Like it or not friends, our voyage to brave new worlds is already underway and it’s not clear return tickets will be honoured. That’s Ok. There’s always something exciting lurking on the musical horizon, songs and performances that will push the boundaries of something new but somehow also feel familiar. That covers the acts in today’s post, explorers and adventurers with a twist of the familiar about them.
Vices is the new album from Brighton retro guitar duo Peggy Sue and, for me, it’s the very best thing they’ve released. Past records exhibit a range of talents with songs and performances that range from experimental to borderline punk to performance art folk. The collection of covers included on 2012’s Play the Songs of Scorpio Rising kinda pointed where the band was going to go and ultimately arrive with Vices. I mean, the reinvention of “My Boyfriend’s Back” was sheer genius. But Vices is, to my ears, a new level of accomplishment for the band. The album kicks off uber cool with “I Wanna Be Your Girl,” its Velvet Underground chords drawing you in, that is until the vocals arrive and clinch the deal. You hear it again on the ethereal “In Dreams” with its twisted David Lynch early 1960s aura. There are going to be those who hear a spooky Lana Del Ray vibe here but duo’s otherworldly, sibilant harmonies remind me of other amazing vocal bands like Everything But the Girl, First Aid Kit, Jack and Eliza, and The Kickstand Band. The guitars on this record are also pretty special, like the ghost of Link Wray is haunting the proceedings. And the songs! I’m loving “Motorcade,” “Validate Me,” and “Souvenirs” just to get started but, really, the whole record is a listener. Tune in to Peggy Sue. They really demonstrate that everything old can be new again.
It starts out a bit harsh but then the acoustic guitar kicks in and you hear the sweet melody and hooks that are soldering “Grow Your Garden” into your brain. So begins Brett Newski’s latest long-player, Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down. It’s a record with an edge, like that bite of tequila after the salt, but one that ultimately rewards the listener with loads winning, melody-tinted tunes. The first three tracks say radio singles to me, particularly the spare but hooky charm of “What’d Ya Got to Lose,” while “Do It Again” sounds like a great lost Tom Petty song. I love the little details on the songs, the subtle organ backing on “Do It Again,” the plinky piano on “Buy Me a Soul,” and the addictive swing and killer chorus carrying “Pure Garbage.” Longtime Newski fans will applaud the folk notes here on tracks like “Lousy T-Shirt” and “Fight Song, while Petty loyalists will approve the strong Tom Petty vibes radiating from “Last Dance” and “Evervescent.” Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down is a masterpiece of understated melodic rock and roll. The songs are punchy but Newski’s performance is nuanced, sometimes spare, leaving room for their subtle charms to shine.
For a lot of people Grouplove amount to “Tongue Tied” but frankly I came to them on the strength of “Naked Kids” from that same 2011 debut album Never Trust a Happy Song and “Sit Still” from their 2013 EP Spreading Rumours. I love the loose group feel to the performances, like a crowd of friends just singing their hearts out. But such as sound actually takes a lot of precision and talent. Well, that talent is all over the band’s just released fourth album, Healer. The sound has that peppy contemporary pop feel of bands like The Mowgli’s and Portugal. The Man with just a bit of Fun thrown in. And let me note, this record sonically sounds amazing! Put on your headphones and just take in the exquisite mix on tracks like “Expectations,” “Youth” and the lovely acoustic “Places.” In terms of singles, “Deleter” got the nod for first release and it’s a worthy choice, but “Promises” is a subtle ear worm while “Hail to the Queen” doesn’t hide its winning hooky chorus. But the hands down winner here for me is “The Great Unknown.” I really like its slow burn approach, with a melodic kick that sneaks up on the listener in a shout-out-loud chorus. And Grouplove make it look so easy. This is one for your summer soundtrack, when the convertible top’s down and you want to look cool.
Peggy Sue, Brett Newski, and Grouplove have delivered some pretty exciting records. Embrace the adventure and buy these up. There’s no turning back now.
With just ten million people, Sweden definitely punches above its weight in international popular culture. I mean, sometimes it seems like every second person there must be a 
First up: 
Next, a band created to provide a soundtrack to a book about a fictional 1965 band. In 1995 one half of Swedish duo Roxette agreed to put together a group and songs for Swedish author Mats Olsson’s 1995 novel The Lonely Boys. The results are 1965 fabulous! Per Gessle and his ragtag band of veterans from the Swedish music scene essentially become 
I have an unerring knack of discovering artists or bands at the very point their career is about to implode, call it quits, or forget how to write songs. So it was with The Jam. Living in my parents’ basement in godforsaken North Burnaby I somehow got wind of “A Town Called Malice” in grade 11 and I was hooked. I was an instant Jam-o-phile! The band’s tight Who-meets-Beatles sort-of new wave sound was right up my alley. From then I only got to enjoy the two extended singles (“The Bitterest Pill” and “Beat Surrender”) before they disbanded in 1982. Sure, I signed on to The Style Council and their first few records were nice but it just wasn’t the same. Not even close. But after the Style Council split I thought perhaps Weller would get back to some Jam-like stuff as a solo artist. For the most part I’m still waiting.
