Everything about Toronto duo Lavventura’s debut LP is charming. From the wide range of styles to the idiosyncratic choice of instruments to the album’s curio sonic texture, That Particular Charm definitely delights. The band’s penchant for the eccentric and unusual is evident right away on opening track “Neato Favorito” with its Penguin Café Orchestra launch and lilting singsong rhythm. “Waiting for Your Sweet Love” has a Donald Fagen jazzy undercurrent married to a low key soul thrust. Then “Ladybug” turns up the guitars with a tune that is equal parts Andy Partridge and Yellow Submarine-era Beatles. Listening through this album it’s clear these guys really know their melodic rock canon, dropping easter eggs all over the LP. “Trauma” reincarnates the spirit of the Beach Boys. “Fallen Leaves” is like a collaboration between the Everly Brothers and Sergio Leone. “House in the City/Camp Ptarmigan” puts a George Harrison lead guitar bit into an early 1970s country rock tune. “Must Be the Devil” also travels that country rock road with a dash of vaudeville and rock lead guitar. “Slippery Raincoats” and “Requiem for a Starman” are like two sides of 1970s, the former giving off a Big Star vibe, the latter exuding a rock opera grandeur. Closing out the record are two fine rock and roll songs. “Love You Like Guitars” is just stripped-back guitar goodness, full stop. However, the undeniable should-be hit-single in this package is “Flatline Dialtone.” This one has me hanging on the telephone for sure.
Get your copy of Lavventura’s That Particular Charm at their bandcamp page. That’s where I got mine!
I can hear this stock villain refrain when confronted with our double-whammy of Toronto power pop goodness. I mean, there is something rather Dudley Do-Right about Canada’s largest metropolis. The place tends to register a ‘meh’ on the list of world class cities. Recently though the local music scene been blowing up the world stage, gaining international attention for its eminently discoverable talent. These two acts are ready for their close-up.
I’ve been waiting for Pony’s new album to drop for some time. Clearly Cursed really delivers on the promise of its early release singles and even adds more stylistic diversity over its ten tracks. “Superglue” and “Freezer” came out last year, brimming with should-be hit-single hooks. My immediate go-to comparisons were The Primitives for the former and Juliana Hatfield on the latter. These were headphones-on, soundtracking-your-life, spirit-lifting stuff. The band presser made mention of inspiration from The Cure and Jesus and May Chain but I think “Middle of the Summer” opens more like a 1983 synth-rock entry, aided by some cool guitar riffs and a Tristen-worthy vocal. Then there’s the striking vocal turns-of-phrase on “Blame Me” and “Sunny Something” that are just so Juliana Hatfield. Things do get a bit more rocking on “Hot and Mean” and “Every Little Crumb” where the band crank the amps and add some crunch to the guitars. But the pop instincts on this record is where the real magic happens. I hear it on “Clearly Cursed” with its swinging Go Go’s vibe and “Swallowing Stars” where we head back to a shoegazey Tracy Tracy territory. If Clearly Cursed is an affliction let’s hope there’s no cure.
Triples was originally a duo of sisters, Eva and Madeline Link. Then Madeline left to focus on another musical project, leaving sister Eva to either go solo or re-invent what Triples was about. She opted for the latter, filling out the band’s early indie DIY sound with a more expansive full band feel. Every Good Story is the EP evidence of this transformation. It’s just four songs but the selections give us a good snapshot of what is going on here. Opening cut “Old Routine” pushes some dissonant guitar work to the forefront but the vocals are pure power pop in a Liz Phair kinda way. “Gonna Be Good” gives us some crashing rhythm work that slides a hummable vocal melody overtop. “Happy” too opens with some big guitar noise only to resolve into a skipping along, singalong vocal. “Be Around” builds its sonic cocoon around some neat lead guitar licks. The only misstep here is that the whole EP adds up to a miserly 12 minutes of recorded music. Cruelty. That’s what I call it. Only a full LP will soothe my savaged breast.
