Cover me! Kirsty MacColl’s “They Don’t Know”

05 Friday Feb 2021

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The guitar harmonics intro to Kirsty MacColl’s original version of “They Don’t Know” is just so perfect, conjuring both the Phil Spector and British girl singer traditions. But ultimately it’s the strength of the songwriting that makes this song a classic and eminently coverable. As one internet commentator quipped, the track is ‘bombproof.’ After listening to a couple dozen versions I’d have to agree.  Still, MacColl’s version remains definitive for me.

Kirsty MacColl

MacColl’s 1979 original was her recording debut and an immediate hit with British radio. But distribution problems with Stiff Records prevented the single from making the official charts. In fact, most fans would have to wait for MacColl’s 1995 album Galore to get their hands on it. In the interim comedian Tracey Ullman took the song to number 2 in the UK and number 8 in the US in 1983. Ullman cranked the sixties references in the tune to the max, turning it into an enjoyable bit of retro kitch. But as subsequent covers have made clear, “They Don’t Know” is not limited to a 1960s girl group register.

There are plenty of choices when it comes to covers of this song so my picks are obviously selective. Early covers by Gigolo Aunts and the Young Fresh Fellows are fine but not as pop rocky as I would prefer. Subterfuge’s 1988 low-key jangle-heavy version strips things back a little, letting the song’s bones show through. Leslie Carter’s 2001 take leans on the piano for the ornamentation and some strong girl group background vocals. The song’s popularity can also measured by the number of foreign language versions – of which there are many. Moneybrother’s 2006 Swedish version speeds up the tempo and gives the proceedings an aura of Springsteen at his most power pop. Belgians Nailpin sing in English but sharpen things up with a very poppy, slightly punk-infused version that bends the basic melody in interesting ways.

Leslie Carter
Moneybrother

More recently indie versions of “They Don’t Know” have been piling up as MacColl’s songwriting skills and performance have gained greater appreciation and prominence. Big indie names like Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs added the song to Volume 3 of their Under the Covers series but, as far as duo versions go, I think I prefer Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis‘ version from their recent Your Face is Weird collaboration. Michael Carpenter gave the track a wonderful 1960s beat group treatment while Robyn Gibson lovingly recast the song as a great lost Peter and Gordon out-take on his critically acclaimed Volume One in his Bop of the Pops series.

Many artists have messed with the tempo and feel of the song, with both arresting and exciting results. Feather and Down slow things down with their spare, mostly acoustic performance, an effort that only amplifies the song’s aching melodic beauty. Lydia Loveless takes things in rebel country direction, Karen Basset goes garage rock, while both Boys Forever and So Cow work the DIY indie rock vibe in different ways. My most recent fave cover is from Men of the North Country with their great horns, trebly guitar and video with Kirsty hovering in the background.

Feather and Down
Lydia Loveless

Kirsty MacColl’s catalogue is full of great tunes, well worth exploring. But if she’d only written this one song she’d be in the karmic black for sure. More covers in the future are a certainty.

Skating party singles

01 Monday Feb 2021

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I do remember skating to the AM radio tunes of the 1970s. Even though we were just going round and round in circles there was something about the Steve Miller Band or Cars accompaniment that made it seem cool rather than just cold. So as temperatures continue to dip this winter it’s time to playlist a modern version of the skating party with only the coolest of new singles.

For a moment I thought Jim Basnight’s “Rebel Kind” was a cover of Dino, Desi and Billy’s 1960s hit but turns out it’s much more cool than that. The song was originally by the criminally under-appreciated Vancouver band The Modernettes. Basnight honours the tune with a Replacement’s indie vibe that really connects. This is just one of 21 highlights from his recent covers album, Jokers, Idols and Misfits (check out the fabulous “This Is Where I Belong” for another surefire winner). Ok, sometimes new singles are just new to me, like Kamino’s “Where Do You Want Me?” iTunes unreliably informed me it was a 2020 release but the song actually came out in 1999 on the band’s debut EP Donut. Frankly, it sounds so fresh and contemporary it could be brand new. The song has an analog feel to the instrumentation and a clever melodic dissonance the reminds me of Fountain of Wayne’s best work. Would love to see this group take up where they left off.  Weezer have a brand new album out (OK Human) and as with all their releases I can find at least one absolutely fab single-worthy cut. This time out it’s “Here Comes the Rain” with its dramatic piano hooks and earworm after effects. From the ‘who doesn’t need some low key jangle?’ file The Umbrella Puzzles have a nice little EP built around the striking guitar work on the single, “Slips Through the Cracks.” It’s an amble along little ditty with a surprisingly rich tone on the solo lead guitar that is something special. I’d have bought Gavin Bowles’ This Year’s Modern for the cover alone, he so aces mimicking This Year’s Model right down to the shady brown hue on the backdrop. The title track is an interesting vamp with some Steve Nieve organ and 1940s background vocals. For a very Costello vibe in sound and songwriting check out “Boy From an Unknown Planet” from the same record.

