Category Archives: Artist Spotlight

Covers story: Juliana Hatfield and Mo Troper

23 Tuesday Jan 2024

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Looking for some unabashed carefree fun? These two albums are your tickets to a guaranteed good time. Bursting with great tunes, lovingly covered, the songs on these records are sometimes reimagined or just juiced up in new places. And the quality is what you’d expect from two accomplished masters of the poprock form. Yet these two LPs are also a study in contrasts, one drawing from a canon of recognizable radio hits, the other pulling from a trove of unreleased demos. But I hear hit songs on both.

Juliana Hatfield is no rookie on the covers scene. She’s released full album tributes to Olivia Newton John and The Police. Both defy conventions and expectations, releasing that signature Hatfield creativity to add something to songs that are so classic it’s hard to imagine them differently. But listen to her bring out a new twist in the melody on “Every Breath You Take” or rock up “Make a Move On Me” to see what she can do. And she seldom just sticks to the hits either. On Hatfield Sings ELO we get a great mix of hits and deep cuts, old and new material. Lacking an orchestra, Hatfield had to transpose the strings onto other instruments, which also allowed some breathing room for everything else. I mean, listen to the bass jump out of “Showdown.” Other tracks sound much like the originals but as if they’ve been mixed to bring out different elements. “Don’t Bring Me Down” takes out some of the bombast, leaving its essential ear-worm still irresistibly ready to strike. Hatfield really nails the later material too, bringing out the pop genius potential of tracks like “Secret Messages” and “Ordinary Dream.” Hatfield Sings ELO is a winning ride from beginning to end, absolute listening pleasure.

On Troper Sings Brion erratic pop genius meets exotic melody master. On a variety of recordings Mo Troper has offered up either beautifully crafted poprock gems or rough indie explorations full of hooks. Jon Brion is the man behind so many distinctive movie soundtracks he almost single-handedly elevated the genre. On this LP Troper mostly covers songs from an unofficially released 2-CD set of Brion demos. The results are mixture of highly polished AM radio ready singles and some with a more relaxed indie feel. Let’s get right to the obvious should-be hit single, “Citgo Sign.” I love the hooky lead guitar line that threads its way throughout the tune, a masterpiece of song arrangement. By contrast “Into the Atlantic” practically bleeds Brion’s more laconic style, run through a Troper amplifier. Then there’s the absolutely captivating rush of pop polish driving “Love of My Life (So Far).” Tapping up the tape speed gives Troper a somewhat adolescent vocal vibe but it works for this song. Yet on so many other tracks (like “I’ll Take You Anyday”) it’s hard to know where Brion ends and Troper begins, so sympatico are their melodic gut instincts. Troper Sings Brion is a creeper of a killer record, sneaking into your consciousness to demand regular replays.

Sometimes you just need the confidence of money in the bank. These recordings are like interest bearing bonds. You’re definitely getting a pay off.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Celebrating Richard Turgeon 2.0

20 Wednesday Dec 2023

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Richard Turgeon’s latest long player Life of the Party kicks off with the barn-burning “All Alone.” The surging rhythm guitar propels us along, eventually resolving into a classic Turgeon fist-pumping, melody-drenched chorus. Lyrically though the song perhaps inadvertently captures the whole project that is Turgeon 2.0, a mostly one-man song-writing, performing and design phenomenon. Sure, if you dig hard enough you might find a younger iteration of Richard Turgeon, band member, doing the live music scene across the USA. But with his solo relaunch in 2017 via the acclaimed LP In Between Spaces what emerges is a mature artist in control of his muse. The space between that first album and his most recent shows up some interesting consistencies and departures. Let’s stroll through the Richard Turgeon catalogue 2.0 to explore just how he pulls that off.

