Monthly Archives: October 2022

Fright night set list

29 Saturday Oct 2022

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Given the everyday horror of the past few years – war, pandemic, the political right – it’s getting hard for a humble, candy-fueled monster holiday to compete. Luckily we still have the music. This post celebrates fright night with a set list of seasonally appropriate tunes covering a good range of monster diversity.

Justin Roberts gets called a kids songster but I think his tunes are for everyone who’s not quite finished growing up. He’s fun and whimsical and not afraid to be silly. And his songs will get stuck in your head like that gum on the underside of your chair at assembly. His “Trick or Treat” captures all the action of the nighttime candy run from a kid’s point of view and thus is an appropriate opening to our proceedings. The Freddie Steady 5 also strike just the right seasonal mood with their spirited cover of P.F. Sloan’s “Halloween Mary.” They take the tune out its original folk rock register to deliver a more pub rock easy-going party feel. Let the party begin!

Justin Roberts – Trick or Treat
The Freddie Steady 5 – Halloween Mary

Alright kids, we know you’re mostly here for the candy but deep down you’re also up for a bit of fright. Time to bring in the monsters. Don’t worry, we’ll ease you in with the pleasant Byrdsian psychedelic  vibes of Pseudonym on “Before the Monsters Came.” Then the elusive and mysterious Clovis Roblaine sounds like he’s cooped up in his castle on a hill at the start of his “Monster Love.” But as he gets going we’re transported to what sounds like a 1970s riff on all those old cartoony drive-in movie monster encounters. Like Rocky Horror but without all the cross-dressing. Then there’s Timmy Sean’s “She’s a Monster” from his poprock musical A Tale From the Other Side where the creature sounds very 50 foot women-ish put through a serious ELO soundtrack filter. So far the monsters are pretty low on terror but come with popcorn.

Clovis Roblaine – Monster Love

One band reliably up for a holiday musical tribute is Vista Blue. “Boy Beast” is the flip side to their Halloween single release “Victor Crowley” and I liked this b-side just a bit more for its imagery and pulsing energy. The band also appear on Radiant Radish’s timely, pumpkin-approved collection Time of the Season. The whole album is great, it’s free, and it also includes a band called The John Carpenter’s The Things doing a mad rush of a song called “Here’s The Thing.” It’s poppy and punky with some great early 1980s synth background runs holding everything together. Aimee Mann’s “Frankenstein” is obviously on point for our theme. Do I really need much of an excuse to include anything by Mann? No. But listen to the sophisticated lyrics here amid a layering in of so many interesting musical adornments. Talent bleeds out of this gal like an open wound. Indie darlings Kiwi Jr. serve up some “Wicked Witches” because it can’t be All Hallow’s Eve without some serious sorcery.

Aimee Mann – Frankenstein

Now if we really want to move into more scary territory we’ve got to get to the zombie and vampire portion of our programming. Modern horror definitely leans on these two players to up the terror quotient. Sal Baglio uses his band The Amplifier Heads to bring The Band back from the dead with his spot-on Band-like reincarnation of their sound on “Zombie Moon.” Warning, things get a bit hairy near the end (as they should). During a zombie apocalypse it’s all too easy to forget your partner’s many co-dependent observations about your shortcomings. Luckily we have B.A. Johnston to keep us focused with “You Will Miss Me When the Zombies Come.” Not that you’ll remember. Ok, on to vampires with The Orion Experience’s disco poprock vamp of a tune “Vampire.” The ‘ooh ooh’s so remind of those creepy Tommy Lee Jones photo shoot scenes from The Eyes of Laura Mars. Tired of those impersonal representations of vampires? Italy’s Bee Bee Sea give them some personality on the rollicking “Vampire George.” I love the Together Pangea vibe on this performance, combining swing with hooks and just a touch of punky swagger.

Our last stop on the fright night scare tour is ghost city, just so the mood will linger. Copenhagen’s Surf School Dropouts are such a curious outfit. Are beaches in Denmark much like California? Because they’ve got the California beach sound down. And just how hard is surf school anyway? Whatever. “Attack of the Ghost Hot Rods!” takes us back into the fun zone of this holiday with goofy lyrics, sound effects, and killer guitar licks. By contrast, Look Park’s “I’m Going to Haunt This Place” is more mellow, a bit maudlin. Haunting really.

Well kids I hope the candy was worth it. Because soon the frights won’t end when the monsters take off the mask. They’ll just be starting.

