Tag Archives: Vista Blue

A little fright music

25 Saturday Oct 2025

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Throughout the year I try to set aside seasonal songs for a range of holidays and I have to say the quality and quantity of Halloween fare has been steadily improving. Here’s a spate of fright night singles and a top rank compilation album dedicated to chilling, thrilling and haunting your playlist. Candy not included.

Justin Kerecz says he’s living in “Devil Town.” The song kicks off with a mournful tone, almost Springsteen-esque. But things pick up halfway through, adding drama and depth. Toronto’s The Suffragettes rewrite a classic classical-music instrumental as “Satan’s Holiday,” leaning heavily on surf guitar. And they don’t spare the tremelo. It’s corpse cool for sure. Bloodshot Bill takes us back to a 1950s rockabilly monster rock with “Meet the Count.” Goofy but offset with deadly hip lead guitar work. Victoria’s The Origin strike some lighter pop notes on their winsome track “So You Think You Can Necromance.” I love the wordplay! A dip into Crater Creek’s Horror Anthology could expose you to some chilling screamcore. But the two songs featured here are anything but. “Caveman” is 25 seconds of blistering narrative development while “See Through” adds a Beach Boys beach-party campfire feel to a lovelorn ghost’s failure to connect with his human target. And it can’t be Halloween without an appearance from those reliable holiday pop punksters Vista Blue. “I Didn’t Get Invited to the Halloween Party” works on so many levels. It draws from neo-1950s disaster song motifs, elevating and intensifying the elements with a 1990s punky panache. These guys never get old (hm? Are they zombies?).

The major event this Halloween music season comes from Big Stir Records in the form of a compilation album entitled Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies. The record contain 41 tracks, divided between 21 songs by different acts associated with the Big Stir stable of artists and 20 short spoken word/sound affects ‘link’ tracks that give the package a semblance of a thematic show. The album is an obvious homage to the 1964 Disneyland Records release Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House, right down the spoken word/sound effects components and a cover clearly inspired by Paul Wenzel’s distinctive artwork from the original. But it is the music that makes this release so special. Let’s face it, thematic holiday albums can often feel like forced, slapdash affairs. Not this one. The 21 original tunes here are quality power pop, holiday or not. Opening musical cut “Ghoul You Want” from Librarians With Hickeys sets the bar high with its subtle, smooth Zombies elan. This is the hit single, surely. Not that the other 19 songs aren’t worthy of maximum Halloween-radio rotation. Really, this is such a solid collection of songs, though more than I can cover in detail here. Instead I’ll just single out three more tracks that really caught my ear. First up I’d draw attention to Splitsville’s “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.” Plenty of power in the pop here, melding melody-rich vocals with striking rhythm guitars. Then The Gold Needles crank up some hypnotic lead guitar lines on  “Ghost in the Airwaves.” I love hearing the reverby guitars ring. Last on, The Incurables give us a throwback to that 1950s meets seventies garage rock on “Halloween Bride.” The album’s short spoken-word segments performed by The Pepper’s Ghost Players could have descended into cringey cheese but instead evoke the fun over-the-top melodrama of 1960s monster movies. Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies is a fabulous collection, lovingly crafted, expertly executed, and nicely priced. It’s a must-have double-album addition to your vinyl, CD, or digital music crypt.

I do the love the cheese of early 1960s fright night music/entertainment and, as you can see here, that tradition remains alive and well. Click on the links above to stock up on Halloween tunes while letting I. Jeziak and the Surfers guide you musically to the exits with their All Hallows’ Eve instrumental “Mummy Walk.”

Photo courtesy Kristina Alexanderson Flikr collection.

Shiver me singles

13 Thursday Feb 2025

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Cold winter temperatures up here in the Great White North have my feet tapping for all the wrong reasons. Time to heat things up with singles so sizzling they’ll scorch the turntable.

There’s something very 1980s space-age soundtrack to the vibe on Ricky Rochelle’s new single “Imagine Being Eric.” It’s there in the background keyboard runs and arrangement of the vocals. Very 1983. Then we have Retro Metro music man Super 8, back with jangle chanteuse Lisa Mychols on a new song. “Pop Radio” celebrates the joy of finding a great song over the airwaves. Quaint though the sentiment may be, the track hits all the modern marks for sixties timelessness. Putting power pop maestro Kurt Baker together with Wyatt Funderburk was always going to make for ear-catching experience. Baker’s new release “Warm in the Winter” is hooks at every turn, all sleek and shiny pop laced with plenty of rock edge. And on point for this theme post. Moving into more dream pop territory Shapes Like People offer up a mellow bit of jangle that practically flows like water on “Ambition is Your Friend.” Just one of a number of atmospheric cuts from their new LP Ticking Haze. Belgium’s CMON CMON excel at a kind of wall of sound aural pop assault. “Turn Off the Lights” balances a solid rocking backing with a smooth vocal and pop melody.

London’s The Tubs come on like some surging poprock outfit on “Freak Mode” but when the lead vocal kicks in such perceptions are quickly derailed, conjuring instead a more English rural folk aura. But the combination somehow still works in a beautifully creative tension. Ok this next band got to me at the name level. I’ve spent my life quipping ‘he’s dead Jim’ at all sorts of inappropriate moments. So running across Aberdeenian Scot rock combo He’s Dead Jim I knew I had to cover them. “Swim to Oblivion” is just one of 14 winning swinging rock tracks from their recent LP Head Like a Toyshop. These guys are very much alive – no red shirts here. Boston’s The Fatal Flaw deliver the goods again with their new single “Baby Tooth.” It’s got a hint of pop punk, in the vocal delivery particularly. But the chorus steps on the hooks for all they’re worth. Meanwhile in Philadelphia The Tisburys are priming their audience for an album release sometime in April. In the interim you can get the flavour of what is to comie with the propulsive, highly melodious “Forever.” Mike Browning pulls a rarity off oldies radio for full-on folk rock coverage, The Ragmuffins’ 1967 single “Four Days of Rain.” With vocal support from daughter Jillian, the duo recreate a decidedly Brydsian ambience.