Reaching back to the first installment of what would be become his California Trilogy of albums In Between Spaces features bankable singles like “Bigfoot’s an Alien” and “Bad Seed.” But returning now I’m struck by how “30” both announces his new direction and finds the sweet spot between dissonance and melody that would become Turgeon’s musical calling card. From 2018’s Lost Angeles I was taken with “Big Break” and “Look Away” but overlooked the alluring, hypnotic “Creeper.” This one keeps shifting between idling and revving before accelerating into the chorus. By album number three of the series, 2019’s Go Deep, Turgeon was breaking out all over stylistically, with grunge, ska, and country inflections added to his usual Matthew Sweet-meets-Weezer brand of power pop. The songs this go round were so impressive – killers like “Loneliness” and “Next to Me” – they had me overlooking a gem like “If You Leave Me.” This is like some sixties classic given a grunge wash. 2020’s Sea Change was a legit new direction, adding menace and more up-front social commentary to the mix. So many contenders for top single here but going back now I’m gobsmacked by the melodic punch buried in “Jolene.” I called Turgeon a hook machine on this album for good reason.

In addition to albums proper Turgeon has turned out a number of EPs and cover albums. 10 Covers Volume I took on mostly indie material and demonstrated his talent for sonic reinvention. His take on The Lemonheads “Into Your Arms” added muscle without losing the song’s tenderness. 10 Covers Volume II took on classics of the poprock canon from the Monkees to The Cure without blinking. His cover of Hole’s “Malibu” elevated it to a should-be FM rock radio staple. From his two EPs – 2021’s Campfire Songs and 2022’s Rough Around the Edges – I now find myself drawn to the outliers, like the countryish “Promised Land” from the former or understated “Fire Drill” on the latter. Though it has to be noted that “Better With You” from Rough Around the Edges may just be Turgeon’s greatest single. And that’s saying something.

All of this brings us back to the present and Turgeon’s latest release, Life of the Party. The album opens with three solid guitar pop grinders showcasing that perfect Turgeon balance of sweet melody and sonic dissonance. The aforementioned “All Alone” is should-be hit single material for sure. “You’ve Moved On” eases in, building over time to a glorious guitar crashing chorus. “I’ve Got You Now” puts some blistering lead guitar up front, prefacing a really hypnotic, driving tune. Then the album takes the first of a number of stylistic turns with “Friend Zone.” Here the opening riff has an unmistakeable seventies Lindsay Buckingham tone while Turgeon’s vocals pull between dissonance and rich harmony. “Our Fair City” starts so Smiths before casting its social commentary over a bed of jangle. With “Parasite” I hear bits of both the Smiths and Swervedriver. The album has lighter moments too. I love the understated low key vocals guiding “Forgiveness” before they up the impact in the chorus. Both “Sweet as Pie” and “What Could’ve Been” have a sunny pop disposition, despite their ringing electric guitars. And then there’s “Without You,” a classic slice of Turgeon’s ‘new vintage rock’ surely worthy of regular FM radio rotation. Album closer “Don’t Forget Me When You’re Gone” is a bit of surprise, leaning on the piano with a decidedly Procol Harum-meets-The Beatles feel. Talk about ending on a high note.

Spread over six years Turgeon 2.0 represents quite an accomplishment: 5 albums, 2 EPs, and 2 covers albums, all chock full of solid material, offered up with Turgeon’s striking artwork and design. The quality has been so consistent we’ve featured his work in 15 separate posts and he’s made both our should-be hit singles and must-have albums lists every year since 2017. Certainly vote-able as the life of our party.

Visit Richard Turgeon online to get an even fuller picture of this renaissance man – music maker, screenwriter, designer – and fill in the blanks in your record collection at his Bandcamp site.

Going Velvet Underground

05 Tuesday Dec 2023

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Back in the mid-1980s Polydor started re-issuing the Velvet Underground’s back catalogue on a budget line series. I stumbled across a promo copy of the famous banana cover debut while doing time at my early morning show on the University of British Columbia’s CITR student radio in Vancouver. The cover initially grabbed my attention but it was the tunes that sent me to A&B Sound after the show to buy up the band’s first two albums. I was both intrigued and confused. Songs like “There She Goes Again” and “Sunday Morning” were totally in my melodic rock wheelhouse but others like “I’m Waiting for the Man” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties” were a bit out there for me. I was certain of one thing though. This band was cool personified. Four decades later The Velvets remain a touchstone for indie bands who continue to cover their tunes as a rite of hip passage. This post draws from a wide range one-off song covers and VU tribute albums to recreate their 1967 debut with Nico.

