Author Archives: Dennis Pilon

Something new: Sergio Ceccanti, Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kicking Team, and Mark Alan Lofgren

23 Tuesday Jul 2024

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Today’s post is all new. I mean, most of the stuff I write about is new but this is a crew of talent I’ve heard nary a whisper about.

Everything about Sergio Ceccanti’s new album Mysterious Journey is freighted with retro cool. The guitar tones are like selections from a guitar pedals buffet. The song styles run the gamut of 1960s melodic forms. And yet, somehow, the album’s sonic aura is timeless. Opening track “Mystery Girl” captures the broader elan of the album with its distinctive lead guitar lines and hushed vocals. Jangle comes to the fore on tracks like “On My Way” with a Searchers buoyant energy. Then “You Dropped Me Alone” lightens the mood with a boppy bubblegum feel. Despite a consistent overall sound, the album does branch out in terms of sixties genres. “From My Mysterious Journey” suggests an early 1960s Roy Orbison intrigue while “Without You” tips things in a more Stones direction (in their more melodic moments). There are real departures here too, like the Teenage Fanclubby “Waiting Outside.” Or listen to how the guitar work on “Forget Me” pretty much guarantees that won’t happen. Really, this album is a summer sleeper chart climber.

It’s hard to know just how seriously to take Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kicking Team on their new record Got To Be Strong. I mean, the name invites guffaws aplenty. And then there’s the choice of song themes: chainsaws, bandanas, box wine, etc. Not topics that say serious song-smithing. But here’s the thing – the more I listen to this album the more I’m convinced these are fine specimens of sophisticated song craft. Stylistically, there’s more than hint of the Allman Brothers in their poppier moments. Things even stretch into Bachman Turner Overdrive territory on the opening cut “Chainsaw Repair Shop” with its chugging rhythm guitars. “My Bandana” sounds more pub rock/Rockpile era Nick Lowe. Then comes “Best Day Ever,” just the kind of feel-good rock and roll we really need right now, sustained by some serious organ backing. The album changes tempos effortlessly – things slow down on “Dilapidated Heart,” a song that really gets its Americana blight on (both material and spiritual), while “Magnificent” takes a more Byrds-meets-The Band approach. Then comes the album’s secret weapon “Regret Avenue,” a song whose jangle and hooks scream should-be hit single. I could go on loving up every song here but you get the picture. Got To Be Strong is just a great album experience from some very serious talent.

It happens. Turns out sometime over the past few years I bought Mark Alan Lofgren’s first volume of his Black Moon Book project but I never wrote about it. And that’s a shame because the record and follow up Black Moon Book 2 have got some lovely performances. Like “We Don’t Leave the Yard” from the latter – that synth work is utterly captivating. Well, making up for lost time I’m turning to the latest installment in the series Black Moon Book 3 and I can report it’s fabulous too. Just lay your ears on “Ne’er Do Well” and tell me if this doesn’t sound like a misplaced deep cut from the recent Real Estate offering Daniel. Damn but that lead guitar sound is to die for! “Get Out or We’ll Stay” works up a positively meditative drone that is so different but also very pleasing. “Perennials” has a English folkish feel compositionally, reminding me of Vashti Bunyan despite its delightful jangle coating. “The End of the Novel in Your Head” balances dreamy lead guitar and vocals in a perfect balance. Then “Ocean Drive” kicks things into a new lane, sounding more latter day XTC. “Glass Half Full” even threatens to break out into come classic Chuck Berry riffs, before art rocking the hell out of the arrangement. With this Black Moon Book triple play it’s clear Lofgren is just getting better and better.

There’s too many new somethings for one post – look for something new II, coming your way soon.

Photo courtesy James Vaughn Flikr collection.

