Tag Archives: The Flashcubes

Piping hot hits Vol. 2

12 Saturday Jul 2025

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K-Tel had it coming and going in the 1970s. Single albums, double albums, double albums released as two single albums, and every combination in between. The point was, if they had concept that was selling they would keep selling it, any which way they could. In our second installment of Piping Hot Hits we take heed from the K-Tel gods and lay it on heavy.

Listen to how Fara San make their main guitar sing on “Long Lost Lover.” Lovingly exuding a 1960s folk rock vibe but deployed in a wholly different song register, more post-millennium indie rock with sweetly sung vocals. You never know quite what you’re going to get with any new release from The Krayolas. Could be a great lost unreleased track or a brand new retro charmer. “Surf’s Down” comes from a batch of songs recorded back in 1979 that never saw light of day. The Beach Boys notes are obvious but there’s hints of Harry Nilsson and Burt Bacharach too. Nashville’s The Tummies are also working the sixties side of the street on their self-proclaimed ‘summer ’25 road trip single.’ “Send Me a Picture” is an effortless bit of Beatlesque pop. A new Sloan album is certainly something to celebrate. Based on a Best Seller is due out in September but right now we’ve got “Live Together” and it’s everything that makes the band today’s most reliable should-be hit makers. It’s all hooks and harmonies, both familiar and surprising. And yet as they sing in this song, “The ‘90s nostalgia that you feel Is nothing compared to what’s to come.” So September can’t come soon enough. Danny Patrick is a guy who records great songs and put them up on the internet for free or whatever you want to pay. And it is great stuff. Like “A Girl Like You.” You’d swear this is time capsule 1980s radio find. The guitar sound could be any rough melodic FM rock radio band from the era while the harmony vocals conjure groups with a slight country edge.

Jean Caffeine’s new single “I Know You Know I Know” is a genius bit of pop restraint. It sounds so simple but the melodic arc shifts between an Everly Brothers and Marti Jones feel. The selection of subtle musical adornments are inspired. What is Joe Dilillo doing on his new single? Would we say it’s mining Billy Joel or perhaps Gilbert O’Sullivan? “When It Comes To Us” is such a beautiful tune, it definitely stands on its own but the melodic shading offers up hints of the masters in the details. Movie Movie’s muscular guitar pop rock returns on “After Hours” with a splash of 1980s synth, like The Fixx stopped by to jam. The Len Price 3 keep on rocking like it’s 1979 with their new song “Emily’s Shop.” It’s got a feel like The Jam or The Primitives and what’s not to like about that? Bret Tobias from The Bret Tobias Set is now apparently hanging out with Marty Wilson-Piper from the legendary Australian band The Church so not surprisingly his new song sounds pretty 1981 in the very best way. Just listen to the guitar shimmer dripping all over “Happiness Writes White.” Melodic magic!

The Len Price 3 – Emily’s Shop

Say hello to Liverpool’s Novelty Island and their upcoming LP release Jigsaw Causeway with their light sunny drop of McCartneyesque single-age “Foam Animals.” It’s dreamy with some mesmerizing keyboard work. In a very similar keyboard original register, Freedom Fry lull us with their usual signature lowkey whispery hooks on “Little Things.” Tchochtke ride some propulsive Beach Boys organ riffs with “Poor Girl” but the rest of the sonic pull on this song is seventies pop. By contrast Boston’s Invisible Rays is guitars to the front with a delightful bit of jangle launching “Lightning” that reaches new heights of hook-age in the chorus. When we last heard from Trevour Blendour he was Falling in Love but now it appears someone is Breaking Up With him. We don’t have all the details, other than the predictably super pre-release single “She’s Still My Baby.” It’s classic Blendour, full of updated fifties motifs and old school rock and roll guitars.

