Category Archives: Poprock Themepark

New millennium Merseybeat: The Mop Tops, The Weeklings, The Nerk Twins, and Mondo Quinn

23 Thursday Mar 2023

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The Merseybeat goes on. Despite now being a long-time distant from both its time and place of origin bands just keep taking up the influence and re-working the sound. Not that I’m complaining.

With a name like The Mop Tops I was halfway to liking this group without hearing a note. This Swedish band has put out a scant few albums since 1995 but each one is pretty special. Sure, there’s a strong Beatles vibe to everything but the song-writing here is outstanding, letting the band succeed on their own merits. All 12 songs on the debut record Inside are terrific. “She’s So Fine” definitely skews to Beatles ’65 but songs like “Whenever I’m Alone” have a Smithereens’ feel. “Sending Letters” sounds a bit like Steve Earle channeling Buck Owens. And I love the driving droney guitar defining the title track “Inside.” Of course, there’s a reason “Plastic Moon Rain” was the single – it’s a killer. Thirteen years later the band returned with Ground Floor Man and it was another home run, brimming with fab cuts exuding Beatles, Tom Petty and Elvis Costello influences. Opening cut “You Crucify Me” just grabs the listener and won’t let go. Then last year the band returned with Running Out of Time and it was like no time had passed at all. The songs, the jangle, the strong Mersey vibe were all there. “Queen of Misery” gets my vote for the should-be hit single.

You Crucify Me

New Jersey’s The Weeklings seem to have come full circle. Their early records were very Mersey, recreating an early Beatles atmosphere to shroud their original songs and covers of Beatles rarities on successive albums released in 2014, 2015, and 2016. From those early records I love “If I Was In Love” and “Morning, Noon & Night” because the songs depart from the formula just a bit, marking them as unique without sacrificing the influence. 2020’s 3 saw the band branching out from their Mersey roots with a much more original sound, still Beatlesy but distant enough to make its own splash. Opening cut “I Want You Again” sets the scene with its Cheap Trick or Knack-ish fresh but rocking sound. Fast forward to 2023 and the band return to Mersey-proper with an inventive remake of “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” adding some rock muscle and vocal layering to one of McCartney’s bounciest tunes. You can hear the Weeklings’ mastery of the Beatles sonic stylings on all these recordings, whether they’re going full-on Merseybeat or just shaping a particular element to suit their melodic purpose.

If I Was In Love
Morning, Noon & Night
I Want You Again

The Nerk Twins album Either Way was a one-off collaboration between Herb Eimerman and Shoes member Jeff Murphy that came out in 1997. Unlike the two previous bands the Mersey influence here is more muted, filtered through a creative independence that is synthetic rather than imitative. Other than taking their name from John and Paul’s throwaway reference to their partnership this record is more Beatles-adjacent than mainline Merseybeat. Still, there are some striking Beatle-isms featured here and there. Like the classic “I Want to Hold Your Hand” instrumental turnaround tucked into “In the Middle of the Night.” Or listen to how “I Still Don’t Love You Anymore” sounds like an outtake from the Rubber Soul sessions. Then again “Dream for Love” has some very Byrdsian vocal harmonies while “On & On & On” has a late 1960s California sunshine pop vibe. But mostly this album aces that lovely mid-1980s poprock sound on nearly every cut. Long out of print, its recent digital return is most welcome.

In the Middle of the Night
I Still Don’t Love You Anymore

Somewhere in Hobart, the capital city of Australia’s island state of Tasmania, you’ll find Beatles aficionado Mondo Quinn working up another Mersey-drenched bit of pop goodness. Online he’s got two albums and handful of singles that exude the loveable charm of the Fab Four in full-on Beatlemania mode. “I Love You (Why Don’t You Love Me Too)” from Quinn’s 2013 album Another Time, Another Place has a 1960s Searchers bounce to its lead guitar work while the vocal would suit Cliff Richards to a T. From the same album “Molly’s Song” is a dynamite instrumental with a fresh, crisp acoustic guitar sound reminiscent of “And I Love Her.” Then on 2019’s Pop Till You Drop “Girl Of My Dreams” has a vibe that is so “Bad to Me.” Altogether Mondo Quinn’s work is a delightful time capsule of the 1964 Merseybeat sound.

As long as the drums keep pounding that distinctive Liverpool rhythm to our brains, the Merseybeat goes on. Check out these modern fab beat groups to see how it’s done.

Ready steady singles

23 Thursday Feb 2023

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The UK’s Ready Steady Go! was the sixties alternative to the more establishment Top of the Pops. Bands performed (mostly) live and the audience were the featured models and dancers, giving the show a more loose, spontaneous feel. I’d like to think our chosen singles are a modern embodiment of the show’s cool élan but hey, you be the judge.

