Tag Archives: Eytan Mirsky

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025

09 Friday Jan 2026

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Are singles just the equivalent of a musical snack for you? Need something a bit meatier, a bit more filling? Well, here’s the list for you. Twenty-five full length LPs gathered from throughout the year that was 2025. There’s rock, there’s pop, there’s jangle. There’s love, there’s despair, there’s political commentary. Dig in and pick out your own faves.

Without further delay, here is Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2025:

1. Absolute Losers In the Crowd
2. The Sonny Wilsons Maybe
3. Strange Neighbors People Pleasing People
4. The Cords The Cords
5. The Rockyts Parkwood Manor
6. Tamar Berk ocd
7. Banda AL9 The Ninth King
8. Tom Henry Songs to Sing and Dance To
9. The Jeanines How Long Can It Last
10. Jean Caffeine Generation Jean
11. Lone Striker Lone Striker
12. Eytan Mirsky All Over the Map
13. Atticus Roness Power Pop World Domination
14. Greg Pope The Roar of Silence
15. Jody and the Germs Love Descends
16. Chris Lund Surveillance
17. The Mayflies USA Kickless Kids
18. The Wellingtons Baby Moon
19. Richard Turgeon Shungite
20. Dropkick Primary Colours
21. Ryan Allen Living on a Prayer on the Edge
22. The Spindles Wavelength
23. Jonathan Personne Nouveau Monde
24. The Loft Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same
25. Tristan Armstrong The Lonely Avenue

My top five albums got a lot airplay from me this past year. PEI’s Absolute Losers wowed me with their sonic revamp, pretty well reinventing their sound. And it was pretty good to start with. The Sonny Wilsons album was so fresh, so straight up poprock goodness. What can I say about Strange Neighbors that I haven’t written already? They write great songs, they play in a great style. I won’t call out every LP on the list but make no mistake, I really like all that appear there. Each one had some special thing that set it apart. And breaking it down, old faves and new discoveries both appear here in roughly equal measure. You can check them out as they were featured in the original posts by clicking the hotlinks.

Now I don’t think it’s just because it’s my day job (political scientist), but the world seemed pretty intensely political in 2025. You couldn’t avoid it, it was all over social media, conventional media, and the water cooler. And that showed up in the music as well, even a genre as generally apolitical as power pop. So I’m singling out 3 albums as my top political poprock albums of 2025:

1. Dish Pit Violet Dish Pit Violet
2. No Jersey Mondo Cool
3. David Woodard Everything Belongs

Mersey is never far from my mind, as in the distinct chimes of Merseybeat. Every year I single out some record that really revives the spirit of its golden era while still making it their own. This year’s best riff on the Beatles recognition goes to:

Rad Venture Merseyside

My policy on legacy artists is that I cover them when they put out something that grabs me but I’m not going put them in the lists above. What would be the point? They’re already getting plenty of media oxygen, they don’t life support from this little blog. But I did spent some considerable time with a few of them in 2025. Kathleen Edwards put out a stellar record, Tristen never lets me down, and what a surprise with those two albums by the boys from Stranger Things. Here’s my legacy artist shout out of notable albums for me from 2025:

1. Kathleen Edwards Billionaire
2. Tristen Unpopular Music
3. Mae Martin I’m a TV (Welcome Distraction Version)
4. Jake Bugg A Modern Day Distraction
5. Wilderado Talker
6. Jesse Welles Middle
7. Finn Wolfhard Happy Birthday
8. Djo The Crux
9. Suzanne Vega Flying With Angels
10. OK Go And the Adjacent Possible

Does it seem like overkill to single out the same band twice for the same award? I’m gonna risk it because this band killed with their second double-album collection of covers. This year’s special award of awesome poprock merit goes to:

The Half-Cubes Found Pearls: Pop Treasures Volume 2

Thanks for dropping by this past year and digging all these great finds with me. Check out your faves on the lists above and don’t be afraid to buy an album or two to support these artists well into their musical dotage.

Photo courtesy Francois Fibotte Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2025

04 Sunday Jan 2026

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Another year, another slew of great singles made their appearance throughout our 73 posts of music coverage. If you’re an old school melodic rock and roll fan like me, the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the charts. Sadly, such the jangly, hooky, guitar-centric creativity was off the conventional music charts as well. That’s why we don’t rely on trade mags or corporate radio to tell us what’s top of the pops, we make up our own charts. Now, let me be clear, if I wrote about a song this past year I thought it was great, full stop. We’re an ‘all-positive, all-the-time’ kinda shop around here. So what you have in this post is recap of 50 songs that burned just little more deeply into my psyche this past year. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each of the songs and read the original write ups.

Enough stalling, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2025:

1. Keyside “Rock My Love”
2. Strange Neighbors “Beer at the Bar”
3. The What Four “Quarter to Midnight”
4. The Lemon Twigs “I’ve Got a Broken Heart”
5. The Sonny Wilsons “Maybe”
6. Pony “Superglue”
7. The Cords “Just Don’t Know (How to Find You)”
8. HOA “Don’t Be A Loser”
9. Tamar Berk “you ruined this city for me”
10. Banda AL9 “California”
11. Martin Luke Brown “To Be a Man”
12. Eytan Mirsky “Lost You in the Jetstream”
13. Grant Lindberg “In My Own Way”
14. Jaime Orr “Somebody Like You”
15. Force Model “How Can One Girl Be So Sad”
16. Log Flume “December’s Ending”
17. Rich Chance “Azelea Close”
18. The Bret Tobias Set “It Begins With Lean”
19. The Memories “Too Weak to be Strong”
20. Death By Unga Bunga “I’m Really Old”
21. Softjaw “I Need You”
22. The Spindles “Getaway”
23. Brett Newski and the Bad Inventions “Narrow Escapes”
24. Chris Church “She Looks Good in Black”
25. Japanese Breakfast “Magic Circuit”
26. Tristan Armstrong “The Lonely Avenue”
27. The Super True “Right Here”
28. The Needmores “Lookin’”
29. Oehl “I Love You”
30. Sally Spitz “Tag Your Sign”
31. Sorry Monks “I Know What’s On Your Mind”
32. The Mayflies USA “Calling the Bad Ones Home”
33. The Geezers “Modern Days”
34. Lolas “Work is the Blackmail of Survival”
35. Tom Henry “Close Your Eyes”
36. The Jeanines “What’s Done is Done” / “On and On”
37. The Tummies “Send Me A Picture”
38. Movie Movie “After Hours”
39. Tony Marsico and the Ugly Things “Goodbye to Lonely Town”
40. Chris Stamey “Anything is Possible”
41. Jim Trainor “Nothing”
42. Hidden Pictures “Wedding Singer (Going Through a Divorce)”
43. Liquid Mike “Selling Swords”
44. Zombies of the Stratosphere “If You’re Into It”
45. Daisy House “The Seducer”
46. The Invisible Rays “I Don’t Dream of You”
47. Nicky Koro “Dreamin’”
48. Pouts “Stay Awhile”
49. The Mommyheads “It’s Only Life”
50. The Berries “Lie in the Fire Again”