Villains always react poorly when obviously good things arrive on the scene. Pony and Triples bring a little Canadian light to our increasingly dark world. Soak it up via the hyperlinks above.
Photo ‘There Was Someone That I Knew Before’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
Normally Minnesota pop songster Jeremy Messersmith is pretty much Mr. Affable. I mean, the man wrote eleven cheery songs for ukulele and then recorded them as 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele, with a tab book included so fans could play along. His five full-length albums released since 2006 are full of perfect portraitures of quirky characters struggling for love and fast times in Minnesota. But lately Messersmith has been turning his attention to more political themes. “The Mall of America” offers clever commentary about consumerism disguised as a tribute to a gigantic shopping centre in Minneapolis that “[i]f you blew it up I know they’d only build it all again.” With “Billionaires” he wonders what life might be like if everyone had a billion dollars. What sounds like an innocent query really amounts to a clever paean to equality and against economic exploitation. Then “Boomers” sardonically offers a ‘plan’ to tackle today’s generational inequality arguing today’s economic and social problems could be dealt with if we just “wait for all the boomers to die.” Tough love or exasperation? And then Trump’s ICE descended on Minnesota and Messersmith’s Mr. Nice Guy mask dropped. “Fuck This” is a artfully insistent repudiation of the politics of hate that ICE and Trump represent as well as a call for all good people to be clear in their absolute denunciation of such politics. Buffeted by strings and Messersmith’s usual understated delivery, it loses none its searing intensity despite a disarming delivery.
When the going gets tough in America nice guy melody-makers like Messersmith are needed more than ever. And it turns out there’s also some pretty steely resolve behind his glasses too.
A new They Might Be Giants EP is definitely something to shout about. The announcement that one was coming only came out late last week and now it’s here. Behold Eyeball. It’s so TMBG but also pushes in new directions. Title track “Eyeball” has all their usual hallmarks: a distinctive medley of sometimes-competing, sometimes-overlapping vocals, a unique array of instrument choices, and – always – a solid hook thrown in somewhere. And yet some elements of the melodic arc that play out here sound like nothing I’ve heard the duo do before. Certainly multi-playable, even in one sitting! The EP contains two other originals “The Glamour of Rock” and “Peggy Guggeheim,” the former an example of the band’s stylistic flexibility – jazzy, a bit western, and stagey – very musicalish, while the latter is a horn-based instrumental workout. It’s a combo you won’t get anywhere else. The EP also includes a stripped-down version of “Eyeball” that really allows the song to breathe. As an EP it’s not really very extended, running to just 9 minutes. But I don’t think TMBG fans really mind because the band behind ‘dial a song’ never phone it in. Every note that makes the cut of any TMBG release has been carefully chosen and lovingly rendered. They might be the most serious band to not take themselves seriously. All this is a teaser prelude to their 24th full album of original tunes, due out sometime this spring.
Yes, They Might Be Giants have done it again, delivered a hooky little marvel just when we needed it most (these days, that’s just about any time). Give in to the genius that is TMBG!
Hey there. New to 2026? Welcome to Jerry Paper’s “New Year’s Day.” It’s as good a place as many to land on today and certainly better than some others. Who’s Jerry Paper? That’s a tougher question that you might think. Dig back in his ten plus years of material and you’ll find a host of recordings that sound like an art school installation sponsored by Moog. In fact, Jerry Paper is more a what than a who. Lucas Nathan is the brains of the organization – writer, performer, otherworldly bon vivant. Or is he? Early recordings pleaded for sales to ‘keep Jerry’s host body alive.’ So maybe Jerry’s in charge of Lucas but keeps him alive and in the credits for tax purposes? All of which is to say that Jerry or Lucas or whomever is running this show is weird. Wonderfully, creatively weird. And I mean that in a good way. The weird of this world push boundaries, tread on the stand-offish, and create space for the rest of us to defy conformity just a little bit more than we’re comfortable with.