The band Free Weed have produced what really should be the US public service theme song. “Government Employee” has mystery and cool New Order bass work and a freaky bit of psychedelic guitar work. Did I mention it’s cool? It really is. From the same record label, LA’s Gnar Tapes, The Memories lighten the mood with their chipper acoustic guitar strum and mellifluous single note keyboard work. The slightly sinister and otherworldly vocal offsets this lighthearted musical bed so effectively. Two decades on should-have-been power pop superstars The Mayflies USA are back with a brand new single and it is like they never left. “Calling the Bad Ones Home” expands the band’s sonic palate from Big Star to The Jayhawks and I’m liking it. If I can’t have a new album from Guster or Chris Collingwood then Gentle Hen will fit the bill. Actually let’s add them to that bill. Their new album is The Wrong Record and it’s all good but check out “It Only Takes a Couple Words” particularly. The vocal and guitar adornments sound so simple but they add incredible sonic depth to what is going on. Shifting to swinging London I like what The Open Flames are doing on their new song “Drop a Coin.” There is some very cool bass synth going on and a flurry of vocal ba ba ba ba ba’s adds charm to an already maximum charm ditty.

I’ve been wanting to write about the madly talented So Cow for ages. The band show so many stylistic faces to the world. Their latest single “Reputable Seer” seems like as good a place as to start. Check out the Beatles 64 guitar tone kicking things off before the sound moves in an Elephant 6 direction. Some very cool Apples in Stereo vibes happening here. Reliably melodic rocker Brad Marino has an album of rarities, remixed and unreleased stuff about to hit the e-shelves and from what is presently available online even attentive fans are going to find stuff they’ve never heard before. Like “Not Fooling Me” in my case. This is classic Marino hooky goodness, tied up with his oh so smooth vocals. Peter Green’s Soulbird project is like hitting the psychedelic mainline, with an extra pop punch. “Stay With Me Angel” has hooks working overtime but the vocal arrangement takes things to a new level. As if he’s not busy enough with his other bands Rural France and Teenage Tom Petties, now Tom Brown is fronting another nearly one-man band called Lone Striker. “Dunno” is a wonderfully languid bit of slow-groove pop, with what sounds like some sonorous horn work lifting the mood. Another exciting new release comes our way from guitar ambience expert Chris Church. “Sit Down” is dotted with sparkly guitars and a vocal that shifts from smoky smooth to urgently insistent.

Wrapping things on this shivery singles collection is a song so in keeping with our seasonal theme from everyone’s fave punk-pop productivity super-achievers Vista Blue. “I’m Going to be Warm This Winter” is pure adrenaline salted with plenty of pop hooks.

Brrr. It’s definitely a good day to stay inside, somewhere between the fire and the turntable.

Photo courtesy Rob Elliott/Swizzle Gallery.

Santa’s got the nightshift

17 Sunday Dec 2023

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It’s popular to paint Santa in petit-bourgeois hues, as if he’s the boss of the North Pole. For many he’s like a festive foreman, running the workshop as a seasonal overseer. But what if Santa is just another worker, one perennially doomed to work the night shift? It’s plausible. I mean, it’s not like he charges for the toys – we’re told he gives them away to boys and girls for no more payment than good behaviour. That hardly seems the ethos of some kind of profit-obsessed Christmas CEO. And if you set aside the magically-conceived-baby thing (and let’s face it, most of us do) what you’re left with actually sounds pretty socialist. In a sharing, caring, skip the work-camps sort of way. So corral your work-team into the break room – it’s time for our annual spate of poprock holiday hymns.

My go-to source for hooky holiday material is NYC’s mysterious merrymakers Make Like Monkeys. Do they work hard for holidays? I count twenty separate seasonally-themed pages on the band’s Bandcamp page so the answer would be yes. Here they get us into the spirit of getting busy with “Let’s Go Christmas,” a song that levels with you about what is to come (and it may be painful). Another reality check comes from Norfolk, Virginia’s The Mockers as they dispel the make-believe culture war nonsense of the political right on “(There’s No War on Christmas) When Christmas Is In Your Heart.” Keeping to the reality theme Jeremy Fisher completes our initial trio of tunes with the inflation-timely “Economy Xmas.” With a chorus consisting of ‘I owe, I owe, I owe’ this is clearly a real singalong number for many this year. So if you’re just looking for a Quiet Christmas this year, check out Jeremy’s album of the same name.

Trees and presents are essential components of consumer Christmas – we have to cover them. But we’re not heading to that in-town Xmas three lot, no sir. Instead we’ve signed up Sweden’s The Genuine Fakes to take us to Taylor Swift’s “Christmas Tree Farm.” It’s in a rougher part of the outback than Taylor usually frequents. Sometimes the guitars get turned up to 11. Moving on to presents, well you never know what you might get. Here to monetize that anxiety are everyone’s fave pop punkers Vista Blue with a track from their new EP Christmas Every Day entitled “What Are You Gonna Get?” But why worry about stuff when there’s love on the line? The Mockers explore the real meaning of the season and good deal of NYC and its boroughs on their beat group-inspired “(What’s a Better Present) At Christmas Time.”

