Tag Archives: Greg Pope

Breaking news: The Wellingtons, Greg Pope, Trash Man, and Juan y La Hormiga

09 Sunday Nov 2025

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In our newsroom some news is more breaking than others. But we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that our message is always new to someone. Certainly this combination of musical headlines have never appeared together before and, as you will hear, that is something special.

The Wellingtons don’t rush things. Their first three albums came out fairly close to each other between 2005 and 2008 before things started to stretch out a bit more with releases in 2011, 2017 and now 2025. Yet new album Baby Moon doesn’t sound like a record from a band coming back from an extended hiatus. It sounds like a band very much approaching a new creative peak. Opening cut “Always Gonna Be That Girl” has that unmistakable hit single elan. It’s got a genius arrangement that builds so effectively. Then before you can catch your breath “She Still Loves Me Now” launches another melodic broadside that more than hits the mark. “The Things We Did Before” swaps out usual lead vocalist Zac Anthony for Kate Golby and the choice really works for the song. This is an LP that sounds deceptively familiar, drawing from the band’s past power pop and pop punk strengths, but pushed further into new melodic territory. Take “Deadbeat Dad.” It softens the punk pop vocal just a little, reminding me of work from bands like Farrah. Or there’s “Lola,” a great poprock ballad with some swing. “I Won’t Turn Away” throws in some ELO-ish ‘woo oohs’ before alternating pop punk verses with a truly spectacular power pop chorus. Ripe for hit single-age too. There’s shades of the Beatles (“Sad Today”), Elvis Costello (“End of the World”; “Not Ready to Give Up”) or even The Zombies (“Sound Asleep”) on various cuts here. “Not Ready to Give Up” particularly sounds like it could be monster radio hit. And for a taste of jangle there’s “Better Me.”  Then for the album closer the “The Long Goodbye” harkens back to band’s earlier pop punk sound. Baby Moon is a stellar release. It might just be the best yet from a band that has never let us down.

By the time you get to solo album #10 what’s left to do? If you’re Greg Pope, you drill down into the 1970s to reinvent a host of great motifs that defined that decade’s chart hits. On The Roar of Silence Pope revives sounds so familiar yet puts them to brand new uses. Listen to how opening track “Worthy Son” bang-on takes up the seventies AM radio-friendly folk pop of artists like Gerry Rafferty or Al Stewart. Surefire should-be hit single “Fallen Star” is framed around that recognizably restrained rhythm guitar sound so popular with late 1970s new wave bands. Over the course of the LP the whole decade gets a look in. Song styles range from the early 1970s psychedelic feel of “It’s All Pretend,” to the mid-1970s starkly endearing faux-folk of “Hours, Days and Years,” to the late decade Blue Oyster Cult-like blast of title track “The Roar of Silence.” And it couldn’t be the 1970s without ELO, which I hear shades of on “The Trick of the Light” and “Road Less Traveled.” There’s even a touch of Queen on the raucous “Immovable Feast.” I often compared Pope to Matthew Sweet and there’s a few here (“Layers of an Onion”; “Softer Than a Whisper”) that match his dissonant sweetness. Make room on your annual ‘best of’ list for another winner from Greg Pope.

With song titles like “Please Don’t Murder Me,” “Never Be Good Enough,” and “When I Die” you’d be forgiven for supposing that Trash Man would be a big downer. I mean, they titled their previous EP Moment of Bleakness. But I’m going to stop you right there. Dipping into their back catalogue was actually grin-inducing on multiple occasions. From the songs listed above the first comes off like some kind of twisted Merseybeat, the second a jaunty pop single, while the last is pretty dour, actually. On the other hand, the Moment of Bleakness EP is sorta upbeat in sunny indie-pop kinda way. Ok, on to their brand new EP Cool Until It’s Not because this one turns a corner. A whole bunch of the dissonant pop elements bubbling under previous recordings come to the fore here with a dramatic Weezer-like punch. Opening track “Eventually” sounds like it was cut from The Blue Album. Title track “Cool Until It’s Not” dials down the dissonance in favour of melodic sweetness while “Hole in my Heart” is all strummy acoustic guitar whimsy. “Barely Living” turns the ennui back on with a vengeance. And then everything ends with the musically light but darkly existential ballad “Where Does It Go?” Clearly Trash Man is one smart outfit, combining big questions and challenging music with admirable aplomb.

