Tag Archives: Uni Boys

Life at 45rpm II

22 Tuesday Aug 2023

Posted by in Poprock Themepark

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In round II of our Life at 45rpm postings some old and more recent favourites make a re-appearance, along with some totally brand new acts. Let the spinning commence.

Any day there’s new material from Pugwash main man Thomas Walsh is a very good day indeed. Rumours abound that “A Good Day For Me” is the advance single from a Walsh ‘solo’ outing to be entitled The Rest Is History (thanks PowerPopSquare!) due later this year. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Hit play on this single and drink up all those Pugwash-isms you’ve been missing. This is first-rank wistful, spring-breeze-in-your-hair poprock. Walsh conjures elements of Brian Wilson and Jeff Lynne here but mostly you’re just going to hear that classic Pugwash sound. Walsh is finally back and in fine form. Another welcome returnee is Seattle’s Ruler. His 2018 LP Winning Star Champion ruled my playlist for months. His new album is Extra Blue and High and the tunes are still winning. I’d pitch a double a-sided single just to capture his many moods. “Price Tag” shifts between high and low melodic attack with plenty of buzzy guitar in the chorus and instrumental break while “I Thought You Were There” has a more low-key Aimee Mann tempo and subtle hooks. Another new album packed with strong material is the latest from Steve Marino, Too Late to Start Again. There’ll be more coverage of Marino to come but for now sink your teeth into the album’s opening cut “Satisfy You.” It all starts so innocent, just some simple psychedelic guitar. But before you know it Marino has cast a hypnotic spell as the whole band comes in and a bit of vocal call and response gets going. Simple yet so striking. A band I’m glad to see promoting new material is the energetic Indonesian pop trio Grrrl Gang. When I discovered “Pop Princess” a few years back it was serious replay time. Their new album Spunky is just about out so to tempt you, I’m focusing on “Blue Stained Lips.” I’m hearing a strong early Go Go’s sonic palette at work here. Also in the ‘missing you’ file for me is Sofa City Sweetheart – loved their 2019 long-player Super(b) Exitos. Now we have a new single “It Wasn’t You.” At first listen it seems breezy but there’s a complicated melodic undercurrent that gives the tune a unique and engaging character.

Victoria BC outfit The Origin were out and about in the first decade of the new millennium then broke up. But nothing like a pandemic to spark reunions. Since 2020 new material has been coming out and their latest single suggests there is no end in sight. “I Pour Myself Out” rocks the keyboard in a way that reminds me of Scouting for Girls, with a similar ear for good hooks. Long Island pop punkers Black Suit Youth sweeten their sound and soften their attack somewhat on “Outsiders,” their new stand-alone single. There’s an ever so slight hint of Green Day in the melodic mix and that is no bad thing. Sea Glass and Sky Adler’s song “Weekend” starts off so slacker pop but then builds into a bit of a party jam. I love the stripped down acoustic guitar opening and the contrast with the energy in the chorus makes everything take off. The vibe is very Front Bottoms meets Sugar Ray. The Feeders are a band I’ve meant to write about, usually after I’ve purchased some new release. But somehow I’ve overlooked them, which is no negative comment on their high quality tune-age. Really, you won’t go wrong with anything from their catalogue or Sam Vicari’s solo work. Now let’s end the coverage drought on this band by focusing on their new song “Congratulations, By The Way.” It’s a grinder, a rocked up re-invention of a classic mid-1960s song style not far different from the fine work of The Friends of Cesar Romero or The Blendours. Another sonic blast from the past can be found on Richard Snow and the Inlaws new single “Analogue Calls.” It’s not just the concept that conjures the technology of yester-year, the tune’s whole vibe is so late 1970s poppy rock, the kind the radio used to play. Radios? Like phones mounted to the wall, they’re just about gone too. Both the artwork and song here would make a killer physical 45.

