Tag Archives: Brent Seavers

Reindeer Games

17 Saturday Dec 2022

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Things got a bit out of hand for Santa this year at the Reindeer Games. It started with too much rum and eggnog at breakfast and, well, you get the picture. Still, this year’s annual musical celebration of the season is back, vibing all the key warm and fuzzies of the holiday: anticipation, desire, tradition and joy. Let’s take up each, in song.

That holiday music machine Make Like Monkeys are now my go-to source for any and every kind of seasonal single. Need a Mersey-drenched bit of poprock to bring your holiday and dating into focus? Can do. “Please Don’t Let Christmas Come Without You Girl” sounds so Beatles-derivative beat-group circa 1964. And I love it. The Essex Green offer up an Everly Brothers-worthy slice of late sixties country rock, making peace with a “Green Christmas.” The heavenly guitars and layered background vocals on this track are all I need under the tree. Seasonal songsters Christmas Aguilera sound like they’re auditioning for a ‘I hate the holidays’ telethon what with all the disaster accompanying their yuletide plans in “All Wrapped Up.” But the subtext to all the apparent chaos seems to be a grudging, recognizable family kind of love. And the tune is a real winner too, chock full of hooks and harmony vocals. Proceeds from this help the campaign to end homelessness and poor housing in the UK. Daryl Bean delivers an eerie XTC-ish paean to the anticipation of the season on “Holidaze.” You’d swear there’s a Partridge in his pear tree.

Turning to desire Toronto’s Jane’s Party capture the youthful sense of really wanting to get that specific something at Xmas with “I Want It Bad.” And they deliver it with it a bit Motown swing. The Decibels’ Brent Seavers delivers a retro sounding classic holiday tune with “I Want You for Xmas,” complete with addictive ‘fa la la la la’s’ to really reel you in. I can’t decide if Frank Royster sounds more like Fastball or The Smithereens on his fab holiday track “Christmas is Fun.” Whichever, the song sounds like a slick bit of 1980s poprock magic. Turning to tradition, rock and roll traditionalists Jeremy and the Harlequins add a heflt of solid rock backing to “White  Christmas” to shake things up. I don’t know how much Superchunk owe to Dylan Thomas but their “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is hooky and jangly and the that’s good enough for me. It’s hard to add much to that holiday rock and roll classic “Jingle Bell Rock” but premiere guitar instrumentalist Joel Paterson manages to inject some of his special, unique playing style into the song. Old dogs, new tricks indeed!

Feeling swamped by the crass commercialism of capitalist Christmas? This year don’t puzzle till your puzzler is sore about it. As the Grinch said, “Christmas, perhaps, is a little bit more.” Like hope, and peace, and joy. Berlin’s Shybits accent the hope on “Hope This Christmas,” a chaotic swirl of Futureheads meets The Spook School indie-pop seasonal goodnesss. The pop incomparable Orion Experience wield a serious joy stick on their seasonally-appropriate, all-you-need-is-love ode “Rich Man’s Holiday.”  As they sing it, you don’t need money when ‘your love is the greatest gift in the world.’ Then there’s the peaceful easy feeling that flows from Scoopski’s new Christmas classic “Your First Christmas.” The husband and wife duo sing about their actual recent baby, a stand in for the joy that every baby anywhere can bring to a hopefully peaceful world.

And yet is wouldn’t be the holidays without mixed feelings. It’s a tough season for so many. Some with or without family, with or without faith. Anthony D’Amato captures that holiday ennui on “Merry Christmas, I Guess.” Not sad, exactly. More lonely. All wrapped up in a musical pretty paper that sounds like the pedal-steel country blues. By contrast, The Surf School Dropouts won’t suffer in silence. They utilize their Beach Boys-vocals to call out to the jolly plus-size guy himself on “Help Me Santa.” Vancouver’s Odds have got a clever plan to deal with all the garbage this season produces, both emotional and physical. While the mall marketing people say ‘more! more!’ they have Santa telling voters to share the gift of love with ‘neighbour and your honey.’ We lost the legendary girl group pioneer Ronnie Spector this past year. Right to the end she was radiating joy and goodwill to all. In terms of her long career “Best Christmas Ever” is a fairly recent release but one that captures everything great about her enduring talent and style.