Rediscovering The Decemberists

18 Thursday Jul 2024

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I’ve always felt like I should like The Decemberists more. I mean, they’re folky, they’re kinda political at times. And lead vocalist Colin Meloy is the closest thing America is ever going to have to a Morrissey-like tortured artiste. But, for whatever reason, I’ve often found that a little Decemberists goes a long way for me. Like one or two songs an album. But that has ended abruptly with the release of the band’s ninth long-player, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. The record’s song selections flow like a greatest hits of the band’s stylistic range over their whole career. There’s folk aplenty on cuts like “William Fitzwilliam” “Don’t Go Into the Woods,” and “Black Maria.” I love the delicious jangle and pedal steel draping “Long White Veil.” The band turn up the horns and a Latin rhythm to define “Oh No!” Meanwhile “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind” is just a magnificent pop anthem. And then on “All I Want Is You” Colin Meloy suddenly becomes Don McLean. It’s quite an astonishing transformation, really.  But the album’s standout track is undoubtedly the majestic lead single “Burial Ground.” With help from The Shins James Mercer and R.E.M.’s bassist Mike Mills the song rings out with a Byrdsian jangle and overlapping vocal lines that will make your heart soar.

With As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again The Decemberists confirm their status as a kind of American treasure. What a live show this album promises to be!

Songs for a summer soiree

14 Sunday Jul 2024

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Clinking glasses beneath a dusky summer sky. You need music for that. Definitely. Here’s a curated list of party-approved poppy rock numbers suitable for friends, fading sunshine and a night full of stars.

LA’s The Dreambots thread some 1980s jangly guitar throughout their debut single “Tightrope” but that’s almost a distraction compared to the subtle earworm this melody turns out to be. The song’s main guitar tone reminds me of Steve Addabbo’s distinctive sound on Suzanne Vega’s self-titled debut LP back in 1985 but here it serves a totally different kind of tune. Repeated listening will just lead to further repeated listenings. Strange Neighbors were one of my fave finds of 2023. Their single (“Hotline Psychic”) and EP (Party of None) were number one on both my year-end singles and EP charts. They were that good. Some might say there’s nowhere to go from there but one listen to the band’s new single “Tell All Your Friends” and you’d know that’s wrong. The striking guitar lines, the harmony vocals, the build-up to a great killer chorus: this is the stuff of greatness. The internet is allowing a lot of old bands that didn’t quite make it to relaunch, if not for the big time then at least a smidgeon of the attention economy. The Hollywood Stars got a few record deals in the 1970s but never took off. Now fifty years later they’ve got a new album Starstruck. I’m really digging the Stonesy/Springsteen swagger of “Walking With an Angel.” Montreal’s The Wesleys also present as a contradiction. So much of their self-titled debut album almost leaps out of the speakers with high degree of rock and roll ferocity and menace. And then there’s “A Lot To Lose,” a gentle, almost languid jangle affair that floats a dreamy vocal over everything. Ever reliable guitar pop-meister 65MPH is back again with “Again.” This time the crashing guitars have a Bond-esque intrigue and Jam-worthy Paul Weller vocal attack.

New Jersey’s Sad About Girls is having a very productive 2024, releasing their third EP of the year Sad To Go in May. There’s some slow meditative material here and then there are songs that really cook. Like “Expect To Lose” with its ripping lead guitar lines and magnetically hooky chorus. “We Didn’t Do Anything Last Year” is another winner with its Everything But The Girl flavour. Another band with two really hot tracks on their most recent album is Melbourne’s Lava Fangs. From Sub Auroram “Photograph” really lands in the Jayhawks ballpark while “Lost For Words” motors along shifting its melodic attack in the most delightful ways. Nick Piunti delivers his signature refreshingly old-fashioned poppy rock and roll on his new one-off single with The Complicated Men, “Bottle It.” Attractively packaged and performed with a Bryan Adams easygoing feel. Most of The Twins of Franklin album This Life is a folky Americana excursion, delivered with a First Aid Kit freshness. But “Life By Design” is something else. The propulsive acoustic rhythm guitar keeps things thrumming on this song, only to be elevated by the electric shock vocal harmonies in the chorus. The title track from George Marinelli’s recent hybrid greatest hits/new material mega-album Except Always has to vie for attention with 25 other songs. But it’s got some notable features, like a Stones rhythm guitar sound and chorus hook that really delivers.

