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!

Singles for a snowy day

07 Wednesday Dec 2022

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Pictures of a snowy day are invariably idyllic but the reality can be much less so. All the more reason to supercharge your season with a blast of melody and some serious riffage. Here are 21 relatively new tunes to soundtrack your snow day.

Cambridge UK native Sean Trelford was only 14 when he recorded his debut album Care Home Party during lockdown in 2020, though the record is only just coming out now. Wow. This LP conjures up a bleak though still pleasing atmosphere of world weary solitude and an injured heart that seems beyond teen years. “Dearest One” is the smoothest slice of dire-sounding popcraft here and a great start to the album. Another impressive young talent that has a debut album out is Scott Robertson of Vapour Trails fame. Not surprisingly Footprints in the Butter is crammed full of enticing, intriguing and exciting jangle. The riffage here is so 1967! “Out of Service” starts with an alluring low-key reverby lead guitar line before opening up with harmony vocals that sound very Byrds or Monkees. On album number 4 Into Beautiful Blue Charlottesville, Virginia band Kingdom of Mustang take their self-described ‘alterna-poprock’ into a more XTC-meets-Crowded House territory. “All I Can Do” delivers the delightful melodic quirks we’d expect of those influences, wrapped in a timely lyrical message that ‘everyone laugh’ as a form of coping. On Ice Cream Chords musical refugee from the 1970s Ward White turns on the Cars filter, just to make what he’s doing even more interesting. The record has White’s standard seductive David Bowie/Bryan Ferry vocal attack but on “Mezcal Moth” this combines with a song style that is very Elvis Costello circa Imperial Bedroom. The result are pop magic in a three minute, 51 second dose. Nashville’s Passion Fruit Boys sound like a new wave version of Americana, combining a country-ish songwriting base with a 1980s synth pop finish. “Glad You Came” throws out a distinctive set of guitar riffs to lure you in, buffeted by dreamy keyboards and a Cactus Blossoms vocal delivery.

It’s pretty hard to improve on The Hollies, most especially their star single “Bus Stop.” Terms like ‘pop perfection’ originated with songs like this for good reason. But sometime Odds singer/axeman Murray Atkinson reinvents the song in a dramatic and exciting way, adding modern textures and a creative arrangement that both totally work. More remakes along these lines would not go amiss in my record collection. With Draw the Lucky Card Jack Skuller steps out from behind his similarly named band moniker The Skullers to officially go solo. The result is an eclectic a mix of indie rock and melody-infused singer-songwriter material. I hear a strong Squeeze imprint on “Asking for a Friend” songwriting-wise, with a very Josh Rouse vocal delivery. Jersey City’s Sunshine and Rain sound so Darling Buds or The Primitives to me. And that’s definitely a good thing. We’re going back a few years to the band’s 2018 album Beneath the Stars to rescue their utterly poptastic should-be hit single “It’s All in Your Mind.” Get ready to hit replay a few times on this. Turin, Italy’s The Wends were briefly Smile and put out the jangle-fabulous single “What a Heart is For.” The name change alters nothing in their winning melodic chemistry. Relive the 1980s UK sibilant guitar revival via their new EP It’s Here Where You Fall. Robert Sherwood writes about music like a spurned true believer with an intellect that is ruthless in its dissection of his unearned musical roots and a heart big enough to still love them. Those influences are all over his new single “Coming Home.” The song starts out with deceptive simplicity, it has an almost dirge-like quality. But then he layers in some serious XTC/Peter Gabriel-like complexity that is utterly captivating. More please!

Not satisfied with releasing a killer album earlier this year (It Should Have Been Tomorrow) Love, Burns is back with late autumn EP Fade in the Sun. The effort leans country but in a indie rock artist-does-country sort of way. The choice for single has to be “Pencils.” The melding of hooky lead guitar lines with the sonorous keyboard backing perfectly suit the Lloyd Cole vocals to a T. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Philadelphia’s Travel Lanes. New single “I Might Need Help” is in the ballpark of Tom Petty and Fastball, it sounds both classic and not exactly like anybody else. Prelude to a new album? Let’s hope so. I’ve been a bit slow to notice powerpop super group The Andersons! and their album debut Family Secrets. With jangle giants Derrick Anderson and Robert Rist involved how could the results not be solid? The whole record is a treat but I’m singling “Falling Out” as the must-hear song. There’s a Difford and Tilbrook feel to the tune but a totally Big Star coating on the performance. The Sighs’ 1996 single “Make You Cry” was an instant replay classic for me. So when I discovered I missed their most recent album release from 2019 I knew I had to make up for lost time. The title track from Tearing My Heart Again is another soft rock pop delight in an Outfield or Hooters style. He’s the hardest working man in Minnesota show business with 17 albums to his name and no signs of slowing down. Dan Israel’s new album is Seriously and I’m showcasing opening cut “Happy for Now.” It’s got a late 1970s SoCal vibe, think Jackson Browne or Walter Egan.