Juan Pablo Mazzola and Muchas Hormigas are Juan La Hormiga and together they offer up a pop folk vibe that steers into a Beatlesque Americana on occasion. Case in point: early single “After the War.” This is a lush pop song with a rootsy feel, lifted by their symbiotic vocal interplay. It kicks off the duo’s new EP Valencia, named for the Spanish town where they reside. The additional six tracks that appear here really deliver on the promise of that first 45. There’s more of that sophistico-folk pop with “About Us” and “The Most Beautiful Bride.” Some tracks hint a genres in various ways. “Cupid’s Arrow” works the pedal steel guitar in every so delightfully while “One Way Ticket” exudes a light shading of Merseyside. When I hear “Stereo” I imagine folk duo Mitch and Mickey from the A Mighty Wind movie updating their sound with a dash of 1970s folk rock sensibility. And then there’s “Play This Game” which conjures forth a 1960s folk duo extraordinaire. I can recommend a visit to this Valencia, you may want to stay awhile.

You can’t believe everything you see these days but you can trust your ears with these music headlines. And do your own research by hitting the hyperlinks.

Nothing leads like a story that bleeds. Poster for the movie Picture Mommy Dead courtesy James Vaughn Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2022

10 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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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.

Record round-up II

30 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by in Artist Spotlight

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On episode 2 of our year-end record round-up we’re going seriously retro. These acts know their influences and lean into them, heavily. But not without some creative licence.

What happens when you bring a bona fide 1970s indie legend into contact with a Spanish sunshine-pop hipster? Magic my friends, that’s what. Marc Jonson and Ramírez Exposure’s debut collaboration Turning On The Century, Volume 1 is a love letter to California’s sunny pop traditions, a bit baroque a times with a whole lot of sixties rock and roll heart. Opening track “Tape Recorder” brings a masterful Beach Boy-like vocal interplay to a song that goes Dion and on and on. Or just listen to how the acoustic lead guitar bounces along carrying “The Real Sound of the World.” “Sour Lemonade Sour” sounds bit more mid-1970s sweet pop while “Appears” is a great tune where the vocals seem to float over a very late seventies McCartney-like backing. “I Don’t Know Your World” adds some Neil Diamond-ish musical change-ups to a song that I could hear the Everly Brothers doing. Then the duo wrap things up with a more modern 1980s sound on “The Anchorite.” Seems like Turning On The Century, Volume 1 is just begging for a volume 2.

Once upon a time I looked to artists like Matthew Sweet to deliver album after album of reliably poprocky hooks. Now I turn to Greg Pope. Over the course of now eight solo albums he just never lets me down, turning out absolutely fabulous hook-filled long-players. This year’s Rise of the Mythical Creatures is no exception. Album opener “As You Love” sounds very Sweet, very much like the should-be hit single. Then “Words No One Can Say” has an intensity and occasional vocal presence that has me imagine a new wave John Lennon. But what is striking about this record, and perhaps a bit of a departure for Pope, is how the acoustic rhythm guitar is pushed to the top of the mix in so many of the songs here, in a very seventies way. It’s obvious in the absolutely dynamite single-ish “Sorry I Wrote This Song.” But you can really hear it on “Holding on to a Sunny Day” and “Looking Down.” I’m also partial to “Backwards Through a Door” which echoes the best of the poppy efforts from bands like Blue Oyster Cult. Sometimes myths are true – this record proves you can believe in Greg Pope.

Somewhere Sideways Same As You is the first album for Drew Beskin with his new band The Sunshine, gathering together a bunch of things he’s been working over the past year or so. Tracks like “Lisa Simpson Fangs” and “Horror Movie Plot” came out a while back. Others are more recent, like “Spoilers,” a buoyant, lighthearted keyboard romp from this past summer. What all this means is that while the record contains a mix of styles it still somehow establishes a constant mood. I hear the refined Americana pop sound of Sam Weber on tracks like “Not If But When.” But then cuts like “Pear Plum Blues” add some grit to the guitar, establishing a heavier, almost punky sound. My personal fave is “The Mystery of Being a Boy.” The song is just a great straight-up poprock tune, breezing along with the abandon of a deep cut from Rank and File or the Grapes of Wrath. “Sun Cancer” reverts to a Weber-like pop sophistication, dropping in some clever hooks.

Who is Peter Astor? I don’t know. But after hearing “New Religion” from his recent Time On Earth album I feel like I should have. Turns out, he goes way back, to the late 1970s break out new wave/punk scene, to the moody 1980s English band scene, to plenty of solo records. Man, have I got a lot of homework to do with his back catalogue. But for now, let’s take on Time On Earth, an album that meanders through a variety of styles. There’s the wonderfully mannered, mellow ruminations that remind me of Black e.g. “English Weather” (what horns!). Or the obvious should-be hit-single “New Religion” with its great combo of distinctive synth work and a vocal melody reminiscent of Boo Hewerdine’s work. And what about that Steve Nieve-worthy keyboard work on “Time on Earth”? Killer stuff. “Miracle on the High Street” is just a lovely folk tune. On “Undertaker” Astor goes all Nick Lowe elder statesman, the guitar warbles just so, the vocal harmonies shiver on cue. Then “Fine and Dandy” calls a wrap on the record by actually turning up the amps and knocking off a few tasty guitar solos. I’ve listened to this record more than few times and each time I’m impressed by Astor’s effortless mastery of whatever he’s putting out.