The Penrose Web is a new musical project that could be a great lost EP from the 1980s indie guitar scene. “Geraldine” captures the gentle pop vibe that could be Aztec Camera. From the not-so-gentle file, the recent Friends of Cesar Romero single “Can’t Get You” gets busy with clashy guitars and slightly screamy vocals but never loses the hooky plot. As we have come to expect. The Flashcubes returned recently with accolade-winning covers album but what fans always really wanted was some new material from the legendary 1970s power pop band. Now we’re getting it and disappointment is not in the cards. The new single “Reminisce” takes us back to the band’s classic sound with a tune that sounds perfect for the here and now. With help from The Figgs Mike Gent! Trim, Ireland’s Spearside embark with a slightly heavier guitar sound on their new EP Hatchet Man, cranking their amps well past 11. But on “Are Friends Electric” they bring back a more ringing bit of jangle guitar to contrast these heavier sounds and the results are explosively good. From a very different direction The Rallies focus their considerable pop talents on “Love.” It’s a jaunty, feel-good effort, full of their requisite harmonies and guitar hooks.

Hitting the inner groove of this second volume we have a double shot of The Brigadier. “Blessings” is breathy and dreamy with great guitar blasts coming in at regular intervals while “Perfect Surprise” embodies even more of those characteristics but perhaps Beach Boys enriched.

Well, there you have it, a second could-be K-Tel collection volume. Feel free to recombine these volumes in any form you like, re-arranging or cutting tracks as you see fit. After all, K-Tel certainly would have.

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2023

05 Friday Jan 2024

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The traditional rock and roll album ain’t dead, not by a long shot. Usurped for sure by new commercial formats and changing consumer listening patterns but the album – as a distinct collection of songs (sometimes forming a coherent whole) – remains the default mode of delivery for a wide swathe of guitar-based popular music. Proof? There was simply no shortage of fabulous, super-charged, pop-rocking long-players and extended plays to spend time with throughout 2023. From this embarrassment of musical riches we’ve whittled down a few different lists of LPs and EPs we feel rank as having ‘must have’ status. There’s something for every taste that falls somewhere across the broad, rather idiosyncratic category of ‘poprock’ we employ here. So dive in, see what you think, and do let us know about whatever egregious oversight you think we’ve undoubtedly committed. The hotlinks take you to the original reviews.

Cue drumroll – here we have it, Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs from 2023:

1. The Decibels When the Red Lights Flash
2. The McCharmlys The McCharmlys
3. The Parlophonics Dying of the Light
4. Miss Chain and the Broken Heels Storms
5. Buddie Agitator
6. Taking Meds Dial M for Meds
7. Good Shade Think Spring
8. Talking Kind It Did Bring Me Down
9. Caleb Nichols Let’s Look Back
10. Thomas Walsh The Rest is History
11. Steve Marino Too Late to Start Again
12. The Summertimes The Summertimes
13. Nite Sobs Fade Out
14. Bory Who’s a Good Boy
15. Richard Turgeon Life of the Party
16. The Small Square Ours and Others
17. Dave Kuchler Love and Glory
18. Classic Traffic You Want It? We Got It!
19. The Blusterfields The Blusterfields II
20. The Tubs Meat Factory
21. The Roves Needle Factory
22. Best Bets On an Unhistoric Night
23. The Blips Again
24. Erik Voeks and The Ghosters It Means Nothing Now
25. Rachel Angel Midnite Heart Attack

This year’s list tipped more toward some classic genre distinctions. The Decibels are beat group heaven for me and When the Red Lights Flash just proves their mastery of this form and seemingly bottomless creativity with it. By contrast, The McCharmlys conjure the ghost of 1950s west Texas rock and roll (even though they’re from California), effectively reinventing it for today. For a different slice, we’ve got the highly sophistico-pop of The Parlophonics. Such great songs, delivered so smoothly. And so on. Our list has got jangle (Buddie, Bory), new wave revival (The Blips, The Blusterfields), country tinges (The Tubs, Rachel Angel), and straight up melodic rock (Richard Turgeon, Dave Kuchler). Long may the LP reign in what’s left of the rock and roll universe.