Playing the Odds

27 Thursday Oct 2022

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A long time ago in the 1990s a flash of Canadian cultural pride briefly burned bright. The Toronto-based Kids in the Hall were wowing the comedy field with their boundary-crashing, cross-dressing humour while out on the country’s west coast a new band was turning heads and turntables. The Odds or just Odds brought together two stars of the local Vancouver scene, Stephen Drake and Craig Northey. For a while it seemed that everyone in town had a friend of a friend in a band with them. Together they self-produced the cheeky Neopolitan (deliberately misspelled) in 1991, followed by the more major label-ish Bedbugs in 1993. Both made a splash primarily in Canada. The breakthrough moment was 1995’s Good Weird Feeling, an album that launched the band from the indie scene to the almost mainstream with killer cuts like “Truth Untold,” “Radios of Heaven,” and the seductive “I Would Be Your Man.” I was sold. When 1996’s Nest came out I was convinced they were on the verge of major stardom with “Someone Who’s Cool” as the obvious should-be hit single. Man was I wrong. And then that moment of Canadian cultural coolness passed. The Kids in the Hall movie Brain Candy bombed at the box office (even an Odds soundtrack song couldn’t save it) while Odds themselves broke up in 1999. What could have been wasn’t. It seemed like the new century would have to get along without them.

Fast forward to the new millennium and the band minus Stephen Drake (and plus newcomer Murray Atkinson) decide to reunite as the New Odds and then, later, just back to Odds. Since then they’ve released 2 albums, 3 EPs and a stand-alone single. 2008’s Cheerleader came on strong, reviving the band’s signature guitar-heavy melodic rock and roll sound. Tracks like “Getting My Attention,” “Out of Mind” and “Good Times Rolled Away” harken back to their earlier work, particularly from the Good Weird Feeling period. By contrast “Cloud Full of Rocks” and “Write It In Lightning” really remind me of Sloan. Things shift into Kim Mitchell or Tom Cochrane good-time rocking territory on the Corner Gas theme “My Happy Place.” For singles I’d take “I Feel Like This All the Time” with its laid back hooky jangle, though “River is Cried” is another seductive slow burn.

Write It In Lightning
I Feel Like This All the Time

Five years later the band was ready with another new album but marketing concerns saw it carved up into three separate EPs released over a two-year period circa 2013-14. The original LP only finally got an official release this Fall. No matter, Universal Remote is a timeless rock and roll package, equally at home whether it be 1999, 2013 or right now. If Cheerleader’s sound was lean and focused then Universal Remote fattens things up, multiplying and overlapping guitar parts all over the place. Opening track “He Thinks He Owns You” builds its sonic palate bit by bit, conjuring up a distinct atmosphere. “Anything You Want” is just a gorgeous slice of guitar poprock, a radio ready single if ever there was one. “High” even hits some country notes a la Jayhawks and Blue Rodeo. And then there’s the obvious hit, “Party Party Party,” a song that busts out the chord-slashing rock fun like an indie rock BTO. By contrast “Ghost Bike” leans into a hypnotic keyboard arrangement, adding another dimension to the album.

It’s great when a favourite band makes a comeback but there’s always a moment or two of trepidation about whether the new material will measure up. With Odds, you can relax. Cheerleader and Universal Remote compare more than favourably with the band’s original catalogue. These records are like cherished friends who’ve returned to the neighbourhood just to hang out.

Around the dial: The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Push Puppets, Uni Boys, and The Mommyheads

23 Sunday Oct 2022

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What if we could revive that great era of radio circa 1978 to 1981 when the likes of Squeeze, XTC, Rockpile, Split Enz and a host of other new wave bands made it into regular rotation? Commercial radio was rarely so open to offbeat trends. Those days might be gone but we can try to revive that kind of energy with a turn around our virtual radio dial.

I loved albums one and two from The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness. Indeed, “I Don’t Mind” from last year’s Songs from Another Life topped my should-be hit singles for 2021. So I’m obviously primed to like anything new. Happily I can confirm that their new album The Third Wave of … is another jangle tour-de-force, one that extends beyond what they’ve done before. Oh sure there’s the usual Bryds-meets-Teenage Fanclub sparkle to the guitars and shiver in the vocal harmonies. Added to this is material with a harder, new wave guitar edge, as if the Cars rhythm section had dropped in on a few recording sessions. Listen for it on tracks like “Look Back,” “In the Right” and “Out of Time” where it melds with TBWTPN’s distinctive song-writing style. I think the most interesting move in this direction is “Old Pictures of Ourselves” which combines creative guitar and keyboard parts in a striking synthesis. Yet by and large this record is full of familiar TBWTPN grin-inducing, feel-good tunes: songs like “As the Day Begins” and “Turning Red” that tweak the jangle and vocal harmonies to go straight for the heart. Some efforts strike a more sombre jangly note, like “The Stars Go Round” and “Open the Box.” My fave track this outing is probably “Isolation,” an exquisite country pop duet with Mary Lou Lord. And don’t miss the lovely, spare acoustic version of the song (on the digital version of the album only) where Lord’s vocal is primary.