I caught up with the Jerry Paper project on the 2022 album Free Time which featured his first really great guitar-heavy number “Kno Me.” Even on that record his basic stylistic default was more jazz meets lounge, perhaps with Donald Fagan and Frank Zappa as consultants. Yet “Kno Me” has a 1979 new wave-ish rock feel. His most recent LP is 2024’s Inbetweezer and it carries on playing with recognizable song forms in what may be his most accessible collection yet. But I digress. We come to this recent record because it is the host of our seasonal single, “New Year’s Day.” I’m loving the aural chaos that launches this track. It sounds chopped up and put back together but the song’s strong hook somehow survives. The chorus bops along, threatening to become a singalong at any moment. Ok, the ending is a bit tortuous-sounding but what new year song shouldn’t have some dread lurking in the fine print? Gotta take the goof with the rumble, no-one ever said.
Given where we’ve been and what we’ve seen these last few years, lets dispense with the unrealistic wishes for peace and normalcy. Shit’s probably coming. Let’s just enjoy this moment with Jerry.
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.
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.
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.
Here are two albums working a money motif but not in any direction you might expect. Whether it’s millions or billions they’re referring to the musical results are solid gold.
I can’t stop listening to Canadian Kathleen Edwards’ new album Billionaire. It’s a lush acoustic Americana affair offering plenty of variety within that genre. From the killer should-be hit single opener “Save Your Soul” to the spare vocal testimony of album closer “Pine” this is an LP that is just so easy to keep putting on. There’s not a weak song in the batch and the performances really showcase Edwards’ vocal flexibility. Songs like “Save Your Soul” and “Little Red Ranger” have the folk pop sheen of Suzanne Vega, the latter even featuring a Toronto Maple Leafs shout out. “Say Goodbye, Tell No One” feels more Natalie Merchant to me. Then there’s “FLA” and “Other People’s Bands” where I think Brandi Carlyle would be a more appropriate comparison. The band is also pretty fantastic, utilizing a Tom Petty slow swagger to showcase Edwards’ lyrical social commentary on “When The Truth Comes Out” and “Need a Ride.” Title track “Billionaire” is the album outlier, featuring a very different vocal and instrumental attack. Lighter, more airy, like being pulled in close when someone has something important to say just to you. When Edwards sings ‘if this feeling were a currency I would be a billionaire’ the emotional imagery is striking. Get a copy of Billionaire, it’s worth every dollar.
Canadian band The Killjoys enjoyed some time in the sun with recordings spanning the mid to late 1990s. But solo the band’s main singer and songwriter Mike Trebilcock is mostly known for cranking out quality b-movie horror film soundtracks. But we do have his criminally overlooked 2001 longplayer Shield Millions for some sense of where stardom might have taken him. The record is an amazing repository of reverb, jangle and outrageously good hooks, delivered in both power pop and country hues. This kicks off with the obvious radio-ready single, “Stark Raving Glad.” This takes me back to the 1990s poprock feel of the Northern Pikes or Eugene Edwards. “Sale of the Century” turns things toward an Americana vein that features strongly on the album. Sometimes it’s light and jaunty (“Snow Angel Blues”) or acoustic singer/songwriter (“Box of Failures”) or even drawing on a New Orleans elan (“Dog Hill”). “Stacked Back to the Wishing Well” adds a few more Nashville notes to the country vibe. I hear a dark Elvis Costello echo across both “Today’s Crossword” and “This Side of Human.” Shaking us out of the Americana ambience, “Shut Us Up (and Make Us Smile)” has a grungier pop sound. “Pretty Girl Bruise” wraps things up by gearing down into an introspective Bruce Cockburn-like tune. Love the horns on this song! We really could use more Mike Trebilcock like this.
Money is super helpful is living is your aim. While every artist does a bit of starving to get to their creative destination, these recordings suggest these two have arrived and are ready to meet your cash contribution. Just visit the hyperlinks above.
Photo ‘A boy and his tunnel’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
Some artists just keep coming back around with intriguing new work that continues to develop their oeuvre. Today’s artists couldn’t be farther apart stylistically but man do they reliably deliver their goods.
