Monthly Archives: November 2015

Together Pangea – Badillac

22 Sunday Nov 2015

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Much of Together Pangea’s music sounds like a garage rock soundtrack to some 1960s monster movie, or a 1980s ironic send-up of a 1960s B movie. Sometimes they sound garage rock sloppy, other times punky and screamy in an early 1980s sort of way. But the tracks I like are bit more polished and melodic. “Offer,” the first single from their 2014 release Badillac, opens with acoustic guitar and the lyric “I’m haunted …” and slowly some fuzzy electric guitar sneaks into the background, building up to sweet hook in the chorus on the line “if you have a kiss” before the whole band crashes in behind with the return to “I’m haunted …” A great, classic rock and roll build up which also has a dynamite bridge and some very cool organ fills late in the song.

Also featured here is the album’s title track, Badillac. Again, a great 1960s/indie 1980s vibe here, catchy chorus and killer harmonica solo at 1:49 of the song.

The band released a new EP last month, The Phage, which continues in the same vein, with a strong single, “Blue Mirror.” 

The band appears in Toronto Wednesday, November 25, at the Smiling Buddha, for what will be an intimate and explosive show. In the meantime, check out Zach Gayne’s 18 minute documentary on the band’s last trip to Toronto. Keep on top of Together Pangea at their website.

Around the dial: Asylums, Heyrocco, and Grouplove

15 Sunday Nov 2015

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maxresdefaultAsylums “Joy in a Small Wage” Perhaps a bit more rock than pop with this entry, Asylums are a wonderfully weird, politically astute new band out of southern England. Nobody can seem to agree just how to describe their sound – ‘indie fuzz pop’, ‘Britpop meets punk’ – but one commentator added The Monkees as a possible reference point, which might be more apt than is sonically apparent. Asylums do seem to channel the televised spontaneity of the latter group but, of course, the difference is that they are doing it for real. Unwilling to wait for record deals, they just went out and recorded things themselves, created their own label (Cool Things Records), and somehow got their DIY singles into steady rotation on BBC1. I find some of their stuff a bit too punky for my tastes but the single “Joy in a Small Wage” is driven by a strong electric guitar hook and a cool vocal, drenched in reverb.

 Asylums webpage

Heyrocco “First Song” Heyrocco are a group of post-teenagers from South Carolina who channel an Eighties indie sound like old pros. “First Song” features a lurching vocal over a rock solid backing that drops in and out between verses and chorus. The song is taken from the band’s debut album, Teenage Movie Soundtrack. Heyrocco Tumblr

Grouplove “No Drama Queen” Meanwhile, Grouplove’s “No Drama Queen” is actually taken from a real teenage movie soundtrack, Paper Towns. Grouplove broke out on the charts with their 2011 album Never Trust a Happy Song but have struggled to match their early success, despite releasing consistently good material. This soundtrack contribution is no exception. The song kicks off in low gear but quickly builds into a fist-waving anthemic chorus. The song begins after a brief movie montage plugging the film. Grouplove website

Should be a hit single: Fountains of Wayne “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart”

08 Sunday Nov 2015

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FOW SGBYHFountains of Wayne were a late discovery for me. I was long past my own initial period of finding new music (roughly from 1978 to 1992), too busy with academic pursuits to hit the record bins. Luckily a friend (thanks Tony Lee!) turned me on to their debut album and it blew my mind – I was hooked. To me, FOW were what great poprock singles were made of. The debut album Fountains of Wayne had “Radiation Vibe,” Utopia Parkway had “Red Dragon Tattoo,” while Welcome Interstate Managers, their masterpiece, had the flawless and commercially successful “Stacey’s Mom” (which reached 21 on Billboard’s Hot 100). But on 2007’s Traffic and Weather FOW seemed to lose their way, failing to capitalize on their previous success. 2011’s Sky Full of Holes offered a serious course correction, full of great songs showcasing the band’s great range in songwriting and performance.

But the highlight was the album’s first single “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart,” a perfect distillation of all the great elements of a poprock hit. Pumping piano kicks off the song, giving way to the opening lyrics that eventually swell into a mix of background vocals. Nearly everything drops out to just piano as the vocals ask “Should we take this town, do we want to, tear this whole thing down …” while the band comes back in. And so on. Great poprock hits have a dreamy quality and FOW nail it with a song that should have climbed the charts.

Going commercial with Tim Myers

01 Sunday Nov 2015

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marcus-walters-talkie-walkie-MW-TM-GoodLifeThe thing about poprock is it is not afraid of being shamelessly commercial. It is not a hipster genre that loses its élan once the soccer moms recognize the tunes. Of course, a great deal of poprock has languished unappreciated by the masses, but it was seldom by active design. Tim Myers embodies that populist sentiment. His songs are cleverly crafted, perfectly calibrated poprock, designed to reach all those centres of the brain that make you want to hit re-play. While hardly a household name (his only Billboard Hot 100 chart entry – “Under Control” – peaked at 32), nevertheless millions of people know his music having heard snatches in commercials, TV shows and movies.

 On Your Side

300x300Despite putting out two albums, Myers is really a singles guy, regularly releasing songs as singles or EPs, many of them duets with a variety of female vocalists. “On Your Side” is a solo performance from his strong EP The Good Life, which also features “A Beautiful World,” “The Good Life” and “Magic.” Then follows two really catchy duets, the acoustically-driven “Brand New Day” with Lindsey Ray, and “Each Other Brother” with the band Mozella.

Brand New Day with Lindsey Ray

Each Other Brother with Mozella

Tim Myers Myspace