Sometimes you start playing a record and you just know it’s going to be terrific. That was my reaction to “There’s No One Like Lynette,” the opening cut on Push Puppets new LP Allegory Grey. The song delivered an electric jolt of New Pornographers-influenced tune-age. When track two “Sometimes the Buds Never Flower” took off in a very different (but pleasing) Finn brothers direction that was it, I was hooked. And things just got better from there. Songwriter Erich Specht cites an array of power pop influences but the Crowded House imprint is strong on this album. Sometimes they slip in subtly, like the deft Neil Finn melodic turn in the chorus of “Obvious” or the Tim Finn vocal sound on “Perfect Picture.” Elsewhere they’re in your face, like “Lightening in a Dress” where things kick off like something right out of Neil Finn melodic central casting. It’s not just the songs, the band has got the Crowded House feel down. It’s the organ on “Center of the Storm” or the sad melodic guitar lines defining “October Surprise.” And yet the band make these influences their own, a testament to the superior song-writing and performance here. Case in point: obvious should-be hit single “The Bane of My Existence.” All the elements come together on this breezy hook-filled delight. As power pop interview site Sweet Sweet Music said recently, this fantastic record is one to treasure.

On Do It All Next Week the Uni Boys tap the source code of 1970s new wave power pop, bands like the Plimsouls, the Records and Bram Tchaikovsky. Throughout the record they nail the guitar sound, the stark rhythm guitar style, accented by streamlined melodic lead guitar lines. The formula is set from the start with the surging “You Worry About Me” which almost comes off like an American version of The Jam. “Downtown” is more Plimsouls with its filled out sound. “On Your Loving Mind” starts off Cars-like with a dose of poppy Ramones coming in later. There’s even a touch of Stones on the otherwise Ramones kinda of tune that is “One More Night.” “Up To You” moves in a more melodically pop direction with some fab trebly guitar elevating the impact of the song. Another guitar special number is “You Are in My Heart” with its up-front guitar pyrotechnics and ominous background aura. But the stand out track here for me is “Caroline Kills.” It’s got a Jonathan Sings! elan but like he’d joined The Replacements. Do It All Next Week demonstrates that musical obsession doesn’t have to lead to recycled nostalgia. Sometimes something old is just new again.

A lot of bands got chewed up in the major label meltdown of the 1990s when it seemed like, overnight, the standard commercial career path for modern artists just ended. Thankfully a few bounced back, like The Mommyheads. After a disastrous dalliance with Geffen in the 1990s they relaunched their career in the new millennium with a series of brilliant albums, forcing reviewers to stock up on superlatives. And the brand new Genius Killer LP is more of the good same. Reviewers often compare the band to XTC and there’s some of that lurking here, perhaps in a pop soul guise on “She’s a Fighter.” But get ready for some surprises. Like the decidedly ELO flavour popping up all over “Impulse Items.” Or the Odds vibe on “Bittersweet.” Another band often invoked with the group on particular selections is Queen, this time most evident on title-track “Genius Killer.” But digging a bit deeper I’d make comparisons of what is going here with more experimental outfits like Tally Hall, Overlord and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, particularly on cuts like “Distill Your Love Into That Dying Light” and “Privilege.” There’s even a bit of 1970s pop prog going on tracks like “First Five Seconds.” Should-be hit single “Idealist” is an understated bit of poprock genius, both in songwriting and execution. But I’m also partial to the subtle and alluring, almost Hall and Oates-like charms of “One and the Same.” My recommendation? Get smart with today’s premiere smart person’s band, The Mommyheads. And pick up a copy of Genius Killer today.

Yesterday lives on in the here and now, renewed and reanimated on your radio dial. Visit these artists to get the full record revival experience.

Photo courtesy Tom Magliery.

Make mine a single!

16 Sunday Oct 2022

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‘Disk jockey, make mine a single!’ or words to that effect might be heard somewhere sometime on request night. But what kind of song makes the cut? Today’s post offers you 21 selections to choose from. So get ready – it’s playlist stocking time!

