Tags
Glowbox, Humbug, Jim Trainor, Moderncults, Movie Movie, Teenage Tom Petties, The Glad Machine, The Goods, The Half-Cubes, The Maple State, The Webstirs, The Wesleys, Tulpa
Seventies television offered no end of consumer dreams to the people. Appliances, summer patio sets and, of course, brand – new – cars! But our showcase is full of musical prizes that you’d don’t even have to play for. You just hit play.
Our showcase focus starts with the letter G. Which could stand for guitar or The Goods, who are quite the guitar pop band. Don’t Spoil the Fun runs the gamut of jangle flavours, from the lush rippling guitar riffs of “April Fools” to the lyrical lead guitar defining “Raining” to the more acoustic guitar vibe of “Sarah Says.” But for pure hit single-age you can turn to “Sunday Morning Out of the Blue” with its Monkees in Clarksville mode quality. Boston’s Glowbox are bit grittier but with strong melody baked into every tune. On Bland Ambition the band fuzz out the sound without diminishing the hooks, elevating songs like “No Place Like Nowhere” and “Go Like Hell.” “Philosophy 21A” is an outlier here with its interesting theme and execution. But the standout track for me is “What You’re Doing To Me” with it’s Beatlesque strut. Then there’s The Glad Machine. Their presser for All the Pretty Things claims the album is “packed with crunchy riffs, candy-coated hooks, and just the right amount of lyrical mischief” and they’re not blowing smoke. “Back to You” is so melodically sweet I’ve got the beginnings of a tooth-ache coming on. Then you have tracks like “Collide” and “Gravity Sunshine” that offer a more muscular brand of poprock. But the clear game-changer here is “All the Pretty Things.” The song is barely contained blast of Beatles ’66 meets Cheap Trick tune-age.
Bands in our H file right now include The Half Cubes. I don’t think these guys ever sleep. They’re 2/4th of The Flashcubes, busy with gigs and recordings with that outfit, and they’re putting out regular double LPs of covers with this side hustle. And these are no tossed-off cover versions. As a follow up to last year’s rightly celebrated Pop Treasures they now offer us a sequel with Found Pearls: Pop Treasures #2 and it is literally packed with hits from the seventies and eighties. There are big name artists covered here, like The Romantics “When I Look In Your Eyes” and XTC’s “The Disappointed.” But there are also less well known cuts, like Julian Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Know” and Mark Hudson’s “Be Mine Tonight,” that sounds like hits when they’re covered by these guys. But, no surprise, I’m most excited about the cover of Marshall Crenshaw’s “Whenever You’re On My Mind,” a should-have-been monster hit that sounds no less like hit material in this version. Another H band in this showcase is LA’s Humbug. I love how this band layers their songs, building from an acoustic guitar base and then adding everything else. “Open Season” has great pop swing. “Barbara Says” vibes FOW pretty hard (and I’m totally down with that). The songwriting here is strong. You can hear that tunes like “Can’t Read Velvet” and “Backlot” could easily translate on just acoustic guitar without losing any their sophistication. So hard to choose just one track to feature from Open Season but check out the Costello-ish “Quit With Suzy (75k).”
In our M grab-bag we see the welcome return Movie Movie. The new EP Coming Attractions leans into The Cars atmosphere on opening cut “After Hours.” If you’re looking for a dose of guitar-driven melodies circa 1980s, this is the band. It’s been great to see a new record from Manchester’s The Maple State. 2018’s The Things I Heard at the Party was a tour de force of punk-tinged indie poprock. Now seven years later they’re back with Don’t Take Forever. “Zero Days Since Last Incident” and “No Time to Waste” take us right back to the band’s original pop punky style. Meanwhile “Dead Beneath the Stars” get a Celtic vibe going. But in terms of development, “Winner Part II” shows a band going in new and interesting directions. On this year’s EP Transported Chicago’s Moderncults give off a rough and ready vibe when you click on “Chip” but that gives way when the ever-so-sweet title-track kicks in. “Grid” and “Inner Monologue” also have some shining break-out melodic moments.
Time to spill the T before things spill over. Leeds is home to Tulpa, a band that manages to wash every tune in a similar dissonant guitar sound without losing what makes them distinct. In other words, their LP Monster of the Week has got a coherent sound. The style is captured on “Transfixed Gaze” and “Pyro” particularly. By contrast, “Whose Side Are You On” sounds pretty Velvet Underground. But the record’s stand-out track is undoubtedly “Let’s Make a Tulpa!” This one takes off and never loses its energy. Jim Trainor falls into my guitar-pop sweet-spot all over his recent album Listening to Understand. Right out of the gate “Nothing” had its melodic hooks in me. There’s a reverby drone coating the whole song that I can’t get enough of. The LP offers up a host of airy light poppy songs like “Always Been You” and “Above” but I’m more partial to the harder edged numbers like “I Don’t Want to Be.” Self-described ‘slacker jangle band’ Teenage Tom Petties Rally the Tropes on their most recent disc. Hidden amidst their calculatedly shambolic performance are eight great new tunes. “Hotmail” and “Faculty” sound ragged but they hit their melodic marks. And then you have songs like “American Breakfast” and “Kudzu Pop” which give you just a little bit more in terms of depth.
Our last batch in this showcase gets us to the letter W. Montreal’s The Wesleys launch their EP Explosive Device true to form with the driving guitar pop tune “Magic Wand.” “Permanent Vacation” is another winner in a Together Pangea style. “Find a Way” has a more power pop sheen. The similarly named The Webstirs are more a straight-up rock and roll band, with a touch of Jeff Lynne sliding in here and there. You can hear it on “Roulette,” the opening cut from the just released LP High Up in the Trees. There’s so much ear candy on this record, from the poppy groove animating “Dancing in the Sky” to the mysterious ambience cloaking “K Morley.” “Reached an Understanding” sounds like the radio ready single to these ears.
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