Papa Schmapa main man Joe DelVecchio put me on to a new project he’s got going and the vibe is so NRBQ it could be mistaken for those Louisville sloggers. The new band is SidePlay and the song I can’t get enough of is “Hit the Road Mac.” It’s got boogie and an old man kind of cool. Little Roger has got a ticklish question to put in his recent single “Does Susie Like Boys?” It’s the kind of query that could easily go wrong fast but Roger’s whole delivery seems supportive. The guitars here are so 1970s AM radio while the vocal reminds me of Billy Bremner in his more tender moments. Out of the blue former Irish band The Fireflys frontman Barry J. Walsh pops up with his first solo effort in decades “Rescue Me.” The song is a distillation of essential 1960s sounds: swinging London, Merseybeat, some pop psychedelia, and more. Let there be more is all I can say. Everything about Gary Kaluza’s single “On the Waterfront” says ‘classic’ – from the Silencers/Simple Minds guitar tone, to the stentorian singing from what sounds like the back of an empty echoey church, to the video with its Bogey and Bergman imagery. It’s not a new song but a very worthy re-release for sure. Perennial 1990s throwback Richard Turgeon swore he would take some time off from the last half decade’s punishing schedule of constantly writing and releasing new singles, albums and covers. But just seven months after this last album he’s back with a new single “This is the Last Song (I Write For You).”  What can I say? It’s reliably Turgeon great! And I highly doubt it won’t be followed by more good tunes to come in the days ahead.

SidePlay – Hit the Road Mac

Jon Hyde’s new album The Sad Lights is solidly in Americana territory, neither poppy nor rocky for the most part. But title track “The Sad Lights” swerves a bit into our lane with a very hum-able melody that ambles along with a peculiar but captivating charm. I love the mood that The Chris Vandalay Project strike on their new single “Better Than Before.” The synth suggests late night, a bit of indirect lighting, and some serious introspecting going on. The overall sound really reminds me of Liverpool’s Black from the 1980s. Cal Rifkin return with a single named for every power pop fan’s fave commercially unsuccessful supergroup, “Big Star.” The song’s connection to that Memphis combo is both lyrical and sonic, popping up in the tune’s narrative and overall jangly sound. And the song’s arrangement is outasight. Kurt Hagardorn has an exciting new project that concentrates his poppy rocky tendencies even more than his exemplary solo efforts. His new band is The High Elves and their debut single “Thirsty and Blue” is full of 1970s Steve Miller guitar tone and a killer rhythm guitar swing. It’s impossible not to hip sway within listening distance of this song. More please! The latest outing from The Bret Tobias Set is positively mercurial in its instrumental choices. “Fait Accompli” has got shoe-gazey vocals, slashes of reverby guitar, and an organ timbre straight out of a Vincent Price horror movie. And that is a very good combo.

When they’re not busy turning out great tunes for Starbelly Dennis Schocket and Cliff Hillis also like to put out duo numbers. Their newest is a sweet walk down melody lane boasting a title that gives away its inspiration. “For Everly” could be a certain brothers act circa 1965 or something more modern, say a nice deep cut from one of those Don Dixon and Marti Jones albums.

Your summer soiree is practically ready for guests with a song list like this on standby. You just have to strike up the bands.

Photo courtesy Tom Magliery Flikr collection.

Out in the country: Rural France and Valley Lodge

09 Tuesday Jul 2024

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As the sun hangs high in the summer sky roads spill over with those fleeing urban life for a bit of the country. And that needs some apropos musical accompaniment, of course. Enter our featured pair of bands. They can be enjoyed city or country, wherever you are, but their nom de plumes give me an excuse to slot them in here.

Whiltshire’s favourite jangle duo Rural France return with album #3 Exactomondo, still channeling their own unique interpretation of influences like Teenage Fanclub, Lemonheads, and Guided By Voices. Opening cut “Tag Along” has a sweet lofi charm, almost shoe-gazey. Other songs like “Sunslip” and “Guideropes” kick off with solid guitar hooks while the vocals ride a solid bed of jangle. “Ghost Dance” sounds like a single, launching with an alluring opening and crashing guitar chords. Though “Packhorse” is a solid second choice for chart action, a carefully calibrated assortment of sounds that swap out the spotlight. “Blabbermouth” deploys a pedal steel guitar to expertly add a country shade to everything. “Prize Goose” rides us out to the inner groove with an almost meditative Shins-like pop perfection, sliding into guitar god territory near the end. Looking back after hearing it all, Exactomondo is clearly full of great songs but it’s also a solid album experience.

