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Tag Archives: Dropkick

Sounds like a smile!

14 Saturday Jul 2018

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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Bruce Springsteen, Dropkick, Jeremy Fisher, Lord Huron, The Mowgli's

carThere are songs that come on and a smile follows. It’s spontaneous, even if it happens every time. Even this random car graphic above can’t resist smiling. Given the headlines, it seems like every day our world needs a few more songs that sound like a smile. Here are a few random choices that never fail for me.

Scotland’s Dropkick are a fave here at Poprock Record and I can’t resist a chance to feature another of their fabulous tunes, this time from Good Vibes: The Dropkick Songbook, a 2014 release of re-recorded songs drawn from material first released between 2001 and 2008. “Dog and Cat” is lovely, lilting happy tune, with a sweet sentiment. One could imagine Schroeder of Peanuts fame playing this for Lucy, I mean, if he actually liked her and switched from piano to guitar.

The Mowgli’s have that upbeat positive sound I associate with Family of the Year and Good Old War, bands that lean heavily on acoustic guitars, sweet harmony vocals, and catchy hooks. Stand alone single “Room for All of Us” builds from a positive message to an anthemic poppy chorus, and the song raises money for the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit that helps those displaced by conflict.

Lord Huron is largely known for his dreamy Americana but from the first time I heard “Hurricane (Johnny’s Theme)” it practically leapt out at me as some kind of weird but wonderful mid-1960s pastiche revival tune, one part Johnny Rivers, another part Johnny Horton, with even some Marty Robbins in there somewhere. Listen to how the song takes off with it’s trebly lead line and strong vocals, so unlike most of Lord Huron’s other material. Upbeat and positive in its relentlessly peppy presentation.

Bruce Springsteen hardly needs press from the likes of me but his 2014 Record Store Day EP release American Beautycontains a stand out track that is just a little bit different than the rest of his catalogue with “Hurry Up Sundown,” particularly with its carmelized, fattened-up vocal track. The song is classic Bruce but coated in a polished poprock veneer circa 1987 that makes me smile. https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/03-hurry-up-sundown.m4aHurry Up Sundown

Rounding out this post is a bit of Can Con I’ve regularly featured on the blog, Jeremy Fisher. Most of this Canuck’s songwriting is pretty sunshine and rainbows positive but “Come Fly Away” from his 2010 release Floodis smile plasteringly pleasant and uplifting. Cue sun-up and chirping birds.

They say smiles are free but we know that’s not true. Smile production costs money. So send a smile to Dropkick, The Mowgli’s, Lord Huron, Bruce Springsteen and Jeremy Fisher via your wallet or repeated Spotify streams today.

Breaking news: Jeremy Messersmith, Dropkick, Linus of Hollywood and The Sick Rose

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Breaking News

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Cabin Life, Dropkick, Jeremy Messersmith, Late Stage Capitalism, Linus of Hollywood, Longwave, Someplace Better, The Sick Rose

radio towersThis edition of Breaking News is all about new albums by artists with a strong track record. Hopes are high and possible disappointment is being held at bay. From Minnesota to Scotland to California to Italy, the poprock news is good. No, cancel that – great!

LSCI can’t get enough of Jeremy Messersmith. I only just discovered last year’s ukulele masterpiece and then his back catalogue and now he has a new record out and it’s fantastic too. Late Stage Capitalism is the latest installment in Messersmith’s enigmatic, intellectual poprock quest. Any casual listen reveals this man has a way with a tune. What seem like deceptively simple songs at first reveal melodic depth on repeated plays. Listen to how “Purple Hearts” ebbs and flows, softly sneaking up on our melodic sensibilities and then letting the hooks spill out everywhere. This is sing-along, fist-pumping, feel-good masterpiece. But Messersmith’s lyrics are something else too: tender, bittersweet, droll, sometimes biting. This guy is a less acerbic Morrissey or Stephen Merritt, an intelligent guy’s intelligent guy but with plenty of heart. Check out the sad yet sympathetic portrait exhibited in “Fast Times in Minnesota” or the sweet, Cyrcle-esque bounce of “Monday, You’re Not So Bad” with its Fountains of Wayne wordplay. I don’t know whether capitalism really is in its late stage or not but I do know one thing – this record is a winner.