The delicious tension driving “Square One” from New Jersey’s Sad Girls involves casting melancholic vocals against a backdrop of bright churning rhythm guitar work. A captivating melodic alchemy is the result. The song is featured on the band’s recent EP Wild Creatures, just one of many winning contributions. I mean, it’s no accident this mini-album contains a cover of the Split Enz hit single “I Got You.” Haunting, atmospheric, sometimes mournful – that’s Sad Girls’ basic MO. Jangle is alive and well in Paisley, Scotland, thanks to The Muldoons. Their 2020 debut album Made for Each Other has that sprightly yet dispirited feel of so many late 1980s Manchester bands (and that’s a good thing). But check out the rippling jangle propelling “Lovely Things,” aided by a great horn section (I have it on good authority they’re real). What a standout track! Melbourne’s Cool Sounds take a different approach. “Sleepers” is so loping-rhythm cool, ornamented with fab electric piano motifs, crystalline clear guitar riffs, and breathy vocals. The overall effect is hypnotic, lulling, but still hooky. Halifax Nova Scotia tunesmith David Myles is a little bit soft rock crooner, a little bit jazz sophisticate. His new album It’s Only a Little Loneliness has shades of gospel, country, and urban-tinged pop. Kinda like what Leonard Cohen was doing with this last few records. Just listen to how he arranges the various hooky adornments on “Mystery,” the eerie lead guitar lines hovering in the background, the stately female back-up singers, the ear wormy keyboard lick shadowing the ‘mystery’ lyric. Classy, cloaked in a bit mystery, yet totally 1980s AM radio friendly. The follow up to Bird Streets much-lauded 2018 self-titled debut album is just about out. Lagoon promises more of the same winning, jangle-infused Americana-styled poprock. Here’s a taste of what is to come with “Go Free.” The guitar work and mesh of harmony vocals suggests those other Bryds with a hint of easygoing Tom Petty.

Bird Streets – Go Free

Beatle cover bands are no rare thing. Some are great but many require a few pints to hit their Mersey stride. Then there are the masters, acts like Apple Jam and The Analogues who receive praise from the likes of former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick and Beatles archivist Mark Lewisohn. But that happens when those players set aside the Fabs canon to do their own thing? The Analogues, now dubbed The Analogues Sideshow, demonstrate it doesn’t have to be phony Beatlemania. “Don’t Fade Away” is clearly sixties influenced but in a timeless post-1980s poprock way. Are relationships like labour saving devices? That’s the angle Newcastle Australia duo The Tryouts are laying on us with “Washer.” The spare sounding verses meet dialed up chorus reminds me of Mo Kenney or Darwin Deez. Can’t wait for more from these two. Really, anything. Yotam Ben Horin’s new longplayer Young Forever has so many highlights for but some reason “Leopard” leapt out at me. Maybe it was the splash of shimmery guitar, perhaps it was lines like ‘I wanna be your Johnny Marr.’ But something really works on this particular tune, I found myself returning to it again and again. New Orleans band Lawn have got an art rock feel going on with their recent album Bigger Sprout. The songs are just a bit discordant and unpredictable and definitely memorable. But their opening cut is so should-be hit single. “Down” has an addictive guitar hook anchoring everything, rolling out like a Blue Oyster Cult mega-riff. But then it’s the pulsing rhythm guitar that takes everything forward in the chorus. You gotta hand it to Geoff Palmer. Doing a complete cover of Dee Dee Ramone’s near-universally hated solo record Standing the Spotlight takes guts and some pretty serious inspiration. But Palmer delivers. Check out how he takes a melodic promise that is just hinted at in Dee Dee’s original version of “Baby Doll” and breaks it wide open, elevating the track from a noble failure to a retro classic.