Power pop legend Jamie Hoover is well known for his decades-long work with the Spongetones and collaborations with a variety of indie stalwarts. But his latest single sees him declaring his love for the recently-single mega-influencer “Kim Kardashian.” Co-written with power pop scribe and record producer Richard Rossi, the song is an amusing poke at social media and celebrity, delivered in an impeccable poprock style. Burnley and Todmorden’s The Goa Express have got a pop snarl that launches “Portrait” with a sonic 3-D impact. Comparisons to The Artic Monkeys, Oasis and the Strokes make sense, the sound here is so live and starkly authentic. Vocalist James Douglas Clark keeps the snarl neatly in check while the guitars crash in and out with an intoxicating intensity. So far it’s just singles from this band but a full album seems overdue. Leslie Rich knows political trouble, hailing from Northern Ireland. But now ensconced in Minneapolis Minnesota he’s seeing American issues from a whole new perspective. Leading Leslie Rich and the Rocket Soul Choir on “Revolt” he subtlety condemns the fake victim mentality of those with a knee on ‘some guy’s neck’. The track is so smooth, with a Fleetwood Mac mid-1970s precision of rhythm and mood. Fun but serious popsters The Happy Somethings kicked off 2023 with a collection of errant singles, bit and pieces of things set aside from the previous year. Like “Anglepoise,” a noise pop Bo Diddly remake if ever there was one. The band uncharacteristically turn up the amps this time. Hailsham’s Tim Izzard is everybody’s modern Mr. Glam, channeling a 1970s performance and song style for contemporary audiences. On his new EP Deepfake 99 you can hear him tapping a particularly Marc Bolan vein on “Walk the Walk” or a big ballad-mode Bowie on “Alice Pearl” and “Will the First to Believe Please Turn on the Lights?” But overall I’m charmed by the strut of the title track “Deepfake 99.”

Marc Valentine’s Futura Obscura is a solid album of power pop delights but few of the songs challenge the obvious power single, “Last Train Tonight.” The driving guitar-based melody is delivered with a mix of what sounds like Fountains of Wayne and Farrah influences, the latter particularly evident in the chorus. Rochester’s Katie Morey is a great post-folk artist. You can tell by skipping through her Friend of a Friend album that coffee houses and streel strings played a key part in its genesis. But then other instruments come in, adding to the aural splendour. Just listen to the mix on “Deep End” with its great contrast of rumbly guitar and deadpan vocals. A slightly more rock and roll Suzanne Vega or Jane Siberry I think. Thee Lonely Hearts have got a quartet of songs caught in the twilight between retro cool and modern indie panache. Last Fall’s “Glen Ponder” cooks with a clean 1980s take on sixties guitar poppy rock while b-side “I Came Back Again” channels The Smithereens. But the band’s should-be hit is undoubtedly “Treat Me Like You Just Don’t Care.” This 45 has the energy of an updated early Beatles number performed by Eugene Edwards. Schio Italy’s Freez sound like members of California’s slacker pop punk diaspora. Their 2019 album Always Friends alternated between rocking workouts and more subtle, alluring melodic numbers. Then late in 2022 they offered up something different again. “Nothing” is brief 90 seconds of relentless droney attack, somewhat hypnotic, ready for pogo-ing. The new millennium has witnessed the rebirth of a crowd of decades-dormant bands from days gone by. But few sound as fresh and in the swing of now as Finland’s The Bablers. Sure, there’s a retro feel to “Holding Me Tight Tonight” and yet the sound is so timeless too. Altogether the song has that smooth poprock sheen of the 1980s Moody Blues in comeback mode with a touch of 1974 McCartney in the bridge.

Thee Lonely Hearts – Treat Me Like You Just Don’t Care

In the fading hours of 2022 there was a lot buzz about Michigan’s Popular Creeps. A lot of ‘R’ band references got thrown around, as in The Replacements, REM, and the Rolling Stones. Kicking back with the full album All This Will End in Tears there’s definitely a lot ‘R’ here, though I tend to agree with Add to Want List that the sound is perhaps closer to Peter Case and Paul Collins, particularly on tracks like “Gone By 45.” My vote for double A-sided single goes to the combo of “From the Past” and “Keep It To Myself,” just for exuding so much new wave joy and echoes of The Connection. On Ant Farm Pittsburg’s The Zells give voice to the harsh working class experience of contemporary America where living is from payday to payday and life is suffering and suffering truther uncles. But the record shifts back and forth between distorted punk anti-paeans to tracks that expose the band’s superior musical chops. Like on “Dummy,” a song that kicks off sounding like a speed version of “Dancing With Myself” only to switch to a Titus Andronicus vocal and guitar attack. The lead guitar line snaking throughout Kid Gulliver’s latest single “Kiss and Tell” is so captivating it just keep running through my head long after the song has ended. It’s got fun adornments, like riffs from the Batman theme, but really the backbone of the song is Simone Berk’s smooth vocal and that killer lead guitar work. Another guitar winning single comes from LA’s Billy Tibbals. Reviewers are noting the 1970s glam and pub rock influences but all I can hear is that addictive droney lead guitar on “Onwards and Upwards” that says new wave to me. So many potential influences here but I hear some Zombies in the vocals and even some Squeeze in the melodic twists. As a band The No Ones are full of someones: people like REM’s Peter Buck and Young Fresh Fellows alumnus Scott McCaughey. And on their soon-to-be-released new album My Best Evil Friend the list of guest stars is pretty gob-smacking, including contributions from Ben Gibbard, Debbi Peterson and Norman Blake. Of the two pre-release teaser singles I can’t decide which I like more, the dreamy, bucolic “Song for George” or the more Byrdsian “Phil Ochs is Dead.”