The Sighs – Tearing My Heart Again

San Francisco’s Richard Turgeon is a one-man rock and roll machine, pumping out timeless west coast-themed ‘new vintage rock,’ as one reviewer dubbed it. His new single “Without You” rings out with Turgeon’s signature guitar sibilance and country rock harmony vocals. The song sounds like summer to me. Turning to stars of yesteryear, it must be great to have been part of a legendary band. But you know what’s better? Having something new that lets people know you’re not just living in the past. Bruce Foxton nails that brief on his new album with Russell Hastings, The Butterfly Effect. There are a lot of great tunes here but I’d single out “She Said,” a winning slab of jangle-infused song-writing and performance. Grant Lindberg’s got a new free single playing over on Bandcamp. “Anything But You” is a bit dreamy, with a poppy Weezer feel to the proceedings. Like the crack dealer, this free sample is designed to get you hooked. I think it will work. The Laughing Chimes follow-up to their critically-acclaimed debut album In This Town is just an EP worth of tunes, Zoo Avenue, and like its predecessor it’s a jangle-fest. Your taster selection is title track “Zoo Avenue,” a track vibing early REM so hard it’s like I’m 19 all over again. Another special dose of jangle is delivered by St. Paul, Minnesota’s The Persian Leaps. The band usually offers up its own distinctive, original brand of hooky material but this time they’ve got a cover with a unique story. “Maybe Time Will Let Me Forget” is a lost gem from an obscure 1967 band, The Coachmen, who happened to include future folk pop giant Dan Fogleberg and Jon Asher, uncle to Persian Leaps driving force Drew Forsberg. The original is quaint but this remake really fulfills its potential.

Rounding out this snow session is what I’ve crafted as a double-sided single from Richard X. Heyman’s stellar new album, 67,000 Miles an Album. Heyman’s roots stretch back to the 1960s via legendary work with The Doughboys and a relentless release of top notch solo records. The guy appears to be unstoppable. “Crave” and “When the New Dawn Comes” cover both sides of the powerpop canon, the former charging forward sixties-rock-style while the latter sparkles and shines melodically in a more mellow way.

Richard X. Heyman – Crave
Richard X. Heyman – When the New Dawn Comes

Snowed in? Relax. You can set your locked-in time to music with a raft of these snow-proofed singles.

Photo featuring exclusive Poprock Record model Rob Elliott courtesy Swizzle Gallery.

Viva el Poprock en español!

02 Friday Dec 2022

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Spain is undeniably the continental European country most holding down the power pop fort. Just why this Iberian locale is so taken with jangly guitars and hooky melodies is unclear. But to honour their commitment today’s post celebrates melodic rock and roll sung in Spanish. Whether the bands come from within or outside Spain’s national borders, no matter. We’re ready to hit play.

Lisasinson hail from Valencia and come on like a female version of The Happy Fits. In other words, slightly punky, cleverly melodic and irrepressibly energetic. Their 2021 debut album Perdona Mamá is like a shot of adrenalin with jumping dance numbers like “Corazon” and “Discoteca.” But then there’s the more subtle Pixies-like musical hues all over “Todo Me Da Igual” and “Canción Para Mi Crush.” This year has seen the release of a few new singles that suggest a new musical direction, like the “Dear Prudence” vibe haunting “No Sé Muy Bien” or the dreamy pop aura coating “Últimamente.” Heading into central Spain we can spend some time with Madrid’s Aiko El Gupo. Described as pop-punk by their record label, what I hear on their 2020 album Va Totalmente En Serio … is some pretty tightly focused fun. With a lot of guitars. “Quiero conocer (por tu actitud)” just rockets along while “Me parece muy fuerte” floats on a cushion of vintage organ (and more guitars). “Amigos para nunca (confía y te la lían)” ups the pop quotient in a thoroughly delightful way. “La Peste” has that late 1960s garage pop feeling. Basically you can press play on this album and let it wallpaper your space.