My top five this year were real head-turners. Liverpool’s Keyside show the city has still got the fab vibes. Strange Neighbors turned out killer tunes for the second year in a row. The first I heard of The What Four’s “Quarter to Midnight” I was hooked by its adrenaline-soaked beat. The Lemon Twigs have pretty reliably produced should-be hits over the past few years but there was something about “I’ve Got a Broken Heart” that just hit all poprock marks. And from way back early in 2025 I was struck by The Sonny Wilson’s unique sound. No maybe about it. I could go on about the other 45 songs here but you can get the dirt from the original posts by clicking the hyperlinks.

Next up, Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2025:

1. The Half Cubes “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
2. Sofa City Sweetheart “Waltz #2 (XO)”
3. Marshall Crenshaw “Never To Be Forgotten”
4. Mike Browning “Lost In Conversation”
5. Chaparelle “I Want to Dance with Somebody”

The Half Cubes put out another amazing album of covers and really outdid themselves but nowhere more strongly than on their cover of an early Marshall Crenshaw classic. Sofa City Sweetheart teased us this past year with an impressive rendering of Elliott Smith’s “Waltz #2.” Not an easy tune to take up. Marshall Crenshaw pulled together a host of songs for a new album, including a cover of a Bobby Fuller Four gem. And then we have Mike Browning covering an obscure Canadian track and Chaparelle countryfying a song everybody knows.

Well, there you have it, some great songs that deserve another shot across your attention span. Click the links for the original posts and revisit just how good 2025 was to us on the single file.

Photo courtesy Carbon Arc Flikr collection.

Hello again: Tamar Berk and Eytan Mirsky

14 Sunday Sep 2025

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Some artists just keep coming back around with intriguing new work that continues to develop their oeuvre. Today’s artists couldn’t be farther apart stylistically but man do they reliably deliver their goods.

Don’t tell my husband but I think I’m in a relationship with Tamar Berk. Maybe we’re just gal pals. Thing is, five albums in and Tamar is still sidling up to me, whispering secrets, sharing the darkest parts of her emotional universe. Always against a musical backdrop that makes everything feel like I’m caught in an 1980s John Hughes movie. Not that I’m looking to get out – I am loving it here. As Berk says in her presser, ocd is a ‘fuzzed-out, reverb-heavy swirl’ all about ‘anxiety, obsessions, fears, memories, dreams’ that falls ‘somewhere between indie pop-rock and a fever dream.’ Dream on Tamar, I say. Opening cut “stay close by” sets the scene with its buzzy drone, overlaid with Berk’s ethereal vocal. Title track “ocd” lightens the tone sonically, letting a variety of keyboards lull the mood before launching a striking chorus. Then comes the first of the many should-be hit singles from the album, “you ruined this city for me.” This is the kind of song Berk excels at, a flowing rush of melody that gathers you up in its release of energy. Another hit-maker is “there are benefits to mixed emotions” with its hypnotic spooky vibe. “i had a dream i was lost in an auditorium” also sounds like chart material to me with its reworked girl group feel. This one’s an auditorium sing-along number, for sure. Of course, “indiesleaze 2005” sounds like radio pleaser too. It can’t be a Tamar Berk album without a few gut-wrenching ballads and ocd doesn’t disappoint. “any given weeknight” and “my turn will come” fit the bill, the latter offering up an REM “Night Swimming” emotional gut punch. Personal fave?  “i’m in the day after” is so 1980s-pop gorgeous with its killer, larger-than-life synth shots. I’ve spent years comparing Berk to the likes of Debbie Harry, Aimee Mann or Suzanne Vega but on ocd Berk drills down into her own unique sound. It’s also probably the most consistent sounding record she’s made, capturing a specific vibe that resonates out of all the songs despite their differences. ocd is definitely another winner for Berk. But don’t tell my husband.

Another Eytan Mirsky album, another chance to track his every false move emotionally. He’s a guy seemingly always falling in love but somehow mostly falling flat. The confessions here are typically draped in self-deprecation but a few exhibit a strikingly tender sincerity. Stylistically All Over the Map definitely is. This record’s got soul and country, plenty of horns and cool organ runs, and oh so much heart. Things kick off with “Did What I Came to Do” with its low-key Motown vibe. I can practically see those Solid Gold dancers swaying throughout. Then come some signature Mirsky tougue-in-cheek self-critique tunes. “Apologize in Advance” puts some rockabilly guitar up front on a track that would not be out of place on a Buck Owens or Nick Lowe LP. “Inside Job” combines a Springsteen-worthy horn/organ section with a song seemingly haunted by Graham Parker. But then things get serious on “Almost Didn’t Cry,” a real straight-up country tear-jerker. The LP features a few out-of-the-ordinary efforts like “If I Could Only Draw” and “My Little Tricycle.” “Fooling Exactly Nobody” dials in a bit of New Jersey soul vamp while “If You’re So Smart” offers up a country romp critique. “Two Piece Puzzle” has the drama and cleverisms I’d associate with Elvis Costello. I was totally disarmed by the sweet accordion colouring the Nick Lowe-ish “The Satisfaction.” The album also has a should-be hit single in the stylistic outlier “Lost You in the Jet Stream,” a track that is more straight-up poprock than anything else here, definitely the AM radio ready single with some killer organ work. The album closes with “Give Me a Sign,” a moving paean to loss, where the organ and horn adornment add something special. Trust me, you’re definitely gonna want to follow Eytan All Over the Map with this release.