Kamino – Where Do You Want Me?
Weezer – Here Comes the Rain

I raved about The Feels “She’s Probably Not Thinking of Me” as the prototypically perfect poprock single, from the guitar hooks to the melody-echoing background vocals to the overall sound. So it won’t surprise readers that I’m loving the band’s recent new song, “Is Everything Alright?” It’s got a bit of Bleu or Adam Daniel about it and it’s making me itch for a whole album. Jenny are a straight up pop punk outfit that blast through “Rose City” at an enjoyable clip. They know what their audience wants and they deliver with just the right amount of guitar distortion and melodic undercurrent. Lucy and the Rats offer up an updated early 1960s girl group sound, elevating the rock and roll feel on “On Fire.” The guitar sound and plinky keyboards meld so wonderfully with the group vocals. I think the best descriptor for The Outta Sites is neo-1960s. The band has got the sixties chops but aren’t afraid to mix in stuff from other eras. You can hear it on the title track of their recent album Beautiful You, a delightful bouncy mid-sixties-style song combined with a fab late seventies syth lead line. The band’s skill here really reminds me of The Smithereens, particularly on tracks like “This Time.” Now for a departure, I’ve got some neo-folk/gospel with Thee Holy Brothers. The sound is very Bombadil in escaping the bounds of conventional folk, evident on “My Name is Sparkle,” and the album cover is so Brothers Four 1962. I’m not a god guy but I like what these guys are doing all over this record.

The Feels – Is Everything Alright?
Thee Holy Brothers – My Name is Sparkle

I got message from Monogroove to check out their catalogue and I’m glad I did. “The Looking Glass” combines a Beatles Abbey Road vibe with some unerring 1970s pop hooks. A winsome bit of airy melodic goodness. You don’t have to take a ferry across the Mersey to get caught up with the Wirral’s West Coast Music Club, I’ve got their new single right here. “Thinkin’” mines the rock face these guys excel at: jangly, slightly distorted, melodically dissonant tunes, this time with a hint of Crosby, Stills, and Nash on the vocals. I love The Veras not just because they’ve taken my dear grandmother’s name but because their song is on a kind of permanent repeat right now. “Paper Cup Telephone” has a main structure so familiar to listeners who lived through the glam-drenched 1970s but the build up to it is so interesting. Those heavenly background vocals! Such out of this world guitars! And that organ. More please. Our skate ends with something a bit more subdued from Michael Penn. Anything new from this guy is to be treasured since he abandoned us for scoring movies. “A Revival” obviously speaks to the present moment in American politics, with Penn reassuring listeners that change is gonna come. It’s a stark, subtle, yet reassuring testament, with his usual knack for the aching, low-ball hook that keeps coming back to you long after the song has faded out.

The zamboni’s waiting to get on the ice, the ushers are screaming for the kids to exit the rink, and songs continue to rattle around in our heads as we twist our skates off. Funny how music can make the most mundane things seem special.

Breaking news: The Airport 77’s, Peaces, and Timmy Sean

28 Thursday Jan 2021

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Things may be looking up if these early 2021 album releases are anything to go by. The guitars are blistering, the harmonies are heavenly, and the hooks are earworm def con one. There’s something for a variety of tastes here, from jangle to 1970s CanCon to rock opera. Set these loose on the stereo, cranked.  

The power pop blogosphere is currently going bonkers over The Airport 77’s debut long player Rotation. Well, everything you’ve heard is true and then some. These guys have definitely got the movie beat with their relentless 1970s new wave vibe. Album opener “Christine’s Coming Over” blasts off into obvious The Knack and Cheap Trick territory. But not far into “(When You’re Kissing on Me Do You Think of) James McAvoy” I’m hearing some distinctly west coast Canadian late 1970s rock and roll like Chilliwack, Trooper, or Prism, particularly on the vocals. I love the bass and rhythm guitar interplay on “Shannon Speaks” – so reminiscent of early Costello. Even the remakes sparkle here, like the Springsteen-esque take on Bram Tchaikovsky’s “Girl of my Dreams.” There’s just not a bum track on this record so close your eyes and it’ll be 1979 all over again. But just the good stuff.

The opening of Peaces “Heathens of Love” is so alluring, magnetically pulling you in with its jangly Brydsian charm and indie Traveling Wilburys elan. But from there the song goes on in its own endearing way. As the title track to the band’s debut EP, it perfectly captures the group’s easygoing feel and ear for subtle melody. “40 Days and 40 Nights” sounds bit more Replacements to me while “Sorcerers Get All the Girls” is as hooky as it is fun. And then the marvelous “I Want You Back” caps things off, a stellar bit of pop songcraft enhanced with a deft application of reverb drenched guitar work. My only complaint here that the EP is just four songs. Unhappy reviewer face! Oh well, with this much talent a proper album can’t be far off.

