Tag Archives: The Hangabouts

Around the dial: Emperor Penguin, The Jellybricks and The Hangabouts

25 Saturday Jan 2020

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Screen Shot 2019-11-28 at 10.09.51 AMTime for our first 2020 spin around the dial now that our vision has cleared and there’s nothing but blue skies from now on …

Screen Shot 2020-01-25 at 12.58.38 PMFirst up, a brand new 2020 album from London’s Emperor Penguin. Just one look at the cover says we’re in for fun! Soak Up the Gravy hits all the indie poprock marks from decades past. From the wily XTC-like veneer of “Go Guitargonauts!”to the poppy Dylan elements in “You’ll Be the Death of Me” to the mid-period Squeeze waft of “Memoria Magdalena” to the Sgt. Pepper vibe animating “Burning Man.” Other songs like “What’s Come Over Me” and “Public Information” simply burst with delightful melodies. “Speedwell Blue,” the duet with the fabulous Lisa Mychols, is well, just, gravy! Definitely a full album experience.

Screen Shot 2020-01-25 at 1.00.51 PMEvery year I overlook some masterpiece or two, like The Jellybricks’ 2019 release, Some Kind of Lucky. The band has that classic rock and roll combo sound, two guitars, bass, and drums, working over material with solid hooks. Sometimes the guitar drone and vocal harmonies remind me of Rooney or The Odds, particularly on tracks like “Faith” and “D.O.A.” Presently I’m hitting repeat pretty hard on the obvious should-be hit singles, “Brooklyn” and “Can’t Get Over You.” I love the call and response between the main and background vocals on the latter track! Also, don’t miss out on the band’s winning mellow moments with the title track that rounds out the album.

Detroit’s The Hangabouts have a new single out: “Who Wants Cilla.” It’s great but personally I’m more tuned into the B-side, “Mrs. Green” which exudes a Beatles for Sale or early Monkees vibe. From past releases, particularly 2017’s Kits and Cats and Saxon Wives, we know that band is reliably poprocky so this single bodes well for a whole new album hopefully sometime soon.

Readers, you know that drill. Check out Emperor Penguin, The Jellybricks and The Hangabouts at these hot-linked internet locations!

Around the dial: Raveis Kole, The Hangabouts, Eyelids, and EZTV

14 Friday Jul 2017

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radio dialAs we move around the dial on this post we cover a wide range of sound, from retro stylings, to melodic pop, to guitar hooks, to a cool hipster vibe.

Laurie Raveis and Dennis Kole are Raveis Kole, a late-blooming, retro-sounding blast of 1960s cool. Title track “Electric Blue Dandelion” really captures it all with its pronounced musical swagger, rapturous ‘ahhs’ on the background vocals, and very Janis-bluesy lead vocals. But note their fun side – Chris Isaak’s smouldering “Wicked Game” lightens up considerably in their rhumba-inspired make-over. Electric Blue DandelionWicked Game

Moving into more clear poprock territory, The Hangabouts deliver a great duet with Molly Felder on “Sinking Feeling,” a song that exudes shades of Glen Tilbrook of Squeeze or Aimee Mann. Check out the nice Strawberry Fields Forever organ solo about half way through. This song and the very Fountains of Wayne “Evelyn Wood” are featured on the band’s latest release, Kits and Cats and Saxon Wives.

From the opening strains of “Slow it Goes” I knew I’d found some kind of lost super-group. Turns out the band Eyelids is comprised of current and former members of such indie stalwarts as the Decembrists, Guided by Voices and Drive-By Truckers. So, talent to spare, obviously. Just listen to the super cool, hooky guitar work that opens “Camelot” or “Don’t (Please) Come Around.” But while the hooks may grab you, the songs stick in your head because they’re really well-written tunes, expertly played. Their latest LP is Or.

Our final turn of the dial takes us to New York City’s EZTV, a band that brings the dawn of country rock into the indie hipster mainstream on albums like 2015’s Calling Out and their most recent High in Place. These guys have clearly spent some time with their International Submarine Band and Byrds records. But rather than going the homage route, they’ve taken the influences in new directions, overlaying new harmonic dimensions onto the basic late 1960s sound, particularly vocally. Two illustrative examples, one from each album, make the case. “That’s Where You Belong” is closest to influences like the Byrds while “Reasons to Run” breaks with tradition more clearly.

Raveis Kole, The Hangabouts, Eyelids, and EZTV are all out there, just waiting to become somebody’s new favourite band. Will you answer the call?