Slipping over toward the jangle neighbourhood of Madrid we find Juvenilia. On their self-titled 2016 release there’s trebly guitars and more than a bit of retro rock and roll sound, leaning hard on a particularly sharp but pleasing organ sound. Hear how the band use it to drive “Tu Esqueleto.” By contrast “Extraños” lets the retro guitar take the front seat. My favourite tune has to be “La Oscuridad” with its great 1960s guitar licks, though “Fiesta Secreta” comes a close second. Those harmony vocals! The record ends impressively with “La Reina Del Sol” and its almost “Chimes of Freedom” melodic arc ringing out. Returning to the Mediterranean coast we can visit with Islandia Nunca Quema (translation: Iceland Never Burns) in Rues and Tarragona in Catalonia. On their recent self-titled album we find a different take again on the poprock genre, a bit more loose, not in as much of hurry to get anywhere. I love the easygoing rhythm of “Elgin Baylor” with its Yarbirds-meets-Dire Straits atmosphere. The guitar tone on this album is utterly beguiling. What’s not to love about the almost pop jazz elan of “Ego Trip”? So seductive. “Camisa de cuello Mao” turns up the jangle without increasing the pace all the much. Altogether this is a warm album to enjoy being around, with stellar guitar shading and a strong vocal presence.

It will take a jet plane to get to our next act who reside in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But it will be worth the trip. Everything about Los Andes fits out brief. This year’s Backgammonesque doesn’t just riff on the title of Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque, its got the sound down cold. “Julie” busts out like the hit single headed straight for AM radio, a relentless less-than-two minutes of song with some light FOW shading here and there. “Mirinda” has a more laidback TF tempo until breaking out a bit more in the chorus. Another should-be single is “No hace falta el mar,” featuring the fabulous Hank Idory. Other highlights include “Fuera de control” with its Dropkick-meets-late Beatles feel, particularly on the background vocals, and the 1960s folk rock-inflected “Yo sabia.” You won’t go wrong with this album – every song is a delight. Wrapping up our Spanish tour we travel to New York City. Surprising? Not really. NYC is where every language lands when it touches down in America. This time our Spanish language song is courtesy of The Silos from their wonderful new album Family. Again, we can see here how serious but careful organ work makes a good song great. “Puede Sur” wends along, supported on a foundation of warm, retro organ, occasionally kicking up some exciting guitar solos. And the rest of the album is damn good too (though sung in English).

You don’t need to speak Spanish to feel the love on these recordings. Thank you Spain and Spanish singers from around the world. Long live Spanish poprock!

Top illustration: fragment of Buen Humor cover by Castillo c. 1926.

It must be The Rallies!

28 Monday Nov 2022

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Tacoma’s favourite sons are a back with a teaser single from a whole new album that will be coming in the new year. For me, it can’t come soon enough. The Rallies burst on the indie music scene with their strong debut album Serve in 2017 and followed that up with the terrific Upside Down two years later. Their main strength was in combining memorable tunes with some straightforward, just slightly Americana-meets-jangle playing. A quick listen to their new song suggests album number three is going to be just as good. “Must Be Love” establishes itself quickly with the band’s signature rhythm guitar hooks and uplifting harmony vocals, adorned with jangling lead guitar runs in all the right places. The tune sounds deceptively simple but the genius is the band’s careful arrangement of all the elements. You can hear a bit of Wilco here, some late solo John Lennon, and a host of those 1980s jangle bands.

What makes The Rallies so special? Sure, other bands have got jangle. And there’s plenty of new tunes coming out all the time. But The Rallies play with a unique kind of heart. There’s some distinctive alchemy that goes on in their songs that set them apart.

Get on over the bandcamp to collect this new single and get the early word on the next album.

Even more 50 foot women: Kate Clover, Linda XO, and Madeline Rosene

24 Thursday Nov 2022

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Why focus a post on women? After all, it’s not like we focus one on men and their accomplishments. Or don’t we? In a way nearly all posts about rock and roll are about men because men dominate the music industry. Despite comprising more than 50% of the human race research on gender and popular music finds that women total only 20% of popular music performers, 12% of songwriters and just 3% of producers. And they mostly go it alone, largely performing as solo artists. Just 7% of popular music features women in bands. Now the typical response from the gallery at this point might be something like ‘well, maybe listeners just don’t prefer the music women are putting out.’ But as we’ll show in today’s post, that’s bogus. Women rock and in the very best melodic ways.