Things kick off with Austrian band Die Buben im Pelz’s version of “Sunday Morning,” sung in German (rendered as “Sonntag Morgn”). Their take is more muted than the original but still just as sunny and wistful. The band actually give the whole album a German twist, even replacing the iconic banana with a bratwurst sausage. New Jersey’s The Feelies cover a wide range of the Velvet’s material on their live Some Kinda Love LP, including a propulsive take on “I’m Waiting for the Man.” By contrast, the Chrysanthemums lead guitar man Alan Jenkins has put together a great collection of instrumental covers of VU songs, including a trebly take on “Femme Fatale” that leans heavily on the whammy bar. Jason Alarm takes a different approach to covering the band, keeping their lyrics but abandoning their tune on “Venus in Furs” for his own more rollicking composition. Another departure from form comes The California Honeydrops whose version of “Run Run Run” slows things down and gospels things up. Side one closes rather quietly with crazytrain and a whisper folk treatment of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” that really highlights just how pretty this tune is.

Side two should start with a cover of “Heroin.” But try as I might I couldn’t find any version that did not emulate the original a bit too closely. So instead we go back to the source – Lou himself – and a 1965 demo that Reed and Cale recorded and mailed to themselves as kind of ‘poor man’s copyright’ protection. 50 years later the unopened envelope was discovered and had to be released so here is Lou Reed pre-covering himself. Next up a Spanish language rip through “There She Goes Again” from picondemulo, complete with Bond-esque intro guitar work and fun sing-along background vocals. TM Collective are cover song superstars so when they turned their attention to the Velvet Underground I had to give every track some serious scrutiny. Here I love Keith Klingensmith’s jaunty run over “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” with its sunshine pop vocals, guitars and keyboards. For something a bit different there’s Joe Ladyboy’s synth-driven interpretation of “The Black Angel’s Death Song.” Wrapping things up on side two, another selection from the TM Collective VU covers collection, this time Isaac King doing “European Son.” But wait, there’s more. A tribute wouldn’t be complete without something a bit kooky. How about barbershop Velvets? Got it right here with Nick Luna’s “Velvet Underground Barbershop Medley.”  Take that hipsters.

In our ever changing world some things remain constant. I mean, as long as young people search for authenticity in popular music there’s always going to be someone covering the Velvet Underground. See, there is hope.

The Plus 4 mystery solved!

01 Friday Dec 2023

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Yup. Everyone is looking for answers.

Early in 2023 a curious new band hit the scene offering up a whole lot of 1960s beat-group shake and sizzle. The Plus 4 quickly issued 4 tunes, one a month, before disappearing just as mysteriously as they had arrived. But what a quartet of singles they left us! The tunes channeled a glammy Kinks/Beatles/Byrds melange (reviewed here) that definitely had me wanting more. Well, it would appear the wait is now over and the mystery of just who this band is can be solved.

Turns out – it was Super 8 behind every song.

Why am I not really surprised? Paul Ryan is a master of sixties stylings, deploying hints of all the great beat groups, right from the British invasion through their psychedelic reinventions and beyond to the sunshine pop that took them into the 1970s. His songs are littered with inventive reworkings of Kinks, Beatles, Beach Boys and Byrdsian motifs. But this Plus 4 project is something special. It’s like he’s put a particularly unique sixties filter on the stereo for these tunes. What I hear is a bit more stripped down affair, with greater prominence given to the jangly guitars, and a stronger to-the-front-of-the-mix on the vocals. Check out for yourself just what the differences amount to by hitting play on the just released The Plus 4 EP #1. You get – no surprise here – four songs. One track is a slightly revamped take on “Resolution (Happy New Year),” the project’s very first single that came out in early January. Glam Kinks was how I initially described it and I stand by that declaration. From there we segue into the new tunes, starting with the swinging Meet-the-Beatlesque “Take It From Me.” The guitar so nails the period. Dance-able? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. “Every Word is True” breaks out the harmonica to good effect. Then things wrap up with the janglelicious “Tell It Like It Is.” The EPs overall effect is like a fresh blast of Merseyfied poprock at its finest.