Who says emotional problems can’t be entertaining? Not these artists. Say hello to Tamar Berk and Eytan Mirsky at their hotlinked internet locales to keep this conversation going.

Photo ‘Found Kodachome slide’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Springing for singles I

23 Sunday Apr 2023

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Sunshine and blooming buds can no longer be contained. Time to spring a new load poppy rock and roll singles on you. Whether you’re clearing the garden or chasing new love right now, you’ll need some tunes. Here’s your first instalment of 21 seasonally-approved spring singles.

Let’s get started with what one wag called the ‘savage pop’ of North Carolina’s Paint Fumes on “Starting Over.” It’s got a rough and ready veneer hiding more than a glimmer of pop goodness. These are rock and roll hooks par excellence. And there’s more of the good same all over the band’s just released fourth album Real Romancer. From the delightful surprise file, a new single from Vancouver’s Odds. The band broke out big in the 1990s, then went on hiatus for a while, returning post-2007 with a series of unjustly over-looked new releases. The latest single “Crash the Time Machine” sounds like vintage Odds, all striking lead guitar lines and deadpan Northey vocals. Time to let your Odds flag fly, the band website promises a whole new album soon. It’s funny how labels stick. Scranton’s The Menzingers are regularly described as a punk band but you’d be hard pressed to single out the punk element of their new single “Bad Actors.” Ok, maybe it’s there in the vocal delivery but, on the whole, this new single is just solid poprock, the melody guiding the rocking backdrop into solid potential audience sing-along territory. How does one capture what Eytan Mirsky is? Is he just a magisterial vocalist? Seriously, I could listen to this guy sing the New York Times crossword. Lately he’s proven to be a crack song-writing collaborator too, taking lyrics from friends and acquaintances and cooking up up dynamite material like “Lost in the Jet Stream.” In some ways it’s signature Mirksy – those organ trills! But the guitar work is pretty special too. Vienna’s Good Wilson offer us some very jazzy guitar vibes on “Undecided Changes.” Think Steely Dan in space mode. Or a bit like The School Book Depository and The Golden Seals.

My blogging friend Eclectic Music Lover introduced me to Copenhagen’s Thomas Charlie Pederson, specifically “Yesterdays and Silly Ways” from his latest LP Employees Must Wash Hands. He describes the sound as chamber pop (read EML’s detailed breakdown of the album here) and that nails it, the song is very like The Zombies on tracks like “Care of Cell 44” from Odyssey and Oracle. Philadelphia’s Canadian Invasion are hiding in plain sight, releasing music with seeming impunity. Perhaps they hope to seduce the American empire from within with song? Their latest Your Favorite Lies EP might just do that with killer tracks like “Catch a Falling Knife.” Who marries an addictive violin solo and echoes of FOW’s song-writing? Geniuses, that’s who. Speaking of genius marriages, everybody’s fave Beatlemaniac TexMex combo The Krayolas have a bit of old and new out on their new EP King of Pop. There’s a great cover of The Monkees (“Pleasant Valley Sunday”), some totally new material, and a remix of “Catherine,” originally featured on 2008’s La Conquistadora. The latter is pretty stunning, a perfect distillation of all that this great band can do and has done over its decades-long history. Just catching “In Flames” from Roller Disco Combo on my phone shuffle I had to stop short, thinking it was a new single from Farrah. No joy on the Farrah reunion but plenty of smiles for RDC’s new EP The Sun After the Rain. Cleveland music legend Randy Klawon has cooked up a magic bit of 45rpm popcraft on “Marlo Maybe,” with help from former Raspberries drummer Jim Bonfanti. The style reminds me of tracks like Paul Davis’ early 1980s hit “65 Love Affair” in that it reinvents nostalgic pop motifs for a new era.

Thomas Charlie Pederson – Yesterdays and Silly Ways

Every since J.D. McPherson relaunched the neo-1950s sound for a new millennium a host of acts have been trying to tread the same boards. But few nail the atmosphere quite like The McCharmlys. “Love Me Too” breaks out of the speaker like the soundtrack to a classic 1950s movie montage sequence. The fine balance between rapier-quick lead guitar lines and the band’s commanding lead vocalist gives this tune its particular charge of excitement. This is doo wop on steroids, with a dab of Debbie Harry and Amy Macdonald thrown in. We’ve featured Floridian guitar virtuoso Kurt Lanham and his inventive covers of classic pop hits a few times (“I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Jenny 867-5309”) but he also writes and sings on his own original material. Like “Pallas” from last year’s LP Lanham. The song has got a languid bit of swing in the playing, buffeting the melodic vocal lines and varied guitar tones. Mellow but definitely ear-wormy. Back to Denmark for a moment, it was such a hard choice to decide on a cut from Mansfield’s repertoire. Both “Tell It Like It Is” and “Please, Shine a Light” from their 2020 debut album Star Crossed Lovers are a special blend of Merseybeat and Oasis influences but “Chasing After You” from their new EP Come Rain or Shine brings a decidedly Jake Bugg swagger into the mix. How about a dose of both? Today’s artists like to spread themselves over multiple projects, undoubtedly to satisfy their creativity and increase the chances that something will land with the public. See Benji Tranter’s resume for exhibit A. He’s a member of psych-folk group The All Night Chemist and power pop trio Ski Lift while also a collaborator with Show Boy. His recent solo effort Songs to Make You Happy is a definite departure from his group work, going for a more full-on folk effect. I really get a sense of Elliott Smith déjà vu from “Speed Camera.” Husband and wife duo Skoopski add to their continuing inventory of inventive stand-alone singles with “Double.” The song shifts from a stark, stripped-down, almost off-Broadway feel to a more full blown indie workout. I love the lead guitar tone that threads its way through the tune.