It’s almost a wrap here at this annual Reindeer Games. Let’s go out looking for that star that will help lead us where we need to go in the days ahead. My new favourite one-stop-shopping seasonal music provider Make Like Monkeys can provide the accompaniment with “Star.”

Merry ho ho to all and to all a goodnight!

Top photo courtesy Kevin Dooley.

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2021

08 Saturday Jan 2022

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In our social media-saturated universe it seems that your 15 minutes of fame has been reduced to just 15 seconds. Who going to give up the time to listen to a whole album, let alone gaze longingly at the cover (like we used to do) while it plays? That means today’s albums have really got to have something special going on, like great tunes, engaging styles, and hooks that seem to improve with repeated listenings. Those are the standards we applied to the 2021 album releases we encountered this past year, resulting in a list of 25 must-have LPs we think you should get to know. But wait, that’s not all. We’ve also helpfully culled the racks for top EPs, covers albums, and long lost albums that finally saw the light of day in 2021. Forget the Columbia House Record Club, we’ve got all the long-players you need and then some. Hyperlinks take you to the original review.

So let’s get the show rolling with Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2021:

1. James Henry Pluck
2. Brent Seavers BS Stands For
3. The Boys with The Perpetual Nervousness Songs from Another Life
4. Lane Steinberg The Invisible Monster
5. Ruen Brothers Ultramodern
6. Aaron Lee Tasjan Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!
7. Greg Townson Off and Running
8. Rich Arithmetic Shiftingears
9. Richie Mayer The Inn of Temporary Happiness
10. Drew Beskin Problematic for the People
11. Rob Ellis Orrall 467 Surf and Gun Club
12. Nicholas Altobelli Technicolor Hearts
13. The Friends of Cesar Romero War Party Favors
14. Steve Robinson Swallowing the Sun
15. The Brothers Steve Dose
16. Lolas All Rise
17. Lo Talker A Comedy of Errors
18. The Armoires Incognito
19. Tommy Ray! Handful of Hits
20. Chris Church Game Dirt
21. Matthew Milia Keego Harbor
22. Henry Chadwick We All Start Again
23. Rich Mattson and the Northstars Skylights
24. Ken Sharp Miniatures
25. Fishboy Waitsgiving

Putting James Henry as my number 1 album choice for 2021 might surprise a few blog watchers but frankly I don’t know why Pluck isn’t topping all the indie charts. Maybe it’s the subdued cover art or perhaps the album just falls between the genre cracks, I don’t know. But if you love those highly listenable 1980s Squeeze or Crowded House albums, this guy is for you. Each song should be stamped ‘earworm warning’ as a positive public health measure. Take it from me, Pluck is a relentless hook machine. 5 stars for sure. Other choices – Brent Seavers, The Brothers Steve, Lolas, Chris Church – are perhaps more predictable. Hey, they’ve delivered before and here they deliver again. Genre-wise, Lane Steinberg and Fishboy undoubtedly raise boundary issues but damn they are fine albums with subtly hooky tunes. And the rest? Well they’re all defined by content that is mucho killer, nada filler.

Next up, Poprock Record’s top five EPs for 2021:

1. Daryl Bean Mr. Strangelove
2. The Blendours Go On Vacation
3. BPM Collective Catastrophe Girl
4. The Cudas Alien Vacation
5. Rumble Strip Let’s Roll

Can’t spare the time for a full album experience? These extended play releases will meet your need for more than a single but not quite a long-player. But fair warning, these concentrated blasts of melodic goodness may leave you wanting for more. They’re that good.