But there’s more. The ongoing revival of the extended play record format has led to this list, Poprock Record’s must-have EPs from 2023:

1. Strange Neighbors Party of None
2. Joe Dillilo Superhero Star
3. Super 8 The Plus 4 EP #1
4. Dolour Sun on my Brain
5. Hearts Apart Bang! Wrong Again
6. Jose’s Bad Day Hi! Let’s Eat
7. Cal Rifkin Better Luck Next Year

The Strange Neighbors EP was hands down my favourite thing about 2023. It brought back a familiar teenage rush of excitement that used to accompany the discovery of something so cool and earworm addictive it just had to be played over and over. Also cool was Joe Dillilo’s oh-so smooth collection of songs, which saw him transitioning from behind the mixing board to the spotlight with ease. And what about Super 8’s alter ego project The Plus 4? An absolute jangle blast. EPs can be such a concentrated blast of melodic goodness, leaving you wanting more.

Before you go there’s one more album we’ve got to highlight. It’s a record so good we had to give it the special award of awesome poprock merit for 2023:

The Flashcubes Pop Masters

As I wrote in the original review, Pop Masters gives you “12 new wave era should-have-been hits, stylishly re-energized” and “celebrates what might-have-been with selections from bands that should have broken big but didn’t.” But the band don’t just celebrate the great songs of bands like The Pezband, The Spongetones, The Paley Brothers and The Shoes, they share the spotlight with them in what amounts to a series of power pop band duets. Let’s face it, this project could have gone very wrong. But again, from the original review, the “results are a pumped up, adrenaline-fueled romp through a host of power pop classics … where every cut is a highlight …” Believe the hype. The Flashcubes are, indeed, pop[rock] masters.

Spend some time with these LPs and EPs and I think you’ll agree, melodic rock and roll is in good health if not wealth. But you can help change that for the price of triple shot latte from your favourite beverage store. Go on, skip the coffee queue and click the links to these artists.

Photo courtesy Chris Friese Flikr collection.

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2023

01 Monday Jan 2024

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2023 was another banner year for melodic rock and roll. Here at Poprock Record we could spotlight only a small portion of what was go on. Still, we kept busy, writing 58,000 words over 77 posts about literally hundreds of artists. And we liked them all – that’s why we wrote about them. But some tunes had real staying power for our team of singles inspectors. So today we single out 50 should-be hit singles from 2023, songs that deserve another listen and a shot at chart glory. Click on the hyperlinks to hear each song and read the original write ups.

Getting to the main event, here are Poprock Record’s top 50 should-be hit singles from 2023:

1. Strange Neighbors “Hotline Psychic”
2. Taking Meds “Memory Lane
3. The Decibels “Why Bother With Us”
4. Good Shade “When Will You See”
5. The Goa Express “Portrait”
6. Billy Tibbals “Onwards and Upwards”
7. Strange Neighbors “Whoa! Is Me”
8. Ransom and the Subset “Perfect Crime”
9. The Tubs “I Don’t Know How It Works”
10. Buddie “Class Warfare”
11. Dignan Porch “Electric Threads”
12. The Tearaways “Easier Done Than Said”
13. Chris Church “One More Change to Get Over You”
14. The McCharmlys “Love Me Too”
15. Eyelids “That I Can See You Better”
16. The No Ones “Phil Ochs is Dead”
17. Canadian Invasion “Catch a Falling Knife”
18. Thomas Charlie Pederson “Yesterdays and Silly Ways”
19. Kevin Bowe “Put Me Out of Your Misery”
20. The Summertimes “Inside”
21. Gosh Diggity “Blast Off”
22. The Midnight Callers “Girl On the Run”
23. Parallax Project “Mary Houdini”
24. Dan Kibler “Don’t Go for the Money”
25. The Kind Hills “Let Youth Take Over”
26. Cal Rifkin “Break My Heart”
27. Ratboys “Morning Zoo”
28. Hurry “Like I Loved You”
29. Thomas Walsh “A Good Day For Me”
30. The Newds “The Street Leads to the River”
31. Dave Kuchler “She’s Rather Be With Me”
32. Hardwicke Circus “Everyday I Find Luck”
33. Worriers “Trust My Gut”
34. Tony Marsico “Rocket Girl”
35. Jean Caffeine “I Don’t Want to Kill You Anymore”
36. The Exbats “Like It Like I Do”
37. Dazy “Forced Perspective”
38. Miss Chain and the Broken Heels “Storms”
39. Bill Lloyd “Keep the Place Clean”
40. Kurt Hagardorn “Tractor Beam”
41. Nite Sobs “Julie Ann”
42. Turn Turn Turn “Power”
43. The Rockyts “I Get High”
44. The Blusterfields “Fear of Depths”
45. Dropkick “Telephone”
46. The Scarlet Goodbye “Angel Dust”
47. The Amplifier Heads “When We Go Home Again”
48. Steve Marino “Satisfy You”
49. Justin Levinson “I Need Somebody Now”
50. Moon Mates “Not Today”

