Tags
Bleary, Camp Trash, Career Woman, Cootie Catcher, Flying Underground, Keats, Linear Television, Martin Luke Brown, Michael Simmons, Orbis Max, Ronnie D'Addario, Smiles, Sorry Monks, Sunny Afternoon, The Cactus Blossoms, The Donuts, The Green Hearts, The Greenberry Woods, The Hanging Stars, The Kik, The Kinks, The Lemon Twigs, The Morning Line, Tim Izzard
I hear you. It’s like, spring’s almost here but winter keeps stubbornly hanging on by a thread. We need some Kinksian inspiration to recapture what it might mean to laze away in the sunshine. I’ve even found The Kik giving us a version of the Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon” in Dutch (you’re welcome). And as an added benefit we’ve got 21 new tracks to help you cope with this stop-and-go seasonal transition.
We kick off our non-Kinks material with a new song from Orbis Max. “Don’t Lose Me Now” revives the urgency and appealing, squealing guitars of early 1980s FM radio stalwarts like Blue Oyster Cult. Like a bolt out of the blue, but with hooks. Nashville’s Bleary open instrumentally big on their single “Bug,” then shrink back to some intimate harmony vocals, only to open things back up in the chorus. Lather, rinse, repeat is the formula. One of many big tunes on their new LP Little Brain. The Morning Line return after a multi-year break with a double A-sided single including “90s Pickup” and “This Lens.” The former wears its jangle lightly while the latter dials into an acoustic guitar-rich, light Americana vein, with some nice subtle organ work coming up in the background. I love the low-key pop goodness the suffuses Career Woman’s new single “Game of Pricks.” There’s something about the way the rhythm guitar and keyboard tones and ethereal vocals come together that is really special. Newest entrant on the 1990s comeback trail are legendary power poppers The Greenberry Woods. “Whenever You Want Me To” delivers all the jangle and harmonies that had you reaching for their old CDs all these years. And this is just the first of a whole bevy of songs coming from a soon- to-be released full album.
The songs keep coming from the ever prolific Sorry Monks and “A Little Understanding” marks no break in the high quality output. After teasing us with a Beatles “Back in the USSR” flight landing opener this new song has elements of folkie charm and a McCartney White Album demeanor. Dazzling Byrdsian reincarnates The Hanging Stars have a new album in the wings but for now we get “The Glasshouse.” Wow, they’re not burying the lead here. The song radiates a psychedelic jangle aimed directly at your pleasure centres. Another teaser track comes Seattle’s smiles from their upcoming EP if the sun. “please please please” is a knock-down Elliott Smith Beatlesque acoustic triumph. The Cactus Blossoms further countrify “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide” from Nick Lowe’s Brentford Trilogy of albums, which I didn’t think was possible. Another much anticipated LP is coming from the sixties-unstoppable Lemon Twigs. But until Look For Your Mind! drops in May we’ll have to keep hitting repeat on “I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You.” The song is another brilliant reconstruction of sixties song components that comes alive with its own unique qualities.
Tim Izzard is a man happily trapped in the 1970s glamosphere, turning his Bowie-esque vocals to a host of projects. His latest Wow! appears under the moniker Tim Izzard and the Dizztractions where he casts his genre-net a bit wider than usual, back into the 1960s. “Inside Out” has a dreamy pop vibe that pulses melodic hooks. Rockpile fans will salivate at the prospect of The Donuts ambitious new LP The Pleasure of Seconds, a song-for-song answer album to that band’s Seconds of Pleasure. The whole effort is maximum fun but I’m drawn to the added bonus, the band’s stellar cover of Nick’s novelty track “Rollers Show.” The Green Hearts presser doesn’t lie, these guys reliably deliver “some loud, sweet, crunchy, hook-filled rock n’ roll music.” Their latest self-titled album has that number, particularly on the 1970s retro rave up “Bionic Man.” When you listen to Ronnie D’Addario you really hear how the lemons don’t fall far from the tree. On his most recent LP Written By D’Addario gets a little help from a variety of big and less-big names but the standout tracks see him supported by his own kids, the twin talents running The Lemon Twigs. “5th of July” will ‘sha la la’ its way into your 1960s loving heart. Toronto’s Cootie Catcher have got more recent work out and it’s all pretty solid but I have to share “Words Mean Less” from last year’s Shy At First. I love the light musical chaos enveloping this tune that, nevertheless, never loses its hooky footing.