Christmas is also about geography. After all, Santa’s got to cover a lot of ground in just one night. Perennial pub rocker Geraint Watkins draws our attention to classic humanist theme of harmony and togetherness in his beautiful, piano-based ballad “Christmas Day All Over the World.” Chicago’s Alpine Subs have a more narrow focus, finding Santa “Over Wichita”. There’s a nice Shins-meets-Paul McCartney vibe going on here. LA’s Sofa City Sweetheart draws our attention to the less savory side of a sunshine state seasonal celebration on “Christmas in California.” Still, it’s sung so pretty everything still sounds like a pretty good time. And there’s a whole album to go with it – you can literally spend Christmas on the Sofa.

What about feelings? We know that all the hyped holiday togetherness wallpapered through Xmas advertising gets a lot of people down. Geoff Palmer gives voice to some of this on “Lonely Christmas Call.” It’s basically a George Jones family break-up song but done in a more Nick Lowe poprock style. Make Like Monkeys hit the Beatles pedal hard on “Found Love for Christmas.” It’s an old, old story – everyone can see your new flame is about to go out. Looks like you’re getting heartbreak for Christmas. By contrast, Tall Poppy Syndrome are taking it slow. Why not just “Come Some Christmas Eve”? Seems like a curious time for a drop-in date but what do I know? The song is an oldie from Robin Gibb while the band features Vince Maloney from the original sixties version of the Bee Gees. Their version is both sixties immaculate and rather timeless.

You know what makes Christmas cool? Ok sure, snow. But beyond that you need a healthy dose of surf guitar holiday song instrumentals. Toronto’s all woman Surfrajettes go on a lovely guitar-lick-filled “Marshmallow March.” Then to the Jersey shore where The Evergleams take up the tempo on “Marshmallow World.” So much marshmallow, so little fire. Guitar virtuoso Joel Paterson is back with a second installment of his Hi Fi Christmas Guitar series, dubbed The More The Merrier. So hard to choose just one song from this fabulous collection. His take on “O Tannenbaum” is so groovy, one part Vince Guaraldi, one part shake and shimmying goodness. But then his work on “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” takes a song most of can’t bear to hear again and makes it jump with new life. I’m just going to put them both right down here.

Wrapping things up, Vancouver’s Said the Whale remind us of the “Weight of the Season,” the different ways it affects us all. Now that Saint Shane is gone York’s Bull get my vote for most emotionally-charged Christmas tune with their new “Gay Days.” In their view the world may be shit and darkness reigns but as long as ‘you’re coming home for Christmas’ they can muster up a choir, some horns, and few penny whistles. We end our melodious journey where we began, with Make Like Monkeys and a focus on St. Nick. On “Father Christmas” the band reflect on the old man’s drive to make some good happen for those who believe while battling wind and weather and whatnot. Kinda like the rest of us (well, some of us).

It’s been a rough year for the working classes at home and abroad and wherever you may be. So please accept a merry happy whatever-you-celebrate this year from us here at Poprock Record.

Image courtesy Tatsuya Tanaka from his Miniature Calendar. I feature his image in part to help promote his great project – check it out here.

Scary monsters and super treats

26 Thursday Oct 2023

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The annual march of mini monsters is nearly upon us. It’s a wonderfully spooky time where their voracious appetite for candy and mischief are on full display. Here at Poprock Record we dispense ear candy, of course. No tricks, just sweet sweet melodic treats.

Let’s get things started with that classic declaration from imaginative kid games: “You’re Dead.” The tune from Filipino-Panamanian-American folk singer Norma Tanega was initially recorded in the mid-1960s but recently experienced a resurrection as the theme song for Taika Waititi’s hilarious vampire movie and TV comedy What We Do In The Shadows. While originally written as an indictment of NYC’s competitive music scene the track seems perfectly suited for the show. I find its unusual folky tuning and metre absolutely captivating. Well, now that you’re dead, where do you hang? Sonny Falls’ exquisitely drone-y “Cemeteries” gives us clue. Falls provides a nice acoustic guitar-plus-synth kind of musical crypt to climb within. And who knows, you might meet some interesting people there. After all, Jersey City native Jonny Couch turns on a Simon Le Bon-worthy croon to announce he “Found Out You’re a Zombie.” That’s a bit of a date shocker.

Norma Tanega – You’re Dead

Well the monsters have been let loose so we might as well meet a few. Hi Tide Recordings specialise in the very coolest retro sounds, like Asbury Park’s Black Flamingos. Check out the wild instrumental guitar action all over the seasonally appropriate “Tales from the Crypt.” These surf guitar masters definitely stay true to their ghoul here. The Jack Rubies are a 1980s east London outfit back from the grave with their recent single “Poltergeist,” their latest in a series of recent releases after a break of three decades. The results are spooky and atmospheric and monstrously good.  Cheeky poprock outfit Scoopski opted for a whole EP of scary tunes on Halloween with Scoopski. I was torn between featuring  the poppy “Pumpkin Smile” or the more goof-rock “Monster in the Mirror.” What the hell, I’ll let you decide. NYC’s Dr. Ex and the Break-Ups have got the central-casting organ sound for Halloween tracks locked up on “Bye Bye Bizarro.” So groovy. I thought it was going an instrumental until the vocals burst in at the one minute mark. Ok, the song is not really festively ‘all hallows eve’ or anything being about Superman and all but the Bizarro villain focus seemed ‘Halloween-adjacent’ to me.

This year’s ‘ghoul-of-the-month’ are ghosts. Meddling ghosts, loitering ghosts, ghosts in the crosshairs. Big Stir Records have a great big Halloween holiday LP that has just arrived entitled Stir The Cauldron featuring 20 seasonally approved songs. I’m singling out Plasticsoul’s guitar pop delight “The Ghost In Between Us” for your special attention. There’s something so fresh sounding about this track. The guitars sparkle while the song structure falls somewhere between Squeeze and the Cure. Victoria, BC’s The Origin sound like they practically tip toe into the theatre before breaking out the electric guitars and letting loose on “The Ghosts,” featuring some great organ back up. Last year Atlanta-based Four Eyes came out with the freak folk festive The Freaky EP. So seasonally in tune with songs about vampires and the unresting dead. But we’re not going to talk about that now. Instead let’s feature the lofi fab “I’d Rather Be Ghost Hunting” from her 2019 album of the same name. Plucky, seemingly self-propulsive, with a ghostly vocal sheen.