The Analogues Sideshow – Don’t Fade Away
The Tryouts – Washer

On his new solo record The Misfits Old 97s frontman Rhett Miller is not just spinning his indie rock Americana wheels. The whole enterprise has a 1970s polished crossover country-meets-pop feel. Reviewers have suggested there’s a 1970s Fleetwood Mac twist on “Go Through You” but I hear a pub rock meets Andy Kim kind of pop smoothness. Brooklyn’s Piano Movers have a low profile on the ole interweb – I could find only 3 songs. But what a trio they are. Lofi, indie, with a Jonathan Richman kind of earnest yet still laid back intensity. “Your Girlfriend’s Lover” is an acoustic guitar-strummy proto-feminist delight, with some basic but alluring lead guitar interludes. The vocals have a meditative sonic delivery, so soothing. Another Fruits and Flowers record label band is Oakland’s Odd Hope. I’ll admit, it was Jesss Scott’s striking, colourful album artwork that caught my attention here. As with its cover, the album reflects a colourful range of musical styles like a kaleidoscope. But my stand out fave is the mildly discordant, garage-y “Your Ending.” In style it stands somewhere between The Clash and Petty’s Heartbreaks and could be pulled in either direction. Former Disney animator, Pussywillows member, and arch Francophile, April March does everything with style. Her new album is Cinerama and like the lost projection process its named after it is all retro. And yet it sounds so now too. I’m singling out “Born” as your taste-tester song. Everything starts very pleasant, acoustic guitar and some double-tracked vocals but check out that sweet trebly guitar intervention that arrives 39 seconds in. Now it’s a dreamy confection of mid-1960s British pop single themes. The trick that the very Beatlesque Cupid’s Carnival manage to pull off repeatedly is throwing in just enough familiar Merseybeat-meets-early pop psychedelic elements to make your head turn but then deliver a great original song. Their latest stand-alone single offering is “You Know” and all the necessary moving parts are there: Lennon-esque vocal, Sgt. Pepper-era background vocals, and slow-burn hooky melody.

April March – Born
Cupid’s Carnival – You Know

It’s hard to put a label on just what It’s Karma It’s Cool is doing stylistically. There seems to be bits of early 1980s prog pop, a dash of new wave, and a whole lot of straight up poppy rock and roll. On their recent stand-alone single “A Gentle Reminder” I hear a synthesis that reminds me of early Split Enz with perhaps a Hoodoo Gurus vibe on the vocals. The organ is the star here, stitching together an impressive array of hooks and musical asides. Last spring Minneapolis Minnesota native Anthony Newes put out a quiet record of songs with long titles. His Dark of the Sea EP will bathe you in melodic sweetness, the songs rolling over you with effortless effect. With a vocal landing somewhere between Rufus Wainwright and Elliott Smith, “Take It From You Now You Take It From Me” steals into your consciousness like a cool wind on a warm day. For de-stressing there something very Enya here but with guitars. Chicago’s The Walkdown want you to hold for the hooks on their recent single “Jane Doe.” The verses have that deadpan, almost talky punk feel. But when they break out the chorus they step on the melody pedal and things take off from there. The rest of their catalogue is pretty solid too. Rich and Marvin are Rich McCulley and Marvin Etzioni and “Apricot” is their first joint effort. Like the fruit, the song is refreshingly sweet, delivered in a light country folk style. We’ve heard bands like the BoDeans and Los Lobos give us these kinds of acoustic forays as album deep cuts. Interested to see where this duo take things next. On their recent EP Unsolicited Advice for Your DIY Disaster Sydney Australia punky poprockers The Buoys give the boys both barrels. The songs coat a whole load of post-teenage angst in slightly harsh melodic goodness. The whole record is a mosh pit dance party but “Lie To Me Again” slows the pace, temporarily, before going hook nuclear in the chorus. The song may end but you’ll be humming it all day.

Song number 21 is special departure from a brand new band that specializes in a rock and roll aural assault. Dust Star open their debut album Open Up That Heart with a full on rocking tidal wave on “Nothing in my Head.” You can practically see the sweaty crowd levitating on the dance floor to this one. But I want to draw your attention to the more restrained title track with its Weezer meets Sugar Ray melodic roll out. There’s even an early Beatles or Cheap Trick vibe going in the late instrumental break. So much to like here.

Albums are great but sometimes you just need a stack of singles to turn a good night great. Click on the links to hear even more from these should-be up and comers.

Fall folk explosion: The Manana People, Merrym’n, Bats, Herr Wade, and Maestro Collage

09 Sunday Oct 2022

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Autumn sends us running for those cozy coffee houses, full of crazed beatniks and their guitars. Folk music is the price we pay for civilization after all (and caffeine served at reasonable prices). Fair warning: today’s post takes a rather broad swipe at the folk idiom. Some here may not even know their membership is paid up.