I’ve always thought of Timmy Sean as a man out phase with his musical time. His songwriting is so Beatles-meets-the-Eagles while his production and performance is all 1980s big commercial bang. I say that with love because I’m a fan of that decade’s smooth AM-friendly hit sound (well, some of it anyway). That creative tension remains on Sean’s ambitious new album A Tale from the Other Side, a rock opera that is perhaps a bit more Dennis DeYoung than Pete Townshend. For an instant hook rush, dial in the rollicking early release single “In California.” Or check out the Oasis-y “The College Year.” I’d swear “My Jaded Love” is right off a 1983 playlist from somewhere, Sean so nails the sound and style of that year. The rest of the album is chock full of melody pleasers, like the Beatlesque “Over and Over Again” and swinging “Back to You.” Currently I’m hitting replay on the magisterial should-be hit single, “She’s a Monster” with its wonderful jaunty feel and ELO touches on the background vocals. And I’m also partial to the album’s near closer, the somber, touching, mostly acoustic “I’ve Returned.” As the bells toll and groove runs out on this record I can definitely say A Tale from the Other Side has been worth the ten year wait between Sean solo releases.

The Airport 77’s, Peaces, and Timmy Sean are three good reasons to buy some new music. Amble over to their internet real estate or check out the usual e-music shopping stops and make it so.

Prescribing for pop pandemics

22 Friday Jan 2021

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In all the fuss about our present pandemic it’s easy to forget the still lingering effects of past afflictions. For instance, there’s a untreatable malady that ravaged the world for a number of years in the early to mid-1960s that continues to gain new victims to this day. I’m talking about Beatlemania, of course. And while there is no cure, the condition can be managed with strong, regular doses of melodic rock and roll, preferably layered with dollops of jangly guitar and effervescent harmony vocals. Now my Ph.D. doesn’t normally allow me to prescribe in this area but – what the hell – I’m going to recommend the following artists and their music to help manage your condition.

It was finding Frankie Siragusa recent concept album, Goodbye My Love – a reworking of songs Lennon-McCartney gave away but as if the Beatles had intended to include them on Rubber Soul or Revolver – that got me on this Beatlemania jag. What Siragusa accomplishes on the record is pretty impressive, with a little help from indie all-star friends (like members of The Posies, Jellyfish, and others). In the end, the results are not unlike what Apple Jam has done over the years. Stand out tracks for me include the exquisitely McCartney-esque “Goodbye” and the lovely spare “I’ll Be On My Way” but for some reason the more early period-sounding “I’m In Love” is what I gotta feature here. The band here nails the early 1965 feel. The record is the product of creative music company Reimagine Music who just happen to have two other Beatles-themed records, one recreating Rubber Soul (Looking Through You) and the other Revolver (Tomorrow Never Knows). From the former I love Bombadil’s folky deconstruction of “Drive My Car” and Olin and the Moon’s “Run For Your Life.” From the latter Jake Mann and the Upper Hand add a slow grind hypnotic element to “Taxman.”

Frankie Siragusa – I’m In Love
Bombadil – Drive My Car
Olin and the Moon – Run for Your Life
Jake Mann and the Upper Hand – Taxman

I used to think ‘why bother’ trying to cover the Beatles. It’s not like you’re going to improve on what the world’s greatest band could do. But I think that was shaped by growing up in the 1970s. Frankly, I just didn’t prefer what those cover artist were doing (MOR Beatles? Yuck!). But into the 1980s people starting taking Beatles covers in directions I could dig. Sometimes it’s just the subtle changes in harmonies that you can hear on Mike Carpenter and The Album Show’s take on “Baby’s in Black” or The Beat-less strongly Spanish-accented “From Me to You.” By contrast, Richard Snow Hattersley just pushes all the constituent elements of “Another Girl” just a little bit further, a bit more twang, a bit more rootsy feel. And then there’s the occasionally brilliant repositioning of a Beatles classic in a new register, like Caspar Babypants’ more upbeat “Mother Nature’s Son.” No more summer field acoustic guitar noodling for this happy go lucky boy. Similarly Timmy Sean adds a bit Beach Boys piano and vocal oomph to “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” Or there’s Robyn Gibson’s Byrdsian folk rock version of “There’s a Place.” Once you hear it, it’s like ‘ya, that works!’

The Beat-less – From Me to You
Caspar Babypants – Mother Nature’s Son

The best dose for a spot of Beatlemania is, of course, something from the Fab Four themselves. Let’s assail your symptoms with the Beatles covering themselves, sort of, with this great Live at the BBC recording of “I’ll Be On My Way.” I was a sucker for this version when I first heard it on Beatles bootleg I picked up somewhere in the 1980s.

The Beatles – I’ll Be On My Way

In these troubled times it’s great to rely on some tried and true melodic remedies. Now initial reactions to this treatment might be fevered excitement but you can relax as that usually gives way to a measured contentment in short order.

Poprock Records’ 25 must-have LPs for 2020

18 Monday Jan 2021

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I know, you’re too busy to scour the racks for great singles. If only you could find some great albums to kick back with? Something to slip on the old record player and enjoy with a cool drink. Well here at Poprock Record we feel your pain. So we’ve assembled the crack team you see above to vet the very best LPs from throughout the year that was 2020. The kids may be a tad young for martinis but do not doubt their vinyl erudition and exquisite taste. From more than a hundred possibilities they’ve whittled things down to an essential 25 albums that you must possess to say you’ve really experienced the past twelve months of melodic music. Fill your K-Tel Record Selector with these super fantastic long players!