When Ottawa band The Rockyts burst on the scene in 2019 with their debut album Come and Dance reviewers were dumbfounded that three gangly teens could recreate the 1960s sound so authentically, both on originals and covers from the era. Now reduced to a one man band focused on lead guitarist, songwriter and singer Jeremy Abboud, their new single “I Get High” recasts the retro influences into a totally contemporary sound. Well, 1980s Cars-era contemporary anyway. The guitar work is now more stolid, the vocals enlivened by some otherworldly harmonies. By contrast Austin Texas troubadour Phil Dutra brings back his signature telenovela-style big emotional ballad on “I Feel Your Pain.” There’s something very Vicki Lawrence or 1970s Cher style-wise lingering over this tale of cheating and remorse while the hooks are big and bold and stuck in your head. I can already see the movie montage running behind this song. Scotland’s Dropkick are like your favourite hang-out spot, immediately familiar, comforting, but open to some surprise guests. The advance single from their upcoming album The Wireless Revolution is “Telephone” and it is everything fans of the band love: ringing guitars, a sweet feel-good vibe, and a strong Teenage Fanclub family resemblance. On his new album Alter Ego Irish singer/songwriter Paul McCann offers a mix of styles, both fast and slow, sounding at times 1970s lush or 1980s poppy rock. My current fave is “Lost in This Moment” with its slow build up and break out hooky chorus. Another lush poprock offering comes from Norway’s Armchair Oracles. Given the song’s focus, perhaps that’s not surprising. “Nilsson Wilson” observes how two great artists emerged from traumatic childhoods. The vibe is very Rogue Wave meets Al Stewart.

Rounding out our ready steady singles is another fab new song from mister poprock-reliable, Richard Turgeon. “I’ve Got You Now” features Turgeon’s now familiar formula of discordant guitars and poppy melodic hooks, delivered with a captivating vocal arrangement. Grunge definitely meets the beach on the this 45.

RSG! only ran on UK television for three years but it defined an era of mod music, hip fashion, and an almost DIY broadcast esthetic. And The Who managed to appear on the show 18 times! Our humble efforts pale by comparison but I like to think that the spark lives on in the music. Click on the hyperlinked band names to feel that surge.

Singling out the stars

04 Saturday Feb 2023

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We don’t usually cover legacy acts or artists who make the mainstream charts here. They get a lot of press already and they’ve usually got a strong fan base. But I do have a few faves I can’t help but write about because I do love them so. Obviously I’m not going to move the needle on their chart placements but hey, I can say my piece. Today we single out a few songs from stars that continue to shine for me.

Elvis Costello’s Rusty project is such an interesting endeavor for a host of reasons. Backstory: Elvis decides to reunite with a guy he played in a duo with before he made it big on his own. I mean, what happens to all those bandmates who came before an artist gets famous? Mostly left behind, I suspect. So for Elvis to reunite with his former partner Allan Mayes 50 years after they parted is pretty special. And the results are impressive too. The Resurrection of Rust kicks off with a sound not unlike the pub rock of Brinsley Schwarz and EC’s first solo record. And why wouldn’t it? The song “Surrender the Rhythm” is a Nick Lowe Brinsley-era song. Nick’s “Don’t Lose Your Grip on Love” sounds great too. But the early EC original “Warm House (And an Hour of Joy)” is probably my fave here. Another striking blast from the past is Julian Lennon’s most recent longplayer Jude. It’s been a lifelong challenge for this guy to move out of his famous father’s shadow, given the considerable baggage he’s got. But this album might just be his best yet, playing to his soft rock strengths while still sounding very contemporary. The songs are strong, particularly the acoustic “Not One Night” and Oasis-y “Lucky Ones.” The standout track though is “Round and Round Again” with its spy-worthy trebly lead guitar and an overall atmosphere that reminds me of Black’s Wonderful Life record.

Rusty – Warm (And an Hour of Joy)
Julian Lennon – Round and Round Again

Drag queen Trixie Mattel is a one-woman entertainment dispensary: comedy TV star, fashion and make-up entrepreneur, and singer-songwriter extraordinaire. In a way her recent Blonde and Pink Albums is just the culmination of a trajectory she’s been signalling for a while. Starting off in the country and folk genres Mattel has hinted throughout her various releases that she’s a poppy rock and roll girl. The 14 songs here are all-in power pop, mostly Mattel originals but with covers of the Go Go’s and Cheap Trick thrown in too. The results are maximum fun. There’s a touch of Aimee Mann on “White Rabbit,” a bit of Fountains of Wayne in “Girl of Your Dreams,” and a return to Trixie’s country roots on “This Town.” But I think my fave here is the candy-coated pop delight “Goner.” Another surprise in 2022 was the return of an old favourite band, Tears for Fears. It’s hard to capture how omnipresent the band were back in their heyday of The Hurting and Songs from the Big Chair. But last year’s comeback album The Tipping Point easily outstripped the popularity of their previous comeback album from 18 years earlier, making the top ten in countries around the world. I loved the album’s second single, the acoustic guitar-led ballad “No Small Thing.”

Trixie Mattel – Goner

Pixies are another comeback group whose quality of material didn’t suffer after two decade break. With the release of 2014’s Indie City it was like they’d never paused. Personally I thought 2016’s Head Carrier had some of their best material with tracks like “Tenement Song.” But their recent 2022 album Doggerel sounds as fresh as anything they’ve produced, particularly “Haunted House” and the should-be hit single “Thunder and Lightning.” What’s left to say about legendary American family band The Cowsills? They were inspiration for television’s The Partridge Family, originators of the Americana sound, and unlike many family bands of the period most members just oozed talent, both within and outside the group, most notably Bill, John, Bob and Susan Cowsill. Their first album came out in 1967 – their tenth arrived just last year. Rhythm of the World features Bob, Paul and Susan Cowsills sounding pretty sharp. I’m partial to the hooky “Every Little Secret” with its captivating classic-Cowsills overlapping vocal arrangement.

The Cowsills – Every Little Secret

Not all stars fade into the night sky. Some come back brighter than ever.

Photo courtesy James Vaughn.

