Tag Archives: The No Ones

Poprock Record’s should-be hit singles for 2023

01 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Recycled rock stars: Those Pretty Wrongs, The Tearaways, Anyway Gang, and The No Ones

19 Friday May 2023

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Once upon a time yesterday’s chart heroes might have been relegated to playing the motel bar circuit. But the millennial explosion of niche music spaces has changed all that, effectively reviving more than few stalled careers. Along with your used plastics and carboard you can now expect to recycle all your favourite rock stars too. Today’s post makes the case, featuring a load of stars from yesteryear who’ve still got a bit more sparkle and shine to share.

When you’re the drummer from a band with more indie press headlines than chart hits the future can look dire when things hit the skids. And skid-hitting pretty much sums up what happened to legendary 1970s indie darlings Big Star. So that makes Jody Stephens’ recent project with Luther Russell look pretty ‘triumphing-over-adversity’ phenomenal. The new band is Those Pretty Wrongs and Stephens is not merely drumming but singing and co-writing all the tunes. Their new LP Holiday Camp is just out and it’s their third long-player to come out since Stephens and Russell hooked up after the making of the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. I think it’s their best yet. The sound is, not surprisingly, pretty Big Star-ish. Or perhaps it should be a surprise, given that Stephens did not sing on Big Star recordings. And yet opening cut “New September Song” has the vocal vulnerability that was emblematic of his old band. Of course, one can also hear a lot of the Byrds or even REM here and there, on tracks like “Always the  Rainbow” for the former and “This Painted Sky” for the latter. “Brother, My Brother” has got some classic Big Star acoustic lead guitar runs. The guitars really sparkle all over this album, whether in folky mode on “The Way” or working up a delightful lead guitar rumble for “Paper Cup.” “Ride Along” is another highlight, the light acoustic guitar treatment perfectly offsetting the tender vocal. The Big Star lineage might bring you here but the quality of Holiday Camp will have you setting up your tent for a spell.

On album number six Santa Barbara’s The Tearaways rinse/repeat their timeless rock and roll formula with good effect. The new record is And For Our Next Trick and it brings together a number of cool pre-release singles they’ve put out recently, like the rock and roll drummer’s homage “Charlie, Keith, and Ringo.” The song seems pretty apropos given the band’s drummer is the legendary Clem Burke of Blondie, Romantics and The Empty Hearts fame. The other ten tunes are also relentlessly good. The sixties nods are there but the overall sound is that dynamite eighties fusion of old and new rock and roll honed by Petty’s Heartbreakers, the Romantics and many others. “Not Good Enough For Me” captures this synthesis perfectly, mixing Norman Petty Texas rock elements with straight-up 1980s FM rock radio. Pumping piano and sweet harmony vocals define “Come On Jaan” while “No Love Lost” is carried by a buoyant lead guitar solo. “Let Me Be The Last,” “Goodnight Nurse” and “Emotional Distance” really lean in to the 1960s, very Beatles Revolver/Rubber Soul era. Then “Saturday Everyday” and “Easier Done Than Said” punch a more 1980s weight. But the should-be hit single for me is “Married and Single” with its earwormy guitar work and candy-coated vocals. And For Our Next Trick is another winning collection from a band that never gets old.

The notion of a ‘supergroup’ and Canada don’t naturally fit together. Maybe if Gordon Lightfoot, Randy Bachman and Anne Murray had gotten together at some point. But when you bring members of Hollerado, Sloan, Sam Roberts Band and Tokyo Police Club together to record you’ve definitely got something pretty super going on. The band is Anyway Gang and they’ve got two albums – the most recent being 2022’s Still Anyways – and the results are consistently stellar. Of course, it’s hard not to hear the constituent bands in the songs. “Reckless Reckless” sounds pretty Hollerado. “What’s Left of My Love” has got a solid Sloan vibe. And there is no mistaking the Sam Roberts stamp on “Out of Nowhere.” But at other points things just groove along melding the different influences together. “Alternative View” feels very Zolas to me while “Real Thing” bops along with great rock hooks. “Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams” harkens back to a breezy 1980s Men At Work style of poprock. There’s even some folk pop (“Love is Here”) and alt country (“Call on Me”). Personal fave: “Remember To Forget” – this one’s got a light AM bounce to it that insists ‘play me again.’

