Author Archives: Dennis Pilon

Do you hear what I hear?

17 Wednesday Dec 2025

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If you’re strolling the mall or tuning into an AM radio playlist I’m just going to say it. No. You’re not hearing what I’m hearing. Of course, that’s why you’re here. To get the lowdown on the catchiest, poppiest, hookiest festive music fare available. Here are nearly two dozen holiday-infused melodic wonders to liven up your celebrations, whatever they may be.

Simon Love nails it. It seems like we’ve barely said ‘happy new year’ before the Santa ritual begins anew. “It’s Christmas All Over Again” gives us the bells and a ‘look on the bright side’ sentiment, all wrapped up in a Costello-ish taut melody. Next up it’s practically our holiday house band, Make Like Monkeys. As expected they’ve got yet another seasonal LP Make Like Christmas and just a sample of opening cut “Fa La La It’s Time for Christmas” will let you know it’s gonna be another special collection. Chris Lund strikes a more bittersweet chord on “Christmas Time” with its Lennonesque holiday atmosphere. It’s seasonally sombre with just a bit of uplift where it’s needed most. Then there’s Movie Movie’s distinctive, echoing lead guitar line strung like colourful Christmas lights throughout their call to enjoy the season on “Another Holiday.” Party like it’s 2099 indeed. For a bit of pop punk holiday spirit there’s Glenn Robinson’s “Jesus Christ (Can You Believe That It’s Christmas).” It’s rough and not quite ready for polite company but that’s what makes it so special. One of my new fave bands from 2025 give their Greenock, Scotland best to the season on “Favourite Time.” I know I’ve compared The Cords to The Primitives a lot but, come on, it’s pretty Coventry adjacent in the very best of ways.

And then there’s the people in our Christmas neighbourhood, the boys, the girls, and that dude having his birthday amidst it all. The Easy Button give us a story about a “Christmas Girl” who has got the holiday event down, with plenty of reverby guitar and a Difford/Tilbrook song style. By contrast the Spongetones give their “Christmas Boy” a touch of the old fashioned carol. Sort of folky with a twisty tune to suit. Of course, it can’t be Christmas without an appearance from a certain historical baby and we’ve got that covered with The Bret Tobias Set and their seasonal 45 “For Christ’s Sake.” The track’s got a swaying, singalong quality with some nice vocal help from Krista Umile.

On the presents front, we’ve got plenty of holiday-driven needs getting musical expression. I love the demented stoner consumerism of The Memories “Santa Bring Me Some Toys.” It’s just so hilariously dead serious and over the top. The Decibels hit more traditional ‘I want my baby on Xmas’ themes with their “Christmas Wish,” awash in plenty of jangly guitars. Parallax Project take up a related classic theme, the better man talking up the gal with the cheating boyfriend, on their equally jangling “All I Want for Christmas (is a Chance).” And to wrap up this presents focus, U.S. Highball take on the Fab Four novelty number “I Want a Beatle for Xmas” and manage to add sonic depth to what was a pretty throwaway exploitation number. Well done boys!

There’s also room here for some traditional holiday music fare, zhuzhed up poprock style naturally. Fur Trader gives “Silver Bells” a shoegazey glaze, with a children’s chorus to add some sparkle. theCatherines add some Cars-worthy guitar and a lovely duo vocal to “Let It Snow.” Then “Sleigh Ride” gets a full-on guitar workout from an aptly-named band that keeps the electric lead lines popping all over the tune. It’s just what one would expect from a group with a moniker like The Guitars. The Jeanines take Yoko Ono’s “Listen, The Snow is Falling” and turn out a masterful folky, poppy performance. Sounds pretty traditional to me.

A lot of holiday songs focus on matters of time. Dublin’s Music City give us a Spector-worthy mediation on that rush to get home in time on their “Only Home for Christmas” with plenty of cool vocal oohs and ahhs. The Successful Failures conjure that child-only panic that comes with trying to fall asleep on Christmas Eve so you can enjoy “Christmas Morning (Yellow Canary).” With plenty of crashing guitar chords to soothe you to sleep. Not done with this one and Mark Crozier is already on about “Next Christmas,” though it’s the snow he’s forecasting a year hence. Love the squealy keyboard solo mid-song.