Given the prior releases and now these new tunes my guess is that this is only the start of a fab new year for us and The Plus 4. Mystery solving never sounded so good.

Read all about it: S.W. Lauden’s Remember the Lightning

15 Wednesday Nov 2023

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I grew up immersed in popular music. My parents were barely adults themselves when they had me and my other brother and their enthusiasm for the 1960s music scene they were living through was palpable. If the TV was off the record player was on. Between them my parents covered a pretty wide swathe of the popular music scene. Dad was everything from Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry right through to Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Mother filled in more of the pop content with Buddy Holly, Brenda Lee, and Gene Pitney as well as country like Patsy Cline and folk from Pete Seeger. And they both loved The Beatles. This was the musical universe I came from as I began exploring music on my own in the mid-to-late 1970s. I picked up a few things from AM radio – thank you LG73 for playing Rockpile and Squeeze! But for years I struggled just to find out about music. I wish I had something like S.W. Lauden’s fabulous music review site Remember the Lightning back then. It would have made getting where I am now a lot easier.

S.W. Lauden is a music book editor, essayist, novelist, and drummer with bands like Tsar and The Brothers Steve. He is also the driving force behind Remember the Lightning, a website and semi-annual music journal focusing on the micro sub-genre of rock and roll known as power pop. Subtitled ‘A Guitar Pop Journal,’ Remember the Lightning takes its name from a 1979 song by a band called 20/20. And that’s important because 1979 was arguably a seminal year for the power pop genre, witnessing an explosion of melodic rock bands that followed in the wake of punk’s destabilization of the era’s whole rock and roll scene. Since that early but brief high-point power pop has remained on the margins of the more commercially successful music world, occasionally producing a break-out hit (“Stacey’s Mom” anyone?) but mostly surviving as a niche amongst a strongly loyal fan base. Lauden hopes to contribute something to changing that with his journalistic efforts on Remember the Lightning. By bringing together a unique mix of musicians and fans in each issue, the point is to convey some of the excitement and joy that drives the genre and helps explain its staying power despite a failure to storm the charts. And perhaps bring about some chart-storming.

Let’s talk about what Remember the Lightening is not. Despite the subtitle describing it as a ‘journal’ it is not academic in its approach. For a long time, ever since the Frankfurt school dumped all over popular music back in the 1940s, academe had a strained relationship with what the young folks like. But that began changing as boomers moved from attending the concerts to writing about them. Now there are a host of academic spaces where one can dive into ‘Beatles Studies’ or publish in The Journal of Popular Music and Society. No, this journal is more immediate, less detached than the kind of stuff academics produce. It’s about what bands and fans are into now: what they’re doing, why they’re doing, who inspired them, and whether audiences will dig the whole thing. Issue #1 that came out earlier this year lays it all out with ruminations on the genre, reflections on influential songs, and plenty of writing by and about the artists, both newbies and veterans. The range of covered acts includes the Beths, Exploding Hearts, Whiffs, Sloan, Juniper, Popsicko and Tinted Windows. Issue #2 is just out and it’s even more ambitious, with coverage of historic power pop music scenes (Philadephia), a primer on southeast Asian guitar pop, classic bands (The Replacements) and albums (Welcome Interstate Managers), musician autobiography (Kurt Baker), and great new albums from the Uni Boys and Kate Clover.

I had to find my music resources the hard way, e.g. by hosting a college radio show at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings in the 1980s or buying countless reference books like The Trouser Press Record Guide and Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles. Today’s internet makes things much easier for power pop kids to find their peeps. Give yourself a break and ‘go all the way’ to the hyperlinked web address for Remember the Lightning. Your power pop community awaits.

