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Spring singles countdown

19 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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*repeat repeat, 65MPH, A. Michael Collins, Billy Bragg, Bryan Adams, Classic Pat, Goin' Places, Hovvdy, Invisible Rays, K. Campbell, Kerosene Stars, Pictish Trail, Robby Miller, Smiles, Stephen Schijns, Tamar Berk, The Lovetones, The Rills, The Stranglers, The Telmos, Tracy Shedd

This is a countdown to both warmer temps and hotter tunes: our spring singles countdown! I find my incoming new singles pile never really shrinks but that’s not really a problem is it? So here goes with another 21 songs just pining for your attention.

The Stranglers were one of those bands I was vaguely aware of in my youth but I was too distracted by the melodic heft of The Jam and Squeeze to take notice of their more subtle charms. In fact it was only in the past few years I heard the band’s exquisite “Golden Brown” from their 1981 album Le Folie. Fast forward to last year and the band’s 18th album Dark Matters is full of winning tunes. The tribute to late longtime band member Dave Greenfield “And If You See Dave …” is touching while “The Last Men on the Moon” has a hooky futuristic vibe a la 1980s Moodies meets Blue Oyster Cult. Another band doing the coming-back-strong thing are The Lovetones. After a decade gone they returned in 2020 with Myriad and the must hear song for me is “Rescue.” Ok, this is not a breaking single but it should have been, it’s got that magical mid-1960s sparkle tune-wise. Tamar Berk is building up to something pretty extraordinary, if her drip drip of confident pre-album singles is anything to go by. “Tragic Endings” opens with alluring simplicity, just a single electric guitar and Berk’s clear voice, before adding layer after layer of sonic hooks. The song is masterful arrangement of push and pull melodic effects and the vibe is like Pat Benatar meets Blondie, with a touch of Laurie Anderson thrown in. The upcoming album is Start at the End but you’re gonna want in at the beginning. Ottawa’s Robby Millar turns up the 1970s bubblegum/glam guitars on “All We’ve Got” with a chorus that is very The Cure. It’s a creative combination that is oh so obvious once you hear it. Incipient spring brings a new double A sided single from Nashville artists *repeat repeat and they certainly paint a picture, “Soft” a dreamy, shoe-gazey float along the water, “Hmm Feels Like” a punchier Kevin Devine-ish acoustic bit of hooky shuffle.

The Stranglers – The Last Men on the Moon
Robby Millar – All We’ve Got

Houston’s enigmatic poprocker K. Campbell layers his recent single “Breaking Glass” with an intoxicatingly compressed sound, like a classic 45 blasting from a transistor radio. But listen a little more closely to hear all the subtle shifts in sonic texture that elevate the tune. Another textured mini-masterpiece comes from L.A.’s A. Michael Collins. “In Other Climes” initially sounds like it’s a member of the Bryds family tree with its jangly guitars and harmony vocals. But it quickly turns into something more contemporary, not unlike the retro reinventions from the likes of Richard X. Heyman. Bryan Adams albums typically alternate between effing-eh truck-driving stadium-rawk and more radio-friendly poprock earworms. Album 15 So Happy It Hurts delivers on both but I’m drawn more to the latter, which just happen to be all the songs he wrote here with his traditional hit-songwriting partner Jim Vallance. “I’ve Been Looking For You” is textbook poprock goodness: so simple, nothing ground-breaking here, but man does Adams know how to put it together. Now for something a bit different, Classic Pat takes on Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s In Love With the Boy” stripping out all its ‘easy listening’ country elan and replacing that with a fabulous 1980s Canadian indie vibe e.g. The Northern Pikes or The Grapes of Wrath. The song is just one of many commercial country make-overs appearing on a worthwhile album split with Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard entitled Country Buffet. Austin duo Hovvdy wowed critics with their self-described ‘pillow core’ album True Love last fall. Now they’re back with a new single “Everything.” The acoustic guitar sets the tone and hook for the song, building from a stark and spare backdrop only to drop in a bit banjo on its way to veritable wall of sound as the tune builds. It is somehow both a bit manic and oh-so-smooth at the same time.