If there’s something this ole world needs it’s a bit more love, joy and jollity. And maybe a bit more faith in the kind of society good people can create together if we really try. John Hopkins offers up lovely old fashioned sentiments on  “Jolly Old Nicholas” very much in a timeless but traditional form. Top pop songstress Lisa Mychols dials up the holiday good feeling on her irrepressibly hooky “Joy Is In the Giving.” Christchurch’s Imperial April ring out a big bell sound on their Christmas ode “I Love This Time of Year.” I could hear Blondie covering this. Wrapping up our holiday tour of duty through all the merry music I could scrape together this season we have Kirby Krackle and “I Believe in Christmas.” It’s poppy and moving and very much about the magic that can be this season.

Merry ho ho dear Poprock Record readers. I hope you get to enjoy peace, togetherness and some great music in whatever way you celebrate this time of year.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

What’s in the showcase?

12 Friday Dec 2025

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Seventies television offered no end of consumer dreams to the people. Appliances, summer patio sets and, of course, brand  – new  – cars! But our showcase is full of musical prizes that you’d don’t even have to play for. You just hit play.

Our showcase focus starts with the letter G. Which could stand for guitar or The Goods, who are quite the guitar pop band. Don’t Spoil the Fun runs the gamut of jangle flavours, from the lush rippling guitar riffs of “April Fools” to the lyrical lead guitar defining “Raining” to the more acoustic guitar vibe of “Sarah Says.” But for pure hit single-age you can turn to “Sunday Morning Out of the Blue” with its Monkees in Clarksville mode quality. Boston’s Glowbox are bit grittier but with strong melody baked into every tune. On Bland Ambition the band fuzz out the sound without diminishing the hooks, elevating songs like “No Place Like Nowhere” and “Go Like Hell.” “Philosophy 21A” is an outlier here with its interesting theme and execution. But the standout track for me is “What You’re Doing To Me” with it’s Beatlesque strut. Then there’s The Glad Machine. Their presser for All the Pretty Things claims the album is “packed with crunchy riffs, candy-coated hooks, and just the right amount of lyrical mischief” and they’re not blowing smoke. “Back to You” is so melodically sweet I’ve got the beginnings of a tooth-ache coming on. Then you have tracks like “Collide” and “Gravity Sunshine” that offer a more muscular brand of poprock. But the clear game-changer here is “All the Pretty Things.” The song is barely contained blast of Beatles ’66 meets Cheap Trick tune-age.

Bands in our H file right now include The Half Cubes. I don’t think these guys ever sleep. They’re 2/4th of The Flashcubes, busy with gigs and recordings with that outfit, and they’re putting out regular double LPs of covers with this side hustle. And these are no tossed-off cover versions. As a follow up to last year’s rightly celebrated Pop Treasures they now offer us a sequel with Found Pearls: Pop Treasures #2 and it is literally packed with hits from the seventies and eighties. There are big name artists covered here, like The Romantics “When I Look In Your Eyes” and XTC’s “The Disappointed.” But there are also less well known cuts, like Julian Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Know” and Mark Hudson’s “Be Mine Tonight,” that sounds like hits when they’re covered by these guys. But, no surprise, I’m most excited about the cover of Marshall Crenshaw’s “Whenever You’re On My Mind,” a should-have-been monster hit that sounds no less like hit material in this version. Another H band in this showcase is LA’s Humbug. I love how this band layers their songs, building from an acoustic guitar base and then adding everything else. “Open Season” has great pop swing. “Barbara Says” vibes FOW pretty hard (and I’m totally down with that). The songwriting here is strong. You can hear that tunes like “Can’t Read Velvet” and “Backlot” could easily translate on just acoustic guitar without losing any their sophistication. So hard to choose just one track to feature from Open Season but check out the Costello-ish “Quit With Suzy (75k).”

