Tags
Family Values, Good Love, Mind Over Matter, My Father, Paris Syndrome, Peter Yorn, Sam Weber, Time Stands Still, TUNS, Valentine Nevada
Sometimes you hear things you are know are ‘top of the charts’ freaking fantastic. Some songs are more of a slow burn. Others just conjure up something familiar and fun. Today’s collection runs this gamut of urgency, subtlety, and familiarity.
TUNS are a do-not-delay, go straight-to-download recommendation. From its opening chugging riff, “Mind Over Matter” grips you in an expectation of the power pop glory to come with some surprising departures from the genre, like the delicious drawn-out ‘ooh’ vocals and the measured but still raunchy solo guitar motif that appears briefly after the first chorus. This tiny nugget of poprock gold will have to do for the time being as a full album from this Canadian supergroup (which includes members of Sloan, Super Friendz, and Inbreds) won’t drop until the end of the summer. If their June show at the Garrison in Toronto was anything to go by, the album will be stunner.Mind Over Matter
Sam Weber’s new album, Valentina Nevada, is finally out and it rivals his debut in its range and melodic charms. “Good Love” draws on the piano side of Weber’s songwriting talents, a rollicking tune with a bit of slow swing. Weber manages to combine a country-rock vibe with a solid poprock chorus, with some nice guitar and vocal flourishes.
Good Love
Norway’s Family Values have some serious 1986 time-warp issues going on with their recently released single, “Paris Syndrome.” A bit of Athens, Georgia poprock, perhaps a splash of Kelowna’s Grapes of Wrath: I mean, what’s not to love? There’s not much else to find from this band, with this single featured on their four song EP Time Stands Still and a previous EP from 2015 (jokingly titled Greatest Hits) that has a charmingly less-polished, 1980s-Aztec-Camera sort-of sound.
Just in time for Father’s Day, the enormously talented Pete Yorn released this homage to fathering, perhaps his own, maybe anyone’s. This free-flowing poprock tune has shades of Teenage Fanclub or Sloan, in Yorn’s typically subtle style: tuneful, without hitting you over the head with it. This song does not appear on Yorn’s just released (and amazing) Arranging Time album.My Father
In the old days, we had to write fan letters on actual paper using actual pens. Now you can easily visit TUNS, Sam Weber, Family Values and Pete Yorn on the internet to find out what they’re doing and where to get their music.
Free Energy have a number irresistible singles across their two albums and EP. Things started off well with their debut song “Free Energy.” There is something audacious and mildly amusing about forcing deejays to say ‘here’s “Free Energy” by Free Energy!’ Say what? Even before they got their own material out, they had a killer cover of Springsteen’s “I’m Going Down.” Their 2010 debut album Stuck on Nothing channels a mixture of Bachman Turner Overdrive riffing with 1980s pop song sensibilities. “Light Love” has it all – swirling, candy-coated guitar sounds, fattened up vocals, and some great slow burn hooks. 2013’s Love Sign offers up more of the same, along with a few more languid pop gems, like “Dance All Night.” Free Energy are like a retro-1980s dance party band, but with fresh material. Since 2013, things have slowed considerably for the band, with some solo material from various band members emerging. However, their Facebook page did recently indicate that more would be coming from this band.
September 2012 I casually checked out something called iTunes Festival on the Apple TV home screen and accidentally discovered Jake Bugg. The feeling was electric. Kinda like when I saw Tracy Chapman open for John Martyn in Manchester in 1988 three months before her breakthrough appearance at the Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley Stadium in London – everyone in that northern club knew we had just seen a major talent. Bugg’s debut album came out in October and it did not disappoint. Everything that made his iTunes performance amazing was there. Shockingly, the album opened at number one on the British charts.
Many have written about Jake Bugg’s youth, his songs, guitar playing, and singing style, but what struck me as special about Bugg was his authenticity. His songs were all about working class life in middling England in the new millennium, something overlooked in most of popular culture. Indeed, the absence of any cultural mirror for the experiences of working class youth in most western countries makes the occasional mention stand out in stark relief. Bugg’s debut album gave voice to a generation left behind by the economy and the political class in songs like “Two Fingers,” “Seen It All,” and “Trouble Town.” Sure, some fans and music writers just listened esthetically, hearing the folk, folk blues, and rudimentary rock and roll sound, but the ability to speak authentically about his community’s class experience touched a nerve for those who were listening. However, after touring with the album for over a year, Bugg told journalists he doubted he could write about such experiences anymore because his life had changed so much.
Bugg’s new album, On My One, is almost out and it appears to be similar to and different from his earlier material. The social themes remain but he pushes himself artistically into new genres. Growing up in the new century nobody consumes just one style of music so it was hardly surprising that Bugg’s talent could not be contained in just a few styles. “On My One” evokes the lonely solo acoustic guitar sound of Don McLean’s American Pie album, specifically “Vincent” and “Till Tomorrow,” while drawing from Bugg’s experience as a performer on tour. “Love, Hope and Misery” confirms Bugg’s talent for remaking the American blues ballad in his own style. But my favourite amongst the currently available selections from the record is “Bitter Salt,” a song unlike anything Bugg has done to date, a catchy poprock effort with a punchy arrangement and solid hooks.
Poprock Record 