Tag Archives: Dave Rave and the Governors

Snow drift singles

22 Monday Dec 2025

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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We’re deep into December and snow is coming and going in my part of the world. All the more reason to find shovelling inspiration wherever we can. Here’s another 21 songs to put some heft into your snow relocation efforts.

I’m a bit late picking up on this song from Dave Rave and the Governors from their 2023 LP Seven. “Distractions” has got a Blue Oyster Cult classic rock pop feel. Cool, mysterious, with a host of great inventive changes. Yorick van Norden highlights “Better Days” ahead on his recent single, full of sunny sentiment and a quality dose of jangle. Just one of many similar contributions on his new album Do It Now. The ever surprising Kurt Hagardorn goes a bit more Americana than usual on his recent single “Float Away with Me.” Very much sounding like an early 1970s-era Band deep cut. South Korea’s HOA are fab in so many ways. Open your ears to “Don’t Be A Loser” and tell me you don’t hear the Fabs at every melodic turn. It vibes Meet the Beatles with a dash of “Drive My Car.” Back in the early 1990s poprock master Bill Lloyd got the chance to work with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins on a set of session that ultimately never got released … until now. Here’s the title track to the fantastic 10 song album, Some Things Never Change. Perkins sounds like a million dollar player for sure and the song has the elan of timeless classic.

John Sally Ride main man John Dunbar works up a new alias for his most recent project. The Elbow Patches exude a psychadelic pop feeling on “The Day Got Away From Me.” Just one of ten great pop numbers on their full length record Achingly Familiar. Tommy Sistak pushes the Everlys faders up full on the “Long Goodbye.” Really, the Everly tone here is eerie but oh so pleasant. Wow, Log Flume offer up a Joni Mitchell “Clouds” bit of jangle-age on “Get The Picture.” Just great guitar work, period. Egersund, Norway’s I Was A King have a sound that’s warm and just a bit spooky on their new LP Until the End. Title track “Until the End” even has a splash of folkish charm pop up in the instrumental break. Jeff Shelton gets political on the most recent Well Wishers single. “littleorangemagaman” has some rough edges, solids hooks and a point of view, just what we’d expect of him.

On 2022’s Backgammonesque Los Andes gave us a killer South America-flavoured Teenage Fanclub vibe. Their new single “Facil” (or “Easy” in English) is just as delightful, swimming with lush guitars and beautiful vocal harmonies, in both full band and acoustic versions. Doug Hammond’s Daisy House was an early fave on this blog. His recent releases as Vaughn Trapp revive that magic, drawing from his remarkable, 1960s-infused songwriting skills. “What’s On Your Mind” has a particular pop sheen, so classy and smooth in its execution. Remember Sports are a band that sound live and lively. “Across the Line” rolls out with a steady emphasis, alternating between a laconic and deliberate kind of impact. The contrast between the spacey guitar tones and the folk-friendly vocals gives Guppy’s new song “Back to the Thing” a really unique charm. My head just starts doing the Peanuts head-bop dancing thing without much prompting here. Andrea Calvo is Grand Drifter, a sophisticated folkster of Italian persuasion who is long overdue for a new long-player. In the interim we can enjoy is hot-off-the-45-stamper “Any Second Now.” It’s a song about ‘finding traces of love hidden in the small, ordinary moments of everyday life,’ cocooned in a soft, Lennon-as-homemaker style.

Brian Dunne knows how to strum a guitar up into a catchy song. But he’s also got something to say. His most recent LP Clam Casino runneth over with plenty of hooks and homilies, none more so than the should-be hit-single “Fake Version of the Real Thing.” A poppier Bruce Springsteen, for sure. On Mondo Cool Brooklyn’s No Jersey lay it all out, how the system works and for whom, in a winning Americana-tinged pop-punk style. It was a toss-up between “You and Me and the Means of the Production” and “How To Make It In America” but I think the latter just has more hooks. Right next door New Jersey’s the dt’s revive a particularly groovy 1980s popping rock sound on “Sorry Not Sorry.” While crashing a party might be a real dilemma, it’s fodder for a great song here. Secret Postal Society have a new single and its dreamy, strummy good. “Heather” has a lilting soft intensity that builds as it goes on. Great synth runs too! Ricky Rochelle rides the line between punky rock abandon and sweet sweet melodic hooks. His recent long-player Second Layer runs the same play over and over again (and I love it), starting out every song with a starkly plain or rough-edged attack only to seduce us in the melody-drenched chorus. “Highlight Reel” makes this obvious but, frankly, any track from the record could demonstrate this magic.