In our M grab-bag we see the welcome return Movie Movie. The new EP Coming Attractions leans into The Cars atmosphere on opening cut “After Hours.” If you’re looking for a dose of guitar-driven melodies circa 1980s, this is the band. It’s been great to see a new record from Manchester’s The Maple State. 2018’s The Things I Heard at the Party was a tour de force of punk-tinged indie poprock. Now seven years later they’re back with Don’t Take Forever. “Zero Days Since Last Incident” and “No Time to Waste” take us right back to the band’s original pop punky style. Meanwhile “Dead Beneath the Stars” get a Celtic vibe going. But in terms of development, “Winner Part II” shows a band going in new and interesting directions. On this year’s EP Transported Chicago’s Moderncults give off a rough and ready vibe when you click on “Chip” but that gives way when the ever-so-sweet title-track kicks in. “Grid” and “Inner Monologue” also have some shining break-out melodic moments.

Time to spill the T before things spill over. Leeds is home to Tulpa, a band that manages to wash every tune in a similar dissonant guitar sound without losing what makes them distinct. In other words, their LP Monster of the Week has got a coherent sound. The style is captured on “Transfixed Gaze” and “Pyro” particularly. By contrast, “Whose Side Are You On” sounds pretty Velvet Underground. But the record’s stand-out track is undoubtedly “Let’s Make a Tulpa!” This one takes off and never loses its energy. Jim Trainor falls into my guitar-pop sweet-spot all over his recent album Listening to Understand. Right out of the gate “Nothing” had its melodic hooks in me. There’s a reverby drone coating the whole song that I can’t get enough of. The LP offers up a host of airy light poppy songs like “Always Been You” and “Above” but I’m more partial to the harder edged numbers like “I Don’t Want to Be.” Self-described ‘slacker jangle band’ Teenage Tom Petties Rally the Tropes on their most recent disc. Hidden amidst their calculatedly shambolic performance are eight great new tunes. “Hotmail” and “Faculty” sound ragged but they hit their melodic marks. And then you have songs like “American Breakfast” and “Kudzu Pop” which give you just a little bit more in terms of depth.

Our last batch in this showcase gets us to the letter W. Montreal’s The Wesleys launch their EP Explosive Device true to form with the driving guitar pop tune “Magic Wand.” “Permanent Vacation” is another winner in a Together Pangea style. “Find a Way” has a more power pop sheen. The similarly named The Webstirs are more a straight-up rock and roll band, with a touch of Jeff Lynne sliding in here and there. You can hear it on “Roulette,” the opening cut from the just released LP High Up in the Trees. There’s so much ear candy on this record, from the poppy groove animating “Dancing in the Sky” to the mysterious ambience cloaking “K Morley.” “Reached an Understanding” sounds like the radio ready single to these ears.

You don’t have worry about going over bidding on this showcase. Sometimes the prices are set, sometimes they are pay-what-you-want. Click on the links and put together your own special package of quality musical products.

China calling: Carsick Cars, The Sino Hearts, and Elliott & The Wild Child

07 Sunday Dec 2025

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Over the past month or so I’ve seen an appreciable and dramatic increase in internet traffic to this site from the People’s Republic of China. Great! I’m up for readers from the Middle Kingdom, for sure. Of course, this bump could just be a legion of bots that do not appreciate the subtleties of poprock (or any kind of rock for that matter). But hey, why focus on the possible negatives? Instead I’m going to welcome this new continent of visitors with some homegrown powerpop. Now before this past week I didn’t know anything about melodic rock and roll from China and I still know almost nothing. But since then I have managed to round up three pretty stellar acts to showcase.

Indie rock is hardly a new thing in China. Bands like Carsick Cars have been going for two decades, recording in both Chinese and English. Their most recent album is 口or Aha in English. Their song 一场大雨 translates as “A Heavy Rain” and radiates a cool understated vocal delivery over some slashing guitar chords while 舞台 or “Stage Riot” has a more party ambience. And that’s just the tip of this melodic iceberg of an album. The Sino Hearts are another veteran Chinese rock and roll outfit with an emphasis on the retro rock palette. Over the course of six albums they’ve mined a pretty impressive Beatles-meets-New Wave set of sonic motifs. Their latest LP is Mondo Paradiso and it delivers their usual very fine goods. “Hong Kong Baby Doll” definitely has a Meet the Beatles energy, “Viva La Heartbreak” gives off a 1980s new wave vibe, while “Sweet Wild Honey” is so Ramones good it gets a treatment in both Chinese and English. Breaking with the traditions covered so far, Elliott & The Wild Child are a duo based in Shanghai and their 2023 EP Simple Simple oscillates between punkish ‘tude and a more slick indie feel. Title track “Simple Simple” exemplifies this tension, starting all snarly and loose before tightening up the sound into a kind of grinding dance drone. The other stand out track here for me is “I Won’t I’m Not!” The track alternates between bristling dance energy and moments of dissonant pop introspection.