UntitledThe new Dropkick album is out and the Teenage Fanclub and Jayhawk vibes are striking, particularly on radio-friendly “It’s Still Raining.” Longwave is the band’s fourteenth album since 2001 and it continues in the vein of low key acoustic guitar-based tunes that mark the group’s style. BBC Radio Scotland called them “Scotland’s finest alt-country power-pop band” but I think of them more as strummy, melodic poprock, in a low gear. Exhibit A: “All I Understand” is a sweetly swinging song, with subtle hooks. Oh there is country, sure. “Blue Skies” is a lovely slow country crawl. But there is so much more: the uptempo feel of “Fed Up Thinking of You,” the Byrdsian jangle of “Even When You’re Gone,” and the lovely spare acoustic treatment on “Turning of the Tide.” Altogether, this may be my favourite Dropkick album.

LOHA new Linus of Hollywood album is something to savor. The songs are always tightly packed musical gems with strong hooks, sparkling instrumental performances, and surprising arrangements. Cabin Life is no exception, a lush-sounding assortment of hooky AM radio-friendly should-be hits. Title-track and opening cut “Cabin Life” makes my point. LOH lulls us with a spare opener and then adds successive melodic and musical elements to build up the song, constantly shifting the listener’s attention – in a good way! Other songs put their poprock blast up front, like “At All.” This is a tune whose lyrical bitterness acts as counterpoint to its buoyant pop melody. “Wasted and in Love” sounds like the hit single to me with distinctive guitars that sound like they’re popping out of the speakers and strong melodic hooks. And this album’s ‘sounds most like Glen Tillbrook’ award goes to very Squeeze-like “Won’t Let it Get Me Down.” Excuse me while I hit repeat on this super new album.

The Sick Rose are solid rock and roll outfit from Torino, Italy clocking thirty-five years together with the release of their seventh LP, Someplace Better. The evolution of this band is testament to the ability of great musicians to keep changing, taking their sound in new directions without repudiating what went before. Their early records are pure 1960s melodic garage rock, replete with killer organ fills and crunchy lead guitar lines. But a few records later the sound has shifted into more clean 1970s rock sound. Then on their more recent releases the turn has been to a more power pop sound. Check out their masterful remake of The Liverpool Echo’s “Girl on a Train” from the band’s 2014 EP Live in the Studio.

TSRThe new record completes the shift to a more poprock sound under the expert production of The Posies’ Ken Stringfellow. “How to be Your Friend” kicks things off with an edgy guitar teaser before settling into more melodic vein with some nice vocal arrangements. The killer riff that opens “Frustrated” harkens back to their mid-period rock sound but the chorus is pure poprock. “Milk and Honey” is the pick for single for me, with a very smooth AM radio-friendly set of hooks. The band digs out the organ for the swinging “Sweet as Punch” and caps off the record with the title track “Someplace Better,” a jaunty instrumental. The Sick Rose were always great but, given my tastes, I think they’re getting better with age.

Jeremy Messersmith, Dropkick, Linus of Hollywood and The Sick Rose have worked hard to bring you these poprock delicacies. All you have to do now is open your wallet. And with e-finance, even that’s just a metaphor – no actual physical wallet-opening is necessarily required. It just doesn’t get any easier to keep our musical friends from hocking their instruments or casting their children into the street. Really.

Breaking news: Honduras, Bird Dog, Jayhawks, Dropkick, and the Posies

17 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Breaking News

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Balance the Light, Bird Dog, Dropkick, Hollywood, Honduras, Out od Love Again, Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces, Squirrel vs. Snake, The Jayhawks, The Ocean and the Sea, The Posies

break newsWe interrupt our regularly scheduled blog postings to bring you these breaking recent releases that run the gamut of indie/alt rock, alt country, powerpop and nouveau folk.

Honduras easily get marked off as garage rock punky.  Could be the guitars on a few tracks exude that but to my ears there is lot more range to this band than such a label might suggest.  Early single “Ace” has a killer clean, hypnotic intro riff that is too smooth to be punk while more recent album tracks like “Off White” show off a band with great instrumental chops.  “Hollywood,” their latest single, builds nicely from interesting interplay amongst the guitars into a great tuneful alt-rock sound and song.

 

Bird Dog take us into a mournful, slightly-discordant harmony vocals direction with “The Ocean and the Sea.”  It begins all folky but rocks out just past the middle into the end.  The song is catchy but it is the vocal harmonies, reminiscent of Jack and Eliza or the Fleet Foxes, that burn it into your brain.

 

The Jayhawks are back with a new album and tour.  From the band that has produced such standout tracks as “Save It For a Rainy Day,” “Over My Shoulder,” and “Real Light” there appears to be more gas left in the tank.  The new single, “Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces,” has all the magic qualities the Jayhawks are known for: sparkling acoustic guitars, smooth harmony vocals, and a devastatingly hooky chorus.