Forget the crimson, it’s all Clover on my music player right now. Kate Clover is a rock and roll force to be reckoned with. The internet is chock full of glowing notices for her debut album Bleed Your Heart Out and deservedly so. The album opens with a bass guitar rumble that kickstarts a dance party that just won’t quit. “Crimewave” conjures up the heat of the club and a dance floor pulsing with bodies. And things just keep getting more and more intense from there. Reviews lean on ‘punk’ to describe what is going on here but I hear more of the rock and roll reaction to the punk scene, how it added a dynamic and exciting edge to bands like Blondie and the Pretenders. The Chrissie Hynde feel is definitely there on “Gnarcissist” and “Heaven Down Here.” I hear a bit of Liverpool’s Zuzu on “Channel Zero” and “Pleasure Forever,” the latter also featuring some mesmerizing, kinetic electric guitar work. I love the catchy harsh jangle defining “Love You to Death” while the vocal reminds me of a punky revival of The Motels’ Martha Davis. The Davis vibe comes back again for me on “Daisy Cutter.” And who wouldn’t love a jump rocker with a dash of Sergio Leone like “Follow My Heart”? This album is a relentless rocking affair in the best way. Once you hit play there’s no way to turn it off until its done.

When I got wind of Linda XO’s “California Girl” I didn’t connect the dots to her work with poprock masters The Orion Experience, despite reviewing a number of their records. But the more I dug into her catalogue the more obvious the links were. First up, “California Girl” is the totally poptastic new single from her upcoming 2023 album Donuts and Flowers. You need only listen to the first few lines to hear the Mike Viola hooks on this Candy Butchers cover. Hard to do but Linda XO brings out even more of the tune’s earwormy melody than the original, sounding not unlike a number of Viola-produced projects e.g. Kelly Jones’ SheBang album. From there I went back in time, checking out her 2021 Linda XO EP and 2020’s Stupid Love. I wasn’t disappointed. The tracks on Linda XO EP have a sophistico-pop elan, vibing a bit of The Sundays and Ivy. Stupid Love resurrects the world of mid-1960s UK dollybirds and American westcoast pop songters but filtered through a more modern pop sensibility, kinda like what Sharleen Spiteri did on her 2008 LP Melody. “I Think I Love You” is a case in point with its saucy soul groove and early 1960s pop elan. Other tracks like “Fun” and “Stupid Love” sound more 1980s-edgy alt-pop. But the variety doesn’t stop there. You’ve got “Jing a ling” with its Ike Reilly talking-song bounce or “Leona” showcasing a rhythmic rock and roll lurch reminiscent of Marshall Crenshaw’s “Someday Someway.” Personally I dig “Moving On” as just a straight-up good-time radio single. And that’s barely half the record. Like anything from The Orion Experience this record is just so much irrepressible fun. Seems the solo apple doesn’t fall far.

On “Out of My Mouth” Madeline Rosene starts out like Sinead O’Connor but somewhere segues into Tracy Thorn. So the vocals are pretty up front here, but not in that vocal pyrotechnics style so prevalent today. Instead Rosene’s style is alluring, drawing you into a tapestry of sounds, alternatively comforting and challenging. As an LP, that’s Everyday Existential Crisis brought into focus, an album of many moods. “Out of My Mouth” starts out light, like an early morning walk in the park. Then “Words” turns meditative and ethereal, a lovely number whose low-key melody gets into your head. “Burn” shifts the mood into a contemporary great American songbook style. And so on. Rosene just keeps shifting the emotional focus song by song but somehow establishes a coherent ambience to the whole undertaking. Check out how “Hearts on Fire” lets the pumping piano chords drive the song, interspersed with more reflective moments. Shifting down, title track “Everyday Existential Crisis” has a carefully crafted acoustic Jill Sobule intimacy, though it could fit on any early Everything but the Girl album. “Lobotomy” has the sound of a single to me, particularly when it picks up tempo a third of the way through. Or maybe the hit single is the 1990s dark pop aura all over the Liz Phair-ish “Sugar” that wraps up the album? I can’t decide. What I do know is that Everyday Existential Crisis is a now record, capturing the emotional texture of our musical times. It’s intense, sometimes seemingly ambivalent, but curious and reassuring all at the same time.

Towering over us, these 50 foot women have got the rock and roll stuff of your dreams. Just click the links to make them real.

Photo: Fragment of “La formation de la personnalite,” collage by Jacques Rozier.