He’s got regular gigs already, serenading the ladies who win K-EARTH 101’s daily ‘Office of the Day’ contest in Yuma, Arizona and laying down hot licks with Dwight Yoakam’s back up band. So that might explain why there’s been no follow up to Eugene Edwards’ amazing 2004 debut album, My Favorite Revolution. But that’s a shame because the record seemed like just the first of many inventive, career-spanning releases (along the lines of an Elvis Costello or Tom Petty). I mean, listening to just this one album, man can this guy write songs!
Head Sounds is another super-Cali-fantastic release from Paul Ryan aka Super 8! Imagine Ray Davies joining the Beach Boys sometime in 1968 for a one-off album outing and you kinda get the picture. Ryan aces that late 1960s California poprock sound on tracks like “Dragonfly,” with its sometimes dreamy, sometimes swinging groove and timely sentiments about ‘what if you could only live for a day’? And things just get more groovy from there. Five of Head Sounds numbers already appeared on an EP of the same name but the expansion really fills out the original sunny, sand-flecked ambiance. Dig the happy township jive animating “BoNes,” or the addictive rhythmic hook undergirding “BeBopALuLa,” as well as inspired covers of both the Beatles (“Across the Universe”) and Beach Boys (“In My Room”). There a Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera quality to “Love Like Ours,” a skipping-on-a-sunny-day feel to “Millionaire,” and a laid-back let it be vibe to “Keep the Home Fires Burning.” If sunshine had a soundtrack, it might sound like Head Sounds. Drop the needle anywhere on this disc and groove your cares away.
Once upon a time jangle guitar player/singer/songwriter Dave Kuchler joined an already established New Jersey band to help deliver one of the most criminally overlooked poprock masterpieces of the early 1990s, the Soul Engines’
A toy piano kicks off “Good Call,” the opening track of I Know Why You Cry. The song also features a pretty wicked violin solo. It’s all part of the unpredictable whimsy we’ve come to expect from Guelph, Ontario’s favourite son, Gregory Pepper. But the song also touches on aging, life struggles, and questions of identity, themes that appear throughout the record. I Know Why You Cry is actually a curated selection from Pepper’s mammoth “Song of the Week” exercise from 2017-18, a “long, cheeky, confessional mixtape” says Pepper that produced 52 tracks of sometimes undisciplined, often manic melody. Amid the chaos of delivering a new song each week Pepper also grappled with classic transitional life events like losing a parent, having a baby, and rebuilding a kitchen. Now, almost two years later, Pepper offers up a precisely crafted distillation of the experience. And the results are good. Very good indeed.
The album’s ‘dark’ side opens rather sprightly with “Good Call,” despite a melody and march-like feel that belies its serious themes. “Bottle of Ink” is basic biography. Pepper is also an accomplished graphic artist that uses his bottle of ink to capture things that are ‘funny and sad when life is a drag.’ Then its full on into darkness, with songs exploring worry (“Worrier Spirit”), loss (“Maybe I’ll See You”), identity (“Unsolved Mystery”) and coping (“Bogus Journey”). But darkness Pepper-style is not really a downer at all. The tuba and Monty Norman Bond coda on “Worrier Spirit” cuts the dread down the size pretty effectively. Things do occasionally get somber, as on “Bogus Journey” when Pepper channels Yann Tierson in his Amélie and Goodbye, Lenin! phase. But never for too long. Case in point: the lovely situational sketch drawn out in “Sublime Sun Tattoo” where a shop song query segues into surreal speculation about Enya’s lonely castle and stalkers so obsessed they stab themselves. It takes a certain kind of wonderfully twisted creativity to deliver this stuff.
Looking for a new fave 1960s-influenced band? Your search ends here. Today’s post is all about the beauty of Austin, Texas retro poprock should-be hit-makers The Ugly Beats. Often referred to as ‘garage rock,’ the band definitely has one foot in the car port but a dip into any one of their five LPs shows they have are so much more to offer.
