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Autumn singles almanac

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

American Cigarettes, American Dream, Autumn Almanac, Be True to Yourself, Ben Kweller, Best Shirt On, Big Times, Bodyheat, Chuck Prophet, Circuit Boredom, Critical Hit, Dead Stars, Declan McKenna, Diners, Do You Like Us Now, Don't Want to Talk About It, Dreams Don't Come True, Elephant Stone, Emily, Fuzzysurf, Gal Gun, Greg Pope, Hollow, I Could Only, I Wanna Be Your Sam, Impossible Sum, Indoor Music, Irene Para, It's This, Joey Molland, Jump Back from the Light, Let's Start Over Again, Maxwell Stern, Menacing Smile, Own Sweet Time, Phonographic Memory, Premium, Rainy Day Man, Saving Me Saving You, SCV3, Sweet Tooth, The Embryos, The Ern Malley Affair, The Kinks, The Land That Time Forgot, The Lolas, The On and Ons, The Ruen Brothers, The Wrecking Yard, Vanilla, Water Tower, Wishing on a Dark Star, Yeah is What We Have, Zeros

Hard to believe that the Kinks took “Autumn Almanac” to number 3 in the UK back in the fall of 1967. Going against the grain of the emerging psychedelic scene, the song is so laid back, almost anti-commercial. Ultimately, the single kicked off the band’s grand pastoral-romantic period that followed with albums like The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur and the Decline of the British Empire. But enough about Ray and company. They’re just the inspiration to launch our own autumn singles almanac, a carefully curated collection of 20 songs to lighten up your fall, ease you in to the autumn, and get you hooked on these hooks!

The Ruen Brothers evoke a distinctive atmosphere on their new single “Saving Me, Saving You,” somewhere spooky, perhaps with fog. But when the titanic vocals cut in there’s no hiding. The spotlight is on and something electric is going on. These guys have got style! It’s a haunting 3 minute mélange of guitars and striking songcraft. Prolific popmaster Greg Pope puts the acoustic guitar to the front of the mix on his new album, Wishing on a Dark Star. It really carries this light, carefully crafted pop gem that appears about two thirds of the way through the album, the aptly titled “Jump Back from the Light.” The hooky ‘whoa-oh’s are just gravy. Chicago garage poppers Gal Gun offer up a literal “Premium” single from their soon to be released new album Critical Hit. The song has a strong Weezer vibe, exhibiting that pleasant mixture of dissonant punk qualities laid over an early 1960s song structure. The b-side (“Oh Oh I Love Her So”) is all that, even more so. Tacoma’s Vanilla change our pace completely with a lovely McCartney-esque “Let’s Start Over Again.” John Lennon used call these sort of tunes ‘granny music’ but I love’em. I’m certainly impressed with the band’s command of different song idioms. I don’t know what ‘indie tinged emo’ is but apparently it is Yeah Is What We Have. So, I guess I love indie tinged emo because their new single “I Could Only” is great. The mix of spare guitar work, percussion and sweet vocals is addictive and endearing.

Speaking of sweet, Declan McKenna burst on the scene as an uber talented charismatic teen boy wonder with his hooky protest song “Brazil” back in 2015. Now entering his twenties he’s still working the adorable seam pretty hard with this new album Zeros. He continues to push the boundaries of his songwriting and performance, turning in a memorable take on a Wings-ian pop tune with “Emily,” among many other fab contributions to the new album (like the Bowie-esque “Key to Life on Earth”). Surf indie pop purveyers Fuzzysurf are back with a new record, Sweet Tooth, and it’s more of the same good synthesis of old and new poprock influences that carried their earlier work. “Do You Like Us Now” has a strong 1960s guitar stamp, with a nice cleaned-up garage vibe. Ready for dancing? Definitely. I first heard Chuck Prophet with the Green on Red recordings but then missed his early solo work, checking in finally with the fantastic Night Surfer LP. Since then, I’ve paid closer attention to his releases. Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins is a good as it sounds like it will be. And Prophet’s brand new The Land That Time Forget is another winner. “Best Shirt On” is a lovely well-crafted tune with such subtle hooks and an overall feel of mid-1960s low key lushness. Brooklyn’s fuzz pop band Dead Stars grind out a slow burn melodic treat with “Dreams Don’t Come True” from their recent Never Not Here. This one works turned down low or blasted from the car stereo. The band The Ern Malley Affair are almost as mysterious as the fake poetry scam they take their name from. The internet turns up only out-of-date MySpace pages and nary a mention of the group’s work from back in 2009. But apparently they have new material out now and it carries on with their earlier ‘dirty folk’ sound. Words like ‘jaunty’ and gently ‘spirited’ come to mind listening to the delightful “It’s This.” Love the mellow organ and hooky shuffle.