Shaming the shameless: Squeeze “Food for Thought”

17 Thursday Nov 2022

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Squeeze are famous for being cheery blokes. Friendly, affable, seemingly always up for laugh. Definitely guys to head down to the pub with. When I finally got to see them live in Manchester in 1988 the show was everything I’d hoped for and more. The band and the fans interacted like long lost pals. I even got to meet them after the show and they chatted with me like a neighbour in the street. What more could I ask for? Well, as a political scientist by trade, I’m always impressed when popular culture icons use their fame to draw attention to politics. And that’s what Squeeze does with their brand new single and EP of the same name Food for Thought.

Now, this is not the first time the band have gone political. In 2016 the band amended the lyrics to their song “Cradle to Grave” to defend public housing and embarrass the Conservative Prime Minister when he rubbished the welfare state on a BBC chat show they were both appearing on. And the band’s early work was notable for its ‘kitchen sink drama’ themes that focused on the plight on the working class, most notably on tracks like “Up the Junction” from Cool for Cats (which took its name from Neil Dunn’s 1963 novel) or “Separate Beds” from Argybargy. But as band member Glenn Tilbrook relates, “I had my head up my arse for a good deal of time as far as politics was concerned. I was blissfully unaware of the impact of stuff on people, I was in my own little bubble of success.” Now the band returns to social commentary, giving voice to the growing sense of anger with the state of economic inequality in present day Britain. In interviews accompanying the new EP Tilbrook is pretty clear where he stands.  “[Politicians] just look the other way. I’m fed up with it. I think a lot of people are. Most of us have more empathy than that. But we’re driven by a hard-right ideological government that can’t see that, which makes me very fearful.” The EP will raise funds for food banks but the lyrics to “Food for Thought” suggest that Squeeze’s political critique goes far beyond charity.

As an EP Food for Thought is basically a glorified single, showcasing a new song and then offering new recordings of older songs and a few live recordings. The dour “The Very First Dance” from 1982’s Sweets From a Stranger gets an uptempo reinvention while “Electric Trains” from 2008’s Ridiculous is given a breezy redo. Live tracks include “Slap and Tickle” from Cool For Cats, “In Qintessence” from East Side Story, and “The Day I Get Home” from 1991’s Play. And these are great. But what about the new song? People, it’s up to the band’s very highest standards. Musically “Food for Thought” harkens back to the band’s late 1980s poprock sound on records like 1987’s Babylon and On, perhaps a bit less new wavey than their early records, less rootsy than post 1990s material. The track is deceptively peppy but lyrically moving in naming the struggles so many are going through and relentless in its critique of those responsible.

These four lines really capture this dual focus:

Pay less taxes ditch red tape
Cosy contracts for their mates
Cutting help right to the bone
Empty stomachs freezing homes

In speaking to the motivation behind the song Tilbrook eloquently captures what is and isn’t going on: “The social security system was set up to save people who didn’t have work, and now people are earning wages and it’s still not enough. More and more people are being pushed into a position they have no control over. With more austerity on the way and interest rate rises, it’s going to get worse.”

I’ve loved Squeeze for more than three decades, ever since I heard “Another Nail in My Heart” on Vancouver’s CKLG back in 1980. But I’ve never been more proud of them, turning their talents on this new song to rally listeners to attend to the great political crises of our time. Do your part, get your copy of Food for Thought now and go see the band if you’re lucky enough to live where they’re taking the tour.

Mainlining rock and roll: The Kryng, The Veras, and Chris Lund

15 Tuesday Nov 2022

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Today’s selections lean into rock side of our poprock brief. These are bands that know the joy of a good rocking out session. Definitely worth mainlining or, as the dictionary says, to ‘enjoy without restriction.’

I’ve been itching to write about The Kryng’s new LP Twelve Hymns to Syng Along ever since I snagged a copy a few months back. Fans will return to hear more of the 1960s-inspired, garage rock Beatlesque tuneage that filled out previous records. New listeners may hip to the Merseybeat but also appreciate the quality of the songs. “Our Love” kicks thing off on the right jangle footing. “Get” steps on that pedal, twinning harmony vocals and propulsive guitar work. Then the album alternates between dance stompers like “Deep Inside” and more period set pieces like “Roll-Anda” with its distinctive Monty Norman 007 aura. Or compare how “She’s a Dream” paints a psychedelic pop delight while “Don’t You Know” is a driving garage rocker that falls somewhere between The Yardbirds and the Smithereens. For Beatlemaniacs, “She Knows My Name” and “It Disappears” vibe a Beatles ’65 ambience. And then there’s “Although You’re Gone” which sounds both old and new, conjuring Rubber Soul, Bryds, and Monkees influences but also reminds me of Mississippi power pop outfit Lolas. Another hard to place number is “I Know ‘Cause I See” which sounds so now but also like a poppy version of Cream. Warm up the turntable, you will definitely satisfy your many party moods with Twelve Hymns to Syng Along.