On “Revenge Body” Athens native Drew Beskin conjures up an intimate atmosphere that sounds one part Peter Gabriel, another part Sam Weber. The keyboard and percussion mix are in a perfect tension here. Can’t wait to hear what else is lurking on his upcoming EP Garrett. Brighton UK’s The Evening Sons ride a wave of hooky distorted rhythm guitars on their power pop blast of a single “Superspreader.” Terms like driving, relentless, and onslaught come to mind in trying to describe this song, but all in a good way. This is the first single from a soon-to-be released LP entitled Tracks. The critics were all over the last Uni Boys last album Do It All Next Week and rightly so, it was an ace 1970s power pop reinvention. Well another LP is on the way (Buy This Now!) and if the promo single is any indication, get ready for a drive to accolade city. “I Want It Too” mines the same 1970s poppy rock and roll feel of previous releases, though this time I hear some 1977 Nick Lowe or those young Irish upstarts The Strypes. The Whiffs only just released their last album Scratch N’ Sniff last March but here they are with a new double a-sided single. I mean, bands usually milk an LP for a few singles before reaching for new material. Not that I’m complaining. “Satellite” b/w “As I Am” is a great 45 with the former cut reminding me of  the loose rock and roll fun of The Connection while flip lets the lead guitar really ring. Chicago native Matt Tiegler returns with a new song, anticipating his long awaited third album Hands Free Down Hill. The painted cover art really captures the album title sentiment. The album pre-release single is the jangly “Dream (Reason for Living),” a light poppy rumination on connection, sung with an Al Stewart folk rock intensity.

West Kirby’s West Coast Music Club crank up their jangle machine on a new single entitled “Sick and Tired.” But with a difference this time. The song so reminds me of the melancholy strains of Pugwash, with perhaps a strong dose of The Byrds coming in on the instrumental break. Strange Neighbors return after releasing one of the strongest EPs this year (Party of None) with a stand-alone single, a cover of the late Gin Blossoms co-founder Doug Hopkins track “Quiet Beat.” It’s a gorgeous tune, perfectly suited to the band’s unique guitar/vocals combo. Italian composer/guitar player Andrea Calvo is Grand Drifter and the songs on his new EP Paradise Window sound deceptively simple. But the magic is in the arrangements. As Subjangle records honcho Darrin Lee dubs it, this is Burt Bacharach-ian ‘sophistico-pop.’ Take “As the Days Change.” I love how the acoustic guitar anchors things, only to have a delicate single note piano riff float over everything. Captivating with a Josh Rouse kind of pop maturity. Speckled Bird offer EP #2 this year with Captain Maximus and it’s four songs are a quality quartet. But “Paint It” stands out with its saucy psych pop insouciance. It dabs in a variety of musical elements with an artist’s eye for detail. How much do I love Big Country? A lot. But not to the point where I won’t consider other versions of their songs. Like I love what Ted Leo and the Pharmacists do to BC’s “Inwards.” Early on it hews pretty close to the original but then innovates in the instrumental breaks.

West Coast Music Club – Sick and Tired

Wrapping up this second instalment of Life at 45rpm the irrepressible Exbats with their new single “Like It Like I Do.” I love the garagey feel of this band, though this song sounds a bit fuller than past releases. It’s got a hip-shaking sixties vibe that the Bangles would have owned. More to come with a whole new album called Song Machine.

Life at 45rpm is hard to maintain for long. With all these new tunes you can take a break, catch your breath, and then hit the links for more.

Photo courtesy Simon Collison Flikr collection.

Around the dial: The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Push Puppets, Uni Boys, and The Mommyheads

23 Sunday Oct 2022

Posted by in Around the Dial

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What if we could revive that great era of radio circa 1978 to 1981 when the likes of Squeeze, XTC, Rockpile, Split Enz and a host of other new wave bands made it into regular rotation? Commercial radio was rarely so open to offbeat trends. Those days might be gone but we can try to revive that kind of energy with a turn around our virtual radio dial.

I loved albums one and two from The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness. Indeed, “I Don’t Mind” from last year’s Songs from Another Life topped my should-be hit singles for 2021. So I’m obviously primed to like anything new. Happily I can confirm that their new album The Third Wave of … is another jangle tour-de-force, one that extends beyond what they’ve done before. Oh sure there’s the usual Bryds-meets-Teenage Fanclub sparkle to the guitars and shiver in the vocal harmonies. Added to this is material with a harder, new wave guitar edge, as if the Cars rhythm section had dropped in on a few recording sessions. Listen for it on tracks like “Look Back,” “In the Right” and “Out of Time” where it melds with TBWTPN’s distinctive song-writing style. I think the most interesting move in this direction is “Old Pictures of Ourselves” which combines creative guitar and keyboard parts in a striking synthesis. Yet by and large this record is full of familiar TBWTPN grin-inducing, feel-good tunes: songs like “As the Day Begins” and “Turning Red” that tweak the jangle and vocal harmonies to go straight for the heart. Some efforts strike a more sombre jangly note, like “The Stars Go Round” and “Open the Box.” My fave track this outing is probably “Isolation,” an exquisite country pop duet with Mary Lou Lord. And don’t miss the lovely, spare acoustic version of the song (on the digital version of the album only) where Lord’s vocal is primary.

