Tags
Doug Tuttle, Dream Road, Family Values, See You in the Next World, The Vapour Trails, Time Stands Still
Set your phasers to ‘reverb’ for this edition of Jangle Thursday as it’s a ‘celebration of sibilance’ of the ringing guitar sort.
The major news here is a whole album of jangle fun poprock from The Vapour Trails. Their new record is See You in the Next World and it is delightful stroll down quality street. While containing a few tracks from the EP Godspeed It released earlier this year (“Godspeed It,” “The Inner Truth”), this album is mostly chock full of fresh 1960s-influened jangle. Drop the needle anywhere across this record and hit a great song, from the Tom Petty-ish opener “Sonic Wave” to the 1960s sunshine vibe on “Drag It Around” to the more swinging rock-pop sound of “You, With Love” and the title track “See You in the Next World.”
Shifting to singles, Norway’s Family Values wowed us with the 1980s British jangle sound on their 2016 EP Time Stands Still, particularly the song “The Paris Syndrome.” Now they’re back with “Sayonara Eyes” and it’s another winner, this time with the vocals really reminding me of so many great Grapes of Wrath cuts.
Rounding out this edition of Jangle Thursday is Doug Tuttle whose fat acoustic rhythm guitar wash forms the perfect backdrop for “Long Day to Your Home” a choice melodic treat from his latest LP Dream Road. Imagine a Dire Straits/Bryrds collaboration and you’re in the zone.
Reverb’s great but it’s not free. Check out The Vapour Trails, Family Values and Doug Tuttle to keep the signal flowing.
TUNS are a do-not-delay, go straight-to-download recommendation. From its opening chugging riff, “Mind Over Matter” grips you in an expectation of the power pop glory to come with some surprising departures from the genre, like the delicious drawn-out ‘ooh’ vocals and the measured but still raunchy solo guitar motif that appears briefly after the first chorus. This tiny nugget of poprock gold will have to do for the time being as a full album from this Canadian supergroup (which includes members of Sloan, Super Friendz, and Inbreds) won’t drop until the end of the summer. If their June show at the Garrison in Toronto was anything to go by, the album will be stunner.
Mind Over Matter
Norway’s Family Values have some serious 1986 time-warp issues going on with their recently released single, “Paris Syndrome.” A bit of Athens, Georgia poprock, perhaps a splash of Kelowna’s Grapes of Wrath: I mean, what’s not to love? There’s not much else to find from this band, with this single featured on their four song EP Time Stands Still and a previous EP from 2015 (jokingly titled Greatest Hits) that has a charmingly less-polished, 1980s-Aztec-Camera sort-of sound.
Just in time for Father’s Day, the enormously talented Pete Yorn released this homage to fathering, perhaps his own, maybe anyone’s. This free-flowing poprock tune has shades of Teenage Fanclub or Sloan, in Yorn’s typically subtle style: tuneful, without hitting you over the head with it. This song does not appear on Yorn’s just released (and amazing) Arranging Time album.My Father
Poprock Record 