What do former capital cities do? One day you’re where the political action is and then it’s all about Berlin (again). That’s Bonn Germany’s crisis. Perhaps that explains The Manana People.  Their two albums tend to veer all over with no fixed address genre-wise. Of course, that makes for a special variety of tunes. 2019’s Princess Diana is a marvelous collection of freak folk oddities: a bit of Bombadil, some sixties country-folk, and a whole lot ironic detachment. The record is a celebration of horror, cinematic or otherwise. “Anthropophagus” riffs on a 1980 Italian horror film (featuring some German tourist victims, of course) while “A Silly Horror Song,” “People Don’t Know They’re Dead,” and “The Manana People Fight the Undead” develop the theme further. The songs are great, both fun and hummable, combining folk rock with the occasional 1950s space movie sounds. Opening cuts “Remember I Was Movies” and “We’re Seagulls” are representative of the twin foci, full of nice folky vocal harmonies and banjos on the former and country-folk plus spacey effects defining the latter. “Matchstick” offers something a bit different, vibing a cross fertilization between Jethro Tull and You Won’t. This year’s long player Song Cycle, Or Music For The End Of Our Times makes the horror more everyday but the songs remain the same, reliably good. “Amputated Memory” is a brilliant folk-plus journey, so warm and familiar, except when it isn’t. Outlier alert: “It’s All Really Messed Up.” This one sounds very 10cc.

For balladeer Bob Moston performing under the name the Merrym’n is all about Stoke-on-Trent, working class life, and endearing small town sentiment. Over the course of four albums and few EPs and singles he’s sung about “Cow Tipping,” “Brown Sauce,” “The Blue Rinse Brigade,” “Forgotten Railway Stations,” and more. The brief was evident on his 2015 debut album Black Over Bill’s Mother featuring “I Was Born in Stoke-On-Trent.” His home town loyalty reappeared on 2017’s Life, On VHS with “Ay Up, Ow At, Orate?” (local slang for ‘hello, how are you, are you OK?’). His musical approach ranges from ‘traditional’ to ‘going-electric’ kinds of folk – think Donovan or a less angry Jake Bugg. There’s plenty of the trad feel on the early and most recent albums, with a few in between. 2018’s Post-Industrial Apocalypse embellishes the classic folk ballad style of “The Night the Canal Collapsed” with some gritty organ and rumbly guitar, while the vocal style reminiscent of Australian balladeer Darren Hanlon. By contrast, “Working Class Area” sounds a bit more Billy Bragg. For the more electric ‘new folk’ sound “Anna of the Five Towns” and “North Wales Expressway” turn up the electric guitar amplifiers. But for something different again, 2021’s More from Merrym’n moves into pop folk territory with the lilting, hooky “Statue of Josiah.” With his focus on class and home and writing memorable tunes Merrym’n is working all sides of the Stoke-on-Trent folk street.

Growing up is hard to do. That’s the message on Blue Cabinet, the new album from Nashville band Bats. Teen alienation appeals mostly to those going through it but sometimes a writer can draw the not-so-innocent bystanders in. Bats’ creative force Jess Awh is that kind of writer. The images here are oh-so relatable, regardless of age. Sonically the record has an assured Mary Lou Lord pop folk style with some country shading here and there. “New Job” sets the tonal scene, effectively capturing the heartbreak of teen friend separation. “We All Miss the Football Season” is a bit poppier while maintaining a dark lyrical demeanor. Keyboards are the star on this track, adding a droll undercurrent. Some tracks here are straight up folk country ballads, e.g. “Violets” and “Spinnerbait.” Others like “Cooking with Sarah” and “Quonset Hut” glow with a more buoyant poppy folk feel. Then “Signal Ridge” breaks all the rules with a melody that is equal parts country and jazz tinges. Radio ready single vote goes to “Golden Spoon.” Such smooth vocals offset by some sweet fiddle work.

Herr Wade is a duo comprised of Germany‘s Sebastian Voss (Nah…, The Fisherman and his Soul, Cinema Engines) and Norway’s Jørn O. Åleskjær (The Loch Ness Mouse, Monobird, Sapphire & Steel) and together they’ve created Dreht am Kabel, a record that defies easy sorting by genre. Folk seemed as good as any other possible description. What I love here is the anarchic mix of styles and instruments. Opening cut and title track “Dreht am Kabel” sounds so 1970s folk underlaid with ominous keyboards and what sounds like a helicopter flying near the studio. “Lass sie an” clips along, more 1960s upbeat yet mellow pop. “Bitte sag nicht” has a more mannered 1960s cinematic pop vibe. Then “Askim” gives off the rippling air of an A-ha single. Bossa nova makes an appearance on “Nur Ketchup” cut with some jazzy horns. The record is mostly sung in German, which sounds cool in English and just clear and straightforward to Germans. For a spot of Norwegian, check out “Altenberge.” Overall I’d say Dreht am Kabel is a mad happy collection of sonic treats, one the whole extended family will enjoy.