Bryan Adams – I’ve Been Looking For You

Everything about Isle-of-Eigg dweller Johnny Lynch is original. His recordings as Pictish Trail defy easy categorization. Me, I’m drawn to the melody central cuts, which really comprise only some small part of his musical vision. As Guardian writer Jude Rogers reveals, his latest album Island Family is an oblique love letter to his island home and community. My choice for your listening pleasure is “Melody Something” but the rest of the album is worth some dedicated listening. Lincoln UK’s The Rills are something a bit different again, offering up a lot of story detail on “Skint Eastwood.” The verses have a driving, almost relentless attack but when the chorus kicks in, wow, it’s like melodic crack. Staten Island’s Goin’ Places have shifted the intensity of their punk delivery over their twenty years together, edging slightly into more pop punk territory on their most recent album, Save the World. It’s a strong album but personally I’m digging the Mersey-ish “Recover.” Sure, there’s a still a strong punky feel to the proceedings but the boys add some very melodic guitar lines and sweet background vocals. Veteran protest songster Billy Bragg came out with a new album The Million Things That Never Happened last fall and it had more than a few of his signature hooky folk rock numbers. The highlight for me was album closer “Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained” with its rollicking tempo and razor sharp social commentary. Kelowna’s Stephen Schijns has a curious new single that combines an eerie Gordon Lightfoot-reminiscent vocal with a chugging yet propulsive bit of poprock performance, and a tasty bit of 1970s guitar solo. It really works.

North Carolina’s Tracy Shedd ambles onto centre stage with her single “Going Somewhere,” its laid back feel gaining more urgency in the chorus. Definitely a bit of car-driving, windows-open on a summer day sort of music. The Telmos’ “What She Knows” actually first appeared on the band’s 2019 EP How Quick It Goes Away but it has now been re-released by Aldora Britain Records. It definitely deserves a second chance, given its sunny 1960s pop psychedelic feel. Kinda like The Zombies jamming with The Hollies. Back into the pop punk field, Boston’s Invisible Rays pump out what sounds like a somewhat more socially adjusted Weezer on “Landline.” This one is jump-up-and-down dance good. Another late find for me is smiles “Gone For Good.” This 2019 release oozes Teenage Fanclub, Big Star and Matthew Sweet vibes. Turn it up loud and get lost in the melodic haze. Chicago’s Kerosene Stars continue their English 1980s band revival kick with “Purpose of Friend,” a song that sounds like something from Manchester 1988. A bit confessional folkie, a bit swing poprock.

We’ll wrap things up with a double blast from prolific Cambridgeshire indie artist 65MPH. The recent singles “Real Life” and “Don’t Walk Away” cap a series of releases from this guy, so an album proper cannot be far off (can it?). I love the rough and ready vibe on these songs, reminding me of work from the likes of The Jam and Cast.

Twenty-one singles crammed into one post is like finding a variety box of quality chocolates on your Easter egg hunt. There’s definitely going to be some you really like. Time to start indulging.

The big fat post of everything I

30 Thursday Dec 2021

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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Amplifier Heads, Atari Ferrari, Gabriel's Dawn, Goody Grace, Hank Idory, Hovvdy, Howe Gelb and a Band of Gypsies, Robert Harrison, Rural France, Swansea Sound, Televisionaries, The Laissez Fairs, The Pastel Waves, The Peppermint Kicks, WUT

It happens every year. My meticulous lists and projected scheduled posts invariably go awry and artists I had every intention of featuring somehow get left out. But then I had an idea. An awful idea. A wonderful, awful idea. Actually it’s one I stole from those canny Brits. What if I just packed those missing artists into one big fat of post of everything? Then I could tuck them all into 2021 no problem. It’s not a pretty … but it’s what we’re doing. Here’s the first of two installments.

