Tags
Adam Merrin, Always on the Run, An American Underdog, Andy Reed, Dave Rave, Ransom and the Subset, Summer Fiction, The Genuine Fakes, The Honeydogs
Before the I started this blog I already had a huge stack of material I’d been gathering for over a year or so – great stuff that deserves a wide audience, songs you might have missed. So today we go back to the vaults to ensure that rock and roll never forgets.
Andy Reed is a member of that immensely talented group, the Verve Pipe. Not only have they put out a load of great albums, including some for children (which is much harder to do well than most people think), the band has spawned of host of great solo projects. Reed’s band An American Underdog has one album, 2011’s Always On the Run, which is chock full of poprock gems like the carefree, hooky “I’ll Miss You Girl” and crunchy “Nothing I Can Do.” Also, check out Reed’s killer solo version of Elvis Costello’s “Crimes of Paris.” He takes just a bit of the edge off the Costello version and ups the pop quotient – lovely!
Like so many talented musicians of his generation, Adam Merrin has made his career by mostly placing his music in TV shows rather than releasing albums under his own name. But the two that have emerged, 2007’s Have One and 2009’s Have Another One, are delightful low key pop excursions. “Our Love is True” opens with a catchy guitar hook before leaning more on keyboards to drive the song while “Fallen for You” builds to a super chorus. “This is How You Are” has a great total sonic ambience, mellow but unrelenting.This is How You AreOur Love is True
Canadian Dave Rave keeps churning out great poprock. From a pretty stunning beginning playing on Teenage Head’s boppy single “Let’s Shake” back in 1980, Rave has branched out with a host of different solo projects over the years. Pick any period and you’ll find some great material. “All of the Love You Can Handle” is from his 2010 album Live with What You Know and what I like here is the strong vocal, just ever so slightly reminiscent of the Moody Blues in their more poprock period. This one will get in your head one night and fail to check out the next morning.
Reviewers often mention Summer Fiction and the Beach Boys in the same breath. Sure I guess its there in the same way that every artist with a wash of breathy background vocals and hints of 1960s melody is another bastard child of Brian Wilson. But I hear something much more original in Summer Fiction’s dialectical synthesis of 1960s influences. For instance, there is mordantly sad quality to the vocal style that contrasts the peppy upbeat harpsichord of “Chandeliers” that is pleasantly jarring. You know this guy is the broody poet type but, like Morrissey before him, he just has to juice the depressing lyrics with far out jangly guitars and hooks. I also love the quiet intensity of “Throw Your Arms Around Me” and the easy swing of “By the Sea” from the 2010 debut album. 2015’s Himalaya ups the jangle factor on tracks like “On and On” and the clearly Smithsian-influenced “Perfume Paper.”
What is it with Sweden these days? For a long time it seemed ABBA was it in terms of musical exports – now a flood of great acts are hitting the beach like a new invading force. The Genuine Fakes have a cute cover of Frozen’s “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” as well as a number of holiday tunes but these songs obscure their more serious material. “I Want to be a Stranger” is a good example, at times low key, at others killing it with strong hooks, great poprock vocals, and a groovy organ and guitars.I Wanna be a Stranger
The Honeydogs have all the markings of a classic rock and roll outfit – think Tom Petty and Heartbreakers or even the Replacements. Adam Levy writes everyman songs that are relate-able. There are too many choices from the catalogue I could make but I really like “Too Close to the Sun” from 2006’s Amygdala: the solid acoustic guitar backing, cool organ, tight vocals. This is poprock magic, a really perfect single. “Losing Transmissions” from 2001’s Here’s Luck is pretty special too in a more rock and roll vein. Check out their recent release Love and Cannibalism for more of same.
Over to the wet coast for Seattle’s Ransom and the Subset. This band’s 2014 album No Time to Lose deserves to be a big hit, the whole thing is solid and eminently enjoyable. Their love of Fountains of Wayne comes through but in a subtle way, for instance on tracks like “Questions” and “When Will I See You.” But the standout track is the amazing “Anna,” a single so perfectly sculpted into shape it screams AM radio hit.