So, let’s get to it – Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2020:

1. Gregory Pepper and His Problems I Know Why You Cry
2. The Happy Fits What Could Be Better
3. Nite Sobs Do the Sob!
4. Mo Troper Natural Beauty
5. Mom Pleasure Island
6. The Rockyts Come On and Dance
7. Peggy Sue Vices
8. Chris Church Backwards Compatible
9. Richard Turgeon Sea Change
10. Juniper Juniper
11. Dave Kuchler It’s Pronounced …
12. The Vapour Trails Golden Sunshine
13. El Goodo Zombie
14. Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis Your Face is Weird
15. Vanilla Limerance
16. Bad Moves Untenable
17. Blitzen Trapper Holy Smokes Future Jokes
18. The August Teens I’m Selfish and So Is My Cat
19. Jim Shorts Late to the Feast
20. John Dunbar Oh Wellness
21. Gary Ritchie Head on a Swivel
22. Ed Ryan Even Time
23. The Yum Yums For Those About to Pop!
24. Nick Pipitone Thiensville
25. The Speedways Radio Days

Gregory Pepper dominated my listening for 2020 with his outrageously good I Know Why You Cry. The album was his own specially curated re-recordings of tracks originally composed during his year long Song-of-the-Week extravaganza. There’s whimsy, there’s pathos, there’s references to Enya. It’s the kind of poprock that makes my heart burst, a never-fail mood improver. Coming up second this year was the kick-ass second album from The Happy Fits, What Could Be Better. Other than Pepper, I’m hard pressed to suggest anything. This whole album is a killer production that puts the cello at the centre of melodic rock and roll (where it belongs). Here are songs and performances that inspire descriptions like ‘thrilling’ and ‘exciting’. And then there’s the extreme hooky pleasantness of Nite Sobs throughout Do The Sob! An impressive head-bopping good time. And so on. All the records here really pay dividends via repeated listens so carve out some time to enjoy them. The great lost art of an album-long musical vision lives on with these 25 selections.

Next up, Poprock Record’s top five EPs for 2020:

1. Gregory Pepper Under a Heather Moon
2. David Woodard Grand Scheme of Things
3. Danny McDonald Modern Architecture
4. Brad Marino False Alarm
5. Aaron Lee Tasjan Found Songs Vol. 1

What?! Another Pepper selection topping the chart. Fear not dear reader, our completely unscientific selection process has not erred here. Hey, I just really like Pepper’s stuff. And he is crazy talented, as is obvious from this stylistically varied and pumped up collection of song snippets, 10 in all amounting to just 15 minutes of music. But what a ride. I mean, just check out the brilliant 17 second track, “Do Sports.” I want more! These other EPs are pretty special too and fabulous for those times when you can barely sit down and squeeze in a quick sherry.

And let’s not forget, Poprock Record’s best compilations for 2020:

1. Garden of Earthly Delights: An XTC Celebration
2. Wild Honey Records: The Benefit of Things to Come
3. John Wicks: For the Record

2020 tried our patience but, glass half full, it did provide a bit of downtime. That allowed for a lot more album listening than normal and what a treat that turned out to be. And given the impact of 2020 on live music, artists need albums sales more than ever. So let the rewards flow freely from your e-wallet to theirs.

Time capsule take 5: Tim Burgess, Dirty Girls, Valley Lodge, The Squirrels, and the Rosquettes

13 Wednesday Jan 2021

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I mostly write about new music but all the time I’m discovering great tunes I somehow missed when they first came out. Some were successful on release but many missed connecting with an audience. So let’s take five and crack open the time capsule to give these tunes another shot at stardom.

Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess has had his share of success and even put out a fab new solo album just this past year. But today we’re reaching back to 2003 for his first solo album I Believe to spin “Oh My Corazon,” a delightful bit of jaunty poprock. Reminds me a little of Brendon Benson in its overall pop texture and textbook hooks.

Tim Burgess – Oh My Corazon

Described as ‘garage rock hedonists’ by some, I hear a smoother sound from Columbus, Ohio band Dirty Girls, at least listening to their ‘free to download’ 2011 EP Yoko No No. This is perhaps a more rudimentary version of Guster-style melodic rock and roll with a bit of Sugar Ray thrown in. The whole EP is great but right now I’m digging “Overblown” with its low-key jangle and dynamic vocal punch.

New York City’s Valley Lodge have been particularly successful getting their tunes on TV shows and it’s easy to hear why. Their songs have an immediately embraceable quality, a sonic sharpness in the mix of vocals and guitar hooks. But check out the classic sound on “Hey” from their 2005 self-titled debut. This one screams maximum rotation hit single to me, so ear-worm right out of the gate.