Take the band’s most recent 2019 release, Stars Align. Sure, track three, “Count to Ten” is arguably garage-y, but it’s the tidiest one on the block. Meanwhile tracks one (“All In”) and four (“Heidi”) are vibing R.E.M. big time. The rest of album ranges across various sixties influences, from the Monkees-ish “In Her Orbit” to the early Kinks guitar squawk kicking off “She Come Alive.” What I love about this band is that the influences are obvious but never overbearing. “What Was One” combines an indie-fied British dollybird vocal with alternating jangle and power chord guitar – brilliant! And seldom have I heard a band use an organ to such good effect – check out the pulsating Farfisa in “Boy You’re in Love.” Meanwhile, few solely garage outfits can produce the nuanced Rubber Soul acoustic/electric guitar blend backing on “One Down.”
More good news: if you like the latest record, you’re going to love the band’s back catalogue. The 2005 debut Bring On the Beats established the group’s strong garage rock cred with some pretty sweet 1960s touches, particularly on tracks like “I’ll Walk Away” and “I’ll Make You Happy.” Think of what 
2010’s Motor! put the organ even more front and centre on tracks like the Plimsouls-ish “Things I Need to Know” and “Through You.” While featuring the fabulous garage juggernaut instrumental “Motor,” most of the album sees the band flexing their musical chops across a number of styles. A bit of the Bakersfield sound on “Harm’s Way,” Blue Rodeo country tinges on “You’ll Forget Me,” some Merseybeat on “Please Don’t Go,” and classic mid-1960s American poprock with “Funny Girl.” 2014’s Brand New Day is more of the good same, from the manic garage intensity of “Up on the Sun” to the groovy jangle on “All of the Things.”
Marshall Crenshaw has long been my fave solo artist. Why MC? Maybe it was the glasses – he looked kinda smart and rock and roll. But what first caught my attention was the 1000 watt hook lighting up Field Day’s first single, “Whenever You’re on My Mind.” Has anyone recorded a more perfect seven seconds of poprock intro? I don’t think so. But then I’ve always been a sucker for a stunning lead guitar line – stuff like the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” and “Day Tripper” or the Church’s “Unguarded Moment” and Big Country’s “In a Big Country.” But it’s more than just hooks that makes Crenshaw a poprock legend, there’s something about his songs that can always toggle the joy and an involuntary smile from me. And it’s all there with his combination of 1950s Buddy Holly and Everly’s roots, Beatlesque melodies and a 1980s new wave/indie delivery.
With ten albums, six EPs, and a host of one-off singles, compilation contributions and covers there’s plenty of Crenshaw to choose from. What follows is just my whirlwind and idiosyncratic take on a pretty fabulous and inventive career. Now to begin, let’s be clear that MC’s first two albums, the self-titled Marshall Crenshaw and Field Day, are pretty much poprock perfection. I shouldn’t single anything out – these records are nonstop ear candy. I’ll say this much, you can dance to “She Can’t Dance” while “One Day With You” is a masterclass in melodic songcraft. Funny, though I first heard MC via Field Day’s initial single, I didn’t pick up the album until years later. Problem was, as an older release (by one year when I first heard it!) the damn record never went on sale at my local retailer.
The first Crenshaw album I really got into in real time (i.e. when it was released) was Downtown and it remains my favourite, mostly for sentimental reasons. I bought it and played it non-stop in my first one-room apartment in Vancouver’s West End. It was both a declaration of adult independence and – thematically, with its retro 1960s Warner Brothers vibe – a strong link to my parents’ record collection. The album rocks on tracks like “Right Now,” “Little Wild One,” “Terrifying Love,” and “(We’re Gonna) Shake Up Their Minds” while Everly-ing the hell out of “Vague Memory” and “Lesson Number One.”
From then on I’ve pretty much picked up every EC release as soon as they hit the shelves and never been disappointed. If you’re just starting out, here would be my picks from each to get you into the groove. From 1987’s Mary Jean & 9 Others I’d drop the needle on “Mary Jean” and “Calling Out for Love at Crying Time.” You really get a sense of Crenshaw’s mastery of the hooky lead line here. 1989’s Good Evening is hard to make choices over given its exquisite, dynamic mix of originals and covers. Personally I love “Someplace Love Can’t Find Me,” “She Hates to Go Home,” and “On the Run” but really I feel like I’m choosing which limb to hack off because every song here is pretty special. In 1991 MC left Warners for MCA with Life’s Too Short. In interviews for the record Crenshaw talked about the work he put into extending his guitar technique and it showed on should-be hit singles like “Delilah,” “Fantastic Planet of Love,” and “Don’t Disappear Now.”
