Tags
Badfinger, Bee Bee Sea, Bill Lloyd, Bob Jackson, Brian Bilston and the Caternary Wires, Caleb Nichols, Conspiracy of Owls, Crocodiles, Gay Skeleton Club, Lande Hekt, Mich Harrison, Mike Delevante, Oddfellows, Pet Sounds, Pete Ham, Radio Days, Radioactivity, Railcard, Richard Barone, Rob Bonfiglio, Sassyhiya, Sharp Pins, Special Friend, The Burning Hell, The Cords, The Magnetic Fields, The Midnight Callers, Tugboat Captain, US Highball, Wild Honey Records
A true miscellany is a random mix of things. Think jumble sale. By contrast, our melodic miscellany does contain consistent themes but the variety can be found in the execution. Here are a few collections where a wide variety of contributors work their magic in oh so many ways.
This long-player named Pet Sounds is not what you expect. No Beach Boys, no Brian Wilson. Instead what you get is a collection of 15 tunes, all focused on various kinds of pets. The range of styles here maps all over the indie rock scene, from the upbeat shoe-gaze of Lande Hekt’s “Lola,” to the baroque whispery pop of Railcard’s “Foxy,” to the deadpan talk-singing of The Burning Hell’s “Kings of the Animal Kingdom.” Some of what appears here is just full-on fun, like Gay Skeleton Club’s mesmerizing “2 Cats.” Late nineties indie hipsters will undoubtedly recall The Magnetic Fields’ “Fido, Your Leash is Too Long.” Tugboat Captain’s “Rufus” and Sassyhiya’s “Crayon Potato” provide a country turn while Brian Bilston and the Caternary Wires give off a Velvet Underground “The Gift” vibe on “Under a Cat” (sans the terminal ending). Despite the most tenuous of thematic links joining them together, Pet Sounds really is a solid collection. Though if I had to single out just a few cuts my personal faves trend toward the groovy guitar pop stylings of The Cords on “Bo’s New Haircut” and especially Special Friend’s “Breakfast.” I’m also drawn to the introspective “Dark Age” from Caleb Nichols and winsome “Marjorie Says” by US Highball.
Wild Honey Records Sampler 2026 gives you a snapshot of 19 different acts currently on the label. These sorts of compilations can be pretty hit and miss, often covering more stylistic ground than any one listener can withstand or offering an uneven mix in terms of the quality of the tunes themselves. But not this LP, not with this roster of talent. The songs here are strong while the collection sounds coherent stylistically without tending toward sameness. Things break out strongly with opening cut “One Day” from the wall-of-guitars bangers Radioactivity. Solid rockers Bee Bee Sea keep the amps twisted right to 11 on “Holy Money.” There’s plenty of party approved dancing numbers here, like Oddfellows’ pumping “The Burden.” Of course, my own tastes run to those selections that crank up the pop quotient on their rocking out. Radio Days offer up driving lead guitar runs and enticing hooks on “I Won’t Give Up.” Crocodiles have a more guitar-rock combo sound akin to the early 1980s new wave with “Let’s Be Strangers.” On “Three” Conspiracy of Owls even manage to dig out a neo-Merseybeat feel. I could go on and on for each tune here, the quality is that consistent over the whole record.
Pete Ham wrote or co-wrote most of Badfinger’s big hits (e.g. “No Matter What,” “Baby Blue,” and “Without You”) and left behind an amazing catalogue of both released and unreleased compositions when he died by his own hand in 1975. Just Look Inside the Cover: Songs of Pete Ham honours that legacy, bringing together an impressive roster of 21 different indie artists to re-interpret those songs. Stylistically, it’s almost as if the acts have divided his sonic territory amongst themselves, covering the different periods when Ham was composing. The opening salvo from Mike Delevante is a wonderful acoustic guitar-heavy, early 1970s version of “A Lonely Day.” Sharp Pins recreate the lush mid-1970s power pop sound on “Just How Lucky We Are.” Then Richard Barone (of the Bongos, backed here by the Midnight Callers) channels 1965 on his sixties-perfect rendition of “I’m Only Human.” The 1970s were known for a particular brand of pop polish and Rob Bonfiglio and The Parlophonics apply that liberally to “Hand in Hand” and “Makes Me Feel Good” respectively. Another strong seventies stylistic motif was a loose, almost careening rock and roll vibe and that definitely appears on Bob Jackson’s take on “Just Look Inside the Cover” and Mic Harrison’s version of “A Little Bit of Rock and Roll.” Again, we have here a collection that never misses a step, though I won’t comment on everything. But my own personal fave is Bill Lloyd’s timeless poprock rendering of “Our Song.”