Another highly anticipated release for me has been The Veras’ V is for Vera. The band teased us with a few early singles last year but then taunted us for months about the coming album. Now it’s here and what stands out for me is the tightness. This is a band that has played countless shows together over the years and it shows. “Sevens and Nines” jumps to it, opening the album with big organ and a swinging chunky guitar rhythm that defines this album. The influences here are strongly 1970s – Queen, Bowie, even Supertramp – but the output often slips into the 1980s. Listening to “If You Ain’t Got Love” I hear a touch of Madness filtered through 10cc. “She’s Into Magic” is another one that sounds so Farfisa organ fantastic. Another organ-centric number is “Winner Not a Sinner” with its ABBA vibe. Fun is definitely on the agenda of this album whether it’s the early 1970s sunshine pop feel on “Are You Having Fun Yet?” or the more Harrisonian psychedelic groove of “Ordinary Fun.” Then things shift pop punky on “Bad Dream” and glammy with “Spaceman.” “I Should Know Better” and “My Country Girl” have the big AM pop radio sound I associate with 10cc cut with a bit of Queen. The should-be hit single here is “Paper Cup Telephones” with its perfect meld of slick vocals, organ and guitars, animated by an on-point 1970s pop song swing.

With Indian Summer Chris Lund has produced a most perfect car+summer+girls rock and roll record. Is that Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander guest vocalizing on opening track “Everything is Fine”? No, that’s just Lund nailing the Cheap Trick formula. The song has got the vocal, the edgy guitar, and the band’s signature hint of menace in the melody. Or one can hear a bit of Brendon Benson here. But hey, it’s all Lund really – the genius is in how he puts it all together. This early excitement is maintained on title track “Indian Summer” as the sonic palate expands to a broader set of 1970s melodic rockers, perhaps a bit of April Wine. “Mary Jane” has a very Beatles feel, but like if they’d carried on into the 1970s while “Guarantee” has a “Don’t Let Me Down” pacing with an Odds-like melodic punch. In many ways the guitar playing is the star of this record, anchoring the various stylistic jaunts. “Down the Line,” “Killing Kindness,” and “Time Runnin’” show what Lund can do with a guitar, casting alluring lead lines against a solid wall of rhythm guitar. Then “Please Me” offers up a stark, mostly acoustic guitar number accompanied by very emotive Lennon-esque vocals, with some nice instrumental change ups throughout. The should-be power pop hit single here is “Military Girl.” This one’s got a killer set of hooks with just right level of jarring edge to offset the sweetness. While the weather may turn Chris Lund’s Indian Summer will always be in season.

Sometimes you’ve just got to go direct to the rock and source material. Today’s acts combine hooks with a rocking edge that can be oh so satisfying.

Photo credit: Herve Gloaguen “Hippies” from Le Livre de la Sante by Joseph Handler (Monte Carlo: Andre Sauret, 1968), volume 13: Adolescence, Hygienes, Viellissement.

Return engagement: Edward O’Connell and Steve Robinson & Ed Woltil

08 Tuesday Nov 2022

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A return engagement with a favourite artist is something special precisely because you’ve got a sense of what is coming but not exactly what may arrive – it’s just that tension creates a unmatched sense of anticipation. Today’s post features two such favourites indeed, artists inspired by some of the legends of my poprock pantheon.