 

Scotland’s Dropkick have released a lot of material over the past decade, mining an acoustically grounded poprock sound akin to Teenage Fanclub.  Six years back they released a fantastic holiday EP of original tunes.  Now they’re back with a new album, Balance the Light, which features some of their strongest material. “Out of Love Again” feints with an acoustic opening, only to lurch quickly into poprock mode with great swirling guitars, ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ background vocals, and plenty of hooks.

 

Rounding things out is the fantastic new single from The Posies, “Squirrel vs. Snake.”  A lush opening gives way to acoustic guitars and vocal phrasing that reminds me of Squeeze in their heyday, only to shift again in the chorus to a more shimmery powerpop sound.  And the song even has something to say.

 

Honduras will be bringing their guitar sound to Toronto’s Adelaide Hall May 4th, while the Jayhawks appear at the Horseshoe Tavern June 11.  More information about the touring and recording exploits of Honduras, Bird Dog, The Jayhawks, Dropkick and The Posies can be found on their webpages and Facebook accounts.

Holiday poprock

23 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 1 Comment

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Best Coast, Bobby Helms, Dropkick, E, Eels, Fountains of Wayne, John Lennon, The Genuine Fakes, The Kings, The Rosebuds, Wavves, Weezer, Yoko Ono

19570000_Captain_Santa_Claus-Bobby_HelmsThe holiday music scene is a bloated market, artificially inflated by the pushback of the start of the Xmas season to sometime shortly after midnight on November 1st. Department stores, malls and elevators everywhere crave more songs to wallpaper two months of shopping with holiday music. Still, despite the saturation, I love Xmas music. My collection has both old and new contributions and a surprising number of b-sides. For instance, a top ten choice for me is the flip side of Bobby Helm’s “Jingle Bell Rock,” a space age number called “Captain Santa Claus.” Santa’s sleigh breaks down, the elves build a rocket ship, you get the picture. But rather than simply being a novelty cash grab, it’s actually a decent song. Another great b-side is the backing track to John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas,” performed by Yoko Ono: “Listen the Snow is Falling.” Ok, that one will be more controversial – but I like it.

The internet is crawling with holiday music playlists and definitive collections of holiday music from every era and style imaginable – so I won’t do something like that here. Instead, I’ll just riff on the theme with a few choice poprock selections.

fountains-of-wayne-i-want-an-alien-for-christmas-1997Many people are familiar with Fountains of Wayne’s “I Want an Alien for Christmas” but I prefer their more subtle ruminations in “The Man in the Santa Suit” from their 2005 rarities and b-sides collection Out-of-State Plates. The song has great hooks but it is FOW’s unerring ability to capture the social ennui of the holidays that sets it apart. Everybody in the song – from the boozy mall Santa-for-hire to the vomitous and unhappy children – is trying but not really succeeding in living up to the joyous demands of the season.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/06-the-man-in-the-santa-suit.mp3  Fountains of Wayne – The Man in the Santa Suit

For a rockier tune, Best Coast and Wavves “Got Something for You” has more of a ‘buzz guitar with dreamy vocals’ vibe. On the poppier side, before he fronted the Eels, Mark Everett was known simply as ‘E’ and offered up more crafted poprock than his band’s later edgier material. “Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas” harkens back to his E rather than Eels’ days. 220px-ChristmaswithweezerComing back to edgy, Weezer transforms “Come All Ye Faithful” to bring out the great pop elements of the song with a treatment that reminds me of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes’ cheeky punk-pop makeovers of classic poprock songs. For some Canadian content, The Kings were a Toronto band best known for their 1980 hit “This Beat Goes On/Switching to Glide” but on a follow up EP they performed their own holiday number, “This Christmas” which I always thought warranted more attention.

 

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/05-o-come-all-ye-faithful.mp3 Weezer – Come All Ye Faithful

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/15-everythings-gonna-be-cool-this-christmas.mp3 E – Everything’s Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/01-this-christmas.m4a The Kings – This Christmas

frozen-the-genuine-fakesTo wrap up, three more recent songs, one by the Scottish band Dropkick, another by Sweden’s The Genuine Fakes, and the last from North Carolina’s The Rosebuds. Dropkick’s “When Santa Comes Around” is from their strong holiday EP, 25th December, while The Genuine Fakes offer up their poprock reinvention of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman,” originally featured in the movie Frozen. The last song here I heard on an holiday themed episode of The Flash and it stuck in my head so much that I tracked it down online: the Rosebuds “I Hear (Click, Click, Click).”

You can find the artists featured in this post here: Fountains of Wayne, Best Coast, Wavves, Eels, Weezer, The Kings, Dropkick, The Genuine Fakes, and The Rosebuds.

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