Don’t tell my husband but I think I’m in a relationship with Tamar Berk. Maybe we’re just gal pals. Thing is, five albums in and Tamar is still sidling up to me, whispering secrets, sharing the darkest parts of her emotional universe. Always against a musical backdrop that makes everything feel like I’m caught in an 1980s John Hughes movie. Not that I’m looking to get out – I am loving it here. As Berk says in her presser, ocd is a ‘fuzzed-out, reverb-heavy swirl’ all about ‘anxiety, obsessions, fears, memories, dreams’ that falls ‘somewhere between indie pop-rock and a fever dream.’ Dream on Tamar, I say. Opening cut “stay close by” sets the scene with its buzzy drone, overlaid with Berk’s ethereal vocal. Title track “ocd” lightens the tone sonically, letting a variety of keyboards lull the mood before launching a striking chorus. Then comes the first of the many should-be hit singles from the album, “you ruined this city for me.” This is the kind of song Berk excels at, a flowing rush of melody that gathers you up in its release of energy. Another hit-maker is “there are benefits to mixed emotions” with its hypnotic spooky vibe. “i had a dream i was lost in an auditorium” also sounds like chart material to me with its reworked girl group feel. This one’s an auditorium sing-along number, for sure. Of course, “indiesleaze 2005” sounds like radio pleaser too. It can’t be a Tamar Berk album without a few gut-wrenching ballads and ocd doesn’t disappoint. “any given weeknight” and “my turn will come” fit the bill, the latter offering up an REM “Night Swimming” emotional gut punch. Personal fave? “i’m in the day after” is so 1980s-pop gorgeous with its killer, larger-than-life synth shots. I’ve spent years comparing Berk to the likes of Debbie Harry, Aimee Mann or Suzanne Vega but on ocd Berk drills down into her own unique sound. It’s also probably the most consistent sounding record she’s made, capturing a specific vibe that resonates out of all the songs despite their differences. ocd is definitely another winner for Berk. But don’t tell my husband.
Another Eytan Mirsky album, another chance to track his every false move emotionally. He’s a guy seemingly always falling in love but somehow mostly falling flat. The confessions here are typically draped in self-deprecation but a few exhibit a strikingly tender sincerity. Stylistically All Over the Map definitely is. This record’s got soul and country, plenty of horns and cool organ runs, and oh so much heart. Things kick off with “Did What I Came to Do” with its low-key Motown vibe. I can practically see those Solid Gold dancers swaying throughout. Then come some signature Mirsky tougue-in-cheek self-critique tunes. “Apologize in Advance” puts some rockabilly guitar up front on a track that would not be out of place on a Buck Owens or Nick Lowe LP. “Inside Job” combines a Springsteen-worthy horn/organ section with a song seemingly haunted by Graham Parker. But then things get serious on “Almost Didn’t Cry,” a real straight-up country tear-jerker. The LP features a few out-of-the-ordinary efforts like “If I Could Only Draw” and “My Little Tricycle.” “Fooling Exactly Nobody” dials in a bit of New Jersey soul vamp while “If You’re So Smart” offers up a country romp critique. “Two Piece Puzzle” has the drama and cleverisms I’d associate with Elvis Costello. I was totally disarmed by the sweet accordion colouring the Nick Lowe-ish “The Satisfaction.” The album also has a should-be hit single in the stylistic outlier “Lost You in the Jet Stream,” a track that is more straight-up poprock than anything else here, definitely the AM radio ready single with some killer organ work. The album closes with “Give Me a Sign,” a moving paean to loss, where the organ and horn adornment add something special. Trust me, you’re definitely gonna want to follow Eytan All Over the Map with this release.
Who says emotional problems can’t be entertaining? Not these artists. Say hello to Tamar Berk and Eytan Mirsky at their hotlinked internet locales to keep this conversation going.
Photo ‘Found Kodachome slide’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
Poprock Record 