The McCharmlys – Love Me Too
Kurt Lanham – Pallas

Live fast, die young might sound romantic to aspiring artists but the reality is just loss, for a whole lot of people. What might have been won’t be. Zev was an up-and-coming indie artist still finding his own unique sound when he died in a car accident earlier this year at just 16. But just listen to his promise. On “Parachute” he owns a Velvet Underground groove like he’s camped out at Lexington Avenue and 125th Street. It’s got a touch of psychedelia in the chorus and some prophetic lyrics:

‘that young boy with no parachute looks a lot like me’
‘that young boy’s gonna die’
‘someone save him’

Still, my fave from his handful of songs is “4th of July.” What a neat slice of cool guitar pop. It’s hard not hear a Ben Kweller influence here. Vicenza, Italy’s Hearts Apart shift between spare verses and a combustable poprock sound in the choruses of “You’re All Around.” They’re clearly building up to something, an album perchance? There is something going on in Rochester, New York these days. The range of bands putting out amazing sixties inspired new material is incredible. The Low Spirits have got the garage angle covered. It’s like the Leaves or the Troggs time-travelled and got into a modern studio to cut a few tunes. “Outta Sight” is so the 1966 garage rock brief. What a party band these guys must be. Speaking of partying, the Teenage Tom Petties are back with a great double-sided single. A-side is “Posters” and I like it. But I like the B-side more, “My First Beer.” It’s strummy and, as the band say “95 seconds of pure first-beer-buzz, all climaxing in a messy-as-hell solo before passing out in the garden.” Really, couldn’t have summed it better. Heading now to the American Pacific northwest we pull a few tracks from Patty and Oh’s debut album Out of Everything. The record’s first single “Useless Love” is pretty cool. Like Jonathan Richman if he’d focused on getting a hit single. But I’m skipping over that for “Heard Some Kind of Light.” I love the computer-ish keyboard work. It’s got a sprightly pop feel, yet with some eclectic David Byrne notes. B-side? I’d choose “New Flavor of Gum.” It’s great guitar pop elevated with endearing keyboard tones and layered background vocals.

https://safesuburbanhomerecords.bandcamp.com/track/my-first-beer

I was going to call a wrap on this instalment of spring singles sampling with K. Campbell’s recent song “Smoke.” And it is a great track. But then I stumbled across Campbell’s even more recent release “Neil and Joni” and I had to shift gears. Two iconic Canadian songsters celebrated in one song? What’s not to love? And the additional accent vocals here from Mandy Kim Clinton really add something consequential.

Spring singles are a thing and this is just phase one. Return here for more seasonally-attuned songs soon.

Top image courtesy Mark Amsterdam Flikr collection: ‘Citroen car dealer brochure 1963’

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2022

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

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Once again I’ve assembled a crack team of ace reviewers to whittle our towering pile of albums from 2022 down to an essential must-have list of just 25 choices. How could these stuffed suits know what’s hip, you might say? It’s kinda like how album covers can be deceiving – the dullest dust jacket may obscure a real gem. So I’ve had these guys working overtime to bring you the very best of 2022, as featured in the annals of this here blog over the past calendar year. They’ve combed through countless long-players, extended plays and concept albums to put together multiple ‘must have’ lists. Tough work but you can tell by quality of their tailoring that they were up for it.

Cue drumroll – here we have it, Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs from 2022:

1. Tamar Berk Start at End
2. Trevor Blendour Falling in Love
3. Televisionairies Mad About You
4. Kids on a Crime Spree Fall in Love Not in Line
5. The Kryng Twelve Hymns to Syng Along
6. The Minders Psychedelic Blacktop
7. Eytan Mirsky Lord, Have Mirsky!
8. Edward O’Connell Feel Some Love
9. Phil Thornalley Now That I Have Your Attention
10. Kate Clover Bleed Your Heart Out
11. Push Puppets Allegory Grey
12. The Rubs (dust)
13. Afterpartees Family Names
14. Sloan Steady
15. 2nd Grade Easy Listening
16. Greg Pope Rise of Mythical Creatures
17. Papercuts Past Life Regression
18. Young Guv Guv III
19. Freedy Johnston Back on the Road to You
20. Pete Astor Time on Earth
21. The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness The Third Wave of …
22. Superchunk Wild Loneliness
23. The Happy Fits Under the Shade of Green
24. Tony Molina In the Fade
25. Chris Lund Indian Summer

Tamar Berk’s outstanding album Start at End tops our list for 2022. Melodic, poppy, inventive, and with a smooth AM radio sheen that encourages repeated listening. And then it’s hard not to fall for the manic, almost gleeful energy of Trevor Blendour’s Falling in Love. The Televisionaries’ Mad About You is just a wonderful mixture of retro rock and roll and hooky modern melodic riffing. I could go on (and I have – click on the hot links to go to the original posts). The list has got old faves (Freedy Johnston, Edward O’Connell, Eytan Mirsky), power pop stalwarts (Sloan, Greg Pope, Chris Lund), and a whole lot that was entirely new to me (Kate Clover, Push Puppets, Pete Astor). And there’s jangle to spare (The Kryng, Young Guv, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness). The list is proof that, contra claims we are solely a sample culture, the long-playing album is alive and well in the new millennium.