It’s good to mix things up and stretch our sense of what might appeal to us. That’s where compilation albums do most of the work. If the cover caught your eye, there’s probably something inside you’ll really like and whole lot else you could stand to discover.
Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
Great music is breaking out all over this year and it’s a race to get them all in the blog before 2018 expires. Today’s crew has textured popcraft, a bit of blasty rock and roll, and even some dance grooves.
Just one listen to Legs & Luggage and there’s little doubt that Vegas with Randolph’s songwriters are conversant with the major melodic rock and roll motifs of the past few decades. They’re effortlessly combined on this album’s 13 winning tracks with a charm reminiscent of a more rough-hewn Fountains of Wayne. Opening track “You Could Say Yes” charges out of the gate with hooks that say radio-friendly hit single. Another single-ish release would be “The Girl Holding Out for Me” with its pure bliss hooky chorus. The album also sees the band vibing a range of influences, from the Plimsouls’ elan of “Jacob” to the chirpy Ben Kweller jaunt of “I Could be the One” to the Steve Miller touches on “The Weekend’s Coming.” And then there’s the wonderful FOW-meets-Partridge Family peppiness of “Women in Airports” and the veritable blueprint of perfect poprock song, “The Comeback Kid.” Forget buying singles, this one’s an album purchase.
Italy is producing an amazing bunch of melodic rockers of late (we featured stellar releases from 
A new record from Greg Pope is poprock money in the bank, he just doesn’t disappoint. I mean, one of his previous releases was aptly-named Popmonster, to which reviewers heartedly agreed – that gives you some idea what a prolific and reliable creative force he is. Now he’s back with A Few Seconds of Fame, which unfortunately could also double as a commentary on his undeservedly cool reception from top 40 radio. I don’t get it – to my ears, they’re all hits! Check the opening track “Forget About You” with its great driving tempo and solid yet subtlely hooky chorus, or the tightly delivered “Retread” – this is what radio-friendly singles used to sound like. But hey, I could just as easily recommend the wonderful 1970s ELO pop sound of “Hopes and Dreams and Fears” or the great late Beatles pop vibe on “Planet Earth” or the textured, layered sound of “Dreams About You,” particularly on the vocals. I guess nobody’s gonna make me a top 40 radio program director anytime soon but if they did …
Portland’s Hemmit have run the gamut of stadium-sounding rawk (ironically delivered, of course) to ‘punkish powerpop’ (in their words) to the electronic pop of their current release. The new EP, One Ultra, definitely channels some great 1980s synth pop influences, obvious on tracks like “Ultraviolet” and “Power” but subtlely lodged in others like “My Room” too. But consistent across their catalogue is the songwriting quality, evident on the obvious singles: the relentlessly driving “Friends” and the more melodic hooks of “Waves.” This is a band worth spending some time digging through various releases for a load of poprock gems.
The Appleton Post-Crescent described Car City as a “Fox Valley supergroup,” a reference to the fact that while all the musicians were long-standing members of the local live music scene they had really only recently come together to work on this project. Their experience clearly mattered because Car City, the album, sounds like the work of a cohesive band. The resulting sound is like Weezer on anti-depressants, a slightly dissonant, melody rich concoction that delivers on Jason Lemke’s great songs. It’s all there on the opening tracks, “Connecting the Dots” and “Like a Wave” with their earworm-worthy yet subtle melodic turns and twists. Then things get really interesting when “Hopeless” breaks out the Aimee Mann syth to good effect with some inspired full stops and background vocals, while “(Don’t) Give Up on Love” kicks off all Beach Boys vocal harmonizing before dusting off Steve Nieve’s organ. And the songs I haven’t mentioned? Also great. Frankly, I love all the tunes on this record. Car City deserves to be in your collection.
Poprock Record 