My friend at The Best Indie Songs sent me a link to this song, suspecting it would be right up my alley. He was right. The video manages to capture both the look and feeling of the late 1970s tension between pub rock and new wave. And the swing! The song launches out of the gate with a hip-swaying, head bopping set of hooks reminiscent of many of the album cuts from Elvis Costello’s debut, My Aim is True. The guitars are pure late 1970s, sounding just a bit country rock but inching toward the punk side. Vocally, the single sounds like Dylan’s lost new wave album.
“When I Learned Your Name” is the second teaser single from Romano’s soon-to-be released new album, Modern Pressure, and it represents a serious change-up from his previous solo releases – sort of. 2016’s Mosey certainly laid the groundwork for this new direction, steering away from country to a more decidedly poprock sound with tracks like “Valerie Leon” and “Maybe Remember Me.” But taking his musical output as a whole, Romano is a musical chameleon, channeling 1960s traditional country on most of his solo records while covering edgier material on a number of side projects. In terms of his broader artistic vision, he reminds me of the super talented Gregory Pepper, who also combines great songwriting and performance, witty but incisive social commentary, and pretty stunning visual arts chops.
While this song is climbing our charts here at Poprock Record, check out Romano’s scene at his website and Facebook page.
Everything about this song says monster hit: the hooky lead line opening, the understated build up to the chorus, and then the amazing melodic payoff. Fire Town exude a western poprock sound that was all over the mid to late 1980s with bands like Rank and File, the Bodeans, True West, Blue Rodeo and the recently featured Soul Engines. Their material has just a hint of country influence, particularly in the vocals, usually set against a trebly lead guitar that all comes together in a solid hook-laden chorus. Fire Town had two albums in the late 1980s and handful of strong singles, like “Carry the Torch” and “Heart Country” from their their 1987 debut In the Heart of the Heart Country. But “She Reminds Me of You” from their 1989 record The Good Life suggested a band really just taking off. Then they broke up. Some of the band members reformed their old group, Spooner, which also has some great material, before going on to form the fabulously successful band, Garbage.
She Reminds Me Of You
A bit of the beach is just what we need in January and LA’s Blonde Company have that magic, blissed out, buzzed on sound down pat. “Slow Days Fast Company” from their 2012 EP Slow Daze kicks off with a trippy lead guitar line that lopes throughout the song, conjuring up great weather and top down cruising by the water. The band have a series of EPs of great material, including tracks like “Silver Jesus,” “High Times,” “Blazed,” and their latest single, “Sha La La.” But there is something about the feel of this single, with its hint of Sugar Ray’s confident tempo, that says this should have been a monster radio hit. Keep up with Blonde Company’s latest grooves 
Though they hail from Bowling Green, Kentucky, Cage the Elephant sound like they are right out 1960s London. On their most recent album, 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty, they’ve got a dirty late Beatles sound going on with “Cry Baby,” a London blues vibe on “Mess Around,” and even psych up the rock and roll on the absurdly-titled “Portuguese Knife Fight.” But the clear hit single for me on this album is the 1960s Rolling Stones ringer “Cold Cold Cold.” Check out the hyper cool guitar lick opener that draws you in while vocalist Matt Schultz exudes a kind of Jagger-like delivery that is poised and riveting. The fuzzed out lead guitar break is just the icing on this cake.
Though it was released in May of 2015, is it really too late for Cheers Elephant’s “Airliner” to race up the charts? There have been slow building hits in the past. Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” did not take off on its initial release, only catching on with radio months later. “Airliner” is certainly deserving of such late recognition. The opening verse is delivered with a compressed vocal sound that channels 1970s AM radio and holds the listener in check until the chorus drops with a killer hook. As the band drops out momentarily, a rainbow-like harmony vocal sustains a chorus of longing for escape from the mundane ground in favour of the ease of flight on an airliner. As the chorus laments, “I walk around kicking trash up off the ground and I say I want my seat on an airliner …” The graphic for the single riffs off the 1960s ‘flight as party’ motif recently re-popularized in TV shows like Mad Men.
I was out for a run and this song came up on the playlist and I knew I had to post it. “Reason to Love” is a masterpiece of a single, a perfectly crafted piece of poprock. From the opening harmonica, to the killer organ, to the ever so slightly harmonic vocal, everything comes together in this late 1970s new wave remelding of so many elements of previous decades’ popular music.
It should have been a huge hit single, but it wasn’t. The band had one more major label release before disappearing into obscurity. A shame but the period between 1979 and 1983 produced an amazing array of great poprock performers – people like Marshall Crenshaw, Nick Lowe and bands like Rockpile, only some of whom made it into the charts. But you can rediscover the Laughing Dogs and their music 
I wanted to kick off this blog with a song that would capture the fun, joy, and exhilaration of poprock music. This recent song from Family of the Year does the job. In my alternate universe poprock world this song would be a giant hit, blaring out of AM radios across the continent. Family of the Year have made much pleasant pop music on previous releases, gaining some attention for their contribution to the Boyhood soundtrack (“Hero”) and with the lush Beach Boys-esque “Summer Girl” from their first release. But nothing that takes off quite like “Make You Mine”. The song kicks off with a simple piano riff, which is immediately echoed by the rhythm guitar, drawing you in with a classic poprock hook. The lyrics pay tribute to summer love, even if they are somewhat ambiguous about the singer’s intentions. For instance, when he says “All the boys and all the pretty girls, summer time I’m going to make you mine” is he suggesting he’s just not that fussy about which gender he ends up with? Such a sentiment would not be out of sync with today’s youth. The best of poprock makes you feel good and this song definitely delivers on that promise.Make You Mine