On the new Valley Lodge LP Shadows in Paradise things open with a stunning should-be hit single: “Daylights.” From the relentless driving guitar work to the seductive interplay between the main and background vocals this song just never lets up on its addictive sonic attack. It’s a song that should be echoing out of car stereos all summer. From there the band showcase their amazing melodic dexterity, throwing hooks into multiple styles of poprock. Whether offering a Bruno Mars pop playfulness of “I Wrote a Song” or a more Vaccines-like party energy on “Trouble” there seems to be no subgenre they can’t excel at. You can find a new wave rock and roll attack on “After School,” a seventies disco and pop R&B flavour to “Secret Lover,” or even a 1980s Merseyside revival-style happening with “Dyin’.” The attention to song arrangements here is impressive. “Hanging Around” takes that classic “Latest Flame” guitar strum the Jam also used for “That’s Entertainment” and artfully arranges a kind of sonic tour, with a little acoustic guitar here, some keyboard shots there, all tied up with a very singable tune. Then there’s “Out Of Time,” my personal fave. So hummable – I love the lush background vocals and crashing guitar chords. Closing song “That Love” makes what could be a sitar sound almost upbeat with a tune and vocal hauntingly reminiscent of Ian Gomm.

Enjoy that country air with just the right mix to tunes. Like these ones. Hit those hyperlinks above to properly soundtrack your summer travels.

Photo ‘Tomorrow’s the Day my Bride’s Gonna Come’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Redd Kross my heart

04 Thursday Jul 2024

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What band variously sounds like American punk circa 1978, Frank Zappa, The Sweet, Cheap Trick, pop metal, with maybe with a touch of ELO? Only Redd Kross can pull all that off without skidding into incoherence. Of course, they don’t pour all those influences into every song, which means an album by Redd Kross can sound like multiple bands. That’s not to say their overall sound hasn’t changed over the years. This is a band that continues to move to adjacent genres without definitively leaving the old ones behind. Take the first EP and album: 1980’s debut Redd Kross and 1982’s Born Innocent. Good time, grinding, American punk and roll. By 1984’s album number two though things start to branch out, as Teen Babes From Monsanto shines a light on the band’s emerging power pop chops. I’ll confess, for the longest time Redd Kross was more a band I’d heard about rather than heard. To rectify that and catch me (and maybe you) up, this post scans every RK album for only the most hooky numbers IMHO. Redd Kross my heart!

Redd Kross got their start in the hot heat of America’s punk summers 1978 and 1979. But I wonder if it wasn’t just the manic in-your-face intensity of that genre that appealed to them because over the years they would also show a lot of love for over the top pop-metal excess, faux stadium rock, even a few tongue-in-cheek prog rock interludes. Yet for me their power pop tunes have always been a cut above in terms of craft and melodic ingenuity. The turn comes three cuts into Teen Babes From Monsanto when “Heaven Only Knows” pumps that fifties bubblegum pop nostalgia. Then “Don’t Turn Your Back On Me” has a seventies glam meets new wave feel. On 1987’s Neurotica “It’s the Little Things” reworks the disaster rock formula of The Crystals and Ronettes to good effect.

By 1990 the band had signed to a major label and released Third Eye, a more slick production. The power pop single here is certainly smooth. “Annie’s Gone” is carefully crafted with a Cars-like precision, resulting in the band’s only American chart hit. On 1993’s Phaseshifter “Saragon” is positively Beatlesque with a Live at the Hollywood Bowl kind of Lennon energy. RK rounded out the nineties with 1997’s Show World and, again, the power pop sound notably shifted. “Mess Around” sounds a bit Crowded House while “Get Out of Myself” reminds me of other strong 1990s power pop acts like Sloan.