Original Merseybeater Billy J. Kramer has a new album out and it’s got some killer tracks. Title-track “Are You With Me” works some autobiography into a very hummable effort. “My Sweet Rose” is another notable cut. But the radio ready song here is the early 1960s crooner “Go On Girl.” Sounds so of the era!

Living driving distance from the bottom of the Canadian shield I know a thing or two about snow. And it definitely goes better with music. Here you’ve got 21 snow drift sanctioned songs to get you through it.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles of 2020

09 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by in Should be a Hit Single

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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.

Paleo poprock: The Tearaways, The Empty Hearts, and Dave Rave and the Governors

19 Thursday Nov 2020

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I love the 1960s-meets-1980s synthesis embedded in the work of The Romantics, J. Geils, the Cars, the Go Go’s and so many others. Today’s feature artists are cut from the same cloth. I’ve dubbed them ‘paleo’ poprock because they effortlessly channel the essential melodic and rhythmic elements of the style. Listen closely and you’ll hear the very DNA of poprock.

The Tearaways are a jaw-droppingly good band. They emote an early to mid-1960s vibe, featuring their own distinctive brand of Beach Boys-style harmonies and Merseybeat jangle. And the songs! It seems like every one is loaded full of hooks. You can check out a fairly detailed review of the band corpus on an earlier post on this site. Their more recent efforts are a bit harder to nail down. Mention of a spring 2019 full album release entitled We Grew Up on AM Radio appeared on the band’s Facebook page but the record itself is hard to track down. Instead, I could find only about half an album of singles available in the usual locations. But, hey, I’ll take that. “Sweet Sounds of Summer” certainly covers the nostalgic AM radio theme, segueing to a full blown side trip into The Archies “Sugar Sugar.” “Manchester Girl” gives us a delightful blast of Mersey-ness on a tune that would easily fit on any Paul Collins record. But my fave from their latest batch of singles is “I’ll See You Again,” a solid rush of shimmery poprock goodness.  A new album can’t come fast enough.

The Tearaways – Sweet Sounds of Summer
The Tearaways – Manchester Girl
The Tearaways – I’ll See You Again

With The Empty Hearts it’s hard not to feel that rush of excitement that accompanied all the best new wave bands. It was a time when a ringing guitar seemed to able to kickstart what had become a moribund rock and roll scene band to life. And with former members of The Cars, Blondie, The Romantics and the Chesterfield Kings in the band, I mean, how could the group go wrong? Their self-titled debut deservedly received accolades from all quarters, including yours truly. Now back with The Second Album, it’s accolade time again. Early release single “Coat Tailor” kicks the album into high gear with Romantics-style up-front guitar and hooks. Ringo Starr stops in long enough to add touch of Beatles-rhythm to the delightfully jangle-heavy “Remember Days Like These.” From there the record offers up a wide range of familiar mid-to-late 1960s and early 1980s sounds, like a great J. Geils soul vamp on “Well, Look At You,” or the Cars vibe on “Come and Try It,” or the Kinks-ian feel to “The Haunting of the Tin Soldier” or what sounds like a great lost Romantics single, “If I Could Change Your Mind.” The whole record is a breezy, fun party album from players who’ve mastered the hooky rock and roll oeuvre.

Dave Rave has had an incredible career, as a member of legendary Canadian punk/new wave bands like The Shakers and Teenage Head, and then in more straight up rock and roll outfits like The Dave Rave Group and Dave Rave Conspiracy. Over the last decade he’s put out a raft of great records as a solo artist and with his Minnesota backing band The Governors (you can get caught up on these releases here). Now Dave Rave and Governors have a new double album out, January and June, with 18 cuts that cover off everything from sixties garage rock to melodic jangle. The record takes on an impressive range of styles yet still sounds coherent. There’s a sixties garage vibe to “Nowhere to Rumble” and “Leaving Doors Open,” a Stonesy slow grind to “Trangression” and Ray Davies flavour to “Medusa Without Snakes,” and a sixties psychedelia to “Summer is Gone” and banjo folky feel to “My Little Town.” I love the lively bass work on “You’re Worry” and 1979 ska sound and killer organ fill on “Pull the Trigger.” But the undeniable choice for a double A-sided single here should the combo of the light and jaunty, earwormy “I Don’t Think So” with the classic FM rock radio-sounding “Walking Down the Boulevard” with its distinctive rumbly and jangly guitar lead lines. January and June is another no-nonsense rock and roll release from Dave, chock full of delightful surprises and reliable hooks.

A great band is one that just gels on stage or in the studio. They so know the rock and roll motifs they can reliably work off each in sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising ways. The Tearaways, The Empty Hearts, and Dave Rave and the Governors are such veterans, paleo-poprockers that turn out great tunes with apparent ease. Get your dose of their rock and roll via the conveniently provided hyperlinks.