Given the surprising death of Dallas Good earlier this year Colder Streams marks the final release from The Sadies classic line-up featuring Good family brothers Dallas and Travis. It’s a shame for many reasons, not least of which is that the quality of the band’s recent musical output has shown no signs of fading. Depending on how you count their records Colder Streams is their 20 LP and it is undeniably rip-roaringly good. What we have here is a wonderful synthesis of garage, psych and jangle, sometimes tipping more rock, sometimes leaning country. Opening cut “Stop and Start” even sounds like The Smithereens-meets-The The, put through a psychedelic filter. I’d divide the album into three thematic realms. There’s a western Morricone feel to “More Alone” and certainly the deliberately cinematic “End Credits” which throws in some Bond elements too. I love the Gregorian chant vibe infused into the otherwise spaghetti western-ish “Cut Up High and Dry.” Then there’s garage rock and psych influences defining “No One’s Listening” and “Better Yet,” the latter evoking such seminal acts of the genre as the Chocolate Watch Band. I also hear a very REM gloss on a few tunes, such as “So Far for So Few” and “Ginger Moon.” On the outlier front, there’s country banjo lurch of “All the Good.”

People familiar with Marco Busato’s previous band More Kicks will need to adjust their expectations. On Night of My Times, Busato’s solo debut, the power pop intensity is dialed down in favour of a more subtle sonic shading and impact. The songs here are light pop confections, elevated with a variety of delicious guitar tones. Feel the gentle swing of opening cut “Sunken Ships” to fully get the brief here. The overlapping lead guitar lines are often short, simple and utterly seductive, tied together with some heavenly vocal ‘ahhs’ wallpapering the background. In another way, the record is a bit disorienting. The different musical elements sounds so familiar – there’s bits of 60s psychedelia, 70s AM pop, surf guitar, etc. – but nothing here is really retro. Instead this palette is used to add colour to these oh-so pleasant songs. Check out how the lead guitar and offbeat rhythm brighten “I Don’t Know Why” and particularly the surf-ish instrumental “Tropical Downtime.” At other times the feel is so 1970s AM radio melodious, as on “Find the Way” and “Night of My Times.”

Rounding up records can be like herding sheep, there’s a lot of noise and you’re not really sure where things are going. But that’s half the fun. More to come!

Photo courtesy of James Vaughn.

Hits for All Hallow’s Eve

29 Friday Oct 2021

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Welcome to Poprock Record’s first-ever hook-filled Halloween special post! I mean, why should some 2000+ year old’s birthday get all the holiday music attention? To rectify that unhappy state of affairs we’ve assembled a guitar-wielding crew of scary monsters and super freaks to haunt your All Hallow’s Eve with some seasonally appropriate tune-age. Get ready to mash!

Normally I’d say Detroit’s Kickstand Band offer up heavenly vocal harmonies but this time they’re drawing from their darker angels for a Halloween Special double-sided single. “Under a Bad Sign” sets the tone for our horror-accented musical proceedings with its eerie, otherworldly ambience. It’s a song that wouldn’t be out of place in a Russ Meyer film circa Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Then we get right into substance of fright night with Freedom Fry’s wonderfully eccentric “Monster,” complete with distant church bells and a xylophone right out of B-movie sound-effects central-casting. Did you know things get scary in Edmonton? They do, if The Lad Mags’ “Dig My Grave” is anything to go by. It’s a 45 where festive moaning and groaning gives way to a groovy go go dance beat that will have you snapping your fingers and shaking your groove thing. Nashville’s fave pop punkers Vista Blue go all out for this holiday with a new EP New Nightmares that celebrates all that slasher movie mayhem. The four contributions are maximum fun but just a bit more maximum-er for me is “Where Do You Want to Sleep?” with its Beach Boys-meets-The Ramones vibe. Ok, these next two numbers come completely out of left field. Drew Beskin’s double-barreled contribution to the season is the swinging poppy “Lisa Simpson Fangs” backed with the more mellow “Horror Movie Plot.” The two sides blow hot and cold, one boppy and catchy, the other languid and serene. Former My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way strips things back to their hooky essentials on “Baby You’re a Haunted House.” Besides providing our ever-so-appropriate mast graphic, his ‘skeleton’ crew really deliver the goods with a great noisy – yet still melodic – wonder.

