Tag Archives: The Half-Cubes

What’s in the showcase?

12 Friday Dec 2025

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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.

You don’t have worry about going over bidding on this showcase. Sometimes the prices are set, sometimes they are pay-what-you-want. Click on the links and put together your own special package of quality musical products.

Poprock Record’s 25 must-have LPs for 2024

09 Thursday Jan 2025

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Another year, another load of really good albums. Creativity was off the charts in 2024, in both senses unfortunately. But banish despair, here at Poprock Record we make up our own charts, shining light on a deserving collection of should-be stars. Here’s our list of 25 must-have albums from the past year and, trust me, you’ll find plenty of variety within our self-imposed parameters of poppy rock. You’ve got jangle (Ducks Ltd.), gender (Day Dreams) and heartbreak (Tamar Berk). There’s retro (Terry Anderson), metro (Super 8) and fun (Scoopski). We’ve got artists singing in Spanish (Star Trip) and wide variety of accents from the British Isles (the list would be too long). And so much more.

The envelope please, here are Poprock Record’s 25 must have LPs from 2024:

1. Day Dreems Day Dreems
2. Tamar Berk Good Times For a Change
3. Brent Seavers Exhibit B
4. Wesley Fuller All Fuller, No Filler
5. Ducks Ltd. Harm’s Way
6. Aaron Pinto Aaron Pinto
7. Chris Milam Orchid South
8. The Martial Arts In There Like Swimwear
9. The Armoires Octoberland
10. Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kicking Team Got To Be Strong
11. Star Trip Velocidad
12. Bull Engines of Honey
13. Real Estate Daniel
14. Phil Thornalley Holly Would
15. The Trafalgars About Time
16. Super 8 Retro Metro
17. Be Like Pablo A World Apart
18. Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men Up and Out of It
19. Rich Arithmetic Pushbutton Romance
20. Owen Adamcik Owen Adamcik’s Power Pop Paradise
21. Steve Robinson Window Seat
22. Sergio Ceccanti Mysterious Journey
23. John Larson and the Silver Fields Constellation Prize
24. Scoopski Time is a Thief
25. David Woodard Get It Good

Day Ricardo’s Day Dreems project was groundbreaking in so many ways, lyrically touching on gender, the body, ADHD, oppressive nostalgia and more, while musically mashing up hints of Squeeze, Crowded House and the Beatles into their own distinctive voice. It’s a most worthy choice to sit at #1. But close behind Tamar Berk wowed us with yet another winning collection of introspective yet downright hooky numbers. Brent Seavers, now there’s a guy who knows how to pack an LP full of highly listenable tunes. I mean, he does it again and again. I could go on … and do in the original posts hyperlinked above.

The EP format continues to offer artists a creative outlet that falls somewhere between the noble single and a more herculean long-playing effort. True for some it may amount to little more than a glorified single with additional alternative versions, demos and live cuts (not that I’m complaining). But for others it’s a carefully curated musical statement in its own right. I think our cast of 6 must-have EPs from 2024 lean more in the latter direction:

1. Lo Fi Ho Hum Garage Pop
2. Cliff Hillis and Dennis Schocket Pop, Girls, Etc.
3. Sunken Planes Intersections
4. Shake Some Action! Trip to Yesterday / Chase the Light
5. The Genuine Fakes Extended Play Vol. 1
6. The High Elves Early Works

I deliberately leave legacy artists – i.e. those that gained conventional chart success and still benefit from that or have a major label sponsor – off my yearly lists. They don’t really need any push from me. But I do love a lot of those acts and it is great to see them still putting out solid creative works. So here’s a legacy artist shout out to some notable releases in 2024:

1. JD McPherson Nite Owls
2. The Decemberists As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
3. Fastball Sonic Ranch
4. Cast Love is the Call
5. Crowded House Gravity Stairs
6. Nick Lowe and Los  Straitjackets Indoor Safari

I’m a non-recovering Beatlemaniac, it’s true. I’m always on the lookout for some fun and creative riffs on the Fabs. This year Nick Frater blew away the competition with the further development of his Rutles project, a riff on a riff on the Beatles. So meta! Thus our best riff on the Beatles this year is:

Nick Frater Nick Frater presents The Rebutles 1967-70

Last year I singled out The Flashcubes for their amazing Pop Masters album. It was one where they covered a host of new wave era classics with members of the original bands. This year their spin-off band The Half Cubes produced their own version of that project with equally impressive results. You see where this is going. This year’s special award of awesome poprock merit goes to:

The Half-Cubes Pop Treasures

As I wrote in the original review, “Pop Treasures is a monster of a collection” that is ‘lovingly relentless’ in its coverage of 1970s and 1980s hit-makers and indie darlings. It’s a hits package worthy of K-Tel, and that is high praise coming from someone who lived through the seventies. So many great songs here, including our #1 most inventive cover for 2024 “Make You Cry.” Treat yourself, this is a guaranteed good time.

Album fans, the form is in safe hands if the releases from this past year are anything to go by. Sure the kids may not be into them the way their 1960s through 1990s peers were but they’ll have something to dip into when they get older.

Photo of John Baldessari’s art piece ‘Record Collector’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.

Around the dial: The Half-Cubes, Tamar Berk, The Martial Arts, and Teenage Tom Petties

20 Tuesday Aug 2024

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We tune our radio dial today to throwback seventies pop, tuneful tableaus, melodic melodrama and hooky guitar noise. And with no need to change the station.

The Half-Cubes new album Pop Treasures is a monster of a collection, featuring 24 tunes that draw from 1970s and 1980s hit-makers and indie darlings in a lovingly relentless manner. At the risk of going all K-Tel on you, the hits just keep on coming here. Opening cut “Love’s Melody” sets the stage, barreling into the spotlight with an unstoppable 1970s pop punch. I can definitely hear The Searchers lurking in the arrangement of this Motors tune but the performance is classic Half-Cubes in its hooky intensity. But when the band switch to less well-known material like “Weakest Shade of Blue” from The Pernice Brothers they make that sound like a great lost hit single too. They’re just that good. Clearly I can’t touch on every tune here so let me point out some surprises and personal faves. Like their version of 10cc’s “The Dean and I.” This was the song that turned me on to that band and it’s not an easy cover, with its complex melodic turns and vocal arrangement. But the ever reliable Half-Cubes pull it off. Doing Phil Seymour’s “Precious To Me” was an obvious but no less delicious choice. Offering up a guitar-centric take on OMD’s “Souvenir” was a more bold move. You can hear a lot of thought went into the choice cuts included here, from Del Amitri’s still striking “Not Where It’s At” to the crashing guitar goodness of Cheap Trick’s “Heaven’s Falling” to 20/20’s understated guitar pop masterpiece “Jet Lag.” As an added bonus, The Half Cubes regularly share their spotlight with a number of the original artists. For instance, The Sighs entire band show up to join them on the re-make of their nineties hit “Make You Cry.” Pop Treasures really is an aptly-named assemblage of should-be hits in the best spirit of K-Tel party albums.

The title of Tamar Berk’s latest LP Good Times for a Change appears to drop a Smiths’ lyric on us with similar ironic intention. Good times don’t make for inspired art. So on solo album #4 Berk continues her journey into emotional and melodic complexity and where we end up is predictably impressive. Berk opens the record with a solid, should-be hit single. “Good Impression” flashes some Cars rhythm guitar shots so effectively I’d swear I was tuned to a 1981 car radio. This is some fabulous neo-new wave poprock. “That’s Not a Lie” is another single contender with its great vocal work. The rest of the record switches up tempo and moods, shifting through dance-able numbers like “You Trigger Me” to more contemplative efforts like “Chicago” which expertly builds its intensity throughout the performance, laying on more and more pop sheen. I’ve often compared Berk’s work to other smart and inventive female artists like Suzanne Vega and Aimee Mann and hear more that here, with the former echoing throughout “Book of Change” and “Millenium Park” or the latter on “I’ll Come to the Rescue.” There’s a playful feel so many tunes here, like the catchy ‘oh oh oh oh’s’ of “Be My Friend” or the languid shuffle on “I Don’t Mind” or the horns adorning “Artful Dodger.” Good times might be over-rated but Good Times for a Change can’t be rated high enough.