It seems Washington D.C. music veteran Edward O’Connell has doubled the wait time between albums, from four years between albums one and two to eight years getting out album three. But wow has it been worth the wait. Feel Some Love is a great big bevy of post pub rock goodness. Anyone familiar with O’Connell’s past work knows that his basic musical portrait is a triptych of Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty influences. They’re all here, though perhaps with a splash more Costello colour on these 15 featured cuts. “Golden Light” opens things with a poppy Tom Petty meets Elvis Costello demeanor. There’s a really great piano and organ tension driving this song along, topped with some distinctive lead guitar work. Then title track “Feel Some Love” slips in a bit of pop soul, particularly in the chorus. Overall there’s less of the Tom Petty rocking feel to this outing, though Petty influences are definitely there on “Florida Man,” “Things Have Really Changed,” and “Sad and Lonely,” the latter a cover of 1980s DC indie band The Neighbors. The vibe is more latter day Nick Lowe in his poprock elder statesman guise: more mellow, countryish at times, with the same devlish wordplay. “Buddy Crocker” is obviously very Lowe but also check out “Who’s Watching Your Baby” with its spot-on Paul Carrack organ sweep and understated yet alluring vocal. Reminds me of all those obscure sixties numbers Nick has been crafting into mini pop gems. For a dose of solid mid-period Costello there’s “I Got a Million of Em,” “All My Sins,” and “As No One Once Said,” the latter with some sweet Harrisonian lead guitar. “You Wish” is something a bit different emoting a poppy feel reminiscent of the late 1970s post-folkies Ian Matthews and Gerry Rafferty. For should-be hit single, I’d vote for “A Thousand Pardons” just for the solid guitar hooks. Welcome back Ed, I’m definitely feeling some love for this LP.

On Shadow Play Steve Robinson and Ed Woltil reunite to further their exploration of the various hues of folk rock, both light and dark, poppy and austere. Some of the songs are unabashedly AM folk pop, like opening cut “Chasing Angels” which reminds me of 1980s pop folk artists like Al Stewart. Or there’s “Lifeboat” or “The Way You Love Him” with their very mainstream pop folk sound circa 1979.  Both “Life on a Trampoline” and “On Your Side” reach a bit further back to the previous decade, mixing Beatles with Pink Floyd influences on the former or Cat Stevens late 1969 folk-inflected pop on the latter. Things do get more indie on “Kickstart” which vibes an XTC folk feel a la Mummer, with a bit of Peter Gabriel in the vocal. Then the album goes darker. Cuts like “Ultramarine” sound a bit more dire, like a poppy Richard Thompson, while “Vulgar Tongue” has an Appalachian folk flavour melded with psychedelic elements. I love the austere and stark folk canvas of “One Day Never” and “On My Way to My Appointment with Death,” very similar to recent efforts from Tacoma Washington’s Vanilla. “Shadow Wall” is yet another different flavour of folk, this time in tune with more serious folkies like Bruce Cockburn, though with a dab of Beatles melodically. Album wrap up song “Make Amends” lends a White Album folk atmosphere to its very timely sentiment. All in all another folk-tastic release from guys who just won’t limited by a genre label.

I’m loving this return engagement with O’Connell, Robinson and Woltil but perhaps you’re seeing the show for the first time? Click on the links above to get caught up with these superior showmen.

Spotlight single: The Primitives “Don’t Know Where to Start”

02 Wednesday Nov 2022

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Your November pick-me-up is a fabulous new single from The Primitives. It’s been 4 plus years since the band’s last EP New Thrills and, frankly, we could use some. “Don’t Know Where to Start” kicks off like an early 1960s sock hop hit, all drums and snaky organ work. But 17 seconds in that distinctive jangly Paul Court guitar slides in to liven up the proceedings. From there it’s all ‘get those shoes onto the dance floor’ hustle. Tracy Tracy is in fine form vocally and the organ runs are like a special guest star on this track. The single’s b-side “Till I’m Alive” features a vocal turn from Paul Court and it’s pretty understatedly groovy, balancing Court’s lowkey gravelly vocals with a beat that just won’t quit. The bass guitar lines really pop throughout the song, giving it a solid bass and drum heft. These tracks are paired with a live version of “Panic” and a fuzzy acoustic rendition of “Don’t Know Where to Start” on an extended single version of the release, due out in January digitally. Can a new Primitives long-player be far off? Positive vibes people, let’s keep sending those positive vibes (and $).

While we wait, let’s explore some lesser-known Primitives cuts. These are songs I haven’t found included on any official album releases or compilations LPs. “Always Coming Back” was the b-side to “Lose the Reason” but didn’t make the cut for Spin-O-Rama album that came out a bit later. Upon release the band described the song as akin to Bobbi Gentry or Nancy Sinatra joining the Velvet Underground and covering the Beatles. Personally, I think the lead guitar has a very CCR tone. Then there’s the airy, somewhat acoustic “Never Kill a Secret” that appeared on the Coventry-area sampler The Alternative Sounds. Sort of an English take on early 1970s California sunshine pop. Finally, I love the vibe all over the band’s cover of The Aislers Set’s “Been Hiding” for the Girlsville benefit compilation Be Gay, Do Crime! The band give the song a classic Primitives treatment.