Now that we’re in the mood, it’s time to turn to the creatures of the night, the real stars of this holiday. They’re probably coming to your door right now, eager for candy, itching to unleash some tricks. Ken Sharp welcomes a “Hellcat” to the usual menagerie of Halloween’s ghoulish guest stars. Ok, maybe his use is more metaphoric than literal but I couldn’t help adding it to the playlist with its captivating bubblegum-glam shuffle sound and Sharp’s beguiling vocals. The Embrooks welcome one of the evening’s usual suspects, a 1960s garage-psych “Human Living Vampire.” Think Christopher Lee as the mod, mod prince of darkness put in charge of the Hi-Fi. Boston’s Amplifier Heads have got a thing about ghosts, with three different songs titled for those otherworldly apparitions. “Ghost Song” from Music for Abandoned Amusement Parks invokes October’s chill and a night so still over a hooky “Needles and Pins” ish set of chords. LA’s Allah-Las have got that spooky desert vibe going strong with their killer instrumental “No Werewolf” from 2014’s Worship the Sun. This is definitely music to not ‘open that door’ or ‘go down into the basement’ to. Glaswegians U.S. Highball do a jangle makeover on a classic holiday monster with “My Frankenstein” and you won’t recognize the results. Can you say well-adjusted much? This time the brutish creation is a happy go lucky tune that will have you humming with contented delight. Pop iconoclasts Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin round out the cast of scary characters with “All Hail Dracula.” It’s a pro-vampire kind of take on demon/non-demon relationships, delivered with a slew of cool indie hooks.

And now for something not quite completely different, one of our fave poprockers has expanded into filmmaking. If you’re looking for something seasonally appropriate in terms of scary things to watch, check out the original popmonster Greg Pope’s new movie, There’s Something in the Lake. He did the music (duh!) but also wrote and directed it. It’s scary how talented that guy is. You can watch the short film it was based on and rent the full feature here.

Hey, thanks for making this Hallo-scene, our inaugural celebration of the candy-laden dark holiday. Now it wouldn’t be complete without a closing anthem of sorts and Tampa’s The Easy Button have conveniently supplied one, a ringing chordy number appropriately titled “Happy Halloscene.”  Click on the band hyperlinks to complete your Halloween hits collection or just check out these bands’ many other musical treats on offer.

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.

Holiday hit parade

17 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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Under normal circumstances we’d be reeling from the nearly toxic levels of holiday music saturation going on. Every shop, office or mall would be wall-to-wall Santa tunes, with a few mentions of that Jesus guy for good measure. And here I’d come along making the case for even more eggnog-splattered tune-age but with a significantly higher quotient of hooks. But not this year. Lockdown has put the holiday music hostage-taking on hold, at least somewhat. So I expect even greater tidings of joy to accompany my annual holiday hit parade offerings! Forget tinsel, let’s get a little reverb on that tree.

Kicking off our seasonal singles is fab contribution from Lisa Mychols. Last year Williamsport Grade 8 math teacher and aspiring songwriter Brian Fagnano wrote me late in the season to alert me to this great tune he’d written and convinced Mychols to record (sometimes cold-calling actually works!) and the result, “Ringing Bells on Christmas Day,” is fantastic, an instant classic! His note came too late to include the song in last year’s holiday post but I’ve kept it aside to feature this year. The track has a great Spector-ish quality to it, particularly in the song structure, with an updated, chiming indie-charm production-wise. This one’s going into an eggnog-with-rum level of rotation.

Another last-year Christmas song contribution came from the uber talented Brothers Steve. In addition to releasing a highly celebrated debut album (#1, reviewed here) the boys managed to get out a double-A-sided seasonal single. Last year’s post had one of the songs and this year I’m featuring the other, “I Love the Christmastime.” It’s got an early period Squeeze-like appeal, so 1980, in the best sort of way. The song also appears on the Big Stir Singles: The Yultide Wave with a load of other great tunes and artists (check out the whole package here). Another reliable band of hooky holiday music providers is Vista Blue with a whole album of festive tunes and one-off singles. But this year they blew the doors off on the doing-the-holiday-music thing with their Ralphie’s Red Ryders project and its accompanying album You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out. What a wonderful tribute to everyone’s fave anxiety-fueled holiday movie classic, A Christmas Story. And the songs are great too! I included “I’m Gonna Get an A+ on My Theme” because it’s my fave at this particular moment – that could (will) change. Growing up Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Paper” was a holiday 45 must play. Roy’s gone but a bit of him lives on in a raft of current releases from the Ruen Brothers, like their brand new holiday song, “This Wholesome Christmas Eve.” The boys nail the guitar ambience and songwriting style of 1962 while the vocals really are heavenly.