Cover me! New Order “Blue Monday”

20 Friday Jan 2023

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I can’t remember the first time I heard New Order’s “Blue Monday” but I do remember purchasing Power Corruption and Lies in the spring of 1983, largely on the basis of the cover design. Living in a west coast Canadian backwater I had no idea who New Order were or what their music sounded like. Still, I played the album over and over and felt pretty cool while doing so. Then I got an earful of “Blue Monday.” That hypnotic bass line, the wall of overlapping synths parts, the impassive vocals – they were all so captivating I splurged for the first 12” single I ever bought.

This past week my friend Tom posted about Orkestra Obsolete’s amazing cover of the song played on 1930s instruments. The video both sounds good and looks great. That got me wondering: what other groovy covers might there be of this oh-so unusual song? Turns out – quite a few. The reliable SecondHandSongs site lists over 70 versions in all kinds of styles. Quite a few dial up the synth like a bottle of New Order-brand concentrate but you can’t really out-New Order the originals. Why try? More interesting to me were the genre switchers, the covers that tried to put the song into a totally different context. Like the afore-mentioned Orkestra Obsolete, a one-off put-together band for a BBC program that really captured the essence of “Blue Monday” despite a lack of synths and drum machines.

Orkestra Obsolete are just the most recent example of a common tendency in covering “Blue Monday,” namely to strip things down and build them back up again but with radically different instrumentation. Acid Cowboys take things in an urban country direction, adding a loping rhythm and plenty of pedal steel guitar. The Banjo Lounge 4 use their signature instrument to anchor the song, effectively replacing the synth and electric bass guitar. Of course, as a quasi-percussive instrument the banjo can take up this space and then some. Hannah Peel really does a sound reduction on the song, accompanying her spare vocal with just a music box mounted on a mandolin. Funny how all three acts also offer a cover of “Tainted Love” on their respective albums.

Now for something almost completely different, check out The Jolly Boys and their mento reworking of the tune. Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that pre-dates and heavily influenced both ska and reggae while the Jolly Boys are a band with roots stretching back to the 1940s. They really capture the lurching tempo of the song with their acoustic instruments and the radically different vocal here is inspired. By contrast Buke and Gase mirror the original sound in many ways but twist and stretch its various elements, making some more harsh and others wonderfully strange. Really, a delightful reinvention. But probably my fave cover is from Rio De Janeiro’s Autoramas. It’s all retro guitars to the front of the mix and solid four-on-the-floor drumming in a version with no vocals.

New Order continue to put out interesting music but if “Blue Monday” had been a one-hit wonder I imagine we’d still be hearing about it today. It’s just that cool.

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2022

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Once again I’ve assembled a crack team of ace reviewers to whittle our towering pile of albums from 2022 down to an essential must-have list of just 25 choices. How could these stuffed suits know what’s hip, you might say? It’s kinda like how album covers can be deceiving – the dullest dust jacket may obscure a real gem. So I’ve had these guys working overtime to bring you the very best of 2022, as featured in the annals of this here blog over the past calendar year. They’ve combed through countless long-players, extended plays and concept albums to put together multiple ‘must have’ lists. Tough work but you can tell by quality of their tailoring that they were up for it.

Cue drumroll – here we have it, Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs from 2022:

1. Tamar Berk Start at End
2. Trevor Blendour Falling in Love
3. Televisionairies Mad About You
4. Kids on a Crime Spree Fall in Love Not in Line
5. The Kryng Twelve Hymns to Syng Along
6. The Minders Psychedelic Blacktop
7. Eytan Mirsky Lord, Have Mirsky!
8. Edward O’Connell Feel Some Love
9. Phil Thornalley Now That I Have Your Attention
10. Kate Clover Bleed Your Heart Out
11. Push Puppets Allegory Grey
12. The Rubs (dust)
13. Afterpartees Family Names
14. Sloan Steady
15. 2nd Grade Easy Listening
16. Greg Pope Rise of Mythical Creatures
17. Papercuts Past Life Regression
18. Young Guv Guv III
19. Freedy Johnston Back on the Road to You
20. Pete Astor Time on Earth
21. The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness The Third Wave of …
22. Superchunk Wild Loneliness
23. The Happy Fits Under the Shade of Green
24. Tony Molina In the Fade
25. Chris Lund Indian Summer

Tamar Berk’s outstanding album Start at End tops our list for 2022. Melodic, poppy, inventive, and with a smooth AM radio sheen that encourages repeated listening. And then it’s hard not to fall for the manic, almost gleeful energy of Trevor Blendour’s Falling in Love. The Televisionaries’ Mad About You is just a wonderful mixture of retro rock and roll and hooky modern melodic riffing. I could go on (and I have – click on the hot links to go to the original posts). The list has got old faves (Freedy Johnston, Edward O’Connell, Eytan Mirsky), power pop stalwarts (Sloan, Greg Pope, Chris Lund), and a whole lot that was entirely new to me (Kate Clover, Push Puppets, Pete Astor). And there’s jangle to spare (The Kryng, Young Guv, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness). The list is proof that, contra claims we are solely a sample culture, the long-playing album is alive and well in the new millennium.

And there’s more. The ongoing revival of the extended play record format has led to this list, Poprock Record’s must-have EPs from 2022:

1. The Happy Somethings Ego Test
2. Movie Movie Movie Movie
3. Sad About Girls Wild Creatures
4. Friends of Cesar Romero In the Cold Cruel Eyes of a Millions Stars
5. Ryan Allen I’m Not Mean
6. Love, Burns Fade in the Sun
7. Richard Turgeon Rough Around the Edges
8. The Genuine Fakes Extended Play Vol. 3

The Happy Somethings make me happy, about a lot of things. They say important things, they give me hope. And their tunes are swell. The rest of the list is pretty winning too. Great tunes in smaller packages. That leaves no excuses not to check them out.