Imagine They Might Be Giants on a turn down day and you might have a Maestro Collage record. The band sometimes sound bubbly and winsome but their lyrical content is more akin to Fountain of Wayne’s troubled suburbia. Magnetic Fields are probably a better comparitor on their 2020 debut album Otter. Just check out the twin surge of acoustic guitars and homoerotic imagery. 2021 EP Studio 54 dials up the not-so-subtle social critique of ‘socialite excess’ in a jaunty Elephant 6 style, particularly on the almost title track “Wine at Studio 54.” Then late in 2021 the band released their magnus opus LP New York, a sprawling love letter (or restraining order?) aimed at their home state. Like Stephen Merritt’s 69 Love Songs this release is crammed with diverging musical styles and pointed social commentary. The original release had 20 songs, the re-release 25. “B-B-Barricade” is one part folk dirge, one part of church hymn. “Montagues and Capulets” is an alluring spoken word folk drone. “Float Over D’arcy” brings a bit of guitar distortion to an Apples in Stereo feel. The extended LP version even caps its NYC cred with mean covers of the Velvet Underground. But my fave track amid all this goodness is “State of Sugar Maple,” a rather out-of-character straight-up poprock single.

Dig out that wool overcoat and scarf now or all the best seats will be gone. Folk, creatively defined, is breaking out all over this fall. Get your curated collection started here.

Photo courtesy Alex Streif.

Martin Luther Lennon lives!

05 Wednesday Oct 2022

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Guy puts out two killer power pop albums in the late 1990s. Then nothing. Until now. Friends I’m here to tell you that Martin Luther Lennon lives! And it’s like no time has passed at all. His new single “jfkha” is a pretty special little jem of a song. It starts lowkey but verse by verse you can feel the pressure building until a great groovy melodic hell breaks loose in the chorus. This guy sounds like all those super poppy, slightly discordant bands from the nineties, acts like the Eels, Adam Daniel, and, er, Martin Luther Lennon.

It appears that this new musical sighting of MLL 23 years after this last album release may just be the beginning. There’s a GoFundMe page up to help offset the recording costs of this single – let’s hope an oversubscription might lead to more new MML releases. In the meantime, why not reacquaint yourself with those now classic Martin Luther Lennon albums from 1996 and 1999, Music for a World Without Limitations and Escape to Paradox Island respectively. From the former I’m partial to the crashing guitars that kick off “Happy Girl” with its new wave other Lennon-y vibe while “No Waiting” sounds so early Joe Jackson minus the snarl. From the latter I love the piano-driven Ben Folds-ish “Only Love” and the tight power pop delight “I’m a Little Time Bomb.”

Happy Girl
No Waiting
Only Love
I’m a Little Time Bomb

The return of Martin Luther Lennon is a wonderful, welcome surprise. Buy this single now. Let’s keep MML coming around.

Photo courtesy Larry Gordon.

Seismically sixties: Monogroove, The Lings, The Ramalamas, and Tony Molina

01 Saturday Oct 2022

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Get ready to shake your groove thing because today’s acts can’t be contained. Something’s gotta twitch in time to these beat crazy tunes from bands that wear their love of all things 1960s on every appendage.

Monogroove might come from America’s west coast but stylistically they’re all over the map. Their most recent LP Into the Sun has a distinctive 1960s California pop feel, except when its giving off a very English pop vocal vibe. Then at different points you’d swear record’s genre is psych pop, only to have things switch to early 1960s sweetheart rock and roll motifs. No matter, “What I See In You” is a great album opener, with a guitar reminiscent of the chime on Gene Clark’s “So You Say You Lost Your Baby.” Then “Walk in the Park” takes us in a more English 1960s pop vocal direction. By the time “Down On” cranks up like an slow homage to “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” we’re well into serious 1960s psych pop territory. And it’s just at that moment that things turn even a bit more retro, going all early 1960s girl group and neo-1950s on “Hold Onto Me” and “Darlin.” The 1970s get a look in on “Me In You” with its Kinks-like dirty rhythm guitar and sweet suite of vocal turns while “Here I Stand” sounds more seventies soft rock. I love the psychedelic lead guitar line that sets up “Time Out” and “SPCA” is a bit of glam bubblegum fun. And is it just me or does “I Only Know” kick off with an ace CCR acoustic guitar/bass groove before settling into a 1970s pop country ballad? Don’t judge this band just by their stylish sixties psych rock album cover. They’re that, but a whole lot more.