As the twentieth century faded out so too did Redd Kross, or so it seemed. The first decade of the new millennium failed to deliver any new material. Then in 2012 Research the Blues arrived heralding Redd Kross 2.0 had finally arrived. Here I like some of the late-breaking album selections like “Winter Blues” with its winning Hoodoo Gurus vibe or “Hazel Eyes” which really has the makings of a Big Star single sound-alike. 2016’s Hot Issue was a compilation of sorts, bringing together rare and unreleased material. Like the 1970s pitch-perfect riff on The Sweet throughout “Insatiable Kind” or the unstoppable guitar pop of “Don’t Take Your Baby Downtown.” The band resurfaced again in the two-thousand-and-teens with 2019’s Beyond the Door, proving their 2012 comeback was no fluke. So many great tunes here. “There’s No One Like You” sounds like a great lost Odds single.  Or get close to “Ice Cream (Strange and Pleasing)” where the band is doing a full-on sixties garage power pop vamp a la the Troggs or Monkees.

Fans waiting for a ticker tape parade return of Redd Kross got their wish this year with the release of a sprawling self-titled album of all new material. Redd Kross (The Red Album) offers up 18 cuts and an album design mimicking The Beatles (The White Album). My own choices for winning should-be singles seems to accord with the band, who’ve turned both tunes into early release videos and singles. “The Main Attraction” builds from a slow start to a real stunner of a showcase single. Then “I’ll Take Your Word For It” works a Merseybeat seam in a style similar to contemporary acts like The Tearaways. I’d also single out “Good Times Propaganda Band,” a track that sounds like a cross between Paul Collins and mid-period Beatles. Of course, “Born Innocent” is also pretty special and the name of a recent documentary on the band.

Redd Kross, where have I been all your life? Clearly wasting precious leisure time I could have spent with all your records. Don’t make my mistakes dear readers, complete your Redd Kross catalogue today!

You can’t wait for summer

01 Monday Jul 2024

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Summer seems to come to different people at different times, depending on whether you’ve got kids in school or a job with a set vacation schedule or live in the United Kingdom. But July 1st is a definite dividing line on seasonal states of being. So let me say it, summer is now officially here.

To kick things off mood-wise, Sparkle*Jets U.K. have got the perfect single with “I Can’t Wait for Summer.” The band may not be from the UK but they certainly do sparkle on this new song, an homage to the Beach Boys that will appear on their first album of new material in two decades, to be called Box of Letters. The opening wash of background vocals on this song are just so California sixties pop, though the treatment drifts into a more modern sound as it goes along (and deliciously so in my view). The artwork for the single is itself a riff on the famous Beach Boys Endless Summer greatest hits cover design.

Now that summer has arrived you can just sit back and marvel at that big beautiful sunny blue sky. That’s what pop tunesmith Steven Wright-Mark advises on his brand new and oh-so-timely single “Summer Sky.” This one has got an earworm for a hook so sneaky you’ll be humming it long after your portable cassette player has run out of power. Shane Tutmarc gives the sun its due on his new Dolour long-player Daylight Upon Magic. Album deep-cut “Sun On My Brain” gives voice to that feeling of summer abandon where you’ve just got to break free from work and hit the beach. ‘Why am I working so hard?’ Tutmarc sings, ‘I can only get so far …’ Indeed. I’m pretty sure that the good people of Rapid City, South Dakota have no idea what indie power pop god resides within their midst. Friends of Cesar Romero have yet another fantastic EP out, the seasonally dubbed Last Summer A Year From Now. So many songs here just cook with a garage rock intensity that never fail to strike a strongly melodic chord. This could be your go-to summer party platter for this year. But make sure to hit replay on title track “Last Summer A Year From Now” to hear a master class in hard-hitting hooky poprock.

Of course for many summer means travel. I’m not recommending this locale as much as the EP and song about it. Ricky Rochelle serves up his signature punk pop vibe on this Cannibal Island Resort EP, particularly on the darkly poppy title track. I really appreciate all the extra sonic bits Rochelle mixes into his tunes that creates a complexity that belies their apparent punky simplicity. You’ll find four fun songs here but “Cannibal Island Resort” would be the single for sure.

No more waiting. Go to the front of the queue for your ration of summer-themed tune-age right now.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Have you met Super 8?