China, we’re taking your call. So readers from the far east please do keep stopping by. And don’t be afraid to school me on where the poprock scene really is in your neck of the woods.

China flag stamp courtesy PromesaStudio.

Back in business with Super 8 and Lisa Mychols

02 Tuesday Dec 2025

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Two great talents have gotten back together, tripping the tunes fantastic one more time. This time out on their new LP Unfinished Monkee Business Trip and Lisa seem to be lingering in the early 1970s, offering us an immediately recognizable sonic palette. “Time Out” opens the show with a carnivalesque bit of show-starting aplomb. It’s a bit of this and a bit of that, signalling the variety to come. So get ready for quite a ride. One minute we’re all motor city hip-shaking on “Love Connection,” the next we’re breezing through California to a Carpenters-like beach destination with “California Road Trip.”  The 1970s flavours keep on coming with the Jackson 5 keyboard-pumping that drives “Pop Radio CD” while a soft rock folkie vibe colours in the lines on “Falling for You.” Beyond the polyester suits and sun-dappled photo shoots, songs like “These Are the Days” and “Whenever You’re Gone” conjure comparisons to Neil Sedaka and the 5th Dimension. 1970s vocal group stylings also get a look in on “Honolulu” and “Eskimos,” though in very different ways. “House on the Hill” wraps things up in a slightly different Dylanesque register. The album is like a time trip to a warm and fuzzy early 1970s, without all the Watergate and Vietnam spoiling all the fun.

Nowhere does Unfinished Monkee Business actually promise to wrap things up on this duo’s collaboration. And that’s good, because when Super 8 and Lisa Mychols get together groovy things have a habit of happening. Get your copy of their further adventures direct from the source at bandcamp.

The Lemon Twigs revving at 45 RPM

30 Sunday Nov 2025

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It’s pretty much consensus across the power-pop-osphere that The Lemon Twigs are the perfect distillation of all those elements that made melodic rock great in the 1960s and 1970s. They kinda sound like all sorts of things but not exactly like anyone you’ve heard before. But the much-deserved hype will not prepare you adequately for just how great their latest 45 is. It’s a double-sided tour de force. A-side “I’ve Got a Broken Heart” conjures so many possible comparisons. The opening guitar lick is so Beatles ’66 but when the vocals kick in it could be The Hollies. Then halfway through the bridge goes a bit wild, like Paul Revere and the Raiders, with an instrumental break that follows that is so early Monkees. This is power pop ambrosia! B-side “Friday (I’m Going to Love You)” is pretty cool too, with a slight country-ish tinge to the overall Monkees-meets-The Cyrkle poprock sound. Then just past the halfway mark things dip into a more Beatlesque psychedelic direction, only to pump up the lead guitar instrumental back into the main tune.

Just when you think this duo has really blown you away they come back with even more poppy hurricane force. Warm up your download finger because you’re going to want to hit repeat on this single over and over again. You can purchase it on bandcamp or other e-retailers right now.

Breaking news: Tristen, Fur Trader and Buddie

24 Monday Nov 2025

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In the rush to this year’s end there are plenty of late-breaking new-music headlines to keep up with. Like this mix of top stories covering effervescent pop to indie rock and roll and back again.