Not forgetting means not being a stranger. So make sure to visit Andy Reed, Adam Merrin, Dave Rave, Summer Fiction, The Genuine Fakes, The Honeydogs, and Ransom and the Subset online.
I have Powerpopulist to thank for today’s content. Sometimes you’ve got to hear about it from far away to appreciate the hometown crews!
When artists go solo or come around sporting a new band the results can split three ways. They might come back sounding pretty much like they did when they left, which sometimes turns out well (I guess she really was the band …) or leads to disaster (hm, he really should have stuck it out with the other guys …). But sometimes they return with a markedly different sound, a result that some find disappointing but I often find refreshing and exciting. This post features three different artists defying expectations on their second time around.
Jim Adkins is the lead singer for Jimmy Eat World and you couldn’t get a more different take on him that this solo EP. The title track, “I Will Go,” kicks things off with sprightly clean acoustic guitar rhythm and a lovely swinging melody, later adding horns and electric guitar to what is a solid single. He applies a similar fresh treatment to Beck’s “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard.” Things get a bit edgier with his interesting take on an Everly Brothers’ b-side, “Give Me a Sweetheart,” featuring a double tracked harmony vocal and a guitar with an ominous rumble. But the EP’s highlight has to be his bleached-out, on-tender-hooks version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Adkins deliberately avoids hitting all the familiar notes of Lauper’s mega-hit arrangement, revealing a remarkably flexible tune underneath all Cyndi’s fun flash. I Will Go is a winner: every track on this six song release is value for money.I Will GoGive Me a SweetheartGirls Just Want to Have Fun
Drummers get a bad rap. Other than keeping time, expectations of what they will contribute are often low. They are seldom the singer or songwriter for their respective group. But here Donny Brown defies expectations. As drummer for the grungy nineties Verve Pipe, Brown gradually expanded his influence on the band from just playing his instrument early on to contributing nearly half the songs to their 2001 album Underneath. But nothing could prepare us for Brown’s solo outings where he writes, sings, plays guitar and drums, and goes in a completely different direction than his other gig. 
Brown has a great soft rock vocal style and the tunes on his first EP, Hess Street, run the gamut from lush spot-on 1970s pop (“Bitter Rival”) to amazing tin pan alley recreations (“Call Me”). A real stand out is the opening track, the McCartney-esque “Lucky Number” with its intriguing melodic twists and Band on the Run lead guitar. His follow up EP, the self-titled Donny Brown, continues in the 1970s vein with tracks like “Life of a Stranger” and “Reach Out” but increases the hook factor on other contributions, echoing just a bit of ELO at times. The marvelous “Now You Can Break My Heart” is a poprock masterpiece that will get in your head and stay there.
Is this the second or third time around for Aimee Mann? Ok, we’re bending the rules here to include The Both, her collaboration with Ted Leo. I can’t help but think that this record sounds like the one she could have recorded with hubby Michael Penn before he banished himself to scoring movies, if their few collaborative singles are anything to go by. But, no matter, this debut is a killer. Of our trio of offerings, it also represents the least departure from the artists’ original formula. Overall, it may sound a bit tougher than Mann’s solo material at times, but the songs are indelibly Mann-esque, with all her clever turns of phrase both lyrically and musically. While there are no weak tracks here I certainly hit replay on “Milwaukee,” “Volunteers of America,” and “Hummingbird.” If you’re a Mann fan, this is a must have. It will also have you checking out Leo’s back catalogue with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (hint: start with “Bottled in Cork”).MilwaukeeVolunteers of AmericaHummingbird
It’s end-of-the-year ‘best of’ list time and we here at Poprock Record wish to join the almost evangelical rush to judgment that accompanies such proceedings, though with a twist. I mean, who am I to say whose records are the best? If I put them up on the blog then you already know I think they are pretty great and worthy of Beatlesque adulation. Still, I do feel like shining an extra light on a few songs that just screamed ‘hit single’ to my 1970s AM radio-trained ears. So instead of a ‘top ten’ list I’ve assembled a list of twelve ‘missing’ hit singles, songs that would easily top the charts in my alternate poprock universe.