Then, there’s Poprock Record’s top five covers albums for 2021:

1. Richard Turgeon 10 Covers Volume Two
2. Mike Browning Class Act
3. The Speedways Borrowed and Blue
4. The Unswept Power Pop for all the People
5. Spygenius Blow Their Covers

The pandemic moved just about everyone to put out an album of covers. But they’re actually pretty hard to nail, ranging in quality from elevated karoke to the unrecognizable. The trick is to rework the unique creative spark in the song, making it both recognizable and different at the same time. Turgeon’s a master of song reinvention, taking up tunes others wouldn’t dare to try (from the likes of The Monkees, The Mamas and Papas, and the Bryds, among others) and succeeding. Browning applies his own distinctive poprock chops to material from the sixties to the eighties that lets you fall for the classics all over again. Ditto 3, 4, and 5 – they love the songs and it shows.

And finally, Poprock Record’s 5 best long lost albums of 2021:

1. Sorrows Love Too Late … the real album
2. Steve Rosenbaum Have a Cool Summer
3. Bruce Moody Forever Fresh!
4. Doublepluspop Too Loud, Too Fast, Too Much
5. Underwater Sunshine Suckertree

The idea that a band could put all the work into writing, playing and recording an album and then not have it released almost seems like a crime in my book. Numbers 4 and 5 had their work ‘misplaced,’ only to accidently resurface recently and get released. Numbers 2 and 3 were indie artists whose various DIY and professional recordings never got gathered together for a proper release, until the rise of recent niche music markets made it viable. And number 1 is a remarkable story of a band that wouldn’t let their record company/producer’s mangled version of their album stand. So instead they rerecorded it, this time getting it right. That the Sorrows could make their rerecording of Love Too Late sound so 1981 is a testament to their talent and sheer doggedness.

Ok, one last category, Poprock Record’s best ‘best of’ album of 2021:

Dropkick The Best of Dropkick

Sometimes greatest hits collections really hit the mark. The Best of Dropkick is one of them. It’s a comprehensive overview of this great band’s career, packaged with attractive artwork, and at a very nice price.

Well we stretched the 25 album limit but it really was the only way to be fair to all these super LPs and EPs. I think this post demonstrates that while classic era of the album may be over, there’s still lots of tremendous long-playing records out there. If you love them, support them, whether its live or Memorex.

Lego records graphic courtesy art/design student _Regn.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles of 2021

03 Monday Jan 2022

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Welcome to our sixth annual collection of should-be hit singles gathered from the artists, albums and tunes featured on Poprock Record in the previous year. You’d think after five tries I would have come up with some kind of rock solid science to make these choices. But, no. Still winging it, going with whatever takes my fancy. I mean, I think you’ll see a pattern: catchy guitar hooks, soaring melodies, earwormy compositions, all accomplished in three minutes or less usually. Putting this list together was particularly challenging this year – positively spoilt for choices! My initial list of possible songs had over 200 selections. 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 top 50 should-be hit singles for 2021:

1. The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness “I Don’t Mind”
2. White Fang “Never Give Up”
3. The Vapour Trails “That’ll Do It”
4. James Holt “Mystery Girl”
5. Brent Seavers “More Than A Friend”
6. Timmy Sean “The College Year”
7. Aaron Lee Tasjan “Another Lonely Day”
8. Ruen Brothers “Cookies and Cream”
9. The Martial Arts “Bethany”
10. Daisy House “Last Wave Home”
11. The Coral “Vacancy”
12. Robert Ellis Orrall “Sunshine”
13. Deadlights “Breaking Down”
14. Love, Burns “Wired Eyes”
15. The Blendours “Tell Me The Truth”
16. Daryl Bean “Keeping Me Alive”
17. Stoeckel & Pena “Why”
18. Richard X. Heyman “Ransom”
19. Automatics “Black Velvet Elvis”
20. John Myrtle “How Can You Tell If You Love Her”
21. The Red Locusts “Another Bad Day For Cupid”
22. James Henry “So Many Times Before”
23. Lane Steinberg “The Invisible Monster”
24. Geoff Palmer “The Apartment Song”
25. Mike Browning “The Little Black Egg”
26. The Eisenhowers “Suffer”
27. The Jack Cades “What Am I Going To Do?”
28. Friends of Cesar Romero “Thinkin’ About Leavin’”
29. The Kickstand Band “Hey Julianne”
30. Pseudonym “Before the Monsters Came”
31. David Brookings “Mania At The Talent Show”
32. Lolas “Pain In My Heart”
33. Tommy Scifres “Thought You Knew”
34. Vanilla “I Shall Be Re-Released”
35. Hyness “Cruelty”
36. Tim Jackson “How Do You Mend A Broken Heart”
37. Caddy “Cost of Love”
38. Chris Church “Know”
39. Tim Izzard “Breaking Me Down”
40. BPM Collective “Catastrophe Girl”
41. Benny Hayes “Don’t Make Me Go”
42. Steve Robinson “Mr Empty Head”
43. The Poppermost “Laziest Fella In The Realm”
44. Liz Phair “Hey Lou”
45. Juliana Hatfield “Gorgon”
46. Robert Sherwood “Blue All Over”
47. Kurt Hagardorn “You Are My Girl”
48. Richard Turgeon “Goodbye to Summer”
49. Ed Woltil “Paper Boat”
50. The Amplifier Heads “The House of Young Dolls”