I look forward to new Tristen albums like I used to anticipate the release date of Suzanne Vega or Rickie Lee Jones records. The thing is, you can count on Tristen for great melodies cast amidst a range of adjacent but slightly different genres. The new LP is dubbed Unpopular Music and never was a title less apropos pour moi. Overall the vibe here is a sophisticated folk pop. Whether featuring endearing 12 string guitar highlights as on “Because Your Love is Mine” or a Peter Gabriel-esque vibe with the guitar licks on “Hey La” the atmosphere is sunny and positive. Tracks like “Rose and Thorn” really encapsulate the poppy folk feel defined here. There are departures though. “Skin of our Teeth” speeds things up a bit with a propulsive rhythm guitar and addictive lead guitar lines. I love the Shins-like organ lurking in the background throughout “Mona Lisa” or the driving guitar runs animating “Let Go.” This is comfort album, full stop. You can dive into Unpopular Music just about anywhere and thrive on its unique amalgam of sonic elements and hooky tunes.

Illinois boy now LA resident Andrew Pelletier is Fur Trader and The Tender Life is his sumptuous slice of retrospective poprock. The influences here seem evenly balanced between the sweet melodic intensity of 1970s AM fare and the cutting edge of 1980s new wave hooks. Opening cut “Maybe Love Knows the Way” blows things open with a glam rock groove where the beat wraps around a sometimes wispy, sometimes full-throated vocal. Then “Weekend Rails” exudes a late 1970s McCartney-esque vibe. “The Tender Trap” has that hushed folk pop veneer so popular in the late 1970s while “The Masses” definitely embodies the artist’s self-description as doing a baroque Sufjan Stevens. The next three songs steer things into the 1980s. “Don’t Turn on Me” dials up the decade’s synth-ful demeanor, “That’s My Love” builds into lush bit of ELO-ish guitar pop, but “Can’t Do Anything About It” is far and away the should-be hit-single in this mix. Though the lovely compressed 1980s poprock sound of “Stray Bouquet” has it running a close second. Then out of the blue comes a jazzy samba departure on “Julius Ceasar Look-Alike Contest.”  I’m also keen on “Poltergeist.” The oh-so 1980s drum intro gives way to a neo1950s-meets-1970spoprock jive in such a delightful way. This record is timeless and so of this anything-goes-in-music moment. It’s got sleeper hit written all over it.

Vancouver grunge juggernaut Buddie return with Glass, an LP that smooths a few of their rough edges in the most creative way. Entry track “In the Glass Shell” combines all the usual Buddie elements, like an alternating light versus dark guitar attack amidst a developing dissonant melodic thrust. “Stressed in Paradise” heightens this effect with an eminently hummable tune bundled in layers of joyful dissonance. “Impatient” is aptly named, it is a song bustling with an energy looking to break out somewhere. But with “Golden” the album takes turn, giving off a more retro new wave kind of energy. “Crow” even features a decidedly lush drive to its wall of guitars. “Blackout” shifts the focus again, developing more slowly from an almost lurch-like folk pacing to something more uncontrolled and revelatory. Glass is Buddie leveraging their unique sound to take listeners to new and unexpected places. And I like it.

You read the news today, oh boy. And the news was good. Why wait for ‘film at 11’? Hit those hyperlinks to increase your exposure to these developing stories now.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Should be a hit single: Keyside “Rock My Love”

21 Friday Nov 2025

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The latest invasionary force emanating from Liverpool are the jangle-forward quartet Keyside. With just two EPs and handful of singles to their name they’ve been making waves throughout the UK since 2023 with their updated Britpop sound and socially conscious lyrics. Frankly I have difficulty understanding much of what singer Dan Parker is getting out, given his heavy Scouse brogue. But I know a should-be hitmaking sound when I hear it. New single “Rock My Love” is utterly captivating with its rippling reverb-heavy lead guitar lines. The overall aura has the impact of The Smiths or The The. When the lead guitar lick kicks in at regular intervals the vibe is electric. As they continue to tour their British isle this fall one can’t help but wonder what impact an entire debut album might have. My gut says, this is going to be La’s or Stone Roses big. You might as well get in on the ground floor now and avoid the bandwagon crush.

Keyside have all the usual internet real estate showcasing their wares. You’re gonna want to get caught up there.

Spin the big wheel

16 Sunday Nov 2025

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There are so many great acts and accompanying singles, EPs, and albums coming at me I really can’t keep up. So today we play catch up and throw in a word or two about a host of great releases I’ve been sitting on. You can just spin the big wheel and drop in anywhere.

