Ah summer, you’re already starting to fade a bit on me. Nights getting a bit darker, a bit cooler. And the ‘back to school’ cacophony is reaching a fever pitch! So let’s honour the sun, sand and “move like a wayward summer breeze …” one more time!
I first heard Chicago’s Fruit Bats on their break out single “Rainbow Sign” from their 2003 album Mouthfuls and loved the mix of acoustic guitars, pianos and vocal harmonies. And the hooks! 2016’s comeback album (of sorts) Absolute Loser had so many highlights like “From a Soon-to-be Ghost Town” and the infectious banjo-driven “Humbug Mountain Song.” Now they’re back with Gold Past Life and get a load of the Cat Stevens-ish guitar picking on the beautiful single “Ocean.” It’s a song that builds slowly into a delightful, swirling summer set piece. Sweden’s Eggstone typically offer up a dreamy pop sound that leans heavily on summer themes over their three albums and five EPs from the 1990s. But my favourite tune from them has a bit tougher indie pop gloss on it, “Against the Sun” from their 1994 album Sommersault. The song has a great set of AM radio hooks circa the late 1970s poprock scene. Eggstone “Against the Sun”
You’d think being an award winning sports writer would be enough? You’d be wrong. Washington Post sports writer Dave Sheinin is also an accolade-collecting poprock songwriter and performer. His 2018 release First Thing Tomorrow had me reaching for the thesaurus to find new ways to describe how fabulous it was. Now he’s back with a summer single that beautifully captures the wistful mixture of feelings that accompany the hot season. Warning: hit play on the “The Lies of Summer” and you may be subject to a case of earworm that is hard to cure. If there was a contest for unofficial indie band of the summer, The Kickstand Band would definitely be in the running. Over the course of their EPs and one full length album, I count no less than five songs with ‘summer’ in the title and host of others on related themes (e.g. ‘sun,’ ‘sunshine,’ ‘sunburn,’ etc.). I love their sound, which oscillates between dabs of Beach Boys, Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel vocal harmony influences combined with just a undercurrent of jagged punkiness. Goosebump city indeed! But this time out I’m featuring their cover of Brian Hyland’s 1962 hit “Sealed with a Kiss.” Hard to improve on this classic but the Detroit duo do an impressive job: smooth, a bit eerie, with an innovative horn section instrumental interlude.
Summer, it seems like I hardly got to know you. Now you’re nearly gone. Well, I’ll still have the music to get me through the long cold Canadian months ahead. Honour the summer contributions from Fruit Bats, Eggstone, Dave Sheinin, and The Kickstand Band online by clicking the hyperlinks.
Pool photo courtesy Larry Gordon.
Was there ever a band with a more tragic story of fabulous talent meets destructive perfectionism and bad luck? If I were holding a contest, 
And what a song it is! From the hooky guitar lead line that lures you in, to the rhythmic acoustic guitar that anchors the song, to the hair raising vocal harmonies, the song really is poprock perfection. Personally, I prefer the original 1988 release of the song, produced by Bob Andrews, a slightly less sibilant version than the one worked over by Steve Lillywhite for inclusion on the band’s debut album in 1990. But they’re both great. Here’s the original and a Lillywhite produced acoustic version.
Commentators as disparate as New Music Express, Rolling Stone, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Oasis all think the song is pretty much perfect. So it’s not surprising it’s attracted some cover versions (though not as many as I would have expected). The earliest I can find is from 
Things get more creative in the new millennium. First up, Japanese indie band 
Great treatments of the song here but my prediction? We have yet to see the real flood of covers coming for this tune. “There She Goes” is such a perfect distillation of the basic elements of poprock songcraft in its combination of lyrical, melodic and instrumental hooks that it will prove irresistible to future bands. In fact, I think we have yet to see the definitive treatment (other than the original, of course). For instance, I would love to see an adrenaline-fueled jangle treatment from the guys who put together That Thing You Do or Fountains of Wayne or Marshall Crenshaw, to name just a few. Final treat: watch this interview and performance (of “Timeless Melody”) with Mavers and John Powers on Canadian Much Music from 1991 – they really were a killer live act!
Here’s a whack of artists that power up their poprock in creative and original ways. The melody meter is registering hooks that are off the charts!