Declan McKenna “Emily”
The Ern Malley Affair “It’s This”

God how I’ve missed Ben Kweller. The guy’s got a way with sneaky earworm tunes that get in your head and you find yourself humming them for days. He’s been pretty skint about new material over the past half decade (his last album was 2014’s Go Fly a Kite) but 2019 saw the release of a few new singles and now a new LP Circuit Boredom seems imminent. If “American Cigarettes” is anything to go by, it’s going to be a very good time. The song’s got his signature cool low-key swagger, bolstered by some nice but oh-so-subtle melodic shots in the chorus. Feel the sway of gentle jangle propelling The Embryos “I Wanna Be Your Sam” from their recent EP SCV3. They sound like The Church or The La’s in very mellow mood and that is totally cool. Sydney, Australia’s The On and Ons so nail the 1966 poprock sound – again – this time on a tight little EP called Menacing Smile. “Don’t Want to Talk About It” particularly exudes a strong Mickey Dolenz/Mike Nesmith vibe. Now if you want a rush of poppy guitar goodness, The Lolas always deliver. “The Wrecking Yard” glides along with a melodic ease aided by lightly ringing guitars and nice harmony vocals. Bodyheat produced a fab self-titled debut EP back in 2015 that contained some really winning tunes like “Talk It Over” and “Poor Girl.” Now a new EP is forthcoming and Indoor Music gets a promising start with a single like “Phonographic Memory,” which reminds a little of The Silencers and a host of other great 1980s indie guitar bands.

Ben Kweller “American Cigarettes”

Finally some Canadian content. Montreal’s Elephant Stone are the working the psychedelic seam of the sixities revival sound on their fab recent album Hollow, showcased nicely on that album’s first single “Hollow World.” But personally I’m digging their stand-alone election-era single, “American Dream,” with its muted jangle, harmonica and healthy caution about all things U.S.A. in 2020. ‘Gee, Ma, I want to go back to Ontario’ indeed. While they self-describe themselves as farkle wiki pop, when I hit play on Phoenix’s Diners all I heard was capital-F fun. From the light glam guitar to the cheesy fun fair organ, “Big Times” won’t fail to put a great big grin on your face with its Apples in Stereo-like cheekiness. I bought Irene Para’s “I Won’t Back Down” as a cool take on Tom Petty but quickly switched allegiance to the b-side, a Para composition called “Own Sweet Time.” There’s something slightly majestic in how this song builds throughout. A real earworm. Signals Midwest member Maxwell Stern’s solo album Impossible Sum is out and making the charts. Just a taste of single “Water Tower” suggests deservedly so. Here Stern’s punky inclinations (more in evidence on Signals Midwest material) are smoothed out by driving acoustic guitars, reverby lead lines, and punchy yet sweet vocals. And now we end with a bit of a happy ending. I say bit cuz it involves just a quarter of one of the most tragic bands in rock and roll history, Badfinger. Lone survivor Joey Molland has outlived his compatriots to collect his share of the royalties and make what should be a triumphant return to niche poprock love. “Rainy Day Man” is the advance single from Molland’s upcoming album Be True to Yourself and it hits all those Beatles, ELO and Badfinger marks we rightly expect it would. A lovely little slice of expert popcraft.