It’s a holiday and oh, what’s that? A new Vista Blue release? Well that wasn’t unexpected. Everybody’s favourite pop culture-riffing pop punk band are back with another seasonal set of songs, this time dubbed Even Dracula Will Be There. Our featured tune is “I Gotta Rock,” a double entendre of culture quips, quoting Charlie Brown and the ever present punk need to just rock. Vista Blue, they’re holiday reliable.

You might be tempted to empty that candy bowl but you know better. Dip into all this ear candy instead – it’ll fill you up without rotting your teeth.

Photo from 1960 movie Village of the Damned courtesy James Vaughn Flikr collection.

Life at 45rpm I

17 Thursday Aug 2023

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Living life at 45rpm makes for a fast-paced and ever-changing existence. Brace yourself for the first of two installments, 21 tracks at a time.

We’re going to ease you in to this installment of our singles variety pack with the low-key lush acoustic rush of 22 Oceans. They normally lean in a more electronic direction but “Country Home” is a Fleetwood Mac kind of Americana, riding a wave of up-front acoustic guitars and an oh-so-good blend of harmony vocals. Scoopski are a Philly couple that have been cranking out the singles this year. I was going to write about “Seasonal,” a solid bit of melodic melodrama, but then they came out with a super contribution to an innovative project entitled Short Music for Even Shorter Attention Spans. “30 Seconds (I Love You)” is indeed half a minute long, reminding me a bit of George Harrison’s “Piggies” with some ELO tagged at the end. Heck, you might as well check out the whole album. It’s free and you can run through its 17 contributions in just eight minutes. Melbourne Australia’s Cold Irons Bound nail the scruffy Americana sound of the US midwest on their recent album No Place I Can’t Find You. I’m particularly fond of “Book Some Weekend Time” which sounds like a Cerny Brothers deep cut. Check out the lively lead guitar line that opens Sunken Planes new single “There’s a World.” They describe themselves as a ‘jangle-gaze power trio’ and the power part definitely kicks in on the chorus. The Mike Jacoby Electric Trio managed to make a lot of noise on “The Calm Before the Storm” from their new album The Long Haul. There’s a Dwight Yoakam/Steve Earle countryfied rock and roll sound all over the record but this particular song has something extra, a propulsive drive, subtle hooks, and some Eagles-worthy harmony vocals in the chorus.

The Parallax Project are practically an indie supergroup with participation from members of The Split Squad, Minus 5, and the Junior League. Autologous is their first album of original tunes in 14 years but they don’t miss a beat. Hard to choose just one featured tune. “Mary Houdini” is a delightful poppy swinging number that sounds like a mid-1980s Athens 45 while “You Were Never Here” has a more country twang. Power pop legends The Flashcubes have got a winning project going with their new Pop Masters album where they record classic song covers with the bands that made them famous. Get a load of the heavenly collab with The Spongetones on their fab-tastic “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” From the “Hard Days Night” opening chord to the omnipresent jangly guitars to the shiver-inducing harmony vocals, this is the stuff of poprock dreams. With “Don’t Go for the Money” Dan Kibler comes out swinging on his new album Idiomatic, exuding a Michael Hutchence or Tommy Tutone swagger with just a touch of Beatles 65 in the verses. I’m also partial to the stunning “Mystery Girl,” such a perfect two minutes of pop song-writing. The Kind Hills are truly an international band, with members located in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia. Their self-described brand of ‘slacker indie pop’ is mellow and meditative for most of their debut LP Clusterluck. Except for “Let Youth Take Over.” Here the band get almost anthemic with a slow-burning ‘sneak up on you’ ear-worm. Imagine Vashti Bunyan leading Chumbawumba and you sort of get where this is going. Caper Clowns lead vocalist Rick Kingo has gone solo with his new EP The Truth, The Lies, The Lot, unleashing various shades of soft rock. But it is the opening cut, “Confident in Time,” that really stands out for me. Accompanied by a McCartney-esque acoustic guitar, Kingo unleashes his inner Neil Finn to good effect. And anyone who can fit the word ‘paradigm’ into a song without sounding awkward deserves an award.

Dan Kibler – Mystery Girl
Rick Kingo – Confident in Time

If Springsteen did grunge it might sound a little like Vancouver’s Slip-Ons. Title track of their new EP Heavy Machinery will give you the gist of their sibilant, psych-rock sound. And what a joy it is. Now depending on when you read this post it may or may not actually be Bandcamp Friday. No matter, whether it is or isn’t I think we can all agree it deserves a theme song. Cue those perennial pop-punkers Vista Blue with “Bandcamp Friday is Here,” winning hearts 15 cents at a time. I wrote about New Jersey’s Sad About Girls once before and they were too polite to correct me when I miswrote their name as simply Sad Girls. Their fab new song is excuse enough to make amends. “Lonely One” delightfully channels a load of Merseybeat riffs and verse/chorus transition turnarounds but with a “That Thing You Do” freshness. Richard Turgeon is like money in the power pop bank. His new single “Friend Zone” is more of his reliable brand of melodic rock and roll. The lead guitar opening riff has a seventies Fleetwood Mac tone while his vocals pull between dissonance and rich harmony. Certainly suitable for summer beach playlists. Another utterly reliable power-pop singles factory can be found in Birmingham Alabama. Lolas have been releasing a single every few months now and they never fail to grab me. “Jacqui” has got a host of classic rock and roll motifs going on but somehow they come together in a unique way. The verses remind me of Abba’s “Does Your Mother Know” while the chorus hits the pop boogie marks of The Sweet.