Don’t know where to start? Start here (and then work your way back through that fantastic Primitives catalogue here).

Fright night set list

29 Saturday Oct 2022

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Given the everyday horror of the past few years – war, pandemic, the political right – it’s getting hard for a humble, candy-fueled monster holiday to compete. Luckily we still have the music. This post celebrates fright night with a set list of seasonally appropriate tunes covering a good range of monster diversity.

Justin Roberts gets called a kids songster but I think his tunes are for everyone who’s not quite finished growing up. He’s fun and whimsical and not afraid to be silly. And his songs will get stuck in your head like that gum on the underside of your chair at assembly. His “Trick or Treat” captures all the action of the nighttime candy run from a kid’s point of view and thus is an appropriate opening to our proceedings. The Freddie Steady 5 also strike just the right seasonal mood with their spirited cover of P.F. Sloan’s “Halloween Mary.” They take the tune out its original folk rock register to deliver a more pub rock easy-going party feel. Let the party begin!

Justin Roberts – Trick or Treat
The Freddie Steady 5 – Halloween Mary

Alright kids, we know you’re mostly here for the candy but deep down you’re also up for a bit of fright. Time to bring in the monsters. Don’t worry, we’ll ease you in with the pleasant Byrdsian psychedelic  vibes of Pseudonym on “Before the Monsters Came.” Then the elusive and mysterious Clovis Roblaine sounds like he’s cooped up in his castle on a hill at the start of his “Monster Love.” But as he gets going we’re transported to what sounds like a 1970s riff on all those old cartoony drive-in movie monster encounters. Like Rocky Horror but without all the cross-dressing. Then there’s Timmy Sean’s “She’s a Monster” from his poprock musical A Tale From the Other Side where the creature sounds very 50 foot women-ish put through a serious ELO soundtrack filter. So far the monsters are pretty low on terror but come with popcorn.

Clovis Roblaine – Monster Love

One band reliably up for a holiday musical tribute is Vista Blue. “Boy Beast” is the flip side to their Halloween single release “Victor Crowley” and I liked this b-side just a bit more for its imagery and pulsing energy. The band also appear on Radiant Radish’s timely, pumpkin-approved collection Time of the Season. The whole album is great, it’s free, and it also includes a band called The John Carpenter’s The Things doing a mad rush of a song called “Here’s The Thing.” It’s poppy and punky with some great early 1980s synth background runs holding everything together. Aimee Mann’s “Frankenstein” is obviously on point for our theme. Do I really need much of an excuse to include anything by Mann? No. But listen to the sophisticated lyrics here amid a layering in of so many interesting musical adornments. Talent bleeds out of this gal like an open wound. Indie darlings Kiwi Jr. serve up some “Wicked Witches” because it can’t be All Hallow’s Eve without some serious sorcery.

Aimee Mann – Frankenstein

Now if we really want to move into more scary territory we’ve got to get to the zombie and vampire portion of our programming. Modern horror definitely leans on these two players to up the terror quotient. Sal Baglio uses his band The Amplifier Heads to bring The Band back from the dead with his spot-on Band-like reincarnation of their sound on “Zombie Moon.” Warning, things get a bit hairy near the end (as they should). During a zombie apocalypse it’s all too easy to forget your partner’s many co-dependent observations about your shortcomings. Luckily we have B.A. Johnston to keep us focused with “You Will Miss Me When the Zombies Come.” Not that you’ll remember. Ok, on to vampires with The Orion Experience’s disco poprock vamp of a tune “Vampire.” The ‘ooh ooh’s so remind of those creepy Tommy Lee Jones photo shoot scenes from The Eyes of Laura Mars. Tired of those impersonal representations of vampires? Italy’s Bee Bee Sea give them some personality on the rollicking “Vampire George.” I love the Together Pangea vibe on this performance, combining swing with hooks and just a touch of punky swagger.

Our last stop on the fright night scare tour is ghost city, just so the mood will linger. Copenhagen’s Surf School Dropouts are such a curious outfit. Are beaches in Denmark much like California? Because they’ve got the California beach sound down. And just how hard is surf school anyway? Whatever. “Attack of the Ghost Hot Rods!” takes us back into the fun zone of this holiday with goofy lyrics, sound effects, and killer guitar licks. By contrast, Look Park’s “I’m Going to Haunt This Place” is more mellow, a bit maudlin. Haunting really.

Well kids I hope the candy was worth it. Because soon the frights won’t end when the monsters take off the mask. They’ll just be starting.