The Rifles are a monumental talent. Over five albums this east London band has honed sonic influences that include Oasis, the Jam, the Clash and host of other late seventies/early eighties bands into their own distinctive sound. Early records No Love Lost and Great Escape have a load of great songs like “She’s the Only One” and “The Great Escape” but things really take off for me with 2011’s Freedom Run. Check out “Long Walk Back” with its textbook perfect opening riff and shimmering vocals that draw you in while the hooks just won’t let go. Why this song didn’t zoom to the top of the charts is beyond me. The whole record is strong but the acoustic “Everline” is also a standout track. Since then two more albums only confirm this band’s strengths as songwriters and performers. 2014’s None the Wiser rocks with “Minute Mile,” a super single, and the lovely “All I Need,” another breezy tuneful acoustic-ish number. The band’s most recent release is 2016’s Big Life and there is no let up in the quality. If it were up to me, I would release “Wall Around Your Heart” as the potential hitmaker.Minute MileWall Around Your Heart
Some people are feeling pretty low. Now seems like a good time to visit the parallel but contemporary universe of Suzanne Vega. I discovered her debut album in the discard pile of the first (and only) commercial radio station I ever worked at in Smithers, British Columbia. It helped me survive that town. There was something poetic and ominous, alienated and soothing about that record. I spent a lot of late nights living within its sonic confines. A poet’s job is to help us cope with a world gone wrong. I think the Vega song for this moment is “When Heroes Go Down” from 1992’s 99.9F. Right now, the hero is not really any person but that sense of hope that people like to have around. It’s a catchy number, despite its message.
Who doesn’t like a variety pack? Six different choices for your ever changing musical tastes. First up: Birmingham, Alabama’s Act of Congress slather their ‘newgrass’ sound all over the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” and make it work. This is not an easy song to cover as it has such a signature Beatles’ vocal and musical sound but the band honours just enough of the original arrangement to make their own contributions really stand out. For instance, they nail the ‘paperback writer’ chorus harmony but then bend it in a new direction. The whole performance is solid, with banjo and fiddle somehow matching the rock swing of the original. So many covers of the Beatles rightly elicit a ‘why bother’ response but this one makes the cut.Paperback Writer
Best Coast have a great noise going on with their recordings, a steady drone that sounds like freshly-squeezed early sixties beach rock combined with a dollop of late sixties fuzzed out psychedelic guitar. Bethany Cosentino’s vocals often go someplace deep and moving, reminding me of Neko Case. There are so many great possible choices to feature from this band but I think “How They Want Me to Be” is such a lovely homage to late 1950s angst rock: simple in structure, striking in execution, particularly the vocal arrangement. I got to see them open for the Go Go’s summer tour in 2016 and though it seemed like a strange match up at first, their live version of the more recent single “California Nights” was nothing short of magical.How They Want Me to Be
Beverly have a guitar crunch that won’t quit on the splendidly retro-fifties “Honey Do.” The vocals seem understated at first but blossom into some great harmonies in the chorus. While this song garnered the most attention for the group, the whole 2014 debut album Careers is a shimmery rock and roll treat. 2016 marked a shift in sound and focus on The Blue Swell, with both guitars and vocals sounding a bit lighter and more poppy, but still hooky. “Victoria” captures this new direction nicely.
Black Honey offer a more theatrical bent with vocalist Izzy Baxter channeling a host of 1960s mannered female singers on “Spinning Wheel” with its Morricone western guitar riffs and ballad-style delivery. But the new “Hello Today” has Baxter going for a more straight out rock and roll sound, combining sixties and seventies influences. The song chugs along with catchy riffs and great vocals, superbly given visual expression in the band’s first video.