It’s hard to go wrong with a band consisting of members of REM, The Young Fresh Fellows and I Was King. In fact, things go very right as The No Ones move into the concept album zone on their second outing, My Evil Best Friend. Largely conceived and directed by Scott McCaughey and featuring guest appearances from members of the Bangles, Death Cab for Cutie, Camper Van Beethoven and Teenage Fanclub, the record is a loving homage to all the great LPs and artists that inspired the band members. Opening cut “KLIV” name drops its way through a load of great sixties musical icons and sets the scene for this imagined musical time capsule. Some tributes are direct, like “Phil Ochs is Dead” and “Song for George,” while others are more muted, like the Tom Petty-ish “Throwdown in Whispertown.” If you had to boil it all down, the whole package is clearly most inspired by The Byrds, with REM and Teenage Fanclub vibes here and there. You can hear it pretty clearly on “304 Molina Way” – this is some quality retro jangle. There are few surprises, like The Smiths-ian echoes on “Band With No Head.” Then by the time you get to “The After Party” the jaunty 1960s poppy-ness of it all will send you right back to the start. It really is a joy to hear people who know what they’re doing hit all the marks. If The No Ones are your kind of people, then My Evil Best Friend will be yours too.

Doing our part for a zero waste society, you can pick up these recycled rock stars at your favourite e-music emporium (though appropriately re-purposed physical product is cool too).

Photo courtesy of Swizzle Studios.

Ready steady singles

23 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The UK’s Ready Steady Go! was the sixties alternative to the more establishment Top of the Pops. Bands performed (mostly) live and the audience were the featured models and dancers, giving the show a more loose, spontaneous feel. I’d like to think our chosen singles are a modern embodiment of the show’s cool élan but hey, you be the judge.

Power pop legend Jamie Hoover is well known for his decades-long work with the Spongetones and collaborations with a variety of indie stalwarts. But his latest single sees him declaring his love for the recently-single mega-influencer “Kim Kardashian.” Co-written with power pop scribe and record producer Richard Rossi, the song is an amusing poke at social media and celebrity, delivered in an impeccable poprock style. Burnley and Todmorden’s The Goa Express have got a pop snarl that launches “Portrait” with a sonic 3-D impact. Comparisons to The Artic Monkeys, Oasis and the Strokes make sense, the sound here is so live and starkly authentic. Vocalist James Douglas Clark keeps the snarl neatly in check while the guitars crash in and out with an intoxicating intensity. So far it’s just singles from this band but a full album seems overdue. Leslie Rich knows political trouble, hailing from Northern Ireland. But now ensconced in Minneapolis Minnesota he’s seeing American issues from a whole new perspective. Leading Leslie Rich and the Rocket Soul Choir on “Revolt” he subtlety condemns the fake victim mentality of those with a knee on ‘some guy’s neck’. The track is so smooth, with a Fleetwood Mac mid-1970s precision of rhythm and mood. Fun but serious popsters The Happy Somethings kicked off 2023 with a collection of errant singles, bit and pieces of things set aside from the previous year. Like “Anglepoise,” a noise pop Bo Diddly remake if ever there was one. The band uncharacteristically turn up the amps this time. Hailsham’s Tim Izzard is everybody’s modern Mr. Glam, channeling a 1970s performance and song style for contemporary audiences. On his new EP Deepfake 99 you can hear him tapping a particularly Marc Bolan vein on “Walk the Walk” or a big ballad-mode Bowie on “Alice Pearl” and “Will the First to Believe Please Turn on the Lights?” But overall I’m charmed by the strut of the title track “Deepfake 99.”

Marc Valentine’s Futura Obscura is a solid album of power pop delights but few of the songs challenge the obvious power single, “Last Train Tonight.” The driving guitar-based melody is delivered with a mix of what sounds like Fountains of Wayne and Farrah influences, the latter particularly evident in the chorus. Rochester’s Katie Morey is a great post-folk artist. You can tell by skipping through her Friend of a Friend album that coffee houses and streel strings played a key part in its genesis. But then other instruments come in, adding to the aural splendour. Just listen to the mix on “Deep End” with its great contrast of rumbly guitar and deadpan vocals. A slightly more rock and roll Suzanne Vega or Jane Siberry I think. Thee Lonely Hearts have got a quartet of songs caught in the twilight between retro cool and modern indie panache. Last Fall’s “Glen Ponder” cooks with a clean 1980s take on sixties guitar poppy rock while b-side “I Came Back Again” channels The Smithereens. But the band’s should-be hit is undoubtedly “Treat Me Like You Just Don’t Care.” This 45 has the energy of an updated early Beatles number performed by Eugene Edwards. Schio Italy’s Freez sound like members of California’s slacker pop punk diaspora. Their 2019 album Always Friends alternated between rocking workouts and more subtle, alluring melodic numbers. Then late in 2022 they offered up something different again. “Nothing” is brief 90 seconds of relentless droney attack, somewhat hypnotic, ready for pogo-ing. The new millennium has witnessed the rebirth of a crowd of decades-dormant bands from days gone by. But few sound as fresh and in the swing of now as Finland’s The Bablers. Sure, there’s a retro feel to “Holding Me Tight Tonight” and yet the sound is so timeless too. Altogether the song has that smooth poprock sheen of the 1980s Moody Blues in comeback mode with a touch of 1974 McCartney in the bridge.