Tracking down info on The Squirrels single “Hey You” is not easy. This band is not the legendary Seattle group but they might be connected to screenwriter/filmmaker/actor Victor Colicchio’s 1970s punk group The Dead Squirrels. In any event, I love the song’s strong retro vibe, DIY feel and Merseybeat structure. iTunes clocks the song as 2013 but I suspect that is just a re-release date for a much older song, like 1977-78-ish.

The Squirrels – Hey You

The Rosquettes hail from Seville, Spain and they’ve got a great 1960s rock and roll sound that vibes all the great acts – the Kinks, the Beatles, a bit of the Monkees, Love – you get the picture. So far I’ve found thee EPs and an album on Bandcamp, with three available for nada dinero. All the albums have great artwork, equal parts pop art and spaghetti western. And the guitar hooks – they are just outta sight on tracks like “Branches” and “Shaker Pack” (both from We Could Have Been Bigger Than …) and Mr. Farmer (from First Covers). I was tempted to feature “Hard to be Sam Bell” from the most recent release Edible Incredible! but in the end I was hypnotized by the more gritty “A House is Not a Motel.” For melodic rocking out in a most 1960s way, check these guys out.

Time is an illusion, all our yesterdays are today, and yesteryear’s singles could be hits today. Why not take a moment to appreciate these time capsule treats in the here and now. You’ll be glad you did.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles of 2020

09 Saturday Jan 2021

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2020 was weird like no weirdness we’d experienced before. Thank goodness the music didn’t let us down. Paraphrasing some 1970s disk jockey, the should-be hits just kept on coming! My top 50 singles for 2020 covers the usual range of styles I jam into the poprock category, from Buddy Holly 1950s to Buck Owens country to various shades of jangle and new wave. I’m not saying these are the 50 best songs of the year, I’m saying these 50 had the hooks to keep me hitting repeat again and again. If Poprock Record were a radio station these tunes would have been in heavy rotation all this past year. The hyperlinks below will take you to the original post about each artist as they first appeared on the blog.

So let’s get to it, Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2020:

1. Mo Troper “Your Boy”
2. Gregory Pepper and his Problems “Unsolved Mystery”
3. Dave Kuchler “Slave to Katy”
4. Emperor Penguin “You’ll Be the Death of Me”
5. Brian Jay Cline “Two Left Feet”
6. Hanemoon “Sunday Afternoon”
7. Danny McDonald “Cordyline”
8. Chris Church “Something’s Coming Fast”
9. Peralta “In Your Mind”
10. Steven Wright-Mark “Underground”
11. Brett Newski “Grow Your Garden”
12. Lolas “Wrecking Yard”
13. Peggy Sue “Motorcade”
14. Searching for Sylvia “SEMA (Sunday Evening Misery Attack)”
15. The Vapor Trails “Behind You”
16. The Well Wishers “We Grow Up”
17. The Top Boost “Tell Me That You’re Mine”
18. The Click Beetles “Don’t You Call My Name”
19. The Memories “Second Try”
20. The Bye Bye Blackbirds “Watch Them Chime”
21. Lisa Mycols and Super 8 “Honey Bee”
22. Nite Sobs “I Could Tell You”
23. Nick Pipitone “Hear Me Out Thienville”
24. David Myles “Loving You is Easy”
25. El Goodo “Home”
26. Steven Bradley “Pre-Emptive Strike”
27. The Happy Fits “No Instructions”
28. Greg Pope “Jump Back from the Light”
29. Mom “I Want You to Feel What I Feel”
30. The Amplifier Heads “Man on the Edge of a Ledge Contemplating a Jump”
31. Blitzen Trapper “Masonic Temple Microdose #1”
32. Dave Rave and the Governors “I Don’t Think So”
33. The Rockyts “Break My Heart Again”
34. The Feels “She’s Probably Not Thinking of Me”
35. Nuevos Hobbies “No Puedo Esperar”
36. David Woodard “Grand Scheme of Things”
37. Esther Rose “Keeps Me Running”
38. Talk Show “This Monologue”
39. Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis “Swim”
40. Irene Pena “Own Sweet Time”
41. Ed Woltil “When We Fall in Love”
42. Papills “What to Call It”
43. The August Teens “Crestfallen”
44. Richard Turgeon “Higher”
45. Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men “Bright Light”
46. Tom Curless and the 46% “Just Wanna Talk”
47. Brandi Ediss “Bees and Bees and Bees”
48. Mothboxer “Accelerator”
49. Honeywagen “For Love”
50. Nicholas Altobelli “Ghost”

