Pop That Goes