New York’s Strange Neighbors grabbed me early in 2023 with their killer 45 “Hotline Psychic” and never really let go. The lyrics are so spot on, the chorus is mesmerizing, while the instrumental break threatens to break out into Blondie’s “Rapture.” The band is so good they placed another tune in my top 10, the delightful jangler “Whoa! Is Me.” Then Taking Meds and Good Shade seemed like two sides of a very good coin with songs that featured surging insistent hooks that simply demanded replay. The Goa Express tipped toward punk but without sacrificing melodic depth. And The Decibels returned with the modern beat group sound they own. There’s variety in this list, proving genre is no barrier to delivering poprock hooks.

Moving on, here are Poprock Record’s most inventive covers from 2023:

1. Juliana Hatfield “Don’t Bring Me Down” (Electric Light Orchestra)
2. Mo Troper “Citgo Sign” (Jon Brion)
3. Arthur Alexander “It’s Not Love Anymore #2” (The Sorrows)
4. The Jangles “Here Without You” (The Byrds)
5. The Flashcubes “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” (The Spongetones)

Covers remained fertile ground for music veterans and indie new-comers alike this past year. Juliana Hatfield delivered a whole album of ELO songs, mixing things up with a nicely curated collection of chart hits and deep cuts. Mo Troper introduced a new generation to the genius of Jon Brion with his album tribute, Troper sings Brion. Arthur Alexander covers himself, sort of, with his ace reinvention of the Sorrows’ “It’s Not Love Anymore #2.” And both The Jangles and The Flashcubes covers really revive some great songs for the here and now.

Rounding out our lists, here are Poprock Record’s top 5 folk pop singles from 2023:

1. Rachel Angel “I Can’t Win”
2. Talking Kind “Trouble”
3. Hovdy “Jean”
4. Benji Tranter “Speed Camera”
5. J. Matthews “Wanderlust”

While most of our coverage is pretty poppy we do shift into the folk lane from time to time where the melodies are strong or I just have a particular interest.

Another year, another slew of great songs. Click on the links to remind yourself how good a year it really was and make sure to let the artists know what you think in cash and/or commentary.

Photo courtesy of Raymond Clarke Images on Flikr.

Poprock masters: Dwight Twilley, Graham Parker, and The Flashcubes

09 Saturday Sep 2023

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There are artists whose work displays a mastery of form. I mean, they don’t just write a good tune or two, they really know how to craft the elements together in predictably hooky ways. Our trio of acts here have achieved legend status for doing just that – reliably delivering the goods.