So many great songs! So hard to make distinctions amongst them … But this year’s chart topper Mo Troper has got something really special going on with “Your Boy.” The track is a case study in should-be hit single construction and execution, from the opening guitar hooks to the silky smooth pop vocal to the exquisite synthesis of musical elements, like the plinky piano, the dash of distorted guitar here and there. The song is the earworm equivalent of a Dutch masters miniature painting. A very close second this year came from the boundlessly talented Canuck Gregory Pepper and his Problems with “Unsolved Mystery.” I can’t get enough of Pepper’s creative songwriting and unique approach to instrumentation. The song is a hook cocktail, a nonstop aural assault of vocal and instrumental melody. Former Soul Engines member Dave Kuchler slots into number 3 with an amazing comeback single, “Slave to Katy,” a song that ripples with Springsteen organ and hooky guitar leads. This is melodic heartland rock and roll at its best. Releasing an album and three EPs in 2020, Emperor Penguin definitely win the productivity award. But I’d have been happy if they’d just released one song, the Byrdsian “You’ll Be the Death of Me.” Rounding out the top 5 Brian Jay Cline “Two Left Feet” gives the harmonica a work out on a great driving poprock number. And I could go on about the remaining 45 should-be hits but for more on the rest of the list hit the hyperlinks for my original write-ups on each.

This year’s special mention award goes to Mondello for his wonderfully quirky one-off single “My Girl Goes By.” After taking 20 years putting together his debut album one year later there’s no sign of a sophomore slump with this follow up single. From the Tijuana horns to the unique guitar work to the way the hooky swinging chorus emerges out the discordant and offbeat body of the song, it’s magic. More? Yes please!

2020 has been devastating for artists that rely on live performances to make ends meet. Now more than ever it’s crucial that we all pull together to support music and the music-makers financially. Give what you can, buy directly from artists whenever you can, and share links for the music you discover with your friends and acquaintances.

Around the dial: Steven Bradley, Jim Shorts, Daniel Romano, Gary Ritchie and John Dunbar

04 Monday Jan 2021

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As we twist the dial for today’s post it’s pretty clear we’re not quite finished with 2020 yet. Well, musically at least. Still quite a few great releases to draw your attention to.

Producer, record label founder Steven Bradley decided to put his own musical creativity under the microscope on his debut solo record Summer Bliss and Autumn Tears and the results are definitely positive. Hints of Costello’s Punch the Clock with its inventive keyboard touches and clever wordplay show up here and there but cast in a 1990s discordant poprock vein, tempered with an ace feel for a hooky dose of background vocals. It’s all there on the obvious should-be hit single “Pre-Emptive Strike” with its addictive, driving lead guitar lines, subtle organ shots and vocal ear candy. Bradley leans on some jangle for “Hiding Place” but not in an obvious manner, burying the payoff in a surprising and delightful way. “You Walk By” kicks off with a nice smattering of paisley before riffing on some Beatles lyrics. And so goes the rest of this highly listenable album. So many great tunes here, from the opening track “Love Tumbles into Obsession” to the very Squeeze-like “Calendar Girl.” The record also has a number of great acoustic turns, like “The Bargain.”

DIY workaholics Jim Shorts have called it quits. After releasing 47 records over the past decade, a combination of both long players and EPs, the band’s musical force David Haynes has said that their 2020 release will be their last. Well, that’s the bad news. The good news is that Late to the Feast is undeniably their best, most polished and fully realized creative work. The songwriting is strong and playing is shorn of the DIY abandon that characterized most of the band’s back catalogue. Right from the kick ass opening bars of “Out on the Patio” you know this is band taking itself a bit more seriously. The hooks are prominently on display, sounding like Fountains of Wayne got together for a songwriting session with Pavement or Weezer. The crunchy lurch of “Max’s Front Porch” is head-bobbingly good. Or there’s the slow burn hookiness of the title track. “Angel Songs” says alternative radio hit single. Album closer “Balto” confidently rocks out over the credits. This is the Jim Shorts album you gotta have.

Musical chameleon Daniel Romano flooded 2020 with new material. I find myself particularly partial to the late release, White Flag, with its Beatlesque and late 1960s folk rock touches. Album opener “Bleu Heron” is a masterpiece of musical synthesis, from the horn arrangement to the poetic feel of the lyrics. Very Crosby, Stills and Nash in places. From there the album vibes a greatest hits of sixties song stylings, like the Rubber Soul folk rock feel to “Garden of the Heart” or the early McCartney solo sound on “Appolpourre.” The songwriting here is as strong as ever, with every tune sounding both familiar and unusual. And then there’s a few exceptions, like the more new wave pop flavour to “New Milk.” There really is nothing that Romano can’t do musically.

I can’t believe I somehow missed the release of Gary Ritchie’s Head on a Swivel early in 2020. This record is maximum fun in a meat and potatoes poprock sort of way. Ritchie has all the chops, from Merseybeat to 1980s American indie rock and roll, delivering an album that is as listenable as any Greg Kihn or Tom Petty release. And yet there is something distinctively English about the overall sound to me. So many of the songs have that 1965 beat group feel, passed through an ELO sonic retro filter. Just hit play on the title track or “Lean On You” or “Four Letter Word” to get what I’m banging on about here. Or for a more American 1980s poprock elan check out “Maybe It’ll Be Tonight” or “Arms Around a Memory.” Personally I love the roll out to “Tunnel of Love” with its ringing guitar and handclaps – and the rest of the song is pretty great too. Rounding this out, “Record Store” is a hilarious closer. So, all in all, for retro melodic rock fans, Head on a Swivel is a can’t-go-wrong purchase.