28 Friday Jun 2024

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After 10 albums it might seem strange to re-introduce you to Super 8. But his new album is kind of a new start. Retro Metro gives you a kaleidoscope view of everything that is great about the Super 8’s supercharged take on the 1960s. So gather round errant flower children, folk rockers, sunshine pop lovers and Kinksian jangle fans, your pied piper is here with tunes to lead you astray and then some.

Following the funky keyboard-heavy instrumental opener “Retro Metro Theme” we get right down to what Super 8 does best with “Keep Doing It,” a chipper pop tune that manages to squeeze the sunshine out of the summer sky. You can practically feel the beach breeze coming off ‘feel good’ tracks like “Almost Anything” and “Mary Jane.” But the record has a harder edge too. Four songs included here are remnants of an aborted mystery-group side-project entitled The Plus 4 and they appear to have set the tone for the whole record. “You Look Right Through Me” rings out with jangle hooks that are unstoppable while the chorus is so Zombies it’ll make you swoon. Other former Plus 4 numbers like “Tell It Like It Is,” “Take It From Me” and “Every Word Is True” have a swinging Meet-the-Beatlesque charm, ornamented with some sweet sweet harmonica solos. But as we dig into the newer material here the star of this record might just be the Rickenbacker electric 12 string guitar. It makes everything sparkle. Check out its impact on “Lies,” which opens with a jauntiness reminiscent of the Fabs’ “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.” Or see what it adds to the Stonesy “Just A Song,” the Ray Davies-ish “Another Me,” or Monkees-style “Just Me & You.”

So ask yourself, have you really met Super 8? Retro Metro is all the proof you need he is the grooviest undiscovered star you definitely need to become acquainted with. You can arrange your audio meet-up here.

The hooks are instrumental

22 Saturday Jun 2024

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Let’s face it, most killer hooks are instrumental. It’s a guitar lick, a piano riff, or even a trumpet solo. Today’s post pays tribute to those performers who have no words – just ever so alluring instrumental hooks.

We kick things off with the self-described ‘desert-influenced, surf-infused’ style of Austin, Texas band Sheverb. Their new album She Rides Again is a close study of what might be called the Morricone school of spaghetti-western guitar playing, with a strong touch of psychedelia in places. “Redemption of the River Witch” is so on point you can practically taste the dusty grit on your lips, complete with trumpet, whistling and some psych-guitar freak-out playing two-thirds in. Canada’s cold cold capital of Ottawa turns out some pretty hot guitar playing from the likes of The Reverb Syndicate. The title track from their last album Last of the V8 Interceptors is nothing but tasty licks all  the way through. I could ride that lead guitar melody into replay country all day long. For more dextrous lead guitar playing look no further than Messer Chups. These guys have a swamp monster rocking vibe and a strong sense of fun, well-illustrated with albums titles like Taste the Blood of Guitaracula and The Curse of Catzilla. From the former LP we feature the hot-blooded romp “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

Time to take this party political, performatively speaking that is. Seems some bands can’t get enough of that Cold War nostalgia. While hailing from St. Catharines, Ontario The Kaputniks appear to love all things from our bygone bipolar world. “Politburo Dance Party” conjures images of rather rotund men in too-tight suits and uniforms dancing somewhat formally, like their lives might depend on it. In a similar vein People’s Defence Force evoke the menace and Bond-esque mystery of a cinematic 1960s Cold War on “Gear Head.” The deft application of rumbly lead guitar and few Balkan- style melodic interludes will have you reaching for the keys of your imaginary English sports car. Another group of attentive movie music aficionados can be found amongst the ranks of the music collective Morricone Youth. Their various film-themed LPs cover westerns, horror, socialist realism, porn scores and more! Here we feature two tunes from two different albums, “Barber Twist” from A Song of Two Humans and “Eva Kant” from Danger: Diabolik. Where the former gives off a retro Get Smart! vibe the latter has a much a more serious 1960s smart-pop sound.