Sometimes an album is bigger than its constituent parts. Sometimes it’s just big. So I had to carve out a special category for Ken Sharp’s latest homage to the 1970s, Poprock Record’s must-have concept album from 2022:

Ken Sharp I’ll Remember the Laughter

Our last category recognizes an artist of prodigious talent and shocking productivity. By my reckoning over the past year alone he has turned out 2 albums of completely new material, 8 EPs of new material, 3 double-sided singles, 3 greatest hits albums, a b-sides album, an EP of remakes, and a holiday EP. Sleep is apparently not for this guy. Thus we bestow the Poprock Record special award of awesome poprock merit to:

The Photocopies

Another year, another avalanche of great tunes. Melodic rock and roll lives and here is the proof. Click on the links and find your new faves. The guys in suits are done here (for now).

1954 ‘Speaking of Pictures’ ad courtesy James Vaughn.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2022

05 Thursday Jan 2023

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It was another busy year for melody-drenched rock and roll. Releases were coming fast and furious and frankly I could barely keep up. Still, I managed to get 82 posts up on the blog in 2022 and write over 64,000 words on the loosely-defined rock and roll sub-genre I call ‘poprock.’ I couldn’t write about everything that crossed my desk or what others may have necessarily thought was review-worthy, I just covered what caught my ear or worked itself into some kooky theme I cooked up. So let me be clear, what appears here is a completely arbitrary exercise in personal taste and discretion. I’m sure others may have a somewhat different set of worthy tunes that deserve more attention. And that is totally cool. The point is to celebrate the artists and perhaps give people another shot at checking them out.

So here it is, Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2022:

1. Grrrl Gang “Pop Princess”
2. The Bleeding Idahos “The Beat Said”
3. Dazy “Rollercoaster Ride”
4. Bloody Norah “Shooting Star”
5. Allan Kaplon “Restless One”
6. Televisionaries “Over and Out”
7. John Larson and the Silver Fields “Reversible Heart”
8. Push Puppets “There’s No-one Else Like Lynette”
9. Tamar Berk “Your Permission”/“Tragic Endings”
10. Freddie Steady Krc “Bohemian Dandy”
11. The Toms “Atmosphere”
12. The Proctors “You and Me and the Sea”
13. The Minders “Home”
14. Richard Turgeon “Better With You”
15. Flipp “You Can Make It Happen”
16. Bill DeMain “Lone Ranger”
17. Limblifter “Haystack Rock”
18. Stephen Schijns “I Met Her Yesterday”
19. The Rubs “When I Dream About You”
20. Edward O’ Connell “Golden Light”
21. Superchunk “Endless Summer”
22. The Kryng “Get”
23. Freedy Johnston “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl”
24. Phil Thornalley “Fast Car”
25. Lawn “Down”
26. The Stroppies “The Perfect Crime”
27. Beachheads “Jupiter”
28. Martin Luther Lennon “jfkha”
29. David Woodard “Stupid Kid”
30. Linda XO “California Girl”
31. Richard X. Heyman “When the New Dawn Comes”
32. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard “Break Right In”
33. Sloan “Magical Thinking”
34. Teenage Tom Petties “Boxroom Blues”
35. The Demos “Streetlight Glow”
36. Suburban HiFi “In Her Reverie”
37. Moonlight Parade “Amsterdam”
38. Ricky Rochelle “In a Dream With You”
39. The Telmos “What She Knows”
40. Marc Jonson and Ramirez Exposure “Tape Recording”
41. Sky Diving Penguins “Run Boy”
42. Novelty Island “Jangleheart”
43. Goodman “Au Pair”
44. Pictish Trail “Melody Something”
45. Kevin Robertson “Tough Times (Feel Like That)
46. U.S. Highball “(You’ve Got To) Activate a Carrot”
47. The Wends “What A Heart Is For”
48. The Rallies “Must Be Love”
49. Jane’s Party “It’s Been Years”
50. Frank Royster “Open Door”

There were so many great songs put out this past year, I was spoiled for choice. And choosing wasn’t easy. Sometimes I cheated a little. Grrrl Gang’s “Pop Princess” technically came out before 2022 but I only got around to writing about it this last year. What a tune! It’s a perfect example of the kind of excitement a great single can generate and, really, why I write this blog. People need to hear it! Or there’s the fresh indie hooks driving The Bleeding Idahos’ “The Beat Said” and Bloody Norah’s “Shooting Star.” Dazy had a knock out AM radio earworm with “Rollercoaster Ride.” And then there was veteran songster Allan Kaplon coming on like The Highwaymen at first only to let loose the Rockpile hooks in the chorus of “Restless Ones.” There were new faces and old favourites and surprises aplenty. Click on the links to go to the original posts featuring each song.

I had to create a few new categories this year, just to capture all that was good and groovy about 2022. The post-Covid covers album phenomenon continued and most were great fun. But some were particularly inspired. And then there were a lot of acoustic guitar-dominant tunes out this past year that I felt really needed to be singled out in a category I’ve dubbed folk pop.