Everyone knows a little about Dwight Twilley, if you run in power pop circles long enough. You might know how he and Phil Seymour were tipped for stardom in the late seventies as the creative force driving The Dwight Twilley Band and their hit single “Fire.” Or you might be familiar with his early 1980s solo work when he seemed on the verge of breaking big with his chart hit “Girls,” aided by a little help from Tom Petty. But for most people Twilley’s fate has been a mystery. Despite putting out plenty of solid material he has suffered from endless label problems and just plain bad luck. What didn’t suffer was the quality of the output. So if you’ve ever wondered ‘what ever happened to that Twilley guy?’ there’s good news. Now you can catch up on his unfairly overlooked career with the release of The Best of Dwight Twilley: The Tulsa Years 1999-2016 Vol. 1. There’s twenty tracks here and really no filler. Twilley 2.0 carries on the song-writing and performance style of his earlier work with remarkable consistency. Comparisons to Tom Petty, Walter Egan and Paul Collins would not be out of order. Personally I’m loving “Runnin,” “A Little Less Love,” “Oh Carrie” and “No Place Like Home” but you’ll have your own favourites.

Since 1975 Graham Parker has released more than 25 albums of original material and shows no signs of stopping. His new album with The Goldtops Last Chance to Learn the Twist mines so many seams of his past work but still sounds fresh. Opening cut “The Music of the Devil” sets the tone with a killer groove and some tasty organ work. The song seem to say ‘this party is just getting started.’ Then “The Grand Scheme of Things” has got a more pub rock feel, that unique English blend of soul and country and old school rock and roll. Geraint Watkins’ organ work is so stellar here. “Sun Valley” takes the soul groove forward, sprinkled with great keyboard shots and surprising melodic hooks. I’d mark this out as potential hit single material. Overall this is an album where so many songs here lean into the ‘roll’ side of rock and roll. Tracks like “It Mattered to Me,” “Cannabis” and “Wicked Wit” feature seriously good swing. It’s easy to credit Parker’s song-writing for all this but his performances bear the mark of a master’s touch. He can effortlessly dial up reggae inflections for “Them Bugs” or a blues vamp for “Since You Left Me Baby.” I even hear a bit of 1970s Van Morrison on tracks like “Last Stretch of Road.” And it wouldn’t be a Parker album without some withering political commentary, supplied by the incisive “We Did Nothing.” Last Chance to Learn the Twist is like a delightful stroll with an old friend, familiar but still open to discovering new things.

Cover albums are an ubiquitous part of the modern music scene. Seems everyone is putting out their versions of modern music’s greatest hits. But imagine a cover album that celebrates what might-have-been with selections from bands that should have broken big but didn’t. Enter power pop legends The Flashcubes with their amazing new album Pop Masters. You get 12 new wave era should-have-been hits, stylishly re-energized. And the band don’t just share the music, they share the stage with the original artists, inviting them to appear alongside them on the recordings. The results are a pumped up, adrenaline-fueled romp through a host of power pop classics. How do you begin to review a record where every cut is a highlight? Look, you’re all going to have your own favourites so I’ll just focus on a few that have really hit me in the melody solar plexus (in a good way). Album opener “Baby It’s Cold Outside” gets things off to a blistering start, featuring co-vocals from The Pezband’s singer Mimi Betinis. On The Paley Brothers’ “Come Out and Play” the duo join the band to add even more charm to their original. The keyboard work and harmony vocals here are positively seductive. Putting The Flashcubes together with The Spongetones to cover the latter’s “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” produces a predictably explosive mix. The track is a rollicking rush of power pop goodness. When the band turn their hand to covering The Motors’ classic “Forget About You” you’d swear it’s 1978 on Top of the Pops, they so nail the vibe. But undoubtedly the standout track for me on this collection is the collaboration with the Shoes on that band’s 1979 song “Tomorrow Night.” This track bristles with raw rocking excitement, leaving you swooning from the addictive guitar hooks and heavenly harmony vocals. This gets to very DNA of power pop. On this record you can really believe the hype, The Flashcubes and their friends truly are Pop Masters.

Join a master class in poprock performance by clicking on the hot links. Getting schooled was never so appealing as this.

Photo courtesy Swizzle Studios.

Life at 45rpm I

17 Thursday Aug 2023

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Living life at 45rpm makes for a fast-paced and ever-changing existence. Brace yourself for the first of two installments, 21 tracks at a time.