Time to take things in more keyboard kind of direction. The Link Quartet hit the keys hard on their come-back single “The Saint​-​Tropez Heist.” Not that any guitar stood neglected. But just listen to that Hammond organ! It is driving the beat right over a cliff and then some. Toronto’s Cameronoise is also a keys guy, though his records sound like those sixties albums where someone plays the Beatles on a zither. In other words, his organ sound is out of this world, in a good way. The most recent EP is Id’s My Party and I love the way the guitar chords come crashing in on opening number “He Could.” Talk about bait and switch as this great guitar sound is quickly eclipsed by a wild bit of organ exposition. More Austin, Texas is here with uber productive performer Get Set Go. Sometimes he puts out albums where he sings, sometimes he doesn’t. Or, more to the point, there are times when he treats voice as just another instrument. Like on the all-instrumentals album Forgetting Things Done. Just listen to the crisp separation of lead guitar work and the vocal ‘la la la la’s that effortlessly propel the song along.

Let’s wrap this wordless journey with some classic 1960s instrumentalizing. On his recent EP Hot Rod Rampage Brad Marino pays tribute 1963 era surf and car music culture. So Jan and Dean and Beach Boys obviously. Given the period, a rumbly instrumental was de rigueur and Marino acquits himself admirably on the blistering “Tripwire.” Taking up the latter half of the decade LA’s Trabants crank the psychedelic side of sixties instrumentals with “Mantra.” Not to any Hendrix or Clapton excess, mind you. There is still are recognizable melody all the way through, even if things do get hazy in the final third.

Nobody needs the last word on this collection of uber cool and hooky instrumentals. Just hit play and let the hooks do the talking.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Nicking Nick Lowe

16 Sunday Jun 2024

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Word hit the interweb last week that a new Nick Lowe album would arrive this coming September, the pub rock/pop rock veteran’s first album of new material since 2011’s That Old Magic and his seasonal sojourn on 2013’s Quality Street. The album cover for the to-be-released Indoor Safari lovingly recreates a mid-1960s stylized photo shoot, complete with hip fonts and a retro record design. But if you dip into the album’s proposed song order you might notice something familiar – nearly every song has already seen a public release via various EPs and extended singles that have come out over the past half decade. So this ‘new’ album really only contains just two genuinely new tracks, “Went To A Party” and “Jet Pac Boomerang.” The former is Nick doing his Cowboy Outfit era thing, a bit rockabilly in a 1980s sort of way. Los Straightjackets sound great on this track and the others that will appear on this LP, putting their considerable talents to work adding some welcome pep to Nick’s urbane performance. So, if truth be told, you can nick just about this whole album right now just by sorting through all these recent Nick and the Straightjacket EPs that have been coming out regularly. The only track you really have to wait for is the one with ‘boomerang’ in the title.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not really complaining. The songs Nick has collected for this new record are quality Lowe’s for sure. Personally I love “Blue On Blue” and “A Quiet Place.” These two and all the other selections deserve to be featured on an official Nick Lowe long-player. You can advance order your copy on Nick’s Bandcamp and website. I know I will.

Breaking news: John Larson and the Silver Fields, Peter Freebairn, Lemon Twigs, and Joe Scarborough

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

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Today’s breaking news includes a few real newsmakers of one sort or another and others who should be. Stay tuned for all the hooky details.

When heartland rock reunited with more commercial pop sensibilities in the 1980s acts like Tom Petty and Heartbreakers, Greg Kihn Band and Bruce Springsteen stormed the charts. On their new album John Larson and the Silver Fields harken back to this golden age to my ears. Constellation Prize has the easygoing live rock chops of that era, sweetened with honey-dewed melodies and hooks. “Don’t Look Too Fast” is a great album opener, holding organ, piano and guitar in a dynamic tension while spinning out a cinematic sweep of heartland imagery. “Guilty By Association” puts its guitar riff at the centre of its rock and roll celebrations. “Everything’s Easy Until You Try It” reshapes an Orbison-esque guitar hook to drape a very Tom Petty romp. Then comes the should-be hit single for me, “Learning To Love.” The song rides an unstoppable guitar riff with a relentless drive. From there the album starts to vary its tempo and aural attack. “Start With Your Heart” offers up a bit of lighter AM radio-friendly pop fare while both “I Don’t Wanna Go Back” and “Fly Away” work that ominous 1980s pop vibe, delicately balancing dark and light melodic notes. And then there’s “Margot’s Gone Dancing,” a very different kind of poprock sound more akin to mid-period XTC. This just may be my favourite song from an album with a lot to like.