John Sally Ride member John Dunbar has dropped a fabulous solo record that channels a perfect mix of mid-1960s pop songwriting and a 1980s indie rock feel. Despite the COVID-enforced DIY one-man-band effort here Oh Wellness sounds like much more. The launch track “Born To Bore” has a cool Lou Reed hooky lurch going on. “The Problem with Being on Time” radiates a sunny swing and some cool 1967 moog organ. “The Girl Whose Heard It All Before” reminds me of Squeeze’s great country songs. I could go on about each track here. Pushed I’d single out “A Sentimental Heart and a Skeptical Mind” and “She Doesn’t Now” as pretty single worthy. Having said that I love the Rubber Soul-veneer and clever word play on “Maybe May Be My Favorite Word.” With Oh Wellness, Dunbar has created a collection of light, fresh sounding tunes, leavened with interesting instrumental choices and timely sentiments. Paraphrasing Seth Myers, this is just the sort of record we need right now!

Your radio dial is just anachronistic technology but as a metaphor for access to possibly great music it lives on! Click on these artists to go directly the source.

2021’s gonna be perfect

01 Friday Jan 2021

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Why not be positive? After the year we’ve been through 2021 can’t help but be an improvement. I know, I know, pandemic habits die hard. Bad news on the doorstep, again. So to help steel your resolve for positivity, here’s a slew of songs on the perfection theme.

Parthenon Huxley (aka P. Hux) has the perfect sound to kick off this themed post with the addictive guitar hooks and Eels-meets-ELO smooth vocals on his song “Perfect.” He even has another tune that would fit in here called “Perfection” – but let’s not overdo it. Irrelevant aside: I just discovered that Hux produced Eels front man Mark Everett’s first two solo albums and A Man Called E is about as perfect as a debut can be. Bombadil change up the pace and style of what we’re doing here with their song “Perfect,” a lilting folkie track with a lot of uplift, from their 2017 album Fences. “Perfecto” is another 2017 release, this time from big guitar guy Chris Church’s long player Limitations of the Source Tape. For Church this offering is actually a bit low key (well, until the end) but has a lovely Matthew Sweet vibe with vocals that remind me of recent work by that inventive iconoclast Brad Peterson. I don’t know a lot a about Louisville, Kentucky’s The Pine Club, other than that they have three albums of fab material dating from the beginning of the new century. From their self-titled LP we showcase “Oh, Perfect!” Nice horns and background vocals on this one.

P. Hux – Perfect

Our next batch of performers move from vague ruminations about the perfect to more bold and weeping claims, singing about a perfect world of some sort or other. Mike Viola has some serious songwriting magic going on all over his many releases and “El Mundo de Perfecto” from his 2011 album Electro De Perfecto exemplifies these considerable skills. The song is so quintessentially Viola while also seeming to draw from acts like Crowded House stylistically. Fastball was one of those bands I only discovered deep into their career, on 2017’s Step Into Light specifically. That meant I had so many delightful surprises waiting for me dipping into their back catalogue. “Perfect World” is from 2004’s Keep Your Wig On and it really is a perfect manifestation of their new millennium Beatles/Tom Petty-inspired sound. From Dwight Twilley’s ironically titled The Luck album came a bona-fide should-be hit single in “Perfect World.” I still can’t believe this track didn’t race up the charts when it finally got a single release in 1998. Now, in the interests of journalistic balance I must include Ball Park Music’s “The Perfect World Does Not Exist.”  I mean, they’re right, of course. And they say it with such a quirky You Won’t almost folkie charm.

Mike Viola – El Mundo de Perfecto
Fastball – Perfect World
Dwight Twilley – Perfect World
Ball Park Music – The Perfect World Does Not Exist

Well, if a perfect world is beyond our grasp what about more accomplishable goals? Gary Ritchie would settle for a “Perfect Girl” on this Buddy Holly-esque workout. However, despite a delightful 2 minute and 41 second exploration of the issue, even Gary has to admit by the coda that it’s probably not gonna happen. In the late 1980s American janglers The Springfields (no relation to Dusty’s 1960s outfit) just wanted “This Perfect Day.” Well, if I were spinning this song and the rest of the collection it comes from, the 2019 retrospective of the band’s career Singles 1986-1991, I’d say ‘mission accomplished’! Perhaps we’d be wise to scope things down even further. Mo Troper has the right idea with his just released, wonderfully hooky “The Perfect Song.” I mean, I thought he already wrote the perfect song with that single from his 2020 album Natural Beauty, “Your Boy.” But more on that when I get to 2020’s best of lists …

Perfection is really just that space you’ve created, shaped, and defined where you can find some joy. For me that’s often finding, enjoying and sharing all this great music. So here’s to a perfect year, whatever that may amount to for you.

In hindsight: Bye Bye Blackbirds, The Click Beetles, Ed Wotil, Yum Yums, and more!