Burlington Ontario’s big bold sound is presently coming from The Penske File. Their new long-player Half Glow is hard to peg stylistically, with a bit of four on the floor sing-along stomping and a whole lot of rock and roll heart. I’d dip in with the single-worthy “Chorus Girl.” This is a track that shimmers and lurches along with a sonic intensity that seldom lets up. In the early 1980s Milwauki’s The Shivvers were an up and coming outfit sporting vintage guitar sounds and vocals that melded Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde. But then they folded. Fast forward and today they’ve got a dynamite new song “My Love Calling” that sounds like a peak form Pretenders single. The musical build up in the song is inspired, from the jangle guitar to piano riffs to the tension between the main and background vocals. Another band mining the that killer early 1980s rock sound are Worriers. The title track from their upcoming LP Trust My Gut combines an eighties sonic ambience with a Bleachers pop polish in various key moments of the song. Meanwhile Lauren Denitzio’s vocals pull everything together in a tight poprock package. The Make Three bring together members of the Brixton Riot and The Anderson Council to make music they describe as ‘more power, less pop.’ The album is You, Me, and The Make Three and it has got some rock muscle behind it, but with a pop flavour you’d associate with the likes of The Smithereens or The Lemonheads. Whet your whistle with “Emily Strange” to get a sense of what they’re all about. Toronto’s Vicky von Vicky are a new outfit with, as far as I can tell, just two songs out. “Jealousy” is straight up melodic rock, full of chunky guitar chords and a simple chorus that really hooks you in. More please.

The Shivvers – My Love Calling

We wrap things up on this session of Life at 45rmp with the latest single from South Korean band Say Sue Me. “Mind is Light” is bit more shoe-gazey than some of the group’s previous releases, floating along over a pleasant guitar buzz that is regularly punctuated by other sonic interventions. Things do get a bit psychedelic at times.

21 down, 21 to go. Stay tuned for part II of Life at 45rpm, coming soon.

Photo courtesy Simon Collison Flikr collection.

Fright night set list

29 Saturday Oct 2022

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Given the everyday horror of the past few years – war, pandemic, the political right – it’s getting hard for a humble, candy-fueled monster holiday to compete. Luckily we still have the music. This post celebrates fright night with a set list of seasonally appropriate tunes covering a good range of monster diversity.

Justin Roberts gets called a kids songster but I think his tunes are for everyone who’s not quite finished growing up. He’s fun and whimsical and not afraid to be silly. And his songs will get stuck in your head like that gum on the underside of your chair at assembly. His “Trick or Treat” captures all the action of the nighttime candy run from a kid’s point of view and thus is an appropriate opening to our proceedings. The Freddie Steady 5 also strike just the right seasonal mood with their spirited cover of P.F. Sloan’s “Halloween Mary.” They take the tune out its original folk rock register to deliver a more pub rock easy-going party feel. Let the party begin!

Justin Roberts – Trick or Treat
The Freddie Steady 5 – Halloween Mary

Alright kids, we know you’re mostly here for the candy but deep down you’re also up for a bit of fright. Time to bring in the monsters. Don’t worry, we’ll ease you in with the pleasant Byrdsian psychedelic  vibes of Pseudonym on “Before the Monsters Came.” Then the elusive and mysterious Clovis Roblaine sounds like he’s cooped up in his castle on a hill at the start of his “Monster Love.” But as he gets going we’re transported to what sounds like a 1970s riff on all those old cartoony drive-in movie monster encounters. Like Rocky Horror but without all the cross-dressing. Then there’s Timmy Sean’s “She’s a Monster” from his poprock musical A Tale From the Other Side where the creature sounds very 50 foot women-ish put through a serious ELO soundtrack filter. So far the monsters are pretty low on terror but come with popcorn.

Clovis Roblaine – Monster Love

One band reliably up for a holiday musical tribute is Vista Blue. “Boy Beast” is the flip side to their Halloween single release “Victor Crowley” and I liked this b-side just a bit more for its imagery and pulsing energy. The band also appear on Radiant Radish’s timely, pumpkin-approved collection Time of the Season. The whole album is great, it’s free, and it also includes a band called The John Carpenter’s The Things doing a mad rush of a song called “Here’s The Thing.” It’s poppy and punky with some great early 1980s synth background runs holding everything together. Aimee Mann’s “Frankenstein” is obviously on point for our theme. Do I really need much of an excuse to include anything by Mann? No. But listen to the sophisticated lyrics here amid a layering in of so many interesting musical adornments. Talent bleeds out of this gal like an open wound. Indie darlings Kiwi Jr. serve up some “Wicked Witches” because it can’t be All Hallow’s Eve without some serious sorcery.

Aimee Mann – Frankenstein

Now if we really want to move into more scary territory we’ve got to get to the zombie and vampire portion of our programming. Modern horror definitely leans on these two players to up the terror quotient. Sal Baglio uses his band The Amplifier Heads to bring The Band back from the dead with his spot-on Band-like reincarnation of their sound on “Zombie Moon.” Warning, things get a bit hairy near the end (as they should). During a zombie apocalypse it’s all too easy to forget your partner’s many co-dependent observations about your shortcomings. Luckily we have B.A. Johnston to keep us focused with “You Will Miss Me When the Zombies Come.” Not that you’ll remember. Ok, on to vampires with The Orion Experience’s disco poprock vamp of a tune “Vampire.” The ‘ooh ooh’s so remind of those creepy Tommy Lee Jones photo shoot scenes from The Eyes of Laura Mars. Tired of those impersonal representations of vampires? Italy’s Bee Bee Sea give them some personality on the rollicking “Vampire George.” I love the Together Pangea vibe on this performance, combining swing with hooks and just a touch of punky swagger.