So, without further ado, here are Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2022:

1. Kurt Lanham “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (The Beatles)
2. Lisa Mychols and Super 8 “I Can’t Explain” (The Who)
3. Bill Lloyd “The World Turns Around Her” (The Byrds)
4. Andy Bell “Light Flight” (Pentangle)
5. Murray Atkinson “Bus Stop” (The Hollies)

And here are Poprock Record’s top folk pop singles from 2022:

1. Fjord Mustang “Health Class Field Trip”
2. Rogers and Butler “Oh Romeo”
3. Bats “Golden Spoon”
4. *repeat repeat “Hm Feels Like”
5. Steve Robinson and Ed Woltil “Make Amends”
6. Chris Castino “Chinese Whispers”

I do love making lists but the choices do not amount to any big heavy pronouncement on anything – just my bit of fun and chance to celebrate these artists a little bit more. Check them out and see if you don’t agree, they’re seriously good!

Photo courtesy Fred Rockwood.

Lowered expectations new year

01 Sunday Jan 2023

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Psst. Reasonably pleasant new year to you. I’m just keeping this celebration thing on the down low. If we’ve learned anything over the past few years it’s don’t get your hopes up, don’t expect big and bold good things, just rescale your sense of what’s possible. Between war and inflation and these almost-over but really never-ending pandemics we’ve all taken a beating. So let’s start 2023 with an attitude adjustment, a reality reset, a proper mind-frame for (limited) success. And a few tunes.

Talk about timely. Austria’s The Geezers literally have just released an album and single entitled 2023. This from a band with song titles like “Jeff Lynne” and “Tom Petty,” which tell you a lot. But this new song suggests they might need tunes named for New Order or some of those Britpop artists. An interesting mix of rock and roll and dance synth elements. Perhaps 2023 might be time to take what’s familiar in some slightly new directions.

Brian Dunne’s most recent album is Selling Things. With song titles like “Getting Wrecked on Election Day” and “I Hope I Can Make it to the Show” you get the sense he’s fully onboard with this whole lowered expectations thing. But his track “Nothing Matters Anymore” is an acoustic guitar-loaded gut-wrencher from the Springsteen school of social realist heartache. Really the song is saying ‘what does matter’? And that is the question for our age. RL’s response is “Be True.” Stripped down name, stripped down sentiment. With some groovy, rather spacy organ riffs and spare guitar work.

In times like these some people turn inward, looking for love in all the most available spaces. Sweden’s The Genuine Fakes make the whole enterprise sound pretty sweet melodically, if still somewhat lyrically dicey, on “Two Fine Lovers.” Rogers and Butler country-rock things up on “Oh Romeo” in a Steve Forbert kind of way, calling for Romeo to play his predictable bad boyfriend part. Janelane is having no part of that on “Goodbye to Heartache,” responding with a Tamar Berk sense of upbeat rocking melody and noticeable electric piano hooks.

Of course, another option to go really inward, like ‘dude where’s my inner peace?’ inward. That does make some sense. Now with wacky tibaccky legalization happening most everywhere across western countries Bellows suggest just letting “Marijuana Grow.” This mellow tune is so channeling the Elliott Smith school of breathy poprock – and I like it. The Moneygoround call for you to ‘hazy up the day’ with a Beach Boys vibe but perhaps that’s not spliff code on their light and breezy single “Catch a Breeze.” Or maybe it is. You can enjoy it either way.

I’ve been messaging Jonathan Kupersmith about getting his fabulous tunes up on some service where the whole wide world can buy them. So far he’s just got an album’s worth of stuff on YouTube videos. I guess that’s working for him. “Number One On My Playlist” seems apropos for our ‘scaling it back’ theme here. Or, going back to The Genuine Fakes fabulous new EP Extended Play Vol. 3, perhaps  “We’re All We Need”?

What’s advice worth? Not the e-paper it’s printed on. But anyways, happy new mumble mumble …

Photo courtesy Stefan Van der Straeten.

Happy Beatles-mas!

25 Sunday Dec 2022

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Now I know many of you are probably jingle-exhausted after months of a festive sounds dogging you every time you ventured out in public. But I can’t help bringing together two of my favourite things on this special day: the Beatles and holiday music. Only certified Beatlemaniacs could come up with something as kooky as this and make it work. Today’s bands fit the diagnosis and then some. Here’s what they do: they mash together a holiday standard with some classic from the Beatles catalogue. The point is meld the two as seamlessly as possible, typically maintaining the tune of the holiday song while putting it to a Beatles beat or adorning it with recognizable Beatles riffs. It’s easy to do but hard to do well, as our three fab yulesters musically demonstrate.

First up, The Butties from Syracuse, New York. Starting out in college in the 1980s they just kept getting together yearly, playing gigs and eventually recording some holiday tunes in a Beatles style. In 2005 they released an album of them entitled 12 Greatest Carols (the cover riffs on The Beatles 20 Greatest Hits). Our featured choice from the LP is their take on “Joy to the World” which incorporates “Please Please Me” in various ways. There’s the distinctive “Please Please Me” harmonica and rhythm guitar end-of-verse turnarounds. The vocal harmonies on this track are super and the harmonica runs are so Beatles but in other ways the synthesis doesn’t quite gel for me.

Number two on our docket is Danish Beatles cover band Rubber Band. Their 1994 album Xmas! The Beatmas also offers 12 Beatles-re-engineered Christmas songs. A lot of review attention at the time focused on the band’s reworking of “Last Christmas” to sound a bit like “Please Mister Postman.” The Wham!/Marvelettes mash-up didn’t grab me but there are other examples here where the synthesis works better. Like the creative combining of “Feliz Navidad” with “No Reply.” The latter adds some drama that the former sorely lacks. And then the decision to mix “Ticket to Ride” into “White Christmas was sheer brilliance. The distinctive guitar hook wraps around the tune like a warm blanket. The middle-eight break out to Lennon’s “Happy Xmas” was a nice touch too.