And then Crenshaw left the major label scene altogether for the relative freedom of more independent releases, first with Razor and Tie and then with his own 429 Records. Since then he’s moved in some new directions musically but always offered up some melodic poprock gems, like “What Do You Dream Of?” and “Starless Summer Sky” from 1996’s Miracle of Science, or “Television Light” and “Right There in Front of Me” from 1999’s #447. In the new millennium there’s been “A Few Thousand Days Ago” from 2003’s What’s in the Bag? and “Long Hard Road” from 2009’s Jaggedland. #395 is MC’s EP collection from 2015, a kind of quasi-album at 14 tracks, and it sees Crenshaw back in excellent form with “Moving Now,” “Front Page News,” and a killer Bobby Fuller cover “Never to be Forgotten.”
Just to prove my MC cred, here’s snap from my past featuring my unique bachelor apartment decor! Ok, this is actually my second apartment (circa 1987) but if you look up in the far right corner, you’ll see the Billboard magazine ad/poster for MC’s debut LP that appears above on the wall! Photo credit: James Koester.
Today’s duo of bands are like opposite ends of the Beatles influence circa 1966, with Rochester NY’s The Demos handling the sweet vocal harmonies and melody-driven tune-age while Sacramento California’s The Decibels grind out a bit more of the rockin’ jangle side of the equation. Both bands benefit from strong songwriting and some pretty inspired and unpredictable performances.
The Demos debuted with a low key EP, 2008’s Your Girl Has Fun Without You. The band’s essential elements are all there in the opening track, “I Gotta Know” with its spare guitar work and layered vocals. Overall, the EP reminds me of more recent fab work from The Rallies. 2011’s full album Lovely fleshed out the band sound a bit, sounding slightly reminiscent of Farrah on tracks like “Nervous.” And check out the full on ELO vocal palate cushioning “Don’t Wake Me Up Again” – breathtaking! 2016’s Paramount Clouds EP takes things in more Rooney-ish direction, particularly with the keyboard focus on “I Don’t Mind.” Personally, I think the 2018 If You Only Knew EP may just be The Demos strongest outing, representing another slight departure style-wise changing up the keyboard and vocal delivery. Should-be hit singles “Make It Better” and “If You Only Knew” vibe a host great bands like Guster or Sunday Sun without losing any of their own originality. The spooky background vocals on “Make It Better” alone are worth the price of admission! The EP also features a nice reinterpretation of the previously released “Nervous.” Oh for the days when a ferry could taxi me over Lake Ontario to see this band.
The story of The Decibels is like a script right out of indie rock and roll Hollywood. Promising band release a handful of great records to critical acclaim but poor sales. They break up. Then they’re brought back together for a one-off show and fan demand pushes them to reunite but, alas, poor health stalls the comeback. But somehow, years later, the band returns with new material and new lease on rock and roll life! The Decibels roared back into action in 2019 with not one but two new records, both critically acclaimed. Big Hits (plus twelve more!) was a rehearsal session of the band’s live act (focusing on cover tunes), originally taped to help them prepare to record new original material. But the record company liked the sound so much they insisted on releasing it. It was so the right decision. Compared to their other 2019 long-player, the feel of Big Hits (plus twelve more!) is a bit edgier, with a punky live vibe. It’s amazing to hear how they bring new life to songs like “Pictures of Matchstick Men” by picking up tempo (frankly, I found the original Status Quo version a bit plodding). The album is full of highlights like the glorious “Sometime in the Morning,” the melodically rocking “Ship Went Down” and “There’s a Place,” the vocally clever “Try and Stop Me” and the very 1979 stripped-down new wave sound of “Cover Girl.”
Of course, none of this is meant to suggest that their other 2019 release, Scene, Not Herd, is anything less than stupendous. The album is brimming with radio-ready should-be hits like “Hey Emily,” “I Need to Tell Her” and “Misery.” The renewed band sometime come off like a more indie version of The Wonders, the fictional group from the film That Thing You Do. At other times you could be forgiven for thinking The Plimsouls had got back together on tracks like “The Only Reason Left” and “Thinking About You.” And here’s a bonus if you just discovered The Decibels – there’s a pretty special back catalogue awaiting your attention! For instance, the band’s 1997 debut Create Action is a janglicious mix of 1960s-meets-1990s swinging tunes. Check out “Change,” “Something Good to Go By” and “Can’t Play Tag Alone,” the latter sounding like a compressed greatest hit of the 1966 mod rock and roll sound.
Poprock Record 