We’re going to ease you in to this installment of our singles variety pack with the low-key lush acoustic rush of 22 Oceans. They normally lean in a more electronic direction but “Country Home” is a Fleetwood Mac kind of Americana, riding a wave of up-front acoustic guitars and an oh-so-good blend of harmony vocals. Scoopski are a Philly couple that have been cranking out the singles this year. I was going to write about “Seasonal,” a solid bit of melodic melodrama, but then they came out with a super contribution to an innovative project entitled Short Music for Even Shorter Attention Spans. “30 Seconds (I Love You)” is indeed half a minute long, reminding me a bit of George Harrison’s “Piggies” with some ELO tagged at the end. Heck, you might as well check out the whole album. It’s free and you can run through its 17 contributions in just eight minutes. Melbourne Australia’s Cold Irons Bound nail the scruffy Americana sound of the US midwest on their recent album No Place I Can’t Find You. I’m particularly fond of “Book Some Weekend Time” which sounds like a Cerny Brothers deep cut. Check out the lively lead guitar line that opens Sunken Planes new single “There’s a World.” They describe themselves as a ‘jangle-gaze power trio’ and the power part definitely kicks in on the chorus. The Mike Jacoby Electric Trio managed to make a lot of noise on “The Calm Before the Storm” from their new album The Long Haul. There’s a Dwight Yoakam/Steve Earle countryfied rock and roll sound all over the record but this particular song has something extra, a propulsive drive, subtle hooks, and some Eagles-worthy harmony vocals in the chorus.

The Parallax Project are practically an indie supergroup with participation from members of The Split Squad, Minus 5, and the Junior League. Autologous is their first album of original tunes in 14 years but they don’t miss a beat. Hard to choose just one featured tune. “Mary Houdini” is a delightful poppy swinging number that sounds like a mid-1980s Athens 45 while “You Were Never Here” has a more country twang. Power pop legends The Flashcubes have got a winning project going with their new Pop Masters album where they record classic song covers with the bands that made them famous. Get a load of the heavenly collab with The Spongetones on their fab-tastic “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” From the “Hard Days Night” opening chord to the omnipresent jangly guitars to the shiver-inducing harmony vocals, this is the stuff of poprock dreams. With “Don’t Go for the Money” Dan Kibler comes out swinging on his new album Idiomatic, exuding a Michael Hutchence or Tommy Tutone swagger with just a touch of Beatles 65 in the verses. I’m also partial to the stunning “Mystery Girl,” such a perfect two minutes of pop song-writing. The Kind Hills are truly an international band, with members located in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia. Their self-described brand of ‘slacker indie pop’ is mellow and meditative for most of their debut LP Clusterluck. Except for “Let Youth Take Over.” Here the band get almost anthemic with a slow-burning ‘sneak up on you’ ear-worm. Imagine Vashti Bunyan leading Chumbawumba and you sort of get where this is going. Caper Clowns lead vocalist Rick Kingo has gone solo with his new EP The Truth, The Lies, The Lot, unleashing various shades of soft rock. But it is the opening cut, “Confident in Time,” that really stands out for me. Accompanied by a McCartney-esque acoustic guitar, Kingo unleashes his inner Neil Finn to good effect. And anyone who can fit the word ‘paradigm’ into a song without sounding awkward deserves an award.

