Ah summer, you’re already starting to fade a bit on me. Nights getting a bit darker, a bit cooler. And the ‘back to school’ cacophony is reaching a fever pitch! So let’s honour the sun, sand and “move like a wayward summer breeze …” one more time!
I first heard Chicago’s Fruit Bats on their break out single “Rainbow Sign” from their 2003 album Mouthfuls and loved the mix of acoustic guitars, pianos and vocal harmonies. And the hooks! 2016’s comeback album (of sorts) Absolute Loser had so many highlights like “From a Soon-to-be Ghost Town” and the infectious banjo-driven “Humbug Mountain Song.” Now they’re back with Gold Past Life and get a load of the Cat Stevens-ish guitar picking on the beautiful single “Ocean.” It’s a song that builds slowly into a delightful, swirling summer set piece. Sweden’s Eggstone typically offer up a dreamy pop sound that leans heavily on summer themes over their three albums and five EPs from the 1990s. But my favourite tune from them has a bit tougher indie pop gloss on it, “Against the Sun” from their 1994 album Sommersault. The song has a great set of AM radio hooks circa the late 1970s poprock scene. Eggstone “Against the Sun”
You’d think being an award winner sports writer would be enough? You’d be wrong. Washington Post sports writer Dave Sheinin is also an accolade-collecting poprock songwriter and performer. His 2018 release First Thing Tomorrow had me reaching for the thesaurus to find new ways to describe how fabulous it was. Now he’s back with a summer single that beautifully captures the wistful mixture of feelings that accompany the hot season. Warning: hit play on the “The Lies of Summer” and you may be subject to a case of earworm that is hard to cure. If there was a contest for unofficial indie band of the summer, The Kickstand Band would definitely be in the running. Over the course of their EPs and one full length album, I count no less than five songs with ‘summer’ in the title and host of others on related themes (e.g. ‘sun,’ ‘sunshine,’ ‘sunburn,’ etc.). I love their sound, which oscillates between dabs of Beach Boys, Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel vocal harmony influences combined with just a undercurrent of jagged punkiness. Goosebump city indeed! But this time out I’m featuring their cover of Brian Hyland’s 1962 hit “Sealed with a Kiss.” Hard to improve on this classic but the Detroit duo do an impressive job: smooth, a bit eerie, with an innovative horn section instrumental interlude.
Summer, it seems like I hardly got to know you. Now you’re nearly gone. Well, I’ll still have the music to get me through the long cold Canadian months ahead. Honour the summer contributions from Fruit Bats, Eggstone, Dave Sheinin, and The Kickstand Band online by clicking the hyperlinks.
Pool photo courtesy Larry Gordon.
An enormous amount of talent cruises through the internet everyday with yours truly discovering barely a smidgen of what’s out there. But there are times when I have to ask myself ‘how did I miss this’? Well, actually, it happens so much we have a whole department looking into it here at Poprock Record.
Fruit Bats is the least forgiveable because we previously featured the band’s delightful “Rainbow Sign” with its great acoustic feel and harmony vocals from 2003’s Mouthfuls. Somehow I missed their most recent album, released just last year. Absolute Loser is a more muscular effort, showcasing a full band sound. “From a Soon-to-Be Ghost Town” ripples along with just a hint of that countrypolitan sound indie bands like so much, with vocals that remind of James Mercer of the Shins. “Humbug Mountain Song” kicks off nicely enough but then suddenly introduces a hypnotic banjo riff that keeps coming back, with a smooth 1970s soft rock chorus. Title track “Absolute Loser” is a slow burn hook, with vocals that remind me of You Won’t’s unusual harmonic charms. All in all, this is one eminently listenable album.From a Soon-to-Be Ghost TownAbsolute Loser
Ok, I can be forgiven for missing The Mayflies U.S.A. because they fall into the power pop ghetto that has long proved a hit with critics but a dud with mainstream audiences, at least in the period when most of their records came out. When guys like Matthew Sweet can barely register in the mainstream, there just isn’t much chance this sort of talent is going to register outside of niche circles. And that is shame because these guys (pop) rock! The songs are hooky and the vocals meld into a special kind of ear candy. Just check out the title track from 2002’s Walking in a Straight Line – churning guitar hooks and pleasantly sibilant vocals galore. Or tune into “The End of Line” from 2000’s The Pity List with its subtle but seductive hook buried at the end of the chorus. I couldn’t hit replay fast enough. “I Just Wanna Be Your Gun” is also pretty special.
How I passed over Pete Droge is more mysterious because I actually have long owned a copy of The Thorns album he recorded with Matthew Sweet and Shawn Mullins. But I think I was going through a pretty heavy Sweet fix at the time and judged the album to be too low key. In any event, I recently stumbled across Droge in an iTunes ‘listeners also bought’ section and haven’t looked back. Droge has five solo albums and a soundtrack that are all pretty good but I find myself really digging 1994’s Necktie Second and 2008’s Under the Waves, the former channeling a mellow Tom Petty vibe while the latter has a strikingly spare acoustic demeanor. 
From Necktie Second “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)” reinvents the old “Mockingbird” song in an original way, all sparkling guitar lines and nicely reverby vocals. Meanwhile, I swear “So I Am Over You” comes on like a really great Tom Petty out-take. Fast forward to 2008 and the material from Under the Waves has Droge digging deep into more atmospheric territory on the title track or channeling Paul Simon circa Graceland on “Giving it All Away” with some very ABBA guitar. Even more recently his The Droge and Summer Blend project takes off in another direction, this time a folky/country harmony-rich concoction, with great tracks like “Sad Clown” and “Island.”So I Am Over YouUnder the WavesGive it All AwayIsland
You’ll never see the rock critics expounding on the seminal influence of Simon and Garfunkel to contemporary music – but it is there. Not because S&G broke new ground like the Beatles or the Kinks or the Who. Nor did they exude a counter culture rock persona like the Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix. But they did contribute to the unique 1960s synthesis of musical styles, songwriting, and performance that would define the popular song in the decades to come. Paul Simon’s genius was in melding the authenticity of folk music with the more relentless hooks from pop music, cast against a dazzling array of musical backdrops (something more fully exploited in his solo career). But in S&G, his talents produced a unmistakable sound, regardless of the style of the material. That sound can be found all over the contemporary music-sphere.