This year’s list privileges strong, strong hooks. I’m talking the jangleliscious guitar work from the ever reliable Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness on “I Don’t Mind,” the relentless driving guitar riffs animating White Fang’s “Never Give Up,” or the delicious 1960s roll out kicking off The Vapour Trails’ “That’ll Do It.” Or the pumping, plinky piano and organ cocktail that undergirds James Holt’s killer single “Mystery Girl.” Then there’s the more traditional poprock Brent Seavers, springing the earworm in the chorus of “More Than a Friend.” Still, there’s room for variety on this list, from the tender acoustic Aaron Lee Tasjan ballad “Another Lonely Day,” to the Beach Boys homage in Daisy House’s “Last Wave Home,” to a folk rock duet from Steve Stoeckel and Irene Pena on “Why,” to the striking sonic heartbreak embodied in Richard X. Heyman’s touching “Ransom.”

Truly, this list is just a bit a fun, one more chance for me to shine a light on the artists whose work had me hitting replay in 2021. But I’m sure you might make different choices. Feel free to tell me all about them! Either way, don’t forget to find some way – buying music, attending live shows (when it’s safe!), or taking up those opportunities to interact with them online – to support their bottom line. They may not only be in it for the money, but money does allow them to stay in it.

Bah humbug, yeah yeah yeah

10 Friday Dec 2021

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Every year I laud the holiday spirit in tunes. But what about all those people who can’t stand the holidays, or, more specifically, holiday music? Don’t they deserve a special post celebrating their anti-celebration sentiments? If you’re still reading you’ve probably worked out that this year the answer is ‘yes’. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far. Turns out this whole anti-holidays thing has its own genre of music. Yup, they’re a pretty creative bunch of misanthropes too. And just cuz they’re cranky about Christmas doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a downer. So get ready to rock the ‘down with yuletide’ vibe!

I’ve got to start this themed post with Nicholas Altobelli, whose brand new “I Hate Christmas Without U” got me started down this track. He’s giving maximum mellow on this low key Christmas complaint tune. It starts punchy with a great weird organ sound before turning more intimate, ornamented with some nice guitar runs and heavenly background vocals. It’s not in-your-face fist-pumping stuff but there’s a subtle hypnotic allure that keeps me hitting replay.

Altobelli’s contribution is actually emblematic of a distinct sub-genre of holiday complaint music, the ‘I hate holidays because I’m lonely’ song. With these tunes it’s pretty clear that the real issue is not so much the holidays as it is facing them alone. Charly Bliss get to this point rather directly on their thoroughly power pop “It’s Christmas and I Fucking Miss You.” Kris Rogers and the Dirty Gems take a more Americana poprock approach to a similar sentiment on “Can’t Spend Another Christmas (Without You).” Now nobody does holiday ennui better than country artists and drag artist Trixie Mattel captures those mixed feelings on the wonderfully understated, occasionally comic “Christmas Without You.” Braden Blake and the Oh Wells so nail the Grinch musical backdrop in kicking off their “Bittersweet Noel” before shifting to a more Fountains of Wayne hooky ode to loneliness. It’s from a consistently sad sack brand new seasonal EP called Satin Bows (and Arrows) where feeling bad never sounded so good. And then there’s The Mixtapes who don’t seem anti-holidays at all as much as looking for anything to blot out the heartache that is only obliquely referenced on “Broken Hearted Christmas.” So, sure, they sound like they’re really into the season but it’s pretty clear that’s just a dodge.