Rubber Band – Feliz Navidad (No Reply)
Rubber Band – White Christmas (Ticket to Ride)

All this is well and Beatlesy good but you haven’t heard anything till you hear the masters of this particular arcane genre, The Fab Four. They’ve got the accents and vocal tics down, the guitar sounds are spot on, and their ability to seamlessly stitch holiday song and Beatles classic together is unparalleled. Just listen to how they lay an “I Saw Her Standing There” backbeat onto “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” It’s like they were made for each other. Or putting “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” together with “Help.” Once you hear it there’s a ’duh’ moment that immediately follows. And for Beatles geeks check out how they combine “Good King Wenceslas” with Help! album deep cut “Tell Me What You See.” Genius! I first enjoyed these tracks on the band’s 2002 10-song collection A Fab Four Christmas but eight more were added for a revamped 2012 re-release now entitled Hark!

The Fab Four – Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (I Saw Her Standing There)
Good King Wenceslas (Tell Me What You See)

Wrapping things up (pun intended), we turn to the actual Fabs themselves from their 1967 fanclub-only 45 release “Christmastime (Is Here Again).” Too bad they didn’t work this up into a fully proper song as there are some great melodic elements here.

Well there you have it, two great tastes that sound great together – traditional holiday tunes done Beatles-style. From everyone here at Poprock Record, here’s hoping you’ve had the fab-est ‘whatever-you’re-celebrating’ holiday season ever!

Reindeer Games

17 Saturday Dec 2022

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Things got a bit out of hand for Santa this year at the Reindeer Games. It started with too much rum and eggnog at breakfast and, well, you get the picture. Still, this year’s annual musical celebration of the season is back, vibing all the key warm and fuzzies of the holiday: anticipation, desire, tradition and joy. Let’s take up each, in song.

That holiday music machine Make Like Monkeys are now my go-to source for any and every kind of seasonal single. Need a Mersey-drenched bit of poprock to bring your holiday and dating into focus? Can do. “Please Don’t Let Christmas Come Without You Girl” sounds so Beatles-derivative beat-group circa 1964. And I love it. The Essex Green offer up an Everly Brothers-worthy slice of late sixties country rock, making peace with a “Green Christmas.” The heavenly guitars and layered background vocals on this track are all I need under the tree. Seasonal songsters Christmas Aguilera sound like they’re auditioning for a ‘I hate the holidays’ telethon what with all the disaster accompanying their yuletide plans in “All Wrapped Up.” But the subtext to all the apparent chaos seems to be a grudging, recognizable family kind of love. And the tune is a real winner too, chock full of hooks and harmony vocals. Proceeds from this help the campaign to end homelessness and poor housing in the UK. Daryl Bean delivers an eerie XTC-ish paean to the anticipation of the season on “Holidaze.” You’d swear there’s a Partridge in his pear tree.

Turning to desire Toronto’s Jane’s Party capture the youthful sense of really wanting to get that specific something at Xmas with “I Want It Bad.” And they deliver it with it a bit Motown swing. The Decibels’ Brent Seavers delivers a retro sounding classic holiday tune with “I Want You for Xmas,” complete with addictive ‘fa la la la la’s’ to really reel you in. I can’t decide if Frank Royster sounds more like Fastball or The Smithereens on his fab holiday track “Christmas is Fun.” Whichever, the song sounds like a slick bit of 1980s poprock magic. Turning to tradition, rock and roll traditionalists Jeremy and the Harlequins add a heflt of solid rock backing to “White  Christmas” to shake things up. I don’t know how much Superchunk owe to Dylan Thomas but their “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is hooky and jangly and the that’s good enough for me. It’s hard to add much to that holiday rock and roll classic “Jingle Bell Rock” but premiere guitar instrumentalist Joel Paterson manages to inject some of his special, unique playing style into the song. Old dogs, new tricks indeed!

Feeling swamped by the crass commercialism of capitalist Christmas? This year don’t puzzle till your puzzler is sore about it. As the Grinch said, “Christmas, perhaps, is a little bit more.” Like hope, and peace, and joy. Berlin’s Shybits accent the hope on “Hope This Christmas,” a chaotic swirl of Futureheads meets The Spook School indie-pop seasonal goodnesss. The pop incomparable Orion Experience wield a serious joy stick on their seasonally-appropriate, all-you-need-is-love ode “Rich Man’s Holiday.”  As they sing it, you don’t need money when ‘your love is the greatest gift in the world.’ Then there’s the peaceful easy feeling that flows from Scoopski’s new Christmas classic “Your First Christmas.” The husband and wife duo sing about their actual recent baby, a stand in for the joy that every baby anywhere can bring to a hopefully peaceful world.

And yet is wouldn’t be the holidays without mixed feelings. It’s a tough season for so many. Some with or without family, with or without faith. Anthony D’Amato captures that holiday ennui on “Merry Christmas, I Guess.” Not sad, exactly. More lonely. All wrapped up in a musical pretty paper that sounds like the pedal-steel country blues. By contrast, The Surf School Dropouts won’t suffer in silence. They utilize their Beach Boys-vocals to call out to the jolly plus-size guy himself on “Help Me Santa.” Vancouver’s Odds have got a clever plan to deal with all the garbage this season produces, both emotional and physical. While the mall marketing people say ‘more! more!’ they have Santa telling voters to share the gift of love with ‘neighbour and your honey.’ We lost the legendary girl group pioneer Ronnie Spector this past year. Right to the end she was radiating joy and goodwill to all. In terms of her long career “Best Christmas Ever” is a fairly recent release but one that captures everything great about her enduring talent and style.