And there’s more. The ongoing revival of the extended play record format has led to this list, Poprock Record’s must-have EPs from 2022:

1. The Happy Somethings Ego Test
2. Movie Movie Movie Movie
3. Sad About Girls Wild Creatures
4. Friends of Cesar Romero In the Cold Cruel Eyes of a Millions Stars
5. Ryan Allen I’m Not Mean
6. Love, Burns Fade in the Sun
7. Richard Turgeon Rough Around the Edges
8. The Genuine Fakes Extended Play Vol. 3

The Happy Somethings make me happy, about a lot of things. They say important things, they give me hope. And their tunes are swell. The rest of the list is pretty winning too. Great tunes in smaller packages. That leaves no excuses not to check them out.

Sometimes an album is bigger than its constituent parts. Sometimes it’s just big. So I had to carve out a special category for Ken Sharp’s latest homage to the 1970s, Poprock Record’s must-have concept album from 2022:

Ken Sharp I’ll Remember the Laughter

Our last category recognizes an artist of prodigious talent and shocking productivity. By my reckoning over the past year alone he has turned out 2 albums of completely new material, 8 EPs of new material, 3 double-sided singles, 3 greatest hits albums, a b-sides album, an EP of remakes, and a holiday EP. Sleep is apparently not for this guy. Thus we bestow the Poprock Record special award of awesome poprock merit to:

The Photocopies

Another year, another avalanche of great tunes. Melodic rock and roll lives and here is the proof. Click on the links and find your new faves. The guys in suits are done here (for now).

1954 ‘Speaking of Pictures’ ad courtesy James Vaughn.

The republic of Mersey

31 Thursday Mar 2022

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The Beatles are such a touchstone for the melodic rock and roll genre that it’s not surprising that artists keep going back to the source again and again. At the same time, covering the Beatles is pretty much an impossible task. I mean, how do you improve on anything JPGR did? In one sense, you don’t – they’ll always be the definitive version. The trick is to reinvent their material in an unexpected but still recognizable direction. Today we visit acts taking the Beatles’ material to all sorts of new places while still remaining within the borders of the republic of Mersey.

Staten Island’s Goin’ Places is a pop punk group in the Ramones/Green Day mode, so not exactly the boys we’d expect to find hanging out at Lime Street Station. Yet it actually makes them the perfect outfit to punkify the Beatles’ catalogue. The lion’s share of the 18 cuts featured on their Fingerboard Road draw from the early to mid-period Fabs records. Some of what they put together is genius – all of it is fun. Fun like those Me First and Gimme Gimme’s albums of sixties covers! “I Saw Her Standing There” so works with a wall of punky guitars, the song being halfway there to begin with. Other songs that easily lend themselves to punking up include “She Loves You,” “Eight Days a Week,” and “Ticket to Ride,” the latter really only requiring hitting the lead guitar distortion pedal. Other tunes go punk simply because they were ballads that are now being played a triple speed: e.g. “Yesterday,” Something,” and “Hey Jude.” They sound jarring but remain melodically cool. “Norwegian Wood” and “I Will” get extra marks for inventiveness as the band add new musical interludes to spice things up. “A Day in the Life” is particularly special with its very Green Day treatment. But at other times punk gives way to just a rocking good time. Both “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Help” are simply exuberant rocking love letters to the originals. The Clash may have hated phony Beatlemania but Goin’ Places deliver the real ‘pop-meets-punk’ thing.

Stephen Krilanovich and Donny Newenhouse are the Wind-Up Beatles Chronicles, which they describe on their bandcamp page as a ‘pandemic music project.’ Whatever the impetus, man do these two nail the Beatles’ mid period sound (think Beatles for Sale to Revolver, with a few outliers). Sometimes they sail pretty close to the originals, which makes noting the small differences all that more interesting for Beatlemaniacs. For instance, “She Said She Said” is pretty Beatles note perfect. In other instances, they lean into various elements a bit more than the Fabs. “Wait” has a got an interesting and different guitar sound even while the timing is spot on and so familiar. “What You’re Doing” has got a bit more sparkle on the jangly guitar. “Rain” is probably the most different treatment here: less psychedelic and droney, more Brydsian. At other times the basic difference is simply that these two guys have got different voices than JPGR and no matter how clever the musical backing the overall effect is gonna be unavoidably different. “Paperback Writer” illustrates this well. The music sounds so much like the original single but the voices are pretty different (though pleasantly so). Probably my fave cut here is “I’m Looking Through You.” It’s delivered in a Rubber Soul approved light breeziness and sounds like an alternate take to the original. It’s fair to say that a splendid time is virtually guaranteed for all with this record.  It’s definitely for Beatles fans who ever thought ‘hey, I like to hear those songs done differently but not too differently done.’

In 2013 Canada’s Bullseye Records decided to put out a three volume tribute to the Beatles entitled It Was 50 Years Ago Today: A Tribute to The Beatles. So many great tracks but two particularly stood out for me, The Lolas’ rendition of “Good Morning, Good Morning” and Eytan Mirsky’s take on Harrison’s first song-write “Don’t Bother Me.” The Lolas balance some guitar grind with a lighter take on the vocals than in Lennon’s original. They also straighten out the tempo, less off kilter that what we’re used to. The song gets a bit lost amid the chaos of Sgt. Pepper but here it gets a chance to stand out on its own. As for “Don’t Bother Me,” I’ve always had a soft spot for a tune routinely dismissed by Beatles experts as lightweight and rudimentary in terms of Harrison’s eventual song-writing prowess. Yet I always thought it had an original melodic twist. Eytan Mirsky works the song over, adding distinctive lead guitar tones and some nice call and response vocals. At times he sounds like The Zombies’ lead singer in full-on, white boy blues whine (and that’s a good thing). Sisters Gwendolyn and Lucy Giles of Dog Party offer up a double A sided single of Beatles tunes. Nothing ground shaking in these reworkings of early Beatles’ hits but their harmonies do manage to add to the magic allure of “I Feel Fine,” bending the melody here and there in new and exciting directions, while their vocal take on “All I’ve Got To Do” adds mystery and a bit of mischief to the proceedings.