Detroit’s Deadbeat Beat are hard to pin down. At times they sound like a punky Shins or maybe the Velvet Underground covering the Beach Boys. Detroit Metro Times writer Jeff Milo boils down the Deadbeat Beat sound as 
It is so great to have Birmingham, Alabama’s Lolas back with a new record, A Dozen or Seven Tapestries, and it’s another winner. Bandleader and songwriter Tim Boykin has consistently delivered the goods when it comes to hook-laden songs dosed with chimey guitar and reverbed-up vocals and they are here in abundance. The record’s opening cut and title track “A Dozen or Seven Tapestries” gives it all away: hooky guitar lines and shimmering vocal harmonies everywhere. Boykin does change things up in terms of song styles, channeling mid 1960s American poprock on “Dj Girl” or an updated Merseybeat vibe on “Lightning Mountain (NSFW)” or even a Steve Miller Band sound on “Assailant.” You can dip in anywhere on this record and find a melodic treat. Personally, I’m loving the low key jangly “Wish You Were Loud Enough” and the more straight-up barrel-ahead poprock blast of “You’d Go Without Nothing.”
Philadephia PA’s Big Nothing has been described as a ‘90’s influenced indie supergroup’ (Rolling Stone) but all I hear are great songs and a muscular, crunchy poprock sound. Their debut album is Chris and it’s 32 minutes of sonically pleasing songcraft. Sometimes a bit heavy (“Always Prepared”), sometimes sparkling with an easygoing jangle (“Carried Away”), the record typically delivers a taut yet melodically-rich sound, apparent on tracks like “Waste My Time” and “Real Name.” But one of my faves is “Untitled” with its almost country rock and live-to-tape feel. “Honey” is another standout track, changing things up stylistically and tempo-wise. Overall, Chris delivers a great batch of songs that amount to an impressive debut.
Nashua, New Hampshire, population 86,000, is responsible for our next band, Perspective, A Lovely Hand to Hold. There must be something in the water in Nashua because this band is wonderfully weird, both strikingly original songwriters and performers. The band describe themselves on their Facebook page as an ‘indie/emo/math rock/whatever your mom calls it band.’ So, no help there. Here’s what I hear on Lousy, the group’s new (third) album: swooping fattened up vocals and unique hooks, with just a touch of jazz sensibility, particularly on tracks like “One Wrong Turn” and “Subject to Change.” But then check out the straight up poprock hooks all over “The Gang Goes On Tour” – bliss! The record does have some challenging avant garde moments but spending a bit of time with songs like “Those Few Words” and “Your Own World” ultimately pays melodic dividends. From a mainstream poprock point of view, Perspective, A Lovely Hand to Hold are more than a bit out there. But, like Nashua, ultimately worth the trip.
Set your phasers to ‘reverb’ for this edition of Jangle Thursday as it’s a ‘celebration of sibilance’ of the ringing guitar sort.
Right out of the gate U.S. Highball join the renaissance of great Scottish jangle poprock with their debut, the aptly named Great Record. The 14 songs included here immediately draw comparisons with the best of Teenage Fanclub, Dropkick, and The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising as Calvin Halliday and James Hindle have long played together in the delightfully whimsical group, The Pooches. Yet U.S. Highball is not merely a rebranding of their previous efforts, but a logical development of those influences. Great Record leans more heavily on a Brydsian jangle and a complex use of the duo’s voices on songs that alternate effortlessly between hooky popcraft and hints of highland folk. Case in point – these twin influences meld beautifully on “Summer Boy” with its distinctive jangle lead line opener. Or another candidate for lead single might be “My Frankenstein” with its swinging chorus. Then again, I love the mid-period Simon and Garfunkel vibe of “Old Place.” But then hear how the duo change things up with the rock-pop groove on “Where’d the Century Go?” Overall, you can get a clear sense of what U.S. Highball is doing by checking out how the band bookend the album. They open and close the record with their distinctive folk poprock sound on “Kelvinhall” and “Old Dumbarton Road,” leaning a bit more on the folk side of the equation.
If rock and roll is the bastard child of an illicit encounter between country and western and rhythm and blues then I’d characterize poprock as bearing a bit more of the genetic stamp of the former. So calling country time is totally in order around here!
Poprock Record 