Re-Fabbing “Now and Then” (again and again)

05 Sunday Nov 2023

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As a confirmed Beatlemaniac I would remiss if I didn’t have something to say about the just released Beatles ‘final’ single “Now and Then.” I have to be honest, hearing rough bootleg versions of the track over the years the song struck me as somewhat slight, akin to a host of deep-cut confessional love songs John typically interspersed amongst his early to mid 1970s solo albums. Thus it didn’t surprise me that Paul, George and Ringo passed on fixing it up for the Anthology series in favour of “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love.” But the new, just officially-released Paul and Ringo fixed-up version definitely elevates the track from its more mundane demo takes. John’s new and improved vocal obviously dominates the proceedings but Paul and Giles Martin have done an expert job adding all the expected late period Beatle-isms e.g. Abbey Road-era background vocals, tasteful strings, some pedal steel guitar, and a psychedelic turn to the tune’s arrangement (particularly the ending). And yet the song is not merely a retread of past accomplishments stylistically as it incorporates the more forlorn melodic twists John developed as a solo artist. So altogether, while the song is certainly not Beatles hit-single material, it adds up to what could have been a strong album cut and respectable addition to the band’s canon.

Given the band’s stature it should not be surprising that cover versions of the new tune are already appearing. Here it is fascinating to see others interpret how to render the song in a suitably Beatles key. Moving through the different eras, Dreamer Jazz re-imagines the song as it might have been played on Ed Sullivan, complete with video. DJS’s David A. Rodriguez really nails a host of early era Beatle-isms, including John’s distinctive rhythm guitar work. Apple Jam move the sound closer to the Hard Day’s Night/Help period and their considerable experience recreating the Beatles’ sound really comes through here. Timmy Sean takes inspiration from the same period but his sound ends up coming off more late seventies poprock, begging the question as to whether that might have been where the Beatles sound would have developed. Lastly Super 8’s version (that we featured before) takes things in a wholly new direction, even adding an original bridge to the song. In many ways, Super 8’s version is really the most creative interpretation, bold in its choices but still successful in execution.

Apple Jam

The Beatles really don’t need any more money but these clever cover artists surely do. Give them a visit to check out where their fab influences have taken them in their own work.

Love + Glory and Dave Kuchler

21 Saturday Oct 2023

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If there’s a guy who deserves a bit more love and glory, it’s Dave Kuchler. As a member of the Soul Engines he played a major part in crafting the power pop perfect sound of their 2001 release Closer Still, taking lead vocal on the should-have-been hit “Just Another Day.” Then in 2020 he returned with a dynamite solo album entitled It’s Pronounced … that splashed jangle guitar and heavy doses of Hammond B3 organ over a solid collection to tunes. The record ranked #11 on our Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2020 list while the single “Slave to Katy” clocked in at #3 out of the 50 Poprock Record should-be hit singles of 2020. In our review we declared It’s Pronounced … “… has the sound of a timeless classic, a paean to poprock songcraft and performance. It deserves a wide hearing.” But the likes of Rolling Stone and Billboard fail to heed our good advice.