Now for a project that is more than a bit out there: Fabs songs converted into Avengers exposition. Insane Ian is a comedian that sidelines as a modern day Weird Al, though needle dropping through his voluminous catalogue his ouvre is more about the immediate gag rather than something you might listen to more than once. But his Meet the Avengers album is a musical superhero riff of a different colour. The musicianship is pretty impressive, hitting the Beatles marks where they need to. And the writing is pretty funny too. So “Nowhere Man” becomes “Iron Man,” “Help” transforms into “Hulk,” “Lady Madonna” becomes “Lady Natasha,” and so on. Sometimes the new lyrical detail overwhelms the old tune, as when “Thor’s Big Silver Hammer” leaves “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in a bit of disarray. By contrast “Hawkeye” nails the cadence and lyrical spacing of “Blackbird.” Personal fave: the rocking reworking of “Day Tripper” as “Steve Rogers.” The chorus even shifts melody slightly. As a rule, comedy projects don’t have a long shelf life but Insane Ian’s clever writing, surprisingly good musical performances, and creative artwork give this effort legs. Meet the Avengers might be funny but it’s no joke.

Lover of all things 1970s Nick Frater takes us in a decidedly different direction with his Mersey-influenced outing, focusing on The Rutles rather than the Fabs directly. The point of his Nick Frater Presents The Rebutles: Ron, Dirk, Stig and Barry The Solo Years, Vol​.​1 effort was to imagine what The Rutles might have sounded like if they’d broken up like the Beatles and then gone on to release (send-up) solo singles. The whole thing is pretty meta but, as with all things Frater, ultimately pretty clever, highly accomplished, and very listenable. The songs go from a late Beatles rooftop motif (“Struck in a Rut”) to early solo sort-of Fabs (“Baby I’m Amazing”) to mock Bond (“You Only Live Once”) to later solo Fabs recycled nostalgia (“When We Were Eighteen”) to morbid pastiche reunions (“The Last Laugh”). You’ve got to be pretty far down the Beatles/Rutles rabbit hole to get all the jokes and references but the beauty of Frater’s work is you can just enjoy the songs for what they are: pretty decent songs, well played. The fact that Frater can toss projects like this in as a free insert with his more serious album releases is a testament to his prodigious talent.

The republic of Mersey is a groovy place, surely the ultimate green and pleasant land. You don’t need a passport to go there. All you need is love, an open mind, and a thirst for the evolving musical influence of the Beatles.

Return engagement: Eytan Mirsky and Love, Burns

01 Tuesday Mar 2022

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There’s nothing better than a return engagement with a favourite artist. This double bill features performers who routinely win the ‘never let me down’ award from me and today is no exception. If they’re your thing, get ready for maximum enjoyment.

He’s the lord of deadpan cool. He’s Ben Vaughn meets Chuck Prophet. He’s Eytan Mirsky and he’s back with a fabulous new LP, Lord, Have Mirsky. The ten new tunes here resurrect familiar Mirsky personas: loveable loser, overconfident pleaser, half-serious life sage. “I Don’t Wanna Brag” opens the show with a kind of MexTex slow dance, Mirsky’s lyrics perfectly floating over the spartan guitar and organ accompaniment. No one does this sort of overconfident desperation quite like Eytan. Female trouble, as usual, defines the album, informing the pleading (“Halfhearted”), the complaints (“What Took You So Long”), and the emotional conflict (“You’re Getting It On Me”) that populate the songs. Clever wordplay? It’s back on “Smart to be Stupid,” a track that is kin to the pithy song stylings of John Hiatt and Richard Thompson. But Mirsky can also be serious, as in evidence on the somber soul vamp “It’s All Right to Be Alone.” The song is so obviously, eminently cover-able, it should be heading for a status Nick Lowe once described as an ‘earner.’ Overall, I’d say the album is perhaps a bit more laid back that previous efforts, pushing back the stylistic frontiers from prior new wave and 1980s indie vibes to a more post-pub rock 1970s feel. That’s illustrated nicely on the gently swinging “The Waiting is the Easiest Part.” Then “Don’t Be Afraid” breaks out the pedal steel guitar to good effect while “Watching from the Balcony” takes things in a more Rockpile direction. The verdict? Lord, Have Mirsky delivers what we need right now: some wry wit, a bit of earnest self-reflection, and melodies that will make you smile.

With the release of It Should Have Been Tomorrow Pale Lights leading man Phil Sutton is finally ready to prime time his new project Love, Burns. Some tracks here were rusticly previewed on 2020’s Fiftieth and Marlborough but now it’s like somebody turned on the lights, they’ve been given a fine new shape and sonic sparkle. “Dear Claire” opens the record with a giddy intensity, the combo of organ and electric guitar seemingly relentless in their aural assault. From the instrumental break the vibe is so Lord Huron while vocally I can’t help but hear a bit of Lloyd Cole or Roddy Frame. “Gate and the Ghost” and “Stormy Waters” are jangle heavy numbers cut with some seductive organ work. “It’s a Shame” takes a turn into an early, jazzy Everything but the Girl direction while both “In a Long Time” and “Oh, My Beloved” have a pastoral 1960s folk rock vibe. “Wired Eyes” is the unrivaled choice for hit single in this collection, combining the sixties pop psychedelia of The Strawberry Alarm Clock with the indie cool of The Velvet Underground. Country gets a look in on “Come in the Spring” and “Drive Down to D.C.” And then everything wraps up with the glorious Bond-esque “Something Good,” a rumbly guitar workout that should inspire a whole new generation of go go dancers.

You better snap up the tickets if Eytan Mirsky and Love, Burns do a return engagement in your town. These new albums are a preview of what you might see. Things are looking very good indeed.