Thee Lonely Hearts – Treat Me Like You Just Don’t Care

In the fading hours of 2022 there was a lot buzz about Michigan’s Popular Creeps. A lot of ‘R’ band references got thrown around, as in The Replacements, REM, and the Rolling Stones. Kicking back with the full album All This Will End in Tears there’s definitely a lot ‘R’ here, though I tend to agree with Add to Want List that the sound is perhaps closer to Peter Case and Paul Collins, particularly on tracks like “Gone By 45.” My vote for double A-sided single goes to the combo of “From the Past” and “Keep It To Myself,” just for exuding so much new wave joy and echoes of The Connection. On Ant Farm Pittsburg’s The Zells give voice to the harsh working class experience of contemporary America where living is from payday to payday and life is suffering and suffering truther uncles. But the record shifts back and forth between distorted punk anti-paeans to tracks that expose the band’s superior musical chops. Like on “Dummy,” a song that kicks off sounding like a speed version of “Dancing With Myself” only to switch to a Titus Andronicus vocal and guitar attack. The lead guitar line snaking throughout Kid Gulliver’s latest single “Kiss and Tell” is so captivating it just keep running through my head long after the song has ended. It’s got fun adornments, like riffs from the Batman theme, but really the backbone of the song is Simone Berk’s smooth vocal and that killer lead guitar work. Another guitar winning single comes from LA’s Billy Tibbals. Reviewers are noting the 1970s glam and pub rock influences but all I can hear is that addictive droney lead guitar on “Onwards and Upwards” that says new wave to me. So many potential influences here but I hear some Zombies in the vocals and even some Squeeze in the melodic twists. As a band The No Ones are full of someones: people like REM’s Peter Buck and Young Fresh Fellows alumnus Scott McCaughey. And on their soon-to-be-released new album My Best Evil Friend the list of guest stars is pretty gob-smacking, including contributions from Ben Gibbard, Debbi Peterson and Norman Blake. Of the two pre-release teaser singles I can’t decide which I like more, the dreamy, bucolic “Song for George” or the more Byrdsian “Phil Ochs is Dead.”

When Ottawa band The Rockyts burst on the scene in 2019 with their debut album Come and Dance reviewers were dumbfounded that three gangly teens could recreate the 1960s sound so authentically, both on originals and covers from the era. Now reduced to a one man band focused on lead guitarist, songwriter and singer Jeremy Abboud, their new single “I Get High” recasts the retro influences into a totally contemporary sound. Well, 1980s Cars-era contemporary anyway. The guitar work is now more stolid, the vocals enlivened by some otherworldly harmonies. By contrast Austin Texas troubadour Phil Dutra brings back his signature telenovela-style big emotional ballad on “I Feel Your Pain.” There’s something very Vicki Lawrence or 1970s Cher style-wise lingering over this tale of cheating and remorse while the hooks are big and bold and stuck in your head. I can already see the movie montage running behind this song. Scotland’s Dropkick are like your favourite hang-out spot, immediately familiar, comforting, but open to some surprise guests. The advance single from their upcoming album The Wireless Revolution is “Telephone” and it is everything fans of the band love: ringing guitars, a sweet feel-good vibe, and a strong Teenage Fanclub family resemblance. On his new album Alter Ego Irish singer/songwriter Paul McCann offers a mix of styles, both fast and slow, sounding at times 1970s lush or 1980s poppy rock. My current fave is “Lost in This Moment” with its slow build up and break out hooky chorus. Another lush poprock offering comes from Norway’s Armchair Oracles. Given the song’s focus, perhaps that’s not surprising. “Nilsson Wilson” observes how two great artists emerged from traumatic childhoods. The vibe is very Rogue Wave meets Al Stewart.

Rounding out our ready steady singles is another fab new song from mister poprock-reliable, Richard Turgeon. “I’ve Got You Now” features Turgeon’s now familiar formula of discordant guitars and poppy melodic hooks, delivered with a captivating vocal arrangement. Grunge definitely meets the beach on the this 45.

RSG! only ran on UK television for three years but it defined an era of mod music, hip fashion, and an almost DIY broadcast esthetic. And The Who managed to appear on the show 18 times! Our humble efforts pale by comparison but I like to think that the spark lives on in the music. Click on the hyperlinked band names to feel that surge.