Now Kuchler is back with Love + Glory and it’s another dynamite package of New Jersey’s special brand of janglicious, Americana-infused rock and roll. From the killer lick introducing opening cut “In It With You” you know you’re in for some no nonsense melodic rock along the lines of Fastball, Don Dixon, John Hiatt and Marshall Crenshaw. Developed from an unreleased Soul Engines song, the track has a distinctive lead guitar hook that keeps coming back in between Kuchler’s strong vocals. Then “Labor of Love” shows how Kuchler’s talent for seeding a melodic hook right from the start of a tune is no fluke. Stylistically Love + Glory has a more consistent sound than It’s Pronounced …, meeting at the crossroads of Americana and Merseybeat. Basically less Springsteen, more Rockpile this time around. “She’d Rather Be With You” is very Mersey, updated with a bit of Nick Lowe cheekiness. “All I Need” takes its jaunty electric guitar into Beatles-country-meets-early-Eagles territory. But with “Fine Wine” and “Slow Day” you can practically hear a John Hiatt growl coming in somewhere, the latter also reminiscent of Lowe’s Rose of England material. As with Hiatt, the organ work on these tunes adds a transcendent quality. Other songs showcase different variations of the Americana theme. There’s a sweet organ and mandolin charm to “This Old Car,” a Chuck Berry-fueled romp through “Lover’s Talk,” and storytelling about Maggie May before she met Rod on “Prequel (Maggie).” The record ends with a bit of blistering heartland jangle on “Chasing Glory,” a return to a more Jersey Springsteen aura.

They just don’t make records like Love + Glory anymore. Unless you’re Dave Kuchler. You can show him a bit of love at his bandcamp site, Kool Kat Musik record distribution page, or FB locale.

Gregory Pepper’s Estate Sale

18 Wednesday Oct 2023

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It must be hard times at Camp Pepper these days. The band’s last album No Thanks was described on bandcamp as ‘[t]he seventh and final album by Gregory Pepper & His Problems.’ Now Pepper offers up an Estate Sale, described as a grab bag of ‘B-sides, compilation tracks, covers, and alternate versions from the Camp Pepper Archives (2008-2023).’ So, like, what gives? Is this the end of Gregory Pepper and his Problems as a creative vehicle? Will they be replaced by something else? Or is Pepper forgoing music to finally commit to that snowplow job in his northern Ontario small town? You could tune in next week but I’m not confident we’d have any news.

What we do have is devilishly good serving of Pepper wit and whimsy over the 26 tracks of Estate Sale. Now let’s be clear, some of his estate items already went out in previous sales. A gander over at Camp Pepper reveals a host of b-sides, alternative versions, and demos appeared on expanded versions of previous releases of S/T, With Trumpets Flaring, Escape from Skull Mountain, and Demos! Demos! Demos! But there’s definitely still value for money here. There are covers of The Postal Service (“Natural Anthem”) and Ween (“Gabrielle”). There’s a rare teaser track from the Dad Year Recordings that didn’t make the final 52 song cut (“Back to the USA”). Other contributions will stand as repeats if you kept up with the flow of Pepper EPs over the years. For instance, the whole of the Ghost Town EP is included here as is “Secret Satan” from the ツ​ン​デ​レ (Tsundere) EP, and I don’t hear anything different about them. Personally I don’t begrudge Pepper a bit of double dipping. I mean, he’s not young anymore and probably needs the money. And, repetition or no, you’re still getting a nice retrospective of Pepper’s curio pop career.

There’s too much on Estate Sale to give a track by track breakdown. And that’s tough because, given that I love just about everything by Pepper, it’s hard for me to choose favourites. But if I were to draw attention to just a few things from this release I might highlight his manic 1950s reinventions like “LUV U 2 DETH” and “BFF,” or the driving macabre pop of “This Town” and “Home Alone,” or his hilarious self-deprecation on “Time For Plugs.” But Pepper can be serious and touching too, as can be heard on the holiday-themed “A Nice Thought” and “No Funeral.” Or I’d recommend hitting repeat on the 1970s hooky pop goodness of “It Gets Worse.” There’s a Mungo Jerry meets 1974 Wings thing going on here that I can really get behind. But hey, results may vary. Consult your doctor.