Smart guy poprock: B.A. Johnston, Eytan Mirsky, Blair Packham, and Jim’s Big Ego

12 Tuesday Nov 2019

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Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 1.57.54 PMSometimes smart guys skip grad school and make records instead. It seldom leads to tenure, of any kind, but can you put a price on piece of mind? Well, if they’d become academics you probably could – but that misses the point. Which is that I selfishly appreciate that these bright tuneful dudes forwent cushy jobs to provide me with all this great music. Thanks guys! Seriously though, when you combine smart, multi-layered lyrics with catchy hooks, you’ve got something pretty special. Our quartet of smart guy poprockers do that and more!

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 2.01.06 PMWarning: there’s some serious Canadian content in this post. Though not too serious, if Hamilton’s B.A. Johnston is anything to go by. With album titles like Stairway to Hamilton, Shit Sucks, and The Skid is Hot Tonight you can pretty much see where this is going. Punville. Even Johnston’s name is a joke – derived from a teen nickname where Christian Johnston became ‘Bored Again’ Christian, or B.A. for short. Johnston’s work is so Canadian working class but his protagonists are not Springteen-esque heroes, they’re just ordinary folks. And despite the humour, Johnston shows a twisted kind of respect for this subjects. Stylistically, the music exudes Canadian icon Stompin’ Tom on acid, with some Jonathan Richman earnest sincerity, and a bit of Ben Vaughn goof. Here I’m just going to focus on his poppier numbers. Like “I Miss that 90’s Hash” or “I Need Donair Sauce” – both tunes have subtle hooks and a bit more polish that Johnston’s usual fare. “Orangeville” channels a lumpen Johnny Cash while “Straight Outta Cobden” is B.A.-typical low-key, with hooky backup vocals in the chorus. “I Love It When You Dress Up” has a sweet ambling country tempo and a refreshing lack of humour. “Fort McMurray” captures the narrowed class horizons for most working people. “Couch Potato” is like B.A.’s philosophy crammed into 90 seconds. With 13 albums since 2000, there’s a lot more B.A. to discover and he’s worth the slide by.

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 2.02.17 PMHapless is the word to describe Eytan Mirsky’s public musical persona. But awkward and desperate would run a close second and third. Yet far from being a downer, Mirsky constantly lightens the mood with a dry wit and dark cynicism worthy of Nick Lowe or Elvis Costello. Over the course of seven albums his rock and roll has been consistently tuneful, full of sly hooks and loads of clever verbal innuendo. The basic raw material is all there in the 1996 debut album title, Songs About Girls (and Other Painful Subjects), particularly on cuts like “Smart Enough” and “Beautiful Inside.” Or check out the Joe Jackson-esque swing of “What Do I Do?” and “Either Way” from 1999’s Get Ready for Eytan! Then there’s his 2001 masterpiece, the hilarious Was It Something I Said?, an album of wall to wall killer cuts. I’ll just draw your attention to “Can I Get Any Lower?” and the very hooky “Sluts.” But hey, drop the needle anywhere on this record and you come up with something great. I could keep going like this through every album. Instead I just want to highlight Mirsky’s great use of pop culture references and humour on tracks like “Watching Dawson’s Creek” (from 2016’s Funny Money), “Share If You Agree” and “Lingerie Pillow Fight” (both from the fantastic new 2019 LP If Not Now … Later.” Honourable mention: don’t miss the Paul Collins-esque “She’s Looking Better” from 2004’s Everyone’s Having Fun Tonight! Mirsky also does a lot of Facebook posts covering just about every song every written. And believe me, when your song gets the Mirsky treatment it’s been sung.

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 2.03.12 PMI got to check out Blair Packham when he opened for the Northern Pikes recently in Toronto. Who’s Blair Packham? I didn’t know. But after loving his clever, hilarious and hooky blue-eyed soul performance I went looking. Turns out he had a some Canadian hit singles (like “Last of the Red Hot Fools”) with his 1980s band, The Jitters. Since their breakup in 1991, he’s released only three solo albums. But what great LPs they are! Packham offers up hooky poprock numbers with intelligent wordplay and heartfelt ballads, delivered by a pop-soul voice that falls somewhere into the sweet spot between Huey Lewis and Paul Carrack. Cases in point “Weird to You” and the title track from 2000’s Everything That’s Good. If the band sound familiar on Packham’s 2004 release, Could’ve Been King, they should – it’s Canada woefully underappreciated poprock geniuses The Odds. They provide some topnotch playing for Packham’s killer tunes like “Come Undone,” Somebody Else” and the touching “Little Fish.” I love the lyrics on “Could’ve Been King” – ‘didn’t like the hours, the wretched excess, the abuse of power …’ But Packham really hits it out of the park with “One Hit Wonder,” which is simultaneously one of the most honest renderings of the liabilities of being a one-hit-wonder while still incredibly respectful to the artist that has it. And the song has an infectious handclapping, singalong chorus! The record ends with “Last,” a song that’s all about, well, being last. Thirteen years later Packham returned with 2017’s Unpopular Pop and it was worth the wait for the hooky, single-ish “You (Yeah, You)” and the Costello-vibing “Other Side.”

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 2.05.16 PMWhat a wonderfully twisted world is the land of Jim’s Big Ego! It’s a place where anything can be the subject of intelligent satire, from mixed tapes to loving zombies to math prof rock stars to impoverished gun owners. But unlike some sardonic songsters, Jim’s got a clear political position very much on the progressive side of things. It’s there clear and without irony on the wonderful “International” from 2008’s Free*. And that’s just another thing to like about JBE. Amidst all the fun and cleverness, there’s a point to the poking. I came to the band via their quasi-hit single, “The Ballad of Barry Allen,” a slick piece of melodic goodness from their 2003 release They’re Everywhere. I expected to find more but instead I found a guy (Jim Infantino) with a great range in songwriting and performance, sometimes bringing to mind a more poprock Robbie Fulks, or Kevin Devine vocally on occasion, or Peter Case in stretching from new wave to country to folky material. You can dig in anywhere and find something to enjoy, like “Concrete” from 1999’s Noplace Like Nowhere. Or you can check out his last LP, 2012’s Stay, a smart, funny commentary on cults, religion, zombie love, and money in politics (my faves here? The hooky “Chills” and “Earworm”). The catalogue must-listen is “Award Show” (on Free*) a spot on dismantling of the internalized self-hatred and self-indulgence of the genre. Sadly, there’s been no new JBE product for over a half decade. Let this entry act as a placard-waving demand for more JBE. JBE! JBE! Now, cue the water cannon …

You don’t have be smart to make great music but it’s certainly a value-added feature, for people who like that sort of thing. If that’s you (or someone you know), visit B.A. Johnston, Eytan Mirsky, Blair Packham, and Jim’s Big Ego and let the appreciation flow (out of your wallet). After all, they could have been scientists.