Sometimes you start playing a record and you just know it’s going to be terrific. That was my reaction to “There’s No One Like Lynette,” the opening cut on Push Puppets new LP Allegory Grey. The song delivered an electric jolt of New Pornographers-influenced tune-age. When track two “Sometimes the Buds Never Flower” took off in a very different (but pleasing) Finn brothers direction that was it, I was hooked. And things just got better from there. Songwriter Erich Specht cites an array of power pop influences but the Crowded House imprint is strong on this album. Sometimes they slip in subtly, like the deft Neil Finn melodic turn in the chorus of “Obvious” or the Tim Finn vocal sound on “Perfect Picture.” Elsewhere they’re in your face, like “Lightening in a Dress” where things kick off like something right out of Neil Finn melodic central casting. It’s not just the songs, the band has got the Crowded House feel down. It’s the organ on “Center of the Storm” or the sad melodic guitar lines defining “October Surprise.” And yet the band make these influences their own, a testament to the superior song-writing and performance here. Case in point: obvious should-be hit single “The Bane of My Existence.” All the elements come together on this breezy hook-filled delight. As power pop interview site Sweet Sweet Music said recently, this fantastic record is one to treasure.

On Do It All Next Week the Uni Boys tap the source code of 1970s new wave power pop, bands like the Plimsouls, the Records and Bram Tchaikovsky. Throughout the record they nail the guitar sound, the stark rhythm guitar style, accented by streamlined melodic lead guitar lines. The formula is set from the start with the surging “You Worry About Me” which almost comes off like an American version of The Jam. “Downtown” is more Plimsouls with its filled out sound. “On Your Loving Mind” starts off Cars-like with a dose of poppy Ramones coming in later. There’s even a touch of Stones on the otherwise Ramones kinda of tune that is “One More Night.” “Up To You” moves in a more melodically pop direction with some fab trebly guitar elevating the impact of the song. Another guitar special number is “You Are in My Heart” with its up-front guitar pyrotechnics and ominous background aura. But the stand out track here for me is “Caroline Kills.” It’s got a Jonathan Sings! elan but like he’d joined The Replacements. Do It All Next Week demonstrates that musical obsession doesn’t have to lead to recycled nostalgia. Sometimes something old is just new again.

A lot of bands got chewed up in the major label meltdown of the 1990s when it seemed like, overnight, the standard commercial career path for modern artists just ended. Thankfully a few bounced back, like The Mommyheads. After a disastrous dalliance with Geffen in the 1990s they relaunched their career in the new millennium with a series of brilliant albums, forcing reviewers to stock up on superlatives. And the brand new Genius Killer LP is more of the good same. Reviewers often compare the band to XTC and there’s some of that lurking here, perhaps in a pop soul guise on “She’s a Fighter.” But get ready for some surprises. Like the decidedly ELO flavour popping up all over “Impulse Items.” Or the Odds vibe on “Bittersweet.” Another band often invoked with the group on particular selections is Queen, this time most evident on title-track “Genius Killer.” But digging a bit deeper I’d make comparisons of what is going here with more experimental outfits like Tally Hall, Overlord and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, particularly on cuts like “Distill Your Love Into That Dying Light” and “Privilege.” There’s even a bit of 1970s pop prog going on tracks like “First Five Seconds.” Should-be hit single “Idealist” is an understated bit of poprock genius, both in songwriting and execution. But I’m also partial to the subtle and alluring, almost Hall and Oates-like charms of “One and the Same.” My recommendation? Get smart with today’s premiere smart person’s band, The Mommyheads. And pick up a copy of Genius Killer today.

Yesterday lives on in the here and now, renewed and reanimated on your radio dial. Visit these artists to get the full record revival experience.

Photo courtesy Tom Magliery.