Ruen Brothers – This Wholesome Christmas Eve

The holidays offer performers an immense catalogue of now-classic material to cover in their bid to get a piece of that seasonal download/streaming action. But not all remakes are made equally. Nick Lowe is ‘old reliable’ in his ability to cover a tune and practically reinvent it. His collection of seasonal songs, Quality Street, as aptly named, and not in the cheap chocolates sort of way. This year he dropped two more holiday songs on us, one a cover of “Let It Snow.” With the able backing of his regulars Los Straightjackets, Nick largely lets the song’s hooky melody do all the work and the result are candy cane good. Indie darlings Peggy Sue strike a similar guitar pose with their cover of the venerable “White Christmas,” with just a shiver of their distinctive other-worldly Blue Velvet-style on the vocals. Power pop master Greg Pope gets right to work cranking the guitar all over “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” shifting from reverby lead to power chords with solid melodic effect. A less obvious pairing sees melodic noise-ster Velco Mary add some swing to the otherwise rather more typically morose “Silent Night.” But, hey, it works, giving the song some as-yet undiscovered pep.

Velcro Mary – Silent Night

Ok, back to new holiday songs. Dolour has definitely been good this year, releasing copious amounts of great material, both albums and singles. No coal for these guys. But they have more to give! Like “All Winter Long,” a contribution to the season with a nice McCartney “Wonderful Christmastime” ambience. Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men’s “Christmas Morning” is a more upbeat take on festive music, with both their signature jangle and Bryan Adams-meets-Elvis Costello vocals in attendance. Now here’s a timely seasonal tune, in more ways than one: The Jac (featuring the Christmas crew)’s “I Won’t Be Leaving Home for Christmas.” I mean, no metaphor here. We’re locked down or should be, for everyone’s sakes. Still, Jangle band and The Jac main man Joe Algeri manages to make it sound light and uplifting, with a sing-along feel and great harmonies. Now slipping back a few years, here’s a winning Christmas selection from Trolley’s Star of Wonder album, “Christmas in the Marketplace.” The guitar riffing alone here makes this song sparkle.

We wrap up this installment of our holiday hit parade by coming full circle, back to Lisa Mychols, this time working with Super 8. The duo wowed listeners with the obvious musical chemistry all over their self-titled debut effort this past summer, one that managed to effectively vibe sun, sand and a bit of surf. Now they take aim at winter with “Red Bird,” and the track is more proof that what they’ve got going is no fluke. The song is easy-going and breezy like an afternoon skate on an outdoor rink.

Merry happy to you this season dear readers, wherever you are and whatever you believe. I hope your holidays are filled with hooks that get cranked to 11.

Photo credit: Larry Gordon.

Autumn singles almanac

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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Hard to believe that the Kinks took “Autumn Almanac” to number 3 in the UK back in the fall of 1967. Going against the grain of the emerging psychedelic scene, the song is so laid back, almost anti-commercial. Ultimately, the single kicked off the band’s grand pastoral-romantic period that followed with albums like The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur and the Decline of the British Empire. But enough about Ray and company. They’re just the inspiration to launch our own autumn singles almanac, a carefully curated collection of 20 songs to lighten up your fall, ease you in to the autumn, and get you hooked on these hooks!

The Ruen Brothers evoke a distinctive atmosphere on their new single “Saving Me, Saving You,” somewhere spooky, perhaps with fog. But when the titanic vocals cut in there’s no hiding. The spotlight is on and something electric is going on. These guys have got style! It’s a haunting 3 minute mélange of guitars and striking songcraft. Prolific popmaster Greg Pope puts the acoustic guitar to the front of the mix on his new album, Wishing on a Dark Star. It really carries this light, carefully crafted pop gem that appears about two thirds of the way through the album, the aptly titled “Jump Back from the Light.” The hooky ‘whoa-oh’s are just gravy. Chicago garage poppers Gal Gun offer up a literal “Premium” single from their soon to be released new album Critical Hit. The song has a strong Weezer vibe, exhibiting that pleasant mixture of dissonant punk qualities laid over an early 1960s song structure. The b-side (“Oh Oh I Love Her So”) is all that, even more so. Tacoma’s Vanilla change our pace completely with a lovely McCartney-esque “Let’s Start Over Again.” John Lennon used call these sort of tunes ‘granny music’ but I love’em. I’m certainly impressed with the band’s command of different song idioms. I don’t know what ‘indie tinged emo’ is but apparently it is Yeah Is What We Have. So, I guess I love indie tinged emo because their new single “I Could Only” is great. The mix of spare guitar work, percussion and sweet vocals is addictive and endearing.