In the 1970s there was a fifties music revival that combined cartoonish hooks with a zany compressed sound that felt like it might go off the rails at any moment. You can hear it in the glam and Abba from the period and a host of deep cuts from 10cc. Add a strong dose of James Mercer’s clever pop sheen and things might add up to Glasgow’s The Martial Arts. The band’s new album In There Like Swimwear could be a time capsule from that era, except that it is much too smart and self-aware for those simple times. Opening song “Hold On Full Of Hope” gives you the flavour, riding its in-your-face melody with a bit of Elton John boogie in the background. “Empty Out There” keeps up the energy, sustained by some killer organ work. “The Attractions” strikes an Elvis Costello Armed Forces note, perhaps not surprisingly. “No Victory” was an early release single and it still sounds to me like an ice skating rink soundtrack number (and that is a very good thing). There’s so much to discover on this album, the songs are so complex and continue to reveal themselves on repeated listening. Songs like “Something in the Water” and “Exploding Crushing Inevitable” are so creatively put together, in totally different ways. Should be hit single? Definitely “Friends For Fools.” Those rhythm guitar shots are so alluring, only to break out into a beautiful melodic arc that just keeps stretching along new paths. It’s a perfect slice of melodic melodrama. There’s surprises here too. Like “Not Coming Down” which opens with a The The single synth note, only to move into a more Erasure-ish march. Then “Closing Number” offers a delightful sonic salad of varied sounds, ending with a banjo no less. Forget your bathing cap, In There Like Swimwear is actually gala entertainment.

On album number three (and second self-titled release) Teenage Tom Petties fade back from full band form to mostly just main man Tom Brown in his bedroom. But the results are still pretty rocking. The goal this time, says Brown, was to make an ‘alt-rock 90’s powerpop record’ combining influences from Fountains Of Wayne, Superdrag and Weezer with some ‘attempted Beach Boys harmonies.’ Tall order much? Yet Brown delivers and then some. “I Got Previous” has got a rough and ready DIY nineties vibe going. “Hawaiian Air” floats oh-so smooth vocals over bed of distorted guitars. Then “Kissed Me In Seattle” really is a pretty spectacular love child of all those aforementioned bands. Some songs lean more in one direction than another, with “Dumb Enough” very Weezer while “This Autumn Body” is so FOW. “Night Nurse” has got the urgency, crashing guitars, and pop hooks to be the single here. I could go on about every single song here (“Handstands for your Love” is sooo good!) but you’re getting the point. Give in to your longing for grungy 90s power pop and buy Teenage Tom Petties right now.

We’re your all-in radio station, serving up seventies retro, neo-new wave, tuneful melodrama and nineties power pop in one post. Convenient hyperlinks take you directly to the source.

Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr Collection.

Autumn midway mixtape I

01 Wednesday Nov 2023

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Autumn on the midway can conjure images of bright lights and romance or screaming kids and stale food. The same is true of midway music. To move your midway mixtape in the right direction we’ve selected 21 tunes that will survive an encounter with wildest rollercoaster ride. This is the first of two installments.

We kick things off with a reconstituted version of Gen 11’s “Month of Sundays,” a deep cut from their 2020 EP California Grown. This new version sounds fresher and more present than before, the rhythm guitar is louder and more to front of the mix. Definitely more ‘let’s party’ this time around. Next up Oklahoma City’s The Lunar Laugh and the advance single from their new album entitled “Born Weird.” The song combines so many traditions, a bit of pop punk with touches of more baroque pop influences, twin-fueled by chugging guitar work and a swirling mix of vocal styles. A new Rinehearts album is something to get excited about and Full Bloom does not disappoint. The record is full of that Perth-stamped poppy rock the town is so well known for. But for the moment, just sample “Falling Down” so you don’t get too over-excited. There are some classic FOW turns of melody and vocal phrasing here but so much more too. Now for something different, check out “Everyday I Find the Luck” from Carlisle UK’s Hardwicke Circus. It’s like Billy Bragg joined Haircut 100 and the results are fun, fun, fun. The vocal interplay is exquisite while the tune just charges along. Somerdale sounds like the name of some kind of American teen telenovella. But this band are a distilled dose of 1970s poppy guitar rock. “Come Enjoy” is from their first album in seven years, Let’s Get Started, and it vibes 1976 without even trying. It’s the guitar, it’s the tone on the lead vocal, it’s the wall of background vocals buffeting the tune. It’s the whole package.