Indianapolis fuzz pop outfit Wishy are pushing the faders into the red all over their Planet Popstar EP. Opening cuts “Fly” and “Planet Popstar” offer up a bevy of distorted guitar hooks and vocals. “Over and Over” then cleans up the sound in a Sugar Ray sort of way. The EP shifts back and forth between a fuzzy and more pristine dreamy demeanor. LA band Momma also do dreamy but with a more conventional rock and roll backing on Welcome to My Blue Sky. Surefire single “Rodeo” launches with a killer lead guitar hook only to soften things up with a smooth, seductive vocal. “New Friend” is more soft, lilting acoustic guitar pop. Turning on Amazing Space’s recent album Parallel Dreams you’d be hard pressed to guess they’re from Bergen, Norway. They’ve really got the Americana sound down. The title track “Parallel Dreams” could be the Eagles. But other tracks diverge a bit from this formula. “Surrounded by the Absence” has great new wave-ish keyboards while “Go Easy On Me” vibes a dream-wash sibilance reminding me of fellow Swede The School Book Depository. Regina, Saskatchewan’s Christopher Sleightholm celebrates all things sunny and laid back on Still Summer. The style is 1960s reinvention with layers of jangle, pedal steel and Beatlesque melodic turns. “Summer Eyes” is so jangliciously Byrds. “Peppermint Fields” tips things toward the Bryds’ country turn. There’s also some serious instrumental guitar work here on tracks like “Hoppin’ Thru The Bog in Fog” and “Coyote at the Trailhead.”

It’s tough when a member of band becomes hugely popular and for something that has nothing to do with music. But that is the story of Post Animal when Stranger Things actor Joe Keery left the group in 2017. After a few albums apart Keery is now back with the band for a new album entitled Iron. The sound is very contemporary indie rock: sleek, intimate and subtley hooky. Obvious LP single is the singalong-ish “The Last Goodbye.” On Scarecrow II The Telephone Numbers dial up some serious jangle pretty consistently over the course of the LP. Standout jangling can be found on “Pulling Punchlines” with its propulsive wall-of-guitars sound and Grapes of Wrath vocals. “Goodbye Rock and Roll” is another standout. Taking things up to 11 for a moment Melvic Centre let a strong guitar grind wallpaper their album Trawler. But offsetting that are some great vocal harmonies. “First to Know” showcases how brilliantly these seemingly dissonant qualities can come together. While much of the album shades toward punk “Late Riser” and “Muddy Mae Suggins” unleash some serious melodic hooks. For me, Lawn’s new record God Made the Highway really takes off at track 3 with “Davie” and its ringing lead guitar work. “Barroom Wonder” is another lead guitar workout, deliciously drawing you in.

New Massage LP Coaster is a wildly inventive time-trip through an 1980s ambience that doesn’t sound in any way derivative. “No North Star” is Madchester jangly while “Daffy Duck” has a distinct New Order-ish vibe. “Without Your Love” has the period’s guitar tone down pat. Basically, the whole record envelopes you like a favourite fuzzy sweater. Durham UK’s Fortitude Valley have dropped some serious stylistic intensity into their recent Part of the Problem, Baby release. The guitar attack and pacing is relentless while the vocals ride over the musical drone with a distinctive air. Sometimes things are poppy, as on “Video (Right There With You).” Sometimes they are dissonant, like on “Totally.” Solid should-be hit single is “Sunshine State.” Nashville’s The Medium go all in for the team on their EP Sports! The atmosphere here is very Todd Rundgren meets 10cc, a 1970s compressed pop sound, particularly on “Feel the Dream” and “We’ve Got a Winner.” “Gimme Some Gas” is more a seventies rock and roll romp. Then “Me and My Glove” could be Harry Nilsson. Ottawa’s fanclubwallet shift the mood again to something more intimate and conversational on Living While Dying. This vibe is more contemporary, with compressed keyboard and hushed vocals. I love the hypnotic keyboard drone driving “Head On” forward. Then there’s the lush pop sound of “Do Over” with its otherworldly theremin solo. “New Distraction” sounds like the radio-ready song.