Dan Kibler – Mystery Girl
Rick Kingo – Confident in Time

If Springsteen did grunge it might sound a little like Vancouver’s Slip-Ons. Title track of their new EP Heavy Machinery will give you the gist of their sibilant, psych-rock sound. And what a joy it is. Now depending on when you read this post it may or may not actually be Bandcamp Friday. No matter, whether it is or isn’t I think we can all agree it deserves a theme song. Cue those perennial pop-punkers Vista Blue with “Bandcamp Friday is Here,” winning hearts 15 cents at a time. I wrote about New Jersey’s Sad About Girls once before and they were too polite to correct me when I miswrote their name as simply Sad Girls. Their fab new song is excuse enough to make amends. “Lonely One” delightfully channels a load of Merseybeat riffs and verse/chorus transition turnarounds but with a “That Thing You Do” freshness. Richard Turgeon is like money in the power pop bank. His new single “Friend Zone” is more of his reliable brand of melodic rock and roll. The lead guitar opening riff has a seventies Fleetwood Mac tone while his vocals pull between dissonance and rich harmony. Certainly suitable for summer beach playlists. Another utterly reliable power-pop singles factory can be found in Birmingham Alabama. Lolas have been releasing a single every few months now and they never fail to grab me. “Jacqui” has got a host of classic rock and roll motifs going on but somehow they come together in a unique way. The verses remind me of Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know” while the chorus hits the pop boogie marks of The Sweet.

Burlington Ontario’s big bold sound is presently coming from The Penske File. Their new long-player Half Glow is hard to peg stylistically, with a bit of four on the floor sing-along stomping and a whole lot of rock and roll heart. I’d dip in with the single-worthy “Chorus Girl.” This is a track that shimmers and lurches along with a sonic intensity that seldom lets up. In the early 1980s Milwauki’s The Shivvers were an up and coming outfit sporting vintage guitar sounds and vocals that melded Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde. But then they folded. Fast forward and today they’ve got a dynamite new song “My Love Calling” that sounds like a peak form Pretenders single. The musical build up in the song is inspired, from the jangle guitar to piano riffs to the tension between the main and background vocals. Another band mining the that killer early 1980s rock sound are Worriers. The title track from their upcoming LP Trust My Gut combines an eighties sonic ambience with a Bleachers pop polish in various key moments of the song. Meanwhile Lauren Denitzio’s vocals pull everything together in a tight poprock package. The Make Three bring together members of the Brixton Riot and The Anderson Council to make music they describe as ‘more power, less pop.’ The album is You, Me, and The Make Three and it has got some rock muscle behind it, but with a pop flavour you’d associate with the likes of The Smithereens or The Lemonheads. Whet your whistle with “Emily Strange” to get a sense of what they’re all about. Toronto’s Vicky von Vicky are a new outfit with, as far as I can tell, just two songs out. “Jealousy” is straight up melodic rock, full of chunky guitar chords and a simple chorus that really hooks you in. More please.

The Shivvers – My Love Calling

We wrap things up on this session of Life at 45rmp with the latest single from South Korean band Say Sue Me. “Mind is Light” is bit more shoe-gazey than some of the group’s previous releases, floating along over a pleasant guitar buzz that is regularly punctuated by other sonic interventions. Things do get a bit psychedelic at times.

21 down, 21 to go. Stay tuned for part II of Life at 45rpm, coming soon.

Photo courtesy Simon Collison Flikr collection.

Spotlight single: Screen Test “Notes from Trevor”

14 Monday Oct 2019

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Screen Shot 2019-10-14 at 1.18.49 PMMusic veterans Screen Test put out some of their best music in 2018 with their Stones album-title riffing compilation Through the Past Brightly. Featuring both new and older unreleased tracks, the majority of the record is made up of the more recent material and it is IMHO some of their finest work. And that’s really saying something for guys who’ve been gigging and recording since the late 1970s with The Flashcubes, Screen Test, as solo artists, and with a host of other projects. Of the record’s new tunes I really like “Make Something Happen,” “Tomorrow is Another Day,” and particularly the single-worthy “Best Seller” with its hooky Mersey-jangle lead guitar.  But the song that sings ‘hit’ to me without a doubt is “Notes from Trevor” with its killer build up and knock out earwormy chorus. Think of something filling the space between Pugwash and XTC and you’re in the zone. Or, as reader Fabian Byrne notes, very Smithereens! The band also have a great new tune worth checking out: “End of the Line.”

Notes From TrevorBest Seller

Screen Test prove that it’s possible for bands to keep the creativity going at any stage of their careers. Surely that deserves some kind of reward? Click on their hot-linked name to find out more!