Speaking of sweet, Declan McKenna burst on the scene as an uber talented charismatic teen boy wonder with his hooky protest song “Brazil” back in 2015. Now entering his twenties he’s still working the adorable seam pretty hard with this new album Zeros. He continues to push the boundaries of his songwriting and performance, turning in a memorable take on a Wings-ian pop tune with “Emily,” among many other fab contributions to the new album (like the Bowie-esque “Key to Life on Earth”). Surf indie pop purveyers Fuzzysurf are back with a new record, Sweet Tooth, and it’s more of the same good synthesis of old and new poprock influences that carried their earlier work. “Do You Like Us Now” has a strong 1960s guitar stamp, with a nice cleaned-up garage vibe. Ready for dancing? Definitely. I first heard Chuck Prophet with the Green on Red recordings but then missed his early solo work, checking in finally with the fantastic Night Surfer LP. Since then, I’ve paid closer attention to his releases. Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins is a good as it sounds like it will be. And Prophet’s brand new The Land That Time Forget is another winner. “Best Shirt On” is a lovely well-crafted tune with such subtle hooks and an overall feel of mid-1960s low key lushness. Brooklyn’s fuzz pop band Dead Stars grind out a slow burn melodic treat with “Dreams Don’t Come True” from their recent Never Not Here. This one works turned down low or blasted from the car stereo. The band The Ern Malley Affair are almost as mysterious as the fake poetry scam they take their name from. The internet turns up only out-of-date MySpace pages and nary a mention of the group’s work from back in 2009. But apparently they have new material out now and it carries on with their earlier ‘dirty folk’ sound. Words like ‘jaunty’ and gently ‘spirited’ come to mind listening to the delightful “It’s This.” Love the mellow organ and hooky shuffle.

Declan McKenna “Emily”
The Ern Malley Affair “It’s This”

God how I’ve missed Ben Kweller. The guy’s got a way with sneaky earworm tunes that get in your head and you find yourself humming them for days. He’s been pretty skint about new material over the past half decade (his last album was 2014’s Go Fly a Kite) but 2019 saw the release of a few new singles and now a new LP Circuit Boredom seems imminent. If “American Cigarettes” is anything to go by, it’s going to be a very good time. The song’s got his signature cool low-key swagger, bolstered by some nice but oh-so-subtle melodic shots in the chorus. Feel the sway of gentle jangle propelling The Embryos “I Wanna Be Your Sam” from their recent EP SCV3. They sound like The Church or The La’s in very mellow mood and that is totally cool. Sydney, Australia’s The On and Ons so nail the 1966 poprock sound – again – this time on a tight little EP called Menacing Smile. “Don’t Want to Talk About It” particularly exudes a strong Mickey Dolenz/Mike Nesmith vibe. Now if you want a rush of poppy guitar goodness, The Lolas always deliver. “The Wrecking Yard” glides along with a melodic ease aided by lightly ringing guitars and nice harmony vocals. Bodyheat produced a fab self-titled debut EP back in 2015 that contained some really winning tunes like “Talk It Over” and “Poor Girl.” Now a new EP is forthcoming and Indoor Music gets a promising start with a single like “Phonographic Memory,” which reminds a little of The Silencers and a host of other great 1980s indie guitar bands.

Ben Kweller “American Cigarettes”

Finally some Canadian content. Montreal’s Elephant Stone are the working the psychedelic seam of the sixities revival sound on their fab recent album Hollow, showcased nicely on that album’s first single “Hollow World.” But personally I’m digging their stand-alone election-era single, “American Dream,” with its muted jangle, harmonica and healthy caution about all things U.S.A. in 2020. ‘Gee, Ma, I want to go back to Ontario’ indeed. While they self-describe themselves as farkle wiki pop, when I hit play on Phoenix’s Diners all I heard was capital-F fun. From the light glam guitar to the cheesy fun fair organ, “Big Times” won’t fail to put a great big grin on your face with its Apples in Stereo-like cheekiness. I bought Irene Para’s “I Won’t Back Down” as a cool take on Tom Petty but quickly switched allegiance to the b-side, a Para composition called “Own Sweet Time.” There’s something slightly majestic in how this song builds throughout. A real earworm. Signals Midwest member Maxwell Stern’s solo album Impossible Sum is out and making the charts. Just a taste of single “Water Tower” suggests deservedly so. Here Stern’s punky inclinations (more in evidence on Signals Midwest material) are smoothed out by driving acoustic guitars, reverby lead lines, and punchy yet sweet vocals. And now we end with a bit of a happy ending. I say bit cuz it involves just a quarter of one of the most tragic bands in rock and roll history, Badfinger. Lone survivor Joey Molland has outlived his compatriots to collect his share of the royalties and make what should be a triumphant return to niche poprock love. “Rainy Day Man” is the advance single from Molland’s upcoming album Be True to Yourself and it hits all those Beatles, ELO and Badfinger marks we rightly expect it would. A lovely little slice of expert popcraft.

Almanacs are big things, you can’t necessarily get through them in one sitting. Don’t worry, these 20 original should-be hits from our 20 original should-be stars will be here for your continued consumption throughout the fall season.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles of 2018

03 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in Should be a Hit Single

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screen shot 2019-01-03 at 12.43.02 pm2018 was a freakin’ fantastic year for poprock! How do I know? Every year-end I put together a playlist of tunes released that year. In 2016 it consisted of 58 songs clocking in at just over 3 hours. By 2017 that list expanded to 98 songs running over 5 hours. This year the list exploded to 175 songs going on for over 9 hours! My list of should-be hit singles had to expand to a top 50 just to accommodate all this talent. Hit the links below to find each artist as featured in my original blog post this past year or to go to their bandcamp or Facebook page if I didn’t write them up.

So, without further ado, here is Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2018:

  1. Daisy House “Open Your Eyes”
  2. Oberon Rose “No Stranger”
  3. Ruler “Unhindered Pace”
  4. William Duke “Carole and the Silver Screen”
  5. Aaron Lee Tasjan “End of the Day”
  6. Car City “(Don’t) Give Up On Love”
  7. Greg Pope “Forget About You”
  8. Modern Space “Flip for It”
  9. Summer Magic “Attraction Corridors”
  10. Bill Lloyd “Satellite”
  11. Arthur Alexander “I’ll Get Your Love Someday”
  12. The Spindles “I Want My Baby Back”
  13. Starbelly “Lay Low”
  14. The Essex Green “Sloane Ranger”
  15. Michael Simmons “No More Girls”
  16. Astral Drive “Summer of ‘76”
  17. Caddy “Miracle Turn”
  18. Danny Wilkerson “How She Lost Heart”
  19. Bird Streets “Betting on the Sun”
  20. David James Situation “I Should Know”
  21. Ben Talmi “Chances”
  22. Nick Piunti “No Return”
  23. Michael Slawter “Summer’s Kind”
  24. Henry Chadwick “I Can Stick Around”
  25. Cupid’s Carnival “She Don’t Care”
  26. Super 8 “Your Love is my Blanket”
  27. Jeremy Messersmith “Monday, You’re Not So Bad”
  28. Freedom Fry “Past Lives”
  29. Cape Cartel “More”
  30. Gentle Hen “She’s Got It”
  31. Daniel Romano “Anyone’s Arms”
  32. Hurry “Waiting for You”
  33. J. Eastman and the Drunk Uncles “No Political Agenda”
  34. The Connection “The Girl is Trouble”
  35. Even “Out of the Woods”
  36. The Tearaways “I Could Love You Forever”
  37. Richard Turgeon “Look Away”
  38. Dot Dash “Unfair Weather”
  39. Brad Peterson “Whispering”
  40. Rob Bonfiglio “Passenger Seat”
  41. The Maureens “20 years for the Company”
  42. Extra Arms “Why I Run”
  43. Wiretree “Rainy Corner”
  44. Jim Shorts “James Tailored”
  45. Vegas with Randolph “Women in Airports”
  46. Billy & Dolly “Everything is Off”
  47. The Wellgreen “Take What You Get”
  48. Glen Robinson “Get You Down”
  49. Sofa City Sweetheart “Stop the Thinking”
  50. Wyatt Blair “Gotta Get Away”

For the second year running Daisy House tops my list of should-be hit singles. I have simply run out of superlatives to describe the musical genius of this band. Great songwriting, a killer 1960s vibe, flawless production and performance – it just doesn’t get any better than this. Do yourself a favour and head over to Bandcamp to download their whole catalogue. Oberon Rose came a close second with what must be one of the coolest singles rolled out this year. Ruler ruled my playlist for a good part of 2018, with “Unhindered Place” just one of the great songs on his album. I love the way William Duke’s guitar sounds like a jangle waterfall on his hooky masterpiece “Carole and Silver Screen.” And Aaron Lee Tasjan is a real find – so many possible selections – but more on that with my upcoming ‘20 must-have LPs for 2018’ post. I could go on … (but click on the links to get the full story).

I hope you enjoy these fifty songs enough to click on over to some of the artists’ web real estate and help them along career-wise. 2019 promises to be another hungry year for many of these mostly struggling artists – so do your part: buy their music and go see them live when they come to your town.

Breaking news: Vegas with Randolph, Bee Bee Sea, Greg Pope, Hemmit, and Car City

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

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Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.35.26 PMGreat music is breaking out all over this year and it’s a race to get them all in the blog before 2018 expires. Today’s crew has textured popcraft, a bit of blasty rock and roll, and even some dance grooves.

Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.37.27 PMJust one listen to Legs & Luggage and there’s little doubt that Vegas with Randolph’s songwriters are conversant with the major melodic rock and roll motifs of the past few decades. They’re effortlessly combined on this album’s 13 winning tracks with a charm reminiscent of a more rough-hewn Fountains of Wayne. Opening track “You Could Say Yes” charges out of the gate with hooks that say radio-friendly hit single. Another single-ish release would be “The Girl Holding Out for Me” with its pure bliss hooky chorus. The album also sees the band vibing a range of influences, from the Plimsouls’ elan of “Jacob” to the chirpy Ben Kweller jaunt of “I Could be the One” to the Steve Miller touches on “The Weekend’s Coming.” And then there’s the wonderful FOW-meets-Partridge Family peppiness of “Women in Airports” and the veritable blueprint of perfect poprock song, “The Comeback Kid.” Forget buying singles, this one’s an album purchase.

Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.38.38 PMItaly is producing an amazing bunch of melodic rockers of late (we featured stellar releases from The Sick Rose, for example) and Bee Bee Sea is no exception. Past releases have been described as ‘garage psych rock’ but I hear a more mod sound on their new album Deluxe, like a wilder, more Stonesy version of The Strypes. Ok, the opening track is pretty 1960s garage rock, fittingly titled “The Garage One.” But with “Lou Weird” and “Mary” things move into a more melody-drenched rock and roll swing. Then “All the Boys All the Girls” channels a wonderful late 1960s eerie sound kinda like the Zombies on speed. And so on – there’s no end to the highlights here. Deluxe is just a phenomenally cool rock and roll party album, daring you to put away your dancing shoes. Check out the swinging Together Pangea punky vibe of “Vampire George” or the 1980s British shimmering guitar sound of “And On” or the spot-on 1979 new wave rock and roll guitar groove of “Je Suis Content.” What I wouldn’t give to see this band live!

Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.39.55 PMA new record from Greg Pope is poprock money in the bank, he just doesn’t disappoint. I mean, one of his previous releases was aptly-named Popmonster, to which reviewers heartedly agreed – that gives you some idea what a prolific and reliable creative force he is. Now he’s back with A Few Seconds of Fame, which unfortunately could also double as a commentary on his undeservedly cool reception from top 40 radio. I don’t get it – to my ears, they’re all hits! Check the opening track “Forget About You” with its great driving tempo and solid yet subtlely hooky chorus, or the tightly delivered “Retread” – this is what radio-friendly singles used to sound like. But hey, I could just as easily recommend the wonderful 1970s ELO pop sound of “Hopes and Dreams and Fears” or the great late Beatles pop vibe on “Planet Earth” or the textured, layered sound of “Dreams About You,” particularly on the vocals. I guess nobody’s gonna make me a top 40 radio program director anytime soon but if they did …

Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.41.01 PMPortland’s Hemmit have run the gamut of stadium-sounding rawk (ironically delivered, of course) to ‘punkish powerpop’ (in their words) to the electronic pop of their current release. The new EP, One Ultra, definitely channels some great 1980s synth pop influences, obvious on tracks like “Ultraviolet” and “Power” but subtlely lodged in others like “My Room” too. But consistent across their catalogue is the songwriting quality, evident on the obvious singles: the relentlessly driving “Friends” and the more melodic hooks of “Waves.” This is a band worth spending some time digging through various releases for a load of poprock gems.

Screen Shot 2018-12-05 at 6.42.02 PMThe Appleton Post-Crescent described Car City as a “Fox Valley supergroup,” a reference to the fact that while all the musicians were long-standing members of the local live music scene they had really only recently come together to work on this project. Their experience clearly mattered because Car City, the album, sounds like the work of a cohesive band. The resulting sound is like Weezer on anti-depressants, a slightly dissonant, melody rich concoction that delivers on Jason Lemke’s great songs. It’s all there on the opening tracks, “Connecting the Dots” and “Like a Wave” with their earworm-worthy yet subtle melodic turns and twists. Then things get really interesting when “Hopeless” breaks out the Aimee Mann syth to good effect with some inspired full stops and background vocals, while “(Don’t) Give Up on Love” kicks off all Beach Boys vocal harmonizing before dusting off Steve Nieve’s organ. And the songs I haven’t mentioned? Also great. Frankly, I love all the tunes on this record. Car City deserves to be in your collection.

You can connect with all the artists on this post – Vegas with Randolph, Bee Bee Sea, Greg Pope, Hemmit, and Car City – on bandcamp, which is actually one of the best ways to support your soon-to-be favourite artists, as expertly explained here by Richard Turgeon, a great indie artist in his own right. And he should know.