It’s almost a wrap here at this annual Reindeer Games. Let’s go out looking for that star that will help lead us where we need to go in the days ahead. My new favourite one-stop-shopping seasonal music provider Make Like Monkeys can provide the accompaniment with “Star.”

Merry ho ho to all and to all a goodnight!

Top photo courtesy Kevin Dooley.

Bah humbug, the Hans Gruber edition

10 Saturday Dec 2022

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Welcome to what appears will be an annual post of music for people who hate the holidays. Last year’s edition of Bah Humbug stumbled upon a veritable treasure-trove of holiday-hating should-be hits. It was all a bit shocking but still delightful. I mean, personally, I’m a sucker for holiday tunes yet I can’t help but admire the dedication and intensity of the anti-holiday crowd. And the comedy. The antis have definitely got a healthy disregard for the more sickly sweet seasonal sentiments. To honour all this disdain, it only seems fitting to draw inspiration from that Christmas movie for people who hate Christmas movies, Die Hard. So get your Grinch on and open your ears for Bah humbug, the Hans Gruber edition.

We kick things off with some jangle, naturally, because surely if ever there was a holiday guitar sound it would have to be the Rickenbacker 12 string. Joe Algeri’s The JAC (and the Christmas Crew) project crank up the Byrds influences to launch their anti-materialist “I Don’t Want Your Presents” and even give a shout out to Canada. Honestly the song is not so much anti-holiday as anti-consumerist but given that it attacks a key element of the holy trinity of modern Christmas (e.g. Santa, presents, and that historical dude having a birthday) it goes into the ‘anti’ lock-up. It’s just one of a load of great Christmas-critical tunes on their Just Not Quite … A Christmas Album (Vol. 2). Classic Pat strikes a different note of holiday misgiving with “I Got What I Wanted for Christmas.” Poor Pat. He’s got the girl, it’s Christmas morning, only he’s having second thoughts about the whole ‘I love you’ thing. Definitely awkward. Power pop workaholics The Photocopies aren’t taking a break this season but don’t be fooled by their seasonally-titled Cheer Up, It’s Christmas EP. More like Merry F-ing Xmas. In one song the protagonist takes 37 seconds to confront and dump a cheating partner while in another they ooze desperate holiday insecurity about being alone on Christmas day. But the music is pretty peppy. “Christmas Alone” vibes a bit of “Crimson and Clover” in the very best way. Being down never sounded so good.

NYC’s Make Like Monkees are holiday mad. Just try counting up all the Christmas tunes on their multiple Bandcamp pages. Seemingly no aspect of the holiday scene goes unsung about, good or bad. “Christmas Hit-n-Run” is particularly lyrically brutal, with lines like ‘you’re the worst the gift I have got’ and ‘you’re everything a good gift’s not’. Ouch! But more from MLM later on. Mike Weatherford’s ramshackle ode “All I Want For Christmas is You (To Leave Me Alone)” is loaded with anti-Christmas sentiment but what makes it special is its comic timing. Again and again he turns what sounds like his initial lyrical meaning upside down. Ah, the burn. The Happy Somethings are anything but this season with three different versions of their self-described ‘jolly miserabilist festive ditty’ “It’s Christmas Time (We’re Miserable as Sin).” We’re featuring the ‘bah humbug’ version, naturally. And then Edward O’Connell captures a yuletide spirit I can really relate to with “MFC.” That stands for ‘merry effing xmas,’ pardon my French. Growing up, rarely did the season pass in my house without that expletive phrase putting in an appearance.

Our next three Christmas critics have all got a love/hate thing going on about the holidays which they regularly set to music. Christmas Aguilera put a new seasonal single out every year to raise money to end homelessness and poor housing. “This Sky” draws attention to how many people face a stark reality of rising bills and housing uncertainty, even as others throw back another rum and eggnog. Another holiday song machine is Rotterdam’s The Non-Traditionals. With pop culture-riffing album titles like Ok Christmas and All the Jingle Ladies they’re not a serious lot. Or aren’t they? Their ambitious proposal to gather up every “Plastic Tree” and burn them is either an inspired bit of political and environmental direct action or a recipe for very poor air quality. Leaning into the organ Make Like Monkees return now to pretty much kill the Christmas spirit with their revelation that “Santa Claus is Dead.” Hard to recover any festive bonhomie after that.

We wrap up this hate-the-holidays telethon where we began – with Hans. Can anybody really match his contempt for Christmas? Instead of giving the guy is focused on taking: the money, whatever Christmas Eve good feeling they were cooking up at the Nakatomi tower, and more than a few lives along the way. Luckily we have a song that perfectly captures all this and more from Athens, Georgia sparse-folkie Four Eyes. “Everything Will Change This Christmas: The Ballad of Hans Gruber” is a brilliant Freedom Fry-like rumination on the true meaning of Gruber, how he brings a special ennui and FU to holiday time. Really, Christmas isn’t complete without him.

You’re welcome, all you merry misanthropes. Turns out there is a crapping-all-over-Christmas playlist designed especially for you. Even if your heart really is two sizes too small, you needn’t just grind your teeth in silence anymore. Now you can sing out ‘bah humbug’ for all to hear!