Like the rest of the world we live in, the fate of Gregory Pepper and his Problems remains uncertain. But you can quell your nervous mind with a few spins of this Estate Sale. Get thee over to Camp Pepper to check it out and all his other fabulous releases.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

You can’t escape Chris Stamey

07 Saturday Oct 2023

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Let’s pretend you don’t know who Chris Stamey is and you’ve stumbled across his new album The Great Escape. Title track and opening cut “The Great Escape” sounds pretty laid back 1970s California country rock. But then “Realize” vibes a more poppy rock style with guitars carrying more of the song. Then Stamey lets loose the jangle with a Big Star take on Alex Chilton’s song “She Might Look My Way” before going full-on country with “Here’s How We Start Again.” If you can set aside how much the latter track reminds you of Eddie Arnold’s “You Don’t Know Me” you might be asking yourself, just who is this guy stylistically? Well, he’s Chris Stamey. Really you have to know a bit about his musical DNA to get what he’s doing here. What makes The Great Escape such a fabulous record is how it draws creatively on Stamey’s considerable musical legacy. “I Will Try” effortlessly reinvents Brydsian motifs, “Greensboro Days” does folky country like REM used to do, while “Back in New York” has a great American songbook feel. There’s not-so-serious, fun hero worship on “The One and Only (Van Dyke Parks)” and tender love for a friend on “Dear Friend.” “The Sweetheart of the Video” plays with a cinematic country ennui, you can practically see the montage. Stamey even provides his “Album Credits” over a music bed of the title track. You can love this record without knowing a thing about Stamey but digging a bit into his past helps you appreciate it even more.

Of course, Chris Stamey is best known as a key founding member of the legendary power pop band the dBs. Now I’m not going to assign any homework but if you did want to get caught up on his dBs origins, you can check out his recent album with the other key dBs member Peter Holsapple. The duo have played acoustic concerts over the years and honed very different takes on their original more rocking tunes. In 2021 they decided to commit these remakes to tape for an album entitled Our Back Pages. Not all early 1980s indie rock can survive turning down the amplifiers but the craft and sophistication of the Holsapple/Stamey songwriting thrives in this new, more acoustic milieu. From the fiddle-infused romp that is “Today Could Be the Day” to the folk-rock menace colouring “Happenstance” the ambience is very Peter Case from his first solo album. Other versions of the songs sound more poprock contemporary. “From a Window to a Screen” reminds me of Porter Block while “Dynamite” is a timeless juxtaposition of ear-catching lead guitar and swoon-worthy harmony vocals. I could go on as the whole record is solid but I’d have to single out “Picture Sleeve.” The duo cook up such amazing harmonies here that the results are poprock bliss.

Another recent Stamey effort worthy of attention is his collaboration with The Salt Collective. He and Peter Holsapple appear on a number of tracks from The Salt Collective LP Life but the standout choice for me is “Nursery Rhyme.” There something very 1960s baroque pop here, but updated with an indie rock intensity.

If you know Chris Stamey, you know escape is neither likely nor desirable. If you’re just discovering him, get ready for a truly great poprock escape. You can get caught up in his world on at his website and music pages.

Celebrating Jose’s Bad Day

27 Wednesday Sep 2023

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There is something so wonderfully 1983 about Jose’s Bad Day. The clean guitar sound, the understated vocals, the everyman lyrical sentiment, occasionally punched up with a layer of winning vocal harmonies – it all comes rushing back to me. The great jangly guitar and snaky organ work just help to bring it all home. Hi! Let’s Eat is an EP with five fabulous cuts that re-animate the sound of that great year in poprock, for me anyway. Opening track “Just Good Friends” has the studied nonchalance of Don Dixon’s recordings, obscuring the complexity of the song’s arrangement to bring the hooks to the surface. “How Will You Know?” is a lovely bit of light poprock, with subtle Merseyside turnarounds. Then “So Pretty I Lie” dials back the 1980s to maybe the late seventies to hit some new wave marks – those rhythm guitar shots are really working overtime here.  By contrast “Where Were You?” gives us a John Hiatt-style neo-1950s update, connecting with band leader Tim Reece’s other music project 40 Proof and its more Americana vibe. Yet when we hit the EP closer “Rushing In On Fool’s Day” the sound has shifted again, this time more reminiscent of Mark Everett’s A Man Called E project.

You can celebrate Jose’s Bad Day at their bandcamp page. Bad times never sounded so good.

Photo entitled ‘Knife’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.