It was a tough call between featuring SLD’s “A Perfect Day” or “Hiding.” The former has got a backbone of non-stop chilling background vocals anchoring the tune while the latter works a Lennon-esque combo of acoustic guitar and lonely vocal adding a surprising McCartney-ish twist one minute in. You can consult both for yourself from the band’s new LP Like Sunshine. I might be accused of choosing the off-brand tune from Dolph Chaney’s new record Mug with “Love Around You.” But the interplay between the tender vocal and heart-rending steel guitar lines is like a big hug and who doesn’t need that about now? Count me in. Chicago’s Bur have got an interesting mix of sounds going on their most recent LP We Are Bur, a combo of indie, punk, and Beatlesque elements all pulling in different directions. But it works. Like on the ear wormy “Kush Burns.” Smooth with wonderfully rough edges. With “All Your Heart Can Hold” Brooklyn’s Gerry Devine serves up poprock perfection. This is 80s hit radio good, so eminently listenable. And Devine is offering the whole LP In My Own Good Time for free. A slightly better known group from Liverpool are releasing their version of our next song “Now and Then” but give the indefatigable Super 8 his due, his version is pretty special. He fills out the tune and adds a few surprises along the way. Just one of 12 fab familiar reinventions from his free covers album Raindrops on Roses.

San Francisco’s The From have got a loose and friendly vibe. There’s a slacker indie rock and roll sheen to everything on their debut LP Tomorrow Was Better. With influences ranging from Cheap Trick to Any Trouble it’s all guitars and gas guzzling cars and rocking tunes. “Friend Collector” falls somewhere between 12 bar bluesing and a poppy boogie rock that Steve Miller Band invented. Late Bloomers mine a more early REM shoegaze jangle seam on “Bitter Pill.” The rest of their recent LP S/T is more of the good same. Another kind of rock throwback can be found the Mighty Dan Gerous record Everybody Needs a Hero. “Don’t Go” has got an early Cars new wave finesse combined with a more straightforward American heartland AOR FM radio sound. “Bitch I Love You” is pretty special too. Looking for a Merseybeat fix? The Newds have definitely got what you need on their one-off single “The Street Leads to the River.” It’s got jangly guitar and a lovely Billy J. Kramer breeziness. The mysterious Josh DC (from ‘England’ UK) puts a slight drone on the vocal of “Rip of the Rulebook” just like Beck might do. The song has got some interesting change ups and ear wormy quality.

I often refer to The Front Bottoms in talking about other bands, their sound is that distinctive to me. It’s a curious meld of dissonant indie rock with occasional folk flourishes. New album You Are Who You Hang Out With is no different.  “Outlook” kicks off all earnest vocals and acoustic guitar only to break out in the second third with a heavy guitar attack and a swell of harmony vocals. Vancouver band Autogramm entitle their soon-to-be-released new album Music That Humans Can Play and that fits the ambience of the first single “WannaBe.” It’s got a Thomas Dolby meets The Fixx feel, with slightly more ominous rhythm guitar work. The Half-Cubes continue to dazzle listeners with their ongoing reinvention of nearly forgotten power pop classics of yesteryear. This time the boys take on the Ducks Deluxe/Searchers seventies tune “Love’s Melody” and lay bare the track’s melodic genius. Swedish electro-pop merchant The School Book Depository continues to drop interesting singles, this time vibing Owl City on “I’m Done.” As with previous releases, the song is a glorious wash of keyboards and an arresting vocal interplay. Charleston, South Carolina group Band of Jays offer up a smooth pop sound, punctuated by clean organ/lead guitar lines and a vocal mix that is stunning. “He Never Does the Right Thing” could be mistaken for soft rock but there’s some grit mixed in too.

The School Book Depository – I’m Done

We call a wrap on this installment of midway mixtape suggestions with Detroit’s The High Strung from their recent long-player Address Unknown. “In The Lines” will leave you wondering, is it folk? Or Merseybeat? Mannered baroque pop? Does it even matter? No. You can enjoy this tune and 11 others on the album without playing name that genre.

The High Strung – In The Lines

With all these tunes you can hit the midway with an extra spring in your step this fall. And there’s even more to come shortly.

Photo ‘Learning How To Smile’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr Collection.