Spain loves power pop, as is obvious from Hank Idory’s recent album, Sentimental Jamboree. The record has a range of tempos going but I’m drawn to the whipsmart Mersey-tinged “Un Rayo De Sol.” Austin, Texas duo Hovvdy serve up some pretty special, self-dubbed ‘pillow-core’ on True Love. It’s got a some Bon Iver, a bit of Hayden, and even some New Order in its droney intensity at times. The whole record could wallpaper an evening of low lighting intimacy for you but a quick take lands on the title track “True Love.” Rochester New York is a serious rock and roll town with so many great bands from there. Like the early 1960s beach riffing rock and roll outfit Televisionaries. Crank up “Charlotte Beach” and let the beach bingo party begin! B-side “Cuckoo Clock” is a pretty special bit of fun too – love that guitar solo. To get some jangle on, let’s turn to Gabriel’s Dawn and their exquisitely gentle, flowing single “Loose Canyon.” Kinda like the Bangles geared down for a ride in the country. Proving old indie dogs can learn new tricks, Swansea Sound come out of Wales demanding ‘indie bands of the world, unite!’ The song titles are blast – “Corporate Indie Band,” “I Sold My Soul on EBay” – and not at all off the mark. But I’m digging the more blatantly poppy “Let It Happen.”

Kent’s The Pastel Waves are also working the political side of street on their EP The Influencers. There’s a 1980s Silencers feel to the package with distinctive guitar while the politics is served with strong melody e.g. opening track “Starts Right Here.” A solo record from Cotton Mather’s Robert Harrison is a big deal and people have been writing about it all over, deservedly so. Watching the Kid Come Back is a delightful collection, marked by whimsey and emotional depth. The title track alone is worth the album price, a remarkable work of melodic minimalism. Is it wrong to buy an album for the cover? Ok, so the music got to me too but the cover of Atari Ferrari’s new Pleasant Surprise had me on pause for while. The record itself is an extraordinary distillation of 1970s influences – Marc Bolan, Queen, a raft of guitar picking singer/songwriting guys, and more. Hard to choose just one tune but I’d have you start on the Cat Stevens-ish “Keep Lookin’.” Las Vegas band The Laissez Fairs clearly just tipped out of the Tardis from 1969, they so nail the psych-poprock sound of that time. The album is “Curiosity Killed The Laissez Fairs?” and it’s a winner. But pressed for one hit, I’m really digging “Sunshine Tuff.” Two Whiltshire UK boys are Rural France. I know, it’s confusing. But ignore all that and just wade into their fab new album RF. The slightly DIY indie vibe tends to obscure the songwriting talent here – what songs! So many possible key selections: “Clementine,” “Teenage Tom Petty,” “Sing Yr Hook,” and so on. I’m voting “Resident Comedian” as the should-be hit single.

Sal Baglio is having a busy year. Project one is another Amplifier Heads long-player, SaturnalienS. All the usual ingredients are there: hooky lead guitar lines, clever lyrics and surprising melodic turns buried everywhere. Just check out the Costello-worthy guitar licks launching “The House of Young Dolls.” What a tune! And then on project two he pulls a Dukes of Stratosphere move with new band The Peppermint Kicks, melding late sixties rock with a Romantics era new wave. It’s all there on “Johnny D’s (Play It Again).” One band is just not enough for some people. Going out on a limb with this next one, all the way to Selkirk Manitoba. Goody Grace has got a spooky EP out, Nostalgia Kills, and it vibes a pretty contemporary sound. But check out the 1980s spacey guitar and overall ominous poppiness to “Hold Me in the Moonlight.” Here’s another outlier from Madrid Spain group Howe Gelb and a Band of Gypsies. Overall, Algrias is tangorific, with airy background vocals and some pretty amazing guitar playing. But the standout feature of this band is how the musical accompaniment combines with the Leonard Cohen-esque lead vocals. Magic! Start with “Notoriety” and go from there. Vancouver’s WUT are great. There is something so performance artist punk about their whole demeanor on their record Now. For instance, “White Walls” almost sounds like a chant but still has some quirky melodic undercurrent carrying it through what is obviously first person account of a coffee shop apocalypse.

We’re not done. There’s even more ‘big fat post of everything’ coming your way. Tomorrow.

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