Tag Archives: Hidden Pictures

Piping hot hits Vol. 1

06 Sunday Jul 2025

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K-Tel had some great album covers going in the 1970s, one for every musical fad or fashion. Let’s channel some of that over-the-top energy for a serious slab of summer single-age in not one, but two volumes. That’s 42 summer should be hits for your BBQ-ing playlist. Sizzling!

Kicking things off with something that really vibes a lot old school motifs, Police Touch Museum hit all the marks with “Lover.” The song structure could easily be early 1960s Brill Building or 1970s James Taylor soft rock. Tony Marsico and the Ugly Things also conjure up days gone by with a 1980s heartland rock and roll sound. “Goodbye to Lonely Town” has that Jersey organ and rumbly guitar that recalls everyone from Dion to the Boss. I’ve long been a fan of Tristen’s exquisitely compressed sound, so intimate yet with space for a range of great instrumental tones. “New Punching Bag” sounds a bit country, in a Neko Case outsider vein. It’s one of three killer cuts on a new EP entitled Zenith. I love the ambience of the recent Good Neighbours single “Starry Eyed.” Light and uplifting, it reminds me of the textured pop sound of bands like Foster the People. Toronto’s Pup have a recognizable pop punk sound on “Hallways,” a bit edgy and ragged in the verses but out-of-this-world pop brilliant in the chorus. Hooks for days.

Tomas Nilsson stocks “I Thought It Was Love (But It Was Not)” full of jangle and lighter-than-air background vocals. The song exudes 1960s style but in the 1980s revival sort of way. It’s not hard to hear where The Grip Weeds are coming from with “Gene Clark (Broken Wing).” The songs is a tribute to that member of The Byrds who wrote so many great songs but whose own solo career stalled for reasons that are hard to fathom. A worthy and highly listenable tribute. Hidden Pictures tell a story as old as time with “Wedding Singer (Going Through a Divorce).” The people who surround these life epochal events are expected be exemplars of what the event represents but things don’t always work out that way. This is a smooth bit of 1980s AM radio polished pop. Team power pop veteran Chris Stamey up with The Lemon Twigs and you knew something special would result. And it has. A new album is on the way but for now dig what “Anything is Possible” sonically conjures up. I love the tension, the sense of unease what permeates the tune until the chorus delivers us from evil. Austin Texas band Gentlemen Rogues have a rock solid band vibe going all over their recent LP Surface Noise. This is a band that could keep you dancing all night long. But from this record I’m drawn to the more subtle hooks defining “All Out of Crush.”

Somewhere out in the wilds of Wyoming teen twins Liam and Layne have cooked up a unique blend of ‘grungy mountain folk’ that slides between neat genre divides. “Cheyenne” is their most polished offering to date, IMHO, with killer harmonica and fiddle breaks. The Sonny Wilsons keep teasing us with solid singles. “Miss Kinetic” combines their distinctive guitar and vocal work into another strong effort. Can an album be far behind? The Trews fall into a more Americana zone that I usually get caught up in but their new single “Don’t Get Lost in the Dark” is so guitar-fabulous. The rippling lead lines keep you glued to speaker to see where things are going. A great deal of The Lightheaded album Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! sounds very 1963 folk fair but “Me and Amelia Fletcher” is a cool departure, very 1980s pop chic. Richard Snow has something to say on his latest stand-alone single “Governments Always Lie” and he’s not being coy about the message. The tune is a very cool, an expertly calibrated slice of poppy indie rock.

With song titles like “Dream Not Found” and “Us Ugly Guys” you quickly get the sense that The King Teen is some serious kind of lovable loser on his EP Us Ugly Guys Got Style. But he sharpens the critique on “Mediocre Man,” a bouncy acoustic guitar-led mediation about over-estimating your competence. Bonus points for including an rousing, updated version of Bertolt Brecht’s “United Front Song” appearing here as “Left Two Three.” Is it just me or does Rhode Island’s Andy Lampert sound particularly English?  There’s a certain kind of sixties poprock from the UK that straddles folk and pop and psychedelia and that’s what hear coming from “The Bottommost of the Poppermost.” Speaking of folk, those folks in The Happy Somethings have resurrected a band member’s old track “A Kind of Loving” and it’s a delight, a gentle paean to unrequited love. Your Academy name the elephant in the political room right now in the US on “National News,” calling out the clown holding the country hostage. Stylistically the vibe is late 1970s Fleetwood Mac in AM radio hit mode. Liquid Mike often leans into a heavier sound somewhere in just about every cut but “Selling Swords” has to be his poppiest offering yet. Very Wavves or SMRS.