Almanacs are big things, you can’t necessarily get through them in one sitting. Don’t worry, these 20 original should-be hits from our 20 original should-be stars will be here for your continued consumption throughout the fall season.

Now this from Ralph

26 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

All My Shades of Blue, Back in the Room, Bruce Foxton, Coming On Strong, I Told You So, Let It Fly, Ocean Colour Scene, On the Leyline, Psychedelic Country Soul, The Long Ryders, The Old 97s, The Pale Stars, The Ruen Brothers, Turn Off The TV, Turncoat, Vendetta

Writing a blog is mostly a solitary endeavor. So it’s nice when people write to say they are enjoying what I’m posting and even better when they get a conversation going about our mutual musical loves. Some even make great suggestions about tunes I should check out. Like Ralph. He wrote with a list of suggested artists and songs so good I thought it warranted a post all its own. Some of the artists I was familiar with but not the songs (like Bruce Foxton) while others were completely new to me (like The Ruen Brothers). From a long list of choices from Ralph I’ve picked out the ones that really grabbed me, so this is very much a collaborate effort.

Was there ever an act that sounded more American than The Ruen Brothers? The band, actual brothers, hail from a small town a little north east of Sheffield in northern England. But somehow through the magic of Dad’s record collection, they come off like Nashville or Lubbock rockabilly locals. Their 2018 debut All My Shades of Blue, produced by Rick Rubin, is an amazing distillation of influences both old and new. My personal fave is “Vendetta” with its cool “Secret Agent Man” vibe and punk rock Roy Orbison vocals. To see them touring with Orville Peck makes a lot of sense, two acts that draw from the past but refuse to simply dwell there. Bruce Foxton had a glorious past as bassist for The Jam but struggled to find a future after they broke up. A 1984 solo album barely dented the charts so Foxton spent most of the next decade and half playing with Stiff Little Fingers. But in 2012 he returned with a second solo album, Back in the Room, which contained strong material like the hooky “Coming On Strong.” A band I didn’t even know had made a comeback are The Long Ryders. Early Americana and alt country influencers, the band hadn’t released an album since 1987. Nevertheless, a new record emerged in 2019, the aptly-named Psychedelic Country Soul, and critics declared it a winner with radio-friendly tracks like “Greenville.” Personally I love the heavenly wash of background harmonies cushioning “Let It Fly.”

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/10-vendetta.m4aThe Ruen Brothers – Vendettahttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/10-coming-on-strong.m4aBruce Foxton – Coming On Strong

A band I somehow missed altogether was Ocean Colour Scene, despite the fact they had five top 10 albums and 17 top 40 singles in the UK, with six songs that made the top 10. Initially associated with the Madchester Britpop scene, the band toured with Paul Weller and Oasis, eventually becoming big stars in their own right. With a lot of material to choose from, my focus on “I Told You So” might seem curious, given both the song and its 2007 album On the Leyline charted poorly. Still, I think it’s a winner. I love the Cat Stevens “There Goes My Baby” lilt to the tune and its overall cheery demeanor. Brandt Huseman is a busy guy, active in at least four bands by my count. I love his work with Greenberry Woods and Splitsville but I was less familiar with The Pale Stars, an outfit he produced two albums with. The band’s self-titled debut has that 1980s alt western vibe – think True West or Rank and File – and it comes out nicely on “Turncoat.” Another band on the comeback trail is The Old 97s whose 2020 release is simply called Twelve. Now, in truth, the band and its frontman Rhett Miller never really went away. Perhaps that’s why “Turn Off the TV” is like hanging with old friends, a familiar fun time that could easily descend into a group sing-along. And check out the cool cameo appearance from Puddles Pity Party at the end of the video.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/10-turncoat.m4aThe Pale Stars – Turncoat

Ralph picked out some real winners that totally suited what I do with Poprock Record making it easy to write them up for a post. Register your take on these choices by clicking on the band names to check out what they’re doing.

Banner photo courtesy Larry Gordon.

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Recent Posts

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