Our last stop on the fright night scare tour is ghost city, just so the mood will linger. Copenhagen’s Surf School Dropouts are such a curious outfit. Are beaches in Denmark much like California? Because they’ve got the California beach sound down. And just how hard is surf school anyway? Whatever. “Attack of the Ghost Hot Rods!” takes us back into the fun zone of this holiday with goofy lyrics, sound effects, and killer guitar licks. By contrast, Look Park’s “I’m Going to Haunt This Place” is more mellow, a bit maudlin. Haunting really.

Well kids I hope the candy was worth it. Because soon the frights won’t end when the monsters take off the mask. They’ll just be starting.

Hits for All Hallow’s Eve

29 Friday Oct 2021

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Welcome to Poprock Record’s first-ever hook-filled Halloween special post! I mean, why should some 2000+ year old’s birthday get all the holiday music attention? To rectify that unhappy state of affairs we’ve assembled a guitar-wielding crew of scary monsters and super freaks to haunt your All Hallow’s Eve with some seasonally appropriate tune-age. Get ready to mash!

Normally I’d say Detroit’s Kickstand Band offer up heavenly vocal harmonies but this time they’re drawing from their darker angels for a Halloween Special double-sided single. “Under a Bad Sign” sets the tone for our horror-accented musical proceedings with its eerie, otherworldly ambience. It’s a song that wouldn’t be out of place in a Russ Meyer film circa Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Then we get right into substance of fright night with Freedom Fry’s wonderfully eccentric “Monster,” complete with distant church bells and a xylophone right out of B-movie sound-effects central-casting. Did you know things get scary in Edmonton? They do, if The Lad Mags’ “Dig My Grave” is anything to go by. It’s a 45 where festive moaning and groaning gives way to a groovy go go dance beat that will have you snapping your fingers and shaking your groove thing. Nashville’s fave pop punkers Vista Blue go all out for this holiday with a new EP New Nightmares that celebrates all that slasher movie mayhem. The four contributions are maximum fun but just a bit more maximum-er for me is “Where Do You Want to Sleep?” with its Beach Boys-meets-The Ramones vibe. Ok, these next two numbers come completely out of left field. Drew Beskin’s double-barreled contribution to the season is the swinging poppy “Lisa Simpson Fangs” backed with the more mellow “Horror Movie Plot.” The two sides blow hot and cold, one boppy and catchy, the other languid and serene. Former My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way strips things back to their hooky essentials on “Baby You’re a Haunted House.” Besides providing our ever-so-appropriate mast graphic, his ‘skeleton’ crew really deliver the goods with a great noisy – yet still melodic – wonder.

Now that we’re in the mood, it’s time to turn to the creatures of the night, the real stars of this holiday. They’re probably coming to your door right now, eager for candy, itching to unleash some tricks. Ken Sharp welcomes a “Hellcat” to the usual menagerie of Halloween’s ghoulish guest stars. Ok, maybe his use is more metaphoric than literal but I couldn’t help adding it to the playlist with its captivating bubblegum-glam shuffle sound and Sharp’s beguiling vocals. The Embrooks welcome one of the evening’s usual suspects, a 1960s garage-psych “Human Living Vampire.” Think Christopher Lee as the mod, mod prince of darkness put in charge of the Hi-Fi. Boston’s Amplifier Heads have got a thing about ghosts, with three different songs titled for those otherworldly apparitions. “Ghost Song” from Music for Abandoned Amusement Parks invokes October’s chill and a night so still over a hooky “Needles and Pins” ish set of chords. LA’s Allah-Las have got that spooky desert vibe going strong with their killer instrumental “No Werewolf” from 2014’s Worship the Sun. This is definitely music to not ‘open that door’ or ‘go down into the basement’ to. Glaswegians U.S. Highball do a jangle makeover on a classic holiday monster with “My Frankenstein” and you won’t recognize the results. Can you say well-adjusted much? This time the brutish creation is a happy go lucky tune that will have you humming with contented delight. Pop iconoclasts Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin round out the cast of scary characters with “All Hail Dracula.” It’s a pro-vampire kind of take on demon/non-demon relationships, delivered with a slew of cool indie hooks.

And now for something not quite completely different, one of our fave poprockers has expanded into filmmaking. If you’re looking for something seasonally appropriate in terms of scary things to watch, check out the original popmonster Greg Pope’s new movie, There’s Something in the Lake. He did the music (duh!) but also wrote and directed it. It’s scary how talented that guy is. You can watch the short film it was based on and rent the full feature here.

Hey, thanks for making this Hallo-scene, our inaugural celebration of the candy-laden dark holiday. Now it wouldn’t be complete without a closing anthem of sorts and Tampa’s The Easy Button have conveniently supplied one, a ringing chordy number appropriately titled “Happy Halloscene.”  Click on the band hyperlinks to complete your Halloween hits collection or just check out these bands’ many other musical treats on offer.

The single file II

27 Sunday Dec 2020

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Holidays come and go and but singles don’t review themselves. That’s why I’m back here hard at work to clear a backlog of delicious three-or-so minute melodic treats. This is a fun, curious collection of tunes: a bit punky, all poppy, some serious, others mocking. In other words, something for everyone!