Get ready for some ripping reverb when you spin The Berries self-titled long-player The Berries. This is a guitar album, with fabulous nuanced amplifier tones all over its 10 tracks. Just check out the gorgeous spaciousness of the languid lead guitar guiding “Angelus.” Or there’s the striking back and forth between the guitar and vocals defining “Salt of the Earth.” I love the rippling Blue Oyster Cult-like lead guitar lines on “Lie in the Fire Again.” Toronto’s Vanity Mirror infuse a late 1960s psychedelic pop spirit over a lot of the tracks populating their Super Fluff Forever LP. It’s there strongly on “White Butterfly” while “Jack of All Trades” hits the Velvet Underground groove hard. But others lean into whimsy and piano. Or there’s “I Don’t Want to Hold Your Hand,” a brilliant inversion of Merseybeat sentiments. Sweet Nobody strike a more cinematic pose on Driving Off to Nowhere. The mood here is decisively moody, the vibe all indirect lighting and overflowing ennui. It’s there from the stark opening of “I Don’t Know When I’ll See You Again.” Mixing things up, a rippling guitar lead line gives “Revenge” a pulse-racing feel. “Home Sweet Hell” leans into a dark country vein. “Could You Be the One” sounds hit single-ish to me. Maura Weaver’s second solo album Strange Devotion is a collection of constant surprises. Each song is a carefully crafted sonic illustration, balancing both harmony and dissonance. “Cool Imagination” is the kind of song you instantly want to sing along with. “Do Nothing” is a brilliant example of alluring melodic minimalism. Meanwhile you also have tracks like “Breakfast” that go in a country direction.

I’ve spun the wheel on these fabulous albums, showcasing a few great tunes. But why take my word for it? Dig into the deep cuts on these LPs for yourself by hitting the hotlinks to the full album experience on bandcamp.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Hockey Night in Canada

15 Saturday Nov 2025

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If you grew up in Canada in the 1970s there was a strong chance that someone at your home lived for the weekly fall-through-winter broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada. With a two-four of Canadian brewed beer nearby, everyone in the house would know things were getting underway when they heard the distinctive instrumental lick that defines the show’s theme. Now Toronto instrumental guitar starlets The Surfragettes have immortalized the rather formal and staid original by giving it a reverb-drenched remake. The track opens giving us the traditional lead line, all guitared up. As they crank it up they take a few liberties, particularly as they head past the most recognizable parts of the tune. There’s some strong organ playing here too. And they even throw in some 1970s era play-by-play to end things off. In the liner notes they remind us that the show is the longest running, most popular broadcast in Canadian history. That certainly makes it worthy of such a grand treatment as this. This foursome are certainly this games’ four stars!

Check all the great guitar goodness of The Surfragettes at their website and bandcamp pages.

Breaking news: The Wellingtons, Greg Pope, Trash Man, and Juan y La Hormiga

09 Sunday Nov 2025

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In our newsroom some news is more breaking than others. But we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that our message is always new to someone. Certainly this combination of musical headlines have never appeared together before and, as you will hear, that is something special.

The Wellingtons don’t rush things. Their first three albums came out fairly close to each other between 2005 and 2008 before things started to stretch out a bit more with releases in 2011, 2017 and now 2025. Yet new album Baby Moon doesn’t sound like a record from a band coming back from an extended hiatus. It sounds like a band very much approaching a new creative peak. Opening cut “Always Gonna Be That Girl” has that unmistakable hit single elan. It’s got a genius arrangement that builds so effectively. Then before you can catch your breath “She Still Loves Me Now” launches another melodic broadside that more than hits the mark. “The Things We Did Before” swaps out usual lead vocalist Zac Anthony for Kate Golby and the choice really works for the song. This is an LP that sounds deceptively familiar, drawing from the band’s past power pop and pop punk strengths, but pushed further into new melodic territory. Take “Deadbeat Dad.” It softens the punk pop vocal just a little, reminding me of work from bands like Farrah. Or there’s “Lola,” a great poprock ballad with some swing. “I Won’t Turn Away” throws in some ELO-ish ‘woo oohs’ before alternating pop punk verses with a truly spectacular power pop chorus. Ripe for hit single-age too. There’s shades of the Beatles (“Sad Today”), Elvis Costello (“End of the World”; “Not Ready to Give Up”) or even The Zombies (“Sound Asleep”) on various cuts here. “Not Ready to Give Up” particularly sounds like it could be monster radio hit. And for a taste of jangle there’s “Better Me.”  Then for the album closer the “The Long Goodbye” harkens back to band’s earlier pop punk sound. Baby Moon is a stellar release. It might just be the best yet from a band that has never let us down.