Sometimes a cover is a song reinvention. Sometimes it’s just a loving blast through the tune that is reminiscent of the original. Michael Simmons follows the latter course on his appealing cover of Squeeze’s “Is That Love” from their career peaking LP East Side Story but his vocals do have a different timbre than Glenn Tilbrook, adding something new. Now we travel to Munster, Germany where Linear Television gets the guitars grinding on the title track from their EP Sandy Beach. It’s two and half minutes of non-stop rocking energy. I love how the guitars spill out at the start of Keats “Plain Jane.” This song stands out from the band’s LP Fate for its stately pacing, inventive guitar work, and subtle melody. Martin Luke Brown knows how to develop idiosyncratic sounds into a whole musical canvas. Last year’s man oh man! LP was practically a sonic French impressionists show. Now he returns with “Back Of My Mind” and while the brush strokes are a bit lighter the craft is definitely there, allowing the tune to really shine. What’s not to like about Camp Trash? Great name, great sound. On “Normal, IL” you can hear both their punk roots and their obvious melodic chops.
Wrapping up this 21 song salute strongly with Cincinnati’s Flying Underground. “Sister” really grabs you with its off-kilter pop sound. The electric rhythm guitar tone grounds the tune, allowing Kelly McCracken’s vocal to soar effortlessly over the band.
We all need a little help waiting out the unpredictable season’s cycle. These 21+ new songs should aid and abet your time in stasis.
Photo ‘Sunny Valley Lodge’ courtesy Thomas Hawk Flikr collection.
Ah, the telephone. That iconic 20th century technology is all over the rock and roll canon, mostly in its original analog form but with a few recent smartphone additions. Plenty of obvious telephone songs to choose from in terms of hits: The Marvelettes’ “Beechwood-45789,” ELO’s “Telephone Line,” Blondie’s “Call Me,” Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309,” and many, many more. There’s also a slew of less obvious yet popular niche tunes like the Nerves’ “Hanging on the Telephone,” Nick Lowe’s “Switchboard Susan,” and R.E.M.’s “Star 69.” But in this post I wanted to feature some less obvious material, either with songs that focus on key aspects of the phone experience or by lesser known but certainly deserving artists.
“Party Line” appeared on the Kinks’ 1966 album Face to Face and even saw release as a single in Norway (it was the B-side of “Dandy” everywhere else). Leave it to the Kinks to go right for the classed aspect of the modern phone experience, no surprise really given Ray Davies’ lyrical attention to social issues. Nearly everybody from a working class background in the 1950s and 1960s had a party line, a cheaper phone service that you had to share with other households. Like “Dead End Street” and “Picture Book” the song catalogued the not-so-hidden injuries of class in 1960s England, in this case the indignity of the singer’s failed efforts to make a private call. At one point he even mock threatens, “I’m not voting in the next election if they don’t do something about finding out who is on my party line.” One can definitely hear the cross-pollination of Kinks/Beatles reciprocal musical influences on this tune, particularly on the guitar work.
The Records debuted with a pretty great album, 1979’s Shades in Bed, featuring should-be hits like “Starry Eyes” and “Teenarama.” The record also featured “The Phone,” which opened with a classic operator voice-over announcing “I’m sorry, but that number doesn’t answer. Would you please try your number again.” The singer bemoans the phone’s ability to bring food, love and possibly danger but not necessarily connection. In contrast to such serious themes, Rupert Holmes showcases the lighter side of 1970s telephonic tunes on “Answering Machine” from his 1979 album Partners in Crime. In the late 1970s answering machines were just taking off as mass market items and Holmes’ protagonists play an early game of telephone tag with a marriage proposal and response, including the distinctive (and jarring) message-ending beep.
But enough of the past – there are some great recent telephone songs too. Twin Peaks kick up their heels on the rollicking “Telephone” from their 2014 album Wild Onion, a song that sounds so light but recounts love lost via the phone line. Mo Kenney also finds the phone a barrier to communication with her significant other. From Kenny’s 2014 release In My Dreams, the song has some great lines, both lyrical and melodic, and a great 
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