29 Tuesday Dec 2020

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How did I miss these acts? Well, if truth be told, I didn’t miss them actually. Perhaps ‘misplaced’ would be a more accurate description of what happened here. All these great albums hit the review pile with a thumbs up sticker but somehow got filed under ‘I-don’t-know-how-to-file-things’. Gotta come up with a new filing system. In any event, in hindsight I can see they should have gone straight to the ‘review now’ pile. Well, here they are!

The Bye Bye Blackbirds don’t disappoint with their recent Boxer at Rest release. The familiar chiming mid-1960s Beatles demeanor is back and the songwriting is as solid as ever. Personally, I hear a lot of Revolver on “You Were All Light” and “If It Gets Light” while “Baby It’s Still You” adds some Tom Petty to the mix. “Watch Them Chime” jangles, of course, in a southern California country rock sort of way. I love the slow swagger on “So True” and shuffle swing driving “War is Still Hell.” This is band that really owns its groove. However, I almost mistook “All Our Friends” for a Jeff Shelton song and performance. In my book, that’s pretty high praise.

On Pop Fossil The Click Beetles channel the fun poprock sound of the early 1980s where so many bands took a crack at reinventing the swinging sixties sound. Case in point, “To Rule the World.” It’s got reverby guitar, otherworldly vocals and a Squeeze-like farfisa organ solo. “Don’t You Call My Name” kicks off with a driving chord cycle, fueled by some serious jangle. “Alone” has that Long Tall Sally rockin’ out Beatles sound while “Hey Renee” works a 1965 lead guitar riff to good effect. “Rosanne” surprises listeners by combining 1960s guitar with a Gary Numan syth backdrop – but it works. Yet the should-be hit single to my ears is “Dreamland” with its hooky John Waite instrumental roll out and understated vocals. Or the Motown-infused album opener, “If Not Now Then When,” is also a pretty strong single contender.

There’s a lovely Marshall Crenshaw feel to Ed Wotil’s latest album, One in My Tree. Crenshaw was always able to combine strong feelings with hooks in a believable way, no matter how many love songs he wrote. It’s there on Wotil’s “When We Fall in Love,” a great song with classic Crenshaw-esque twists and turns and highly melodic guitar breaks. Or, for a more recent reference, “The Lie” has the country soul quality of Aaron Lee Tasjan’s recent work. “If the Sun Forgets to Shine” is just the kind of pop soul Nick Lowe’s been covering lately. The album leans on acoustic guitar on a host tracks, vibing a bit of Lennon on “Migrator” or Boo Hewdine on “Crying in your Sleep” and “Living in Between the Lines.” There’s great range on this record, from the lovely low-key emotional scene-sketches like “Do or Die” or the subtle single-ish “Make Me.”

Brandi Ediss (rhymes with ‘lettuce’) offers up highly listenable, mostly soft acoustic pop songs on her debut album Bees and Bees and Bees. But I do enjoy when she breaks out the band. The title track is an alluring, hypnotic ear worm that immediately calls to mind Juliana Hatfield and Liz Phair, with a solo guitar break that is so 1965 George Harrison. Ediss clearly has an ear for sonic detail. There’s the little banjo flourishes working at the edges of the main piano riff on “Count to Three” or the Amélie concertina solo half way through “Robot Heart.” Sometimes she just delivers a gorgeous hooky pop song, like “I Didn’t Try” or “Stupid Boyfriend.” She even makes flooring musical, winningly so on “Linoleum.”

Climb on board the Melenas rock and roll train and feel their relentless rhythm guitar attack, the mysterious keyboard interjections, the distinctive ghostly vocals. Once aboard, there’s no going back. This Pamploma, Spain quartet manage to sound familiar and original at the same time. The chugging rhythm section anchors “No Peudo Pensar” but it’s the lyrical bass playing and flashes of keyboard that gives the song intensity and staying power. “Los Alemanes” opens with a spooky guitar and keyboard combo but quickly suborns it to the overriding Melenas groove. I love the rollicking feel of the guitar work that defines “Ciencia Ficción” as a kind of upbeat shoegaze number. Or there’s the mesmerizing rhythm guitar work carrying “Ya no es Verano,” with its hypnotic interplay between vocals, guitar and keyboards. I don’t understand a Spanish word of the songs but I’m loving’em just the same.

On For Those About to Pop! the Yum Yums offer up a bit of glam, a lot of Ramones, and more than a dollop of early 1970s bubblegum, packaged with some pretty sweet California-beach background vocals. The title track or “Baby Baby” or “Bubblegum Baby” or “Can’t Get Enough of Your Lovin’” all really capture the sound. Some tracks say hit single a little bit more, like “She’s Got Everything” with its clever, layered arrangement, or “Crush On You” with its early Cars-like combo of chunky guitar and keyboard shots. I’m also partial to the 1970s fifties remake going on with “First Move” or the magnetic lead line and ample hooks pushing “The Kind of Girl.”

Late love is better than no love, right? You can dig these late additions to the hit pile by clicking the hyperlinked band names above.

Banner photo: Larry Gordon