I can’t decide if Italian band The Lings are more retro 1960s or that particular 1980s brand of sixties-nouveau. On their new self-titled debut album there’s a crisp buoyant sound I associate more with the latter, like that cool breeze accompanying some early morning sunshine.  First up “The Worst of You” has an endearing 1960s spy movie feel, its spare guitar lead lines and echo-y vocals lending mystery to the proceedings. And that’s basically the formula here: a variety of carefully chosen, moody guitars working in tension with ever-so-pleasing harmony vocals. Listen to how “Little Josie” combines chugging rhythm guitar with vocals that remind me of bands like Stornoway while “Blue” arranges it guitar parts as a kind of reverby canvas for the singers. I’d swear that’s Jake Bugg guesting on vocals for “Holocene” while the tune draws out an early Beatles atmosphere. From there the record is like a variety show sampling of styles, from rocking rave-up on “Freaky Cheesy” to the 1980s folk rock of “Grace” to the heartland FM rock radio feel fueling “Never Ending Lonely Rush M.A.” Singling out a single I’d go with “Let Me Out” given its Shadowy Men tremelo guitar and sophisticated melodic turns in the chorus. But I’m also partial to the rocking lurch defining “Hometown Kids” and its Proclaimers-like sing-along vocals. After playing this album loud I think these guys might just be worth a trip to southern Europe for a live show.

Needle dropping through The Ramalamas 2019 greatest hits collection Carnivorous Plants for Sale the band seemed to be headed in a swampy Jayhawks or Blue Rodeo direction. But their new release Le Cape Noir suggests a different road altogether. The presser describes the album as the soundtrack to an ‘imaginary long lost 1968 cult psycho-thrilller/horror/drama classic’. That’s quite a detailed order. “Funtastique” is the show opener but it’s less an opening credits reel than a B52s-inspired dance grind. “Moondog” much more sets the mood for this mock soundtrack with its Russ Meyers Beyond the Valley of the Dolls vibe. Then “Le Cape Noir” is totally the period, coming on like a rogue Ventures with the main guitar giving off plenty of drama and menace. Another highlight is “Espiritismo” with its spooky otherworldly vocals and guitar work. “The Night Tide” is another tune fully in character, a psych rock Jayhawks launching the revenge of the rumbly guitar. “Love Theme from Le Cape” also sounds so like an early Bond album deep-cut instrumental. The rest of the album tends to revert to the band’s signature swampy, psych rock style, like they’ve transformed into the act hired for the closing-of-set party.  But that doesn’t detract from the record’s playful sense of fun. Indeed, “Death in the Pot” is a real a Saturday night dance stomper.

What Tony Molina proves is that acing the sounds of yesteryear doesn’t have to leave you stuck in the past. His new long-player Into the Fade is a veritable candy store of sixties and seventies sonic sweetness that nevertheless sounds timeless. The variety here is breathtaking. “The Last Time” combines Thin Lizzy guitarmonies with a Weezer poprock sensibility while “Not Worth Knowing” is more like a sixties-influenced Teenage Fanclub. I know I hear FOW everywhere but “Leave This Town” sounds like a fuzz-enhanced version of the band. Beatles motifs are popped into a host of songs throughout the album: the instrumental break in “Don’t Be Far” that is reminiscent of A Hard Day’s Night movie soundtrack deep cut, the “Strawberry Fields Forever” mellotron opener to “Songs For Friends (Slight Return),” some “Michelle” worthy acoustic guitar work on the instrumental “Ovens Theme pt.4,” and the “Julia”-esque vibe all over “Years Ago pt.2.” And just when you think you see where things are going Molina throws a curve. Like the creative piano solo that pops out in the instrumental break of “I Don’t Like That He.” There’s even a pop punk energy to “Fuck Off Now” and “All I’ve Known.”  They nicely contrast with the low-key, acoustic Elliott Smith aura of “Four Sided Cell.” But I think my fave from this collection is the languid, Teenage Fanclubby “Burn Everyone.” Into the Fade is a set of bright shiny things, all so different yet still amounting to an enjoyably coherent listen.

Everything old is new again in music, if you know how to reinvent your influences. Today’s bands do that, harnessing the past to make the here and now just a little more groovy.

Click on the links to find the mp3s of these artists. For CDs and vinyl of The Lings and Tony Molina ease on over to Kool Kat Musik.