As autumn slowly cuts off any hope of retreat to summer we are left with little choice but to spark up some inner warmth, by whatever means necessary. So doff your wool and cotton and get close to our fire of combustible hooky tunes.

This past summer Charleston South Carolina’s Band of Jays came to the defence of your anywhere town with a song dubbed “Bill Murray.” There’s actually a surprising number of songs named for my fave SNL alumnus but few seem to heft a guitar or a hummable melody. By contrast, this track is an ear-pleasing winner with great guitar backing, an easygoing tune, and a nice sentiment. As the lyrics note, maybe Bill Murray doesn’t live in your town but everybody’s got something special going on close to home. Further south New Orleans band Video Age get us “Away from the Castle” with a song from an album of the same name that deploys a mixture of snappy guitar tones and keyboard runs to buffet its super fine vocals. Right next door Birmingham Alabama’s Lolas turn on the power pop charm on “From the Start” with chime-y guitars and shimmery harmony vocals. What a slice of ear candy! Leaving the south for the icy north, Norway’s I Do You Do Karate do not bury the lead on their single “Peanut Carter.” The lead guitar, that is. I love how the main guitar lick just rings out over the pulsing beat of the band. I’d like to count myself as one of many Friends of Cesar Romero, the guy just never lets me down. Check out his latest dance stomper “Quick Wrath,” specifically for how he combines a swamp-worthy bit of lead guitar with some ace power-pop background vocals. Flipside “Her Lipstick Dedication” is a pretty sweet bit of 1962 rocked-up Phil Spector.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Newski is some kind of old soul. He’s got the mellow ‘live and let live’ vibe of a 1960s hippie, with just a touch of punk around the edges. And his sound is littered with bits of vintage sixties and seventies rock and roll motifs that he just throws on like a comfy sweater. His latest in a series of winning singles is “Get It Figured Out” and I love its languid, loping rhythm, especially combined with a spot-on Tom Petty vocal. Weymouth, UK’s Garfield’s Birthday crank up the British beat group sound on the opening cut of their latest album Next Stop Mars. Just listen to the finely-calibrated close-harmony vocals guiding “The Other Side of the Wind.” It’s as if Peter and Gordon had come up with a rock and roll backing. Get ready for some jangle from The Tisburys on their new one-off single “The Anniversaries” and a whole lot more too. There’s some sweet organ and harmony vocals and a tune that will get in your head and refuse to move out. Oakland California’s Hidden Pictures return in full-on country regalia with “Hayward Hall of Justice.” The song leans hard on the pedal steel to set the hard living, hard drinking country scene, with a winning dose of FOW subtle hookiness. London UK’s Ex-Vöid give the people what they want on their new release “Swansea.” Is it folk? Is it indie? I just know it’s effing great. Pairs well with anything from Mary Lou Lord.

Time to crank this party up a bit. Liquid Mike flash their punk vocals and grinding big-guitar sound but that can’t obscure the hooky genius at the centre of “Crop Circles.” Played loud or soft this one’s a winner (but play LOUD for full effect). Seattle’s The Oh Wells work a pop country seam on their latest single “Mad Honey.” Ok, things do get to rocking in the lead guitar break but those vocals are just so pop smooth. Kelowna BC’s Stephen Schijnes is putting out singles so fast I can’t keep up with them. He’s got two recent releases that sound so simple but are ultimately bewitching in their impact. “Carry On (The Way It Has To Be)” contrasts Schijnes Gordon Lightfoot deadpan vocals with a rollicking musical backing while “It’s All About Love” is an anthem made just for our times. Get those children’s choirs ready for this one. Is it just me or is Pony perfectly incarnating Juliana Hatfield on her recent killer single “Freezer”? The guitars, the perfectly calibrated sibilant vocals, the subtle hook driving the song – it’s all wonderfully Hatfield-esque. I mean, she’s doing her own thing for sure but wow. We’ve featured Ottawa native Robby Miller and his tight brand of crunchy poprock a few times but listen to what he’s got going with Danny Young on “Take Me As I Am.” Young adds a Beck-like chameleon vocal style to a monster of a song, particularly in the chorus. Anthemic for sure.

On their new album Studio 3 New York duo Rogers and Butler explore our present hard times over a range of songs – with titles like “Poverty Line,” “Teddy Boys,” and “Poor Little Rich Girl” you quickly get the picture. But give the whole album a listen and you’d swear these two come from York minus the New, so well do they capture a particularly English beat group sound. Here we’ll just feature one of their timely tunes, “Agree to Disagree.” The sentiment is solid but the jangle is outa-sight. Belgian poprock purveyors CMON CMON pick up where they left off, cranking out another slickly produced ear-catching new single “All the Other Kids.” Really, this is one smooth piece of 1980s AM radio should-be hit single-age. Poprock workaholic Richard Turgeon has slowed the pace of his one-man song machine this past year but his new track “I Won’t Cry” shows he’s not losing any of his hooky shine. There are so many endearing melodic twists in this song. Just when you think he’s established the form he throws in another hooky departure. Jared McLoud is all in on Americana on his new album Vacancy. The sound has the emotional resonance of all those fabulous New Jersey acts, great (Springsteen) and small (Soul Engines), particularly on cuts like “A Kind of Love That Will Tear You Apart.” But “Tramp Like Me” and “Hello, My Name is Standing Joke” are pretty sweet too. Mossy Ledge take me back to all those dreamy British guitar bands from the 1980s like The Silencers. Their new song “All You Need To Know” starts off all minor key and doom-pop but then breaks out in the chorus with a bit of melodic sunshine.

If anyone sounds like they’re cut from ‘absolute classic entertainer’ cloth it’s Atlanta Georgia’s Mattiel. With a great big voice like Patsy Cline or Neko Case and charisma to match, she could sing the bus schedule and we’d all be glued to our seats. Now she takes on Terri Gibbs’ country chart hit “Somebody’s Knocking” and definitely makes it her own. She adds smoke and a bit of grit to the vocals while the accompaniment is a rich melange of pedal steel, harmonica and delectable guitar work. Side B is a treat too, a cover of Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You.”

Don’t get too close to these sizzling tunes, you’ll singe your dance shoes. Crowd in just close enough to feel their should-be Hot 100 heat.

Photo ‘Campfire Nights’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.