Celebrity poprock: What’s in a name?

31 Monday Jul 2017

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filmPutting a famous name in your song title would seem to be a sure fire way to have a hit. Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” or Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” readily come to mind. But really, those are the exceptions. A quick search of the internet actually turns up a whole bevy of celebrity names on songs, mostly on the indie side of things, most of them album cuts. So why do bands do it? Homage? Satire? Or are they just as celebrity obsessed as everyone else? The French duo Please was formed and recorded a song with the sole explicit intent of getting a response from Paul McCartney – not that Paul appeared to notice! The range of material covered in this post gives us a bit of all these approaches, from hero worship, to ridicule, to little more than just mentioning the celebrity name.

Pinehurst Kids’ “Jody Foster” burns along with an edgy indie sound, just the sort of ‘tude’ you expect from a song named for this actor. Punky, but with an underlying melodic coherence and musical depth. Kevine Devine’s Bad Books is a bit more polished but retains distinct edginess on “Forest Whitaker,” a song about some intense person that has named their baby after the aforementioned intense actor. Love how the keyboards gel with the electric guitar on this track – a killer sound. Eytan Mirsky lightens the mood a bit with his breezy melodic charmer “(I Just Wanna Be Your) Steve McQueen.” Here McQueen’s movie roles are conjured up to aid our singing protagonist in expressing his romantic aspirations – in inimitable Mirsky style (sardonic yet somehow sincere). Geezer are from Austria and have a number of great albums under their belt, including their latest Life in Stereo. Their celebrity-named song goes back a few years and is a straight up glowing tribute to its namesake. In fact, “Jeff Lynne” has so many references to actual Electric Light Orchestra lyrics it’s a wonder he didn’t get a writing credit! There is something a bit ironic about a loving tribute to ELO, a band that was often seen as a loving tribute to previous generation of music, particularly the Beatles.Geezers – Jeff Lynne

Today’s blog theme also gives me a chance to feature another song by the great and gorgeous Cait Brennan, namely the intense, melodic and hilarious “Benedict Cumberbatch.” Another underappreciated star that can be included here is former Green on Red frontman, Chuck Prophet, who has been creating a solid body of fantastic solo work over the past decade. “Bobby Fuller Died for you Sins” is a loving recreation of the Fuller sound, with a little Prophet magic mixed in. In the ‘now for something completely different’ category, Fastball’s new record Step Into Light has a host of highlights but one that might be overlooked is the unusual and sonically distinctive “Lillian Gish.” Is there nothing these guys can’t do? Ok, let’s change things up with a bit of humour. A lot of Gregory Pepper’s work is droll and biting. “I’m Bill Murray” has the singer using Murray’s filmic exploits to explain his increasingly bad behavior. Maxi-cool hooks here and so many in such a short song. It’s like a minute and twenty-four second melodic miniature painting. Jonathan Coulton uses more in-your-face put-down humour on his “Tom Cruise Crazy.” Hilarious. No further explanation is really required.Cait Brennan – Benedict CumberbatchFastball – Lillian GishJonathan Coulton – Tom Cruise Crazy

The one thing binding all these acts, beyond writing a celebrity-named song, is that none are really celebrities in the way that term is commonly understood. But wouldn’t it be great if Please, Pinehurst Kids, Bad Books, Eytan Mirsky, Geezer, Cait Brennan, Chuck Prophet, Fastball, Gregory Pepper and his Problems, and Jonathan Coulton were great big fantastically successful celebrities? What a wonderful world that would be. Take the first step toward that future by visiting them today.

Girls with record collections: Eytan Mirsky and Fernando Perdomo

12 Friday May 2017

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turntable-2157292_1920What is it with guys and record collections? While I think things have changed a bit recently, coming of age in the 1980s the record store and music obsessions were predominantly male preserves. Nobody captured it better than Nick Hornby in the first chapter of High Fidelity, which opens with the male protagonist deciding for the umpteenth time to reorganize his record collection, this time in the order he purchased them. I remember looking up from the book thinking ‘somebody’s been watching me …’

FP GWRC rockSo here are two songs that capture the traditional range of views about women and record collections. In one, the singer is delighted to find a girl with a serious record collection, noting she “blew me away, with her 45s, they’re all alphabetized …” But in the other, the narrator “did a quick inspection and found [her] ELO” and dumps her, directing her to “take your record collection and go.” In either case, the serious female record collector is either a surprise or unthinkable. Yet both songwriters are clearly mocking this sort of narrow thinking.  Get readyEytan Mirsky has a large body of hilarious, self-mocking poprock. One album features a pathetic looking Mirsky slouching in a chair as some girlfriend’s luggage is heading for the door – the album title? Was it Something I Said? On his song “Record Collection” (from Get Ready for Eytan!)  the shallowness of his male narrator deciding to dump the girl he’s moved in with over some supposed musical indiscretions is both mocked and yet somehow also sadly believable. Meanwhile, producer extraordinaire Fernando Perdomo offers up two distinctly different versions of his charming “Girl with a Record Collection,” one leaning on a jangle poprock sound while the other exploits a more poppy arrangement.

Eytan Mirsky and Fernando Perdomo both have enormous back catalogues of music on Bandcamp just waiting to be perused in a leisurely fashion, preferably with a martini or a beer to encourage impulse buying.