Melbourne, Australia’s Peter Freebairn seems like a stately gent. The tunes on his new album Silhouettes & Cigarettes exude class and an ‘I’m not in any hurry’ air. Opening cut “World You Choose” eases us into the album with a subtle hook that just keeps tightening its grip. “Say Goodbye” sounds like something we might expect from Paul Carrack, dialing up the blue-eyed soul and some sweet organ. Then “You And I” shifts gears to a more solo Paul McCartney vibe. What comes next sounds like some great lost 1970s Hall and Oates chart hit. “Crazy Love” has all the alchemy of that decade’s melange of styles: a bit of stylized pop soul, a disco guitar figure, and an aching pop melody that stretches on and on. Both “Home Town” and “Silhouette” are slower numbers but in decidedly different registers, one Don Henley California low-key, the other John Lennon sublime. But strap yourself in for this album’s closer because it defies everything you’ve heard so far. “I Got Lucky (I Got You)” is a strut rocker rooted in an uber cool riff that resolves into a rapturously melodic chorus, ornamented with theremin and a host of seductive background vocals. Hit anyone? This is it.

We’re not even half way through the year but it would appear that a lot of power pop scribes have already chosen their album of year. And who can blame them? The Lemon Twigs’ fifth album A Dream Is All We Know is breathtaking in its variety and command of 1960s and 1970s poprock styles. The record constantly shifts focus, from sixties English pop to California beach harmonies to 1970s commercial chart hits, but is clearly the work of one very talented band. Opening song and early release single “My Golden Years” sets the stage for what is to come. The track has the sonic dexterity of 10cc with perhaps a Queen-esque penchant for sharp melodic turns and a distinctly yearning vocals style. Sixties influences abound throughout the album with Beach Boys harmonies on “In the Eyes of a Girl” or The Byrds meet The Cyrkle on “If You And I Are Not Wise.” There’s also a very stylized English sixties pop sound coming off “Sweet Vibration” and “Church Bells.” But America gets a look in too with the more 1970s derived cuts like the Andrew Gold-ish “A Dream Is All We Know” and the keyboard-driven, Partridge Family-worthy “They Don’t Know How to Fall in Place.” The brothers behind this band have really got an ear for particular moments in pop music history. Just listen to how “How Can I Love Her More” captures the early 1970s over-the-top commercial pop, full of horns and strings and seeming vocal cast of thousands. And we’re not even done exploring how creative this band is. There’s still jazzy samba (“Ember Days”), Argy Bargy era Squeeze (Permanent Roses), and early solo McCartney (“I Should’ve Known Right From the Start”) to take stock of. And who would have predicted an album exit that hits the glam pedal hard like “Rock On (Over and Over)”?  This is band worthy of the often overused attribute ‘a sensation’.

Sometimes it’s hard to switch horses midstream. Joe Scarborough has put out an amazing power pop EP entitled Big Star but you’d never know from the press. Crickets. Well that’s probably because Joe is not just any ordinary Joe lunchbox but the Joe Scarborough of US Congressional and right-wing talk radio and TV fame. And he’s not just any high profile politico but has been a pretty hard-right libertarian Republican figure for decades, though he does appear to have exited the party at the Trump station more recently. Still, it’s hard for many to square rock and roll’s typically progressive elan with fiscal conservatism. Not that Scarborough would be the first to straddle rock and roll and the political right, it’s just that artists like Eric Carmen from the Raspberries were often associated with right-wing politics much later in their careers. But hey, what about the music? On the whole it’s pretty damn good. This EP has a grinding Well Wishers hooky edge in its title track while “Contract With Bulgaria” has lyrics you might expect from this point of view. Still eminently hummable. The cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” really gives the song some power pop oomph. This EP leans into the horn section but earlier EPs like Welcome to the Monkey House and Freaks Love Freaks draw on Costello-like turns of phrase and melody and a Matthew Sweet pop sibilance. Just goes to show, you don’t have to agree with somebody to dig their tunes.

Working hard to bring you the power pop headlines, that’s our mission. With all these great tunes, who needs film at 11?

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.