Written at the end of the summer, “There Goes the Sun” captures the wistful joy of those sun-filled days, one we’re definitely missing around here right now. Even though Vista Blue admit ‘we don’t live in a Beach Boys song’ they’re taking what sun they can get. The song brims with the band’s usual punky poprock vitality, with just a dollop of lush beach-strip background vocals. With Boston retro new wave outfit Muck and the Mires its a cheeky rave-up on “She Blocked My Number.” In my head, I can hear a killer Knack rendition of this ditty but that’s not saying this original doesn’t cut it. These guys are party rock and roll plus, a feeling that courses through this track. Taking things in a more serious direction, we have Sean Lund (of the fab Lund Brothers) going solo with “The Harder They Fall.” This is not a Jimmy Cliff cover. Instead Lund offers up a subtle poppy groove that is very Beatles’ White Album in tone, with an equally subdued but nevertheless effective political commentary. Cleveland’s Bill March has done his time in the trenches, a stalwart of his local music scene as band member and sideman to many projects. But lately he’s stepped out the shadows with some dynamite singles and extended play releases. 2018’s Songs from the Lifetime had a killer single in “I Need a Night” and his recent Home Remedies has the AM radio-friendly “Don’t Turn Away.” If that ringing 12 string electric sounds familiar, it should – it’s Billy Sullivan’s distinctive playing. Cheap Star have a slick gleam of power pop coating all over “Flower Girl.” Maybe that’s a predictable outcome when you’ve got member of Fountains of Wayne and The Posies playing with you. But, in the end, “Flower Girl” really works because its got the hooks.

Bill March – Don’t Turn Away

Jeff Gammill is having a busy year, despite COVID. His band Nite Sobs is heading for a host of year-end ‘best of’ lists for their fantastic debut Do the Sob! and people (like me) are still discovering the plenty-pleasing back catalogue for his old band, The Capitalist Kids. Now he’s got a solo thing going as ‘Jittery’ Jeff Gammill with the sprightly, punkish single “Good News (I’m Over You)” and it’s a winner. Just another delightful side to this talented guy. Portland’s Corvair mine what sounds like a new wave Moody Blues synthesis to me on “Sunday Runner,” a teaser single from their soon-to-be released debut. The organ on this song is so 1967 but the vocals are pure 1980. This husband and wife team are veterans of many indie bands, including Eux Autres, which bodes well for the rest of the album. Located in West Kirby at the northwestern tip of Merseyside’s Wirral peninsula, West Coast Music Club take their name from their geography. But they might as well be somewhere in California in 1966 because they’ve got the jangle guitar vibe down. “The Long Goodbye” is a reverb-drenched, guitar-heavy end-of-year bonus track from a band that already put out an album and EP this year. Very Vapor Trails on this song but the band offer a broader range of 1960s-inspired material on their longer players. Toronto’s Talk Show are cruising some nice punk pop on “This Monologue” when suddenly the chorus breaks out a serious ear-worm-worthy set of hooks. Can’t wait to hear the rest of what they’ve been up to when the whole album drops next February. To end things on this rifle-through-the-singles-bin post, Space Cadet’s “Forever for a While” is mad blast of rushing guitars and somewhat spacey, compressed vocals. It’s like Britpop meets an earlier generation of guitar poprock a la Simple Minds or INXS and the synthesis is very, very good.

As a product of the last gasp of 1970s AM radio dominance, I’ll always be a singles guy. Or maybe I’m just too distract-able for albums. Whatever. Needle-drop your way through these ten tunes and find yourself a year end fave, before it’s too late.

Holiday hit parade

17 Thursday Dec 2020

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Under normal circumstances we’d be reeling from the nearly toxic levels of holiday music saturation going on. Every shop, office or mall would be wall-to-wall Santa tunes, with a few mentions of that Jesus guy for good measure. And here I’d come along making the case for even more eggnog-splattered tune-age but with a significantly higher quotient of hooks. But not this year. Lockdown has put the holiday music hostage-taking on hold, at least somewhat. So I expect even greater tidings of joy to accompany my annual holiday hit parade offerings! Forget tinsel, let’s get a little reverb on that tree.

Kicking off our seasonal singles is fab contribution from Lisa Mychols. Last year Williamsport Grade 8 math teacher and aspiring songwriter Brian Fagnano wrote me late in the season to alert me to this great tune he’d written and convinced Mychols to record (sometimes cold-calling actually works!) and the result, “Ringing Bells on Christmas Day,” is fantastic, an instant classic! His note came too late to include the song in last year’s holiday post but I’ve kept it aside to feature this year. The track has a great Spector-ish quality to it, particularly in the song structure, with an updated, chiming indie-charm production-wise. This one’s going into an eggnog-with-rum level of rotation.

Another last-year Christmas song contribution came from the uber talented Brothers Steve. In addition to releasing a highly celebrated debut album (#1, reviewed here) the boys managed to get out a double-A-sided seasonal single. Last year’s post had one of the songs and this year I’m featuring the other, “I Love the Christmastime.” It’s got an early period Squeeze-like appeal, so 1980, in the best sort of way. The song also appears on the Big Stir Singles: The Yultide Wave with a load of other great tunes and artists (check out the whole package here). Another reliable band of hooky holiday music providers is Vista Blue with a whole album of festive tunes and one-off singles. But this year they blew the doors off on the doing-the-holiday-music thing with their Ralphie’s Red Ryders project and its accompanying album You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out. What a wonderful tribute to everyone’s fave anxiety-fueled holiday movie classic, A Christmas Story. And the songs are great too! I included “I’m Gonna Get an A+ on My Theme” because it’s my fave at this particular moment – that could (will) change. Growing up Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Paper” was a holiday 45 must play. Roy’s gone but a bit of him lives on in a raft of current releases from the Ruen Brothers, like their brand new holiday song, “This Wholesome Christmas Eve.” The boys nail the guitar ambience and songwriting style of 1962 while the vocals really are heavenly.