Trixie Mattel – Christmas Without You

Now we turn to the serious Grinches on the anti-holiday front. These guys have a ‘tude’ and hooks to spare. Starting with Richard Turgeon,“Skippin’ Christmas” gives voice to those exhausted by all the forced festive bonhomie. The track is both hilarious and jangly-melodic in a addictive Brydsian sort of way. I ran across Slow Club when I noticed the multitude of covers of their song “Christmas TV.” But that’s not even the highlight for me from their anti-holidays EP of tunes, appropriately entitled Christmas, Thanks for Nothing. The collection covers off Christmas lonliness, a spirited cover of Darlene Love’s “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home,” a raucous, decidedly unsilent “Silent Night,” and my personal fave “It’s Christmas and You’re Boring Me.” Probably the most unique deferred break-up song in a Christmas setting – and that’s an award category if ever there was one. John Sally Ride member John Dunbar has put together a holiday song from a point of view that seldom gets attention, that of the empty nester with no one left around to buy for. “He Has No One To Buy Gifts For Anymore” has a rather sad theme but is delivered in peppy style, with some cool organ and a very Michael Penn vocal delivery. Brent Seavers has got the holiday blues and just can’t get any Christmas inspiration going. Sure, he’s missing some special someone but it’s more than that. On “It’s Christmas” Seaver works a Lennon-esque tune and sentiment that leaves us wondering where he’s ended up by the end of the song. Maybe he’s found his “blessings all around” but I’m leaving him in the holiday-agnostic camp for now. Joseph Bradshaw draws on a classic American Songbook style for “Santa Claus Can Keep His Bag.” It’s another ‘you ain’t here so I’m pouting about Christmas’ song but Bradshaw does it with such class, it’s worthy of your seasonal appreciation. From his brief but punchy EP Xmas.

Wrapping things up (not literally, we’re against gifts in this post), the record that definitely inspired me to get keep this anti-holidays theme going, Michael M’s brilliant and hilarious EP A Digital Christmas Gift For You. With songs titles like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Which Directly Contravenes All Social Distancing Guidelines)” and “Baby I’ll Zoom You This Christmas” it would be easy to see the whole affair as just a timely send up. But this record is no joke. The songwriting is strong and hooky, with sudden punky interludes interspersed here and there. Opening cut “Humans Are Not Worth Saving (Merry Christmas)” is a delightful slice of Futureheads discordant pop with a sly dose of stinging social commentary mixed in (click back from track 2 below using the reverse arrow). And the genius bonus cut is the note perfect cover of McCartney’s holiday song, reduced to a single line of its lyrics. Hilarious and oh so cutting.

Well there you have it. Proof you can whistle a merry tune about hating the holidays. It’s your time to shine bah-humbuggers! Support the artists not supporting mandatory holiday cheer by visiting them online (no gifts required, just $).

The ‘Bah Humbug’ banner-post graphic above was designed by Aled Lewis. It can be purchased as Christmas card here.

Around the Dial: Richie Mayer, Brent Seavers, and Rob Fetters

06 Thursday May 2021

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In this era of streaming and individual song downloads, we are told the album is dead. Or is it? Somebody clearly forgot to inform today’s featured artists. Gear up for a post full of five star quality LPs.