By the time you get to solo album #10 what’s left to do? If you’re Greg Pope, you drill down into the 1970s to reinvent a host of great motifs that defined that decade’s chart hits. On The Roar of Silence Pope revives sounds so familiar yet puts them to brand new uses. Listen to how opening track “Worthy Son” bang-on takes up the seventies AM radio-friendly folk pop of artists like Gerry Rafferty or Al Stewart. Surefire should-be hit single “Fallen Star” is framed around that recognizably restrained rhythm guitar sound so popular with late 1970s new wave bands. Over the course of the LP the whole decade gets a look in. Song styles range from the early 1970s psychedelic feel of “It’s All Pretend,” to the mid-1970s starkly endearing faux-folk of “Hours, Days and Years,” to the late decade Blue Oyster Cult-like blast of title track “The Roar of Silence.” And it couldn’t be the 1970s without ELO, which I hear shades of on “The Trick of the Light” and “Road Less Traveled.” There’s even a touch of Queen on the raucous “Immovable Feast.” I often compared Pope to Matthew Sweet and there’s a few here (“Layers of an Onion”; “Softer Than a Whisper”) that match his dissonant sweetness. Make room on your annual ‘best of’ list for another winner from Greg Pope.

With song titles like “Please Don’t Murder Me,” “Never Be Good Enough,” and “When I Die” you’d be forgiven for supposing that Trash Man would be a big downer. I mean, they titled their previous EP Moment of Bleakness. But I’m going to stop you right there. Dipping into their back catalogue was actually grin-inducing on multiple occasions. From the songs listed above the first comes off like some kind of twisted Merseybeat, the second a jaunty pop single, while the last is pretty dour, actually. On the other hand, the Moment of Bleakness EP is sorta upbeat in sunny indie-pop kinda way. Ok, on to their brand new EP Cool Until It’s Not because this one turns a corner. A whole bunch of the dissonant pop elements bubbling under previous recordings come to the fore here with a dramatic Weezer-like punch. Opening track “Eventually” sounds like it was cut from The Blue Album. Title track “Cool Until It’s Not” dials down the dissonance in favour of melodic sweetness while “Hole in my Heart” is all strummy acoustic guitar whimsy. “Barely Living” turns the ennui back on with a vengeance. And then everything ends with the musically light but darkly existential ballad “Where Does It Go?” Clearly Trash Man is one smart outfit, combining big questions and challenging music with admirable aplomb.

Juan Pablo Mazzola and Muchas Hormigas are Juan La Hormiga and together they offer up a pop folk vibe that steers into a Beatlesque Americana on occasion. Case in point: early single “After the War.” This is a lush pop song with a rootsy feel, lifted by their symbiotic vocal interplay. It kicks off the duo’s new EP Valencia, named for the Spanish town where they reside. The additional six tracks that appear here really deliver on the promise of that first 45. There’s more of that sophistico-folk pop with “About Us” and “The Most Beautiful Bride.” Some tracks hint a genres in various ways. “Cupid’s Arrow” works the pedal steel guitar in every so delightfully while “One Way Ticket” exudes a light shading of Merseyside. When I hear “Stereo” I imagine folk duo Mitch and Mickey from the A Mighty Wind movie updating their sound with a dash of 1970s folk rock sensibility. And then there’s “Play This Game” which conjures forth a 1960s folk duo extraordinaire. I can recommend a visit to this Valencia, you may want to stay awhile.

You can’t believe everything you see these days but you can trust your ears with these music headlines. And do your own research by hitting the hyperlinks.

Nothing leads like a story that bleeds. Poster for the movie Picture Mommy Dead courtesy James Vaughn Flikr collection.