Really, The La’s come first in 1990 with their sole proper album, the self-titled The La’s. As countless re-releases since then demonstrate, the album was actually recorded a number of times through the late 1980s with different producers: John Porter (the Smiths), John Leckie (XTC), Mike Hedges (the Cure), but finally with Steve Lillywhite (Big Country, U2) who upon comparative listens of the different versions really did nail the proper mix. The band’s creative force, Lee Mavens, was like a mad scientist never happy with his formula. He argued that the band’s sound was looser than the smooth sound Lillywhite produced, something perhaps better captured on the amazing BBC sessions recorded mostly in the late 1980s and released in 2006. The La’s is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Leaving aside the monster single, “There She Goes Again,” picking out the best tunes from this record is kind of like picking out the best Beatles’ song from Revolver or Rubber Soul. No one is going to agree. But my own personal faves include the rollicking “Son of Gun,” the sweet downward drift of “Timeless Melody,” the freewheeling acoustic blues of “Doledrum” (particularly the sprightly BBC version), the great guitar hooks of “Way Out,” and the early Beatles sound of “I.O.U.”Son of a GunI.O.U.Doledrum (BBC 1987)
Cast features La’s cast off, John Powers, who stuck through the long multiple sessions for the La’s debut, only to leave shortly after to escape Maven’s dysfunctional approach to recording and focus on his own songwriting. Cast’s 1995 debut, All Change, has some of the La’s acoustic trappings but cast in a broader rock vein – less skiffle, more Who. The whole record is strong but “Sandstorm” and “Fine Time” stand out. And unlike The La’s, the record was a hit, producing four top 20 singles in the UK. Two years later Mother Nature Calls had a great acoustic number in “Live the Dream” as well a strong B-side with “Dancing on the Flames.” Two more albums followed but by 2001 the band was ready to split. But their 2012 comeback album, Troubled Times, suggested no diminution in the winning formula, with the swinging acoustic “Bad Waters” a definite highlight. A new record is set to be released this fall.Fine TimeLive the DreamBad Waters
Shack preceded Cast in forming but followed them in gaining commercial success, with the early version the band including Peter Wilkinson, who would leave to join Cast. After struggling to get three records out between 1988 and 1991 that went largely unnoticed, Shack resurfaced in 1999 with their big breakthrough record, HMS Fable, a seeming distillation of all the acoustic and poprock sounds of the previous decade. “Comedy” would prove to be the band’s biggest hit but “I Want You” should have been released as single with its swirling vocal arrangements and great hooks. Discovering Cast and Shack after all these years is kind of like finding another book by your favourite author who is now deceased – you didn’t expect to get it so you enjoy it all the more.ComedyI Want You
The 1960s were such an explosively original decade in music that countless bands just keep riffing off its influences. Hey, that’s OK if you want to be a bar band cover outfit, but with bands pushing original music it can sound more than a little derivative. The trick is to take your cherished influences and meld them into something new. Today’s bands all manage to signal where their debts lie while cashing out with something more original than just homage. Perth, Australia’s The High Learys walk the finest line on their earlier material with the catchy “Clear My Mind” mining organ riffs that sound like they were lifted directly from records by the Zombies or the Animals. But just one year later the band has transformed those influences into a more original, sixties-influenced indie sound on “Cabinet,” with its fabulous fuzzed out guitars and swirling organ. Roanoke, Virginia’s The Young Sinclairs acknowledge their love of sixties poprock but refuse to live in the past, as is apparent on the single “Girl, I’m for Real,” which effortlessly blends Bryds and REM influences into a new mix. Austin, Texas’ Whalers roll out a killer sixties guitar lick on “Cheat on Each Other” that has the hook and timbre of the original era but the vocals are pure 1990s.
Poprock Record 