Richie Mayer’s experience shows on The Inn of Temporary Happiness. With a career stretching back to the late 1970s new wave scene, his new album effortlessly mixes influences from more than a half century of popular music. The record opens with the obvious single, “Dangerous Rhythm,” and it’s a winner. I love how it builds out of just voice and acoustic guitar, adding more instruments and taking unexpected melodic turns. There’s something a bit Colin Moulding in the chorus, a dash of ELO or Alan Parsons Project with the background vocals, and a heavy dollop of late Beatles guitar work in the solos. But don’t get comfortable because Mayer changes things up stylistically from track to track. There’s some folk rock (“The Inn of Temporary Happiness”), country-ish (“The Hall of Blame” ) and even music hall numbers (“How Can I Leave When I’m Already Gone”). But mostly there’s just great songwriting, in the way great 1970s and 1980s singles used to sound. The Beatles and Beach Boys figure prominently amongst the influences here, particularly “Love Will Find a Way” and “Warmth of the Sun,” though there’s a bit of a 10cc vibe on the former while the latter oozes some Hall and Oates Philly soul. “This is the Day” even has hints of Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” particularly from the keyboards. I could go on – there’s not a weak track anywhere on the LP. Definitely check out the should-be single “She’s Taking It Too Well” (so many Beatle-istic touches here!) and the lovely acoustic guitar instrumental “Kat’s Guitar.” Spend some time with this record: your happiness will not be temporary.

The pandemic interrupted the recording of a new Decibels album so Brent Seavers filled the time making YouTube videos of himself covering a bevy of poprock classics (check out his fantastic cover of Marshall Crenshaw’s “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time” below) and recording a solo album. BS Stands for Brent Seavers sounds like The Decibels, not surprising, but also not like them too. The solo gig has allowed Seavers to drift a bit forward in time, from mid-1960s right up into the new millennium indie poprock scene. Obviously there some very Decibels material here, like “Out in the Rain,” “Clean Reflection,” and the jangle-heavy “All the Better.” The band’s sixties-meets-the-1980s vibe is also there on the Smithereens-ish “Flatline” and the muscled-up California pop hue all over “Running Me Down.” But I’m going to go out on a limb here to suggest the band haunting this record might actually be They Might Be Giants. That Brooklyn duo’s jocular sense of musical whimsey lurks on “Unlike Superman,” “Me and My Melancholy Face,” and most obviously on the fun sing-along “I Wrote a Song.” Seavers even sounds a bit like TMBG’s John Linnell vocally on the album opener, “Play.” On the other hand, should-be hit single “More Than a Friend” is Seaver’s own distinctive brand of melodic rocking out, with strong harmonies, and killer earworm chorus. This is another total album enjoyment collection.

I’ve been listening Rob Fetters’ new album Ship Shake on repeat for the last two weeks or so. The more I hear it, the more I like it. It’s the kind of record that grows on you, as more and more of its musical and lyrical subtleties reveal themselves. Part of the appeal is its hefty dose of positivity. “Turn This Ship Around” is an amazing slice of hooky, indie Americana but it’s also the message we need right now. Or “Not the End” highlights the little things we can do day to day to make the world just a little bit better, set to a carefree summer car-radio soundtrack. Not that all the message here is light. Fetters delves into issues of sexuality, abuse, loss and forgiveness with such a direct sincerity it’s disarming. Themes like these can get a bit preachy but he pulls it off. Ultimately Ship Shake is an album about what really matters in life: people, relationships, and what we’ve learned from our own experience. For instance, on the widely misinterpreted track “Nobody Now” Fetters sounds like he is complaining about the loss of fame and its trappings but what he’s really doing is moving beyond it. In the end, it’s the combination of this emotional depth with great tunes that will bring you back for more. Songs like “Can’t Take It Back” really capture this, showcasing Fetters’ hooky melodies and Tom Petty meets Warren Zevon vocal delivery. And let me say, the guitar playing on this record is pretty extraordinary. From the riff that kicks off the opening track, you know you are in presence of guitar god, but one that can temper technique with melody. This record is a must hear.

What did I tell you? The album is far from dead. Visit Richie Mayer, Brent Seavers, and Rob Fetters to get your living proof.