel good and this song definitely delivers on that promise.https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/01-make-you-mine.m4aMake You Mine

Family of the Year website

A new poprock record …

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Uncategorized

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poprock

This blog will feature music that broadly falls under the rubric of poprock.  On occasion it will feature something else.  There will be boundary issues.  No one can ever really decisively define a genre.  It’s a conversation, an exploration, and a personal demarcation of where one’s tastes lie.  Think of this blog then as a clearing house for what I consider to be poprock.  I want to do this because there is just so much great music being released right now that could be considered poprock but it can be a bit hard to find.  So if poprock, broadly defined, is your thing, there should be plenty appearing here to interest you.

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  • Around the dial: The Small Breed, Electric Beauty, Turn Turn Turn, and Best Bets
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Recent Posts

  • Around the dial: The Small Breed, Electric Beauty, Turn Turn Turn, and Best Bets
  • Cover me! New Order “Blue Monday”
  • Poprock self-starter kit: Orchidales and Where Is Your Dog Now?
  • Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2022
  • Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2022

Recent Comments

Bernie L. on It’s 1965 again with The …
Dennis Pilon on Cover me! New Order “Blue…
EclecticMusicLover on Cover me! New Order “Blue…
Mark G on Poprock Record’s should-be hit…
Scott on Poprock Record’s should-be hit…

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