Ruen Brothers – This Wholesome Christmas Eve

The holidays offer performers an immense catalogue of now-classic material to cover in their bid to get a piece of that seasonal download/streaming action. But not all remakes are made equally. Nick Lowe is ‘old reliable’ in his ability to cover a tune and practically reinvent it. His collection of seasonal songs, Quality Street, as aptly named, and not in the cheap chocolates sort of way. This year he dropped two more holiday songs on us, one a cover of “Let It Snow.” With the able backing of his regulars Los Straightjackets, Nick largely lets the song’s hooky melody do all the work and the result are candy cane good. Indie darlings Peggy Sue strike a similar guitar pose with their cover of the venerable “White Christmas,” with just a shiver of their distinctive other-worldly Blue Velvet-style on the vocals. Power pop master Greg Pope gets right to work cranking the guitar all over “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” shifting from reverby lead to power chords with solid melodic effect. A less obvious pairing sees melodic noise-ster Velco Mary add some swing to the otherwise rather more typically morose “Silent Night.” But, hey, it works, giving the song some as-yet undiscovered pep.

Velcro Mary – Silent Night

Ok, back to new holiday songs. Dolour has definitely been good this year, releasing copious amounts of great material, both albums and singles. No coal for these guys. But they have more to give! Like “All Winter Long,” a contribution to the season with a nice McCartney “Wonderful Christmastime” ambience. Nick Piunti and the Complicated Men’s “Christmas Morning” is a more upbeat take on festive music, with both their signature jangle and Bryan Adams-meets-Elvis Costello vocals in attendance. Now here’s a timely seasonal tune, in more ways than one: The Jac (featuring the Christmas crew)’s “I Won’t Be Leaving Home for Christmas.” I mean, no metaphor here. We’re locked down or should be, for everyone’s sakes. Still, Jangle band and The Jac main man Joe Algeri manages to make it sound light and uplifting, with a sing-along feel and great harmonies. Now slipping back a few years, here’s a winning Christmas selection from Trolley’s Star of Wonder album, “Christmas in the Marketplace.” The guitar riffing alone here makes this song sparkle.

We wrap up this installment of our holiday hit parade by coming full circle, back to Lisa Mychols, this time working with Super 8. The duo wowed listeners with the obvious musical chemistry all over their self-titled debut effort this past summer, one that managed to effectively vibe sun, sand and a bit of surf. Now they take aim at winter with “Red Bird,” and the track is more proof that what they’ve got going is no fluke. The song is easy-going and breezy like an afternoon skate on an outdoor rink.

Merry happy to you this season dear readers, wherever you are and whatever you believe. I hope your holidays are filled with hooks that get cranked to 11.

Photo credit: Larry Gordon.

Summer is coming!

29 Wednesday Apr 2020

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summer-is-comingWith sunshine and a hint of spring heat in the air, people are starting to think about summer. And just what is summer going to be like with face masks and gloves and social distancing? It’s going to look like a very polite zombie apocalypse, that’s what. Acerbic Toronto-based pop artist Rob Elliott colourfully captures our likely regimented future in the above graphic (check out his hilarious, biting Pandemic Diary) so I’ll do a creative take on the music side of things.

What got me thinking on this theme was hearing “Almost Summer” from Steven Wright-Mark’s 2012 LP My Plastic World. I’d heard it poking around his three albums of material on iTunes after checking out his latest EP Wake UP!, which is also pretty special (personally, I’m loving “Underground” from the new release). It’s got ringing guitars and shimmery harmony vocals – I mean, what’s not to like? Denmark’s Tommy and the Rockets come on a bit more Beach Boys-meets-Ramones on “Here Comes Summer.” You can almost smell the mixture of stale beer and salt sea air. London’s The Speedways suggest we’re headed for “Just Another Regular Summer.” Uh, not. Of course nobody in 2018 could predict we’d be stuck in pandemic town. San Francisco’s Propeller may short out the details on their blissful Teenage Fanclubby “Summer Arrives” but the feeling of freedom is definitely real.

Steven Wright-Mark – Almost Summer

But what is summer 2020 going to be like? Norway’s Sweden might be banking on a “Barefoot Summer.” I love the rush of this track, with its hooky descending lead guitar lines and pounding piano. Summer sounds fun here. Or it could be the “Summer of the Mosquito” if Melbourne’s Monnone Alone have anything to say about it. The title track of their 2019 release has the band sounding like a slightly less manic version of Titus Andronicus and that is totally OK. LA’s Earlimart haven’t released much in the last decade but one of their more recent songs was “Internet Summer,” surely a prescient 45 given our present circumstances. Everything will be just fine sing Vista Blue on their California-summer-1963 coated “Summer Wonderland” from last December’s EP Hit the Floor! I definitely feel like revving my woody (if only I knew what that was). Not bad for four boys from New Orleans presently camping out in Nashville.

Sweden – Barefoot SummerEarlimart – Internet Summer

Frankly, I think Velvet Crush literally crush all rivals in this 2020 summer song sweepstakes with “Weird Summer.” Yes, Bryan Hyland, it’s gonna be a long, lonely summer this time around. But there’s positive vibes out there aplenty with melodic treats like Michael Slawter’s “Summer’s Kind” on the turntable. Check out that sweet, sweet hooky lead guitar line! Finally, let’s leave things with grunge-meets-powerpop super group Cabana Wear and their song “Summer.” It’s peppy and a bit ambiguous, kinda like our future.

Velvet Crush – Weird Summer

With summer tours cancelled and musicians everywhere desperately strumming their acoustic guitars online for e-change, it’s definitely time to pony up for some great recordings. Like these. Do the click thing and get the money-go-round moving.