The cover and title of the new Fortitude Valley LP says somebody’s is gonna get a serious talking to. Don’t be fooled by the fresh guitar pop vibe guiding early release single “Sunshine State.” Lead singer and songwriter Laura Kovic is only just getting started. Stay tuned for the rest when Part of the Problem, Baby comes out next month.

21 should-be hits and that’s just Vol. 1! Check your fave internet fanzines soon for deets about Piping Hot Hits Vol. 2.

Fall singles fire barrel

16 Saturday Nov 2024

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As autumn slowly cuts off any hope of retreat to summer we are left with little choice but to spark up some inner warmth, by whatever means necessary. So doff your wool and cotton and get close to our fire of combustible hooky tunes.

This past summer Charleston South Carolina’s Band of Jays came to the defence of your anywhere town with a song dubbed “Bill Murray.” There’s actually a surprising number of songs named for my fave SNL alumnus but few seem to heft a guitar or a hummable melody. By contrast, this track is an ear-pleasing winner with great guitar backing, an easygoing tune, and a nice sentiment. As the lyrics note, maybe Bill Murray doesn’t live in your town but everybody’s got something special going on close to home. Further south New Orleans band Video Age get us “Away from the Castle” with a song from an album of the same name that deploys a mixture of snappy guitar tones and keyboard runs to buffet its super fine vocals. Right next door Birmingham Alabama’s Lolas turn on the power pop charm on “From the Start” with chime-y guitars and shimmery harmony vocals. What a slice of ear candy! Leaving the south for the icy north, Norway’s I Do You Do Karate do not bury the lead on their single “Peanut Carter.” The lead guitar, that is. I love how the main guitar lick just rings out over the pulsing beat of the band. I’d like to count myself as one of many Friends of Cesar Romero, the guy just never lets me down. Check out his latest dance stomper “Quick Wrath,” specifically for how he combines a swamp-worthy bit of lead guitar with some ace power-pop background vocals. Flipside “Her Lipstick Dedication” is a pretty sweet bit of 1962 rocked-up Phil Spector.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Newski is some kind of old soul. He’s got the mellow ‘live and let live’ vibe of a 1960s hippie, with just a touch of punk around the edges. And his sound is littered with bits of vintage sixties and seventies rock and roll motifs that he just throws on like a comfy sweater. His latest in a series of winning singles is “Get It Figured Out” and I love its languid, loping rhythm, especially combined with a spot-on Tom Petty vocal. Weymouth, UK’s Garfield’s Birthday crank up the British beat group sound on the opening cut of their latest album Next Stop Mars. Just listen to the finely-calibrated close-harmony vocals guiding “The Other Side of the Wind.” It’s as if Peter and Gordon had come up with a rock and roll backing. Get ready for some jangle from The Tisburys on their new one-off single “The Anniversaries” and a whole lot more too. There’s some sweet organ and harmony vocals and a tune that will get in your head and refuse to move out. Oakland California’s Hidden Pictures return in full-on country regalia with “Hayward Hall of Justice.” The song leans hard on the pedal steel to set the hard living, hard drinking country scene, with a winning dose of FOW subtle hookiness. London UK’s Ex-Vöid give the people what they want on their new release “Swansea.” Is it folk? Is it indie? I just know it’s effing great. Pairs well with anything from Mary Lou Lord.

Time to crank this party up a bit. Liquid Mike flash their punk vocals and grinding big-guitar sound but that can’t obscure the hooky genius at the centre of “Crop Circles.” Played loud or soft this one’s a winner (but play LOUD for full effect). Seattle’s The Oh Wells work a pop country seam on their latest single “Mad Honey.” Ok, things do get to rocking in the lead guitar break but those vocals are just so pop smooth. Kelowna BC’s Stephen Schijnes is putting out singles so fast I can’t keep up with them. He’s got two recent releases that sound so simple but are ultimately bewitching in their impact. “Carry On (The Way It Has To Be)” contrasts Schijnes Gordon Lightfoot deadpan vocals with a rollicking musical backing while “It’s All About Love” is an anthem made just for our times. Get those children’s choirs ready for this one. Is it just me or is Pony perfectly incarnating Juliana Hatfield on her recent killer single “Freezer”? The guitars, the perfectly calibrated sibilant vocals, the subtle hook driving the song – it’s all wonderfully Hatfield-esque. I mean, she’s doing her own thing for sure but wow. We’ve featured Ottawa native Robby Miller and his tight brand of crunchy poprock a few times but listen to what he’s got going with Danny Young on “Take Me As I Am.” Young adds a Beck-like chameleon vocal style to a monster of a song, particularly in the chorus. Anthemic for sure.

On their new album Studio 3 New York duo Rogers and Butler explore our present hard times over a range of songs – with titles like “Poverty Line,” “Teddy Boys,” and “Poor Little Rich Girl” you quickly get the picture. But give the whole album a listen and you’d swear these two come from York minus the New, so well do they capture a particularly English beat group sound. Here we’ll just feature one of their timely tunes, “Agree to Disagree.” The sentiment is solid but the jangle is outa-sight. Belgian poprock purveyors CMON CMON pick up where they left off, cranking out another slickly produced ear-catching new single “All the Other Kids.” Really, this is one smooth piece of 1980s AM radio should-be hit single-age. Poprock workaholic Richard Turgeon has slowed the pace of his one-man song machine this past year but his new track “I Won’t Cry” shows he’s not losing any of his hooky shine. There are so many endearing melodic twists in this song. Just when you think he’s established the form he throws in another hooky departure. Jared McLoud is all in on Americana on his new album Vacancy. The sound has the emotional resonance of all those fabulous New Jersey acts, great (Springsteen) and small (Soul Engines), particularly on cuts like “A Kind of Love That Will Tear You Apart.” But “Tramp Like Me” and “Hello, My Name is Standing Joke” are pretty sweet too. Mossy Ledge take me back to all those dreamy British guitar bands from the 1980s like The Silencers. Their new song “All You Need To Know” starts off all minor key and doom-pop but then breaks out in the chorus with a bit of melodic sunshine.

Mossy Ledge – All You Need to Know

If anyone sounds like they’re cut from ‘absolute classic entertainer’ cloth it’s Atlanta Georgia’s Mattiel. With a great big voice like Patsy Cline or Neko Case and charisma to match, she could sing the bus schedule and we’d all be glued to our seats. Now she takes on Terri Gibbs’ country chart hit “Somebody’s Knocking” and definitely makes it her own. She adds smoke and a bit of grit to the vocals while the accompaniment is a rich melange of pedal steel, harmonica and delectable guitar work. Side B is a treat too, a cover of Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You.”

Don’t get too close to these sizzling tunes, you’ll singe your dance shoes. Crowd in just close enough to feel their should-be Hot 100 heat.

Photo ‘Campfire Nights’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Catching up with Hidden Pictures, Liquid Mike and Frank Bango

28 Sunday May 2023

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Often I stumble across a new artist with a significant back catalogue of material and it’s hard to know where to start. Obviously the new stuff is their latest headline and priority. But the historian in me can’t help but want to play a little catch up with their musical pasts.

Profiling Hidden Pictures would be a challenge. We go from the acoustic folk/country of the 2008 debut Hidden Pictures (s/t) to a distinct vein of acoustic pop whimsey on so many albums, EPs and one-off singles that follow. And yet the band’s light touch can give way to more ambitious aural outbursts on tunes like “Where Does the Story Go?” “Sister Wife” and the rocking “Girls Like.” Comparisons to FOW abound. You can definitely hear the vocal kinship with Chris Collingwood on “Match Play” from the debut. But 2010 stand-alone single “Whitney Houston” is something different again, very *repeat repeat in its use of synth and razor sharp vocal harmonies. Three more albums followed in quick succession, 2011’s Synchronized Sleeping, 2012’s Rainbow Records, and 2014’s Ottomans, and they too pack a host of surprises. I’d single out at least one from each (in order) as particularly stellar: “It’s My Fantasy (It’s Not Your Fantasy),” “Say Hello to Darkuary” and “Firm Way to Say Goodbye.” But this undersells the proceedings. Each album is its own little cornucopia of inventive poprock songwriting. A great place to get caught up is with the band’s amazing 30 song compilation, The Hidden Pictures Anthology. So many superior cuts here, from the Squeeze-like “Ottomans” to the more hard-hitting FOW-vibing “Stealing the Tapes” to the Magnetic Fields-reminiscent “Endless Summer.” Oops, the latter two don’t actually appear on that collection. Thus you will have to supplement your Anthology with a few one-off song purchases, even if you not a completist. Personally, I wouldn’t pass over 20022 b-side “Only Memories.” It’s a real gem.

On their recently released album S/T or self-titled Marquette Michigan’s Liquid Mike let loose the power pop gods. Previous releases hinted at this development but never with this kind of sustained focus. And that’s saying something because 2021’s Stuntman and 2022’s A Beer Can and a Bouquet are hella-good records. “BLC” open things with grinding guitars and an uber smooth vocal melody riding over everything. The lead guitar carries a bit more of the melodic heft on “God Bless the World” and “Built 4 Nothing Good.” Listening to the album, it’s hard not to name-check the obvious comparators to what’s going on here, people like Matthew Sweet, early Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, etc. I love that nearly everything here clocks in at 2 minutes or less. “American Record” is the obvious single. Stepping back an album, you can’t miss “I’ll Get Back to You” and “God’s Best Substitute” from A Beer Can and a Bouquet. To get a sense of the band’s more punky roots, give the debut LP Stuntman a spin. It’s somewhat more rough-hewn but often pretty melodic smooth too. Check out “The Branch,” “T+T,” and “Big Fish” to get the full effect. “Thrifty Car Rental” doesn’t appear on any album but it should be added to your collection as well.

Frank Bango arrived in the 1990s very much in the thick of a poppy clever songsters generation. The quirky melodic turns and idiosyncratic lyrics of his 1994 debut I Set Myself on Fire Today fit right in with contributions from the likes of Mark Everett in his ‘E’ guise, Peter Case going solo, or Martin Luther Lennon. “Today I Quit the Band Mom” sounds like A Man Called E deep cut while “Get Yourself Buried” and “Lucky Suit” are solid singles material. Four years later Fugitive Girls fattened up the sound and showcased the increasing strength of Bango’s song-writing partnership with lyricist Richy Vesecky. “Candy Bar Killer” has got that languid Marshall Crenshaw pop splendour while “Ape” vibes M.L. Lennon to me. One listen to “Olivia 101” and the constant Costello comparisons from reviewers start to make sense. Don’t miss “Instamatic” btw, it’s got a real Rubber Soul invocation. Bango’s next two albums are excursions into whimsy and more somber reflections, often with a folky edge but never without a few really stand-out tracks like “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” or “The Ugly Version” from 2002’s The Unstudied Sea and “I Saw the Size of the World” from 2008’s The Sweet Songs of Decay. And then Bango dropped a masterpiece, 2013’s Touchy/Feely. The record sounds taut, honed and melodically calibrated to please. There are just so many great tunes here: “Defenseless,” “Too Lazy To Love You, ” “What Kind of Saturday,” “Astronaut I’m Not,” and so on. The record manages to meld an updated Brill Building sound with a charm-schooled Costello lyrical intensity.  From there it’s been a long wait for Bango’s brand new The Truth Fox, just out last month. The acoustic guitar moves up front on this release in a “Norwegian Wood” register while the song-writing reminds me of Mike Viola’s distinctive style. This is a record of tender – sometimes brutal – introspection. “I Don’t Know Anyone Here” and “I Never Thought of You That Way” are stark and vulnerable and moving. But the hooks are here too on tracks like “Two Rubies.” Late period Bango shows no sign of letting up on the sonic and lyrical brilliance.

It used to be that records were disposable, here today forgotten tomorrow. But now they string together like a resume that fans can take in all at once or bit by bit, whenever they come across them. Getting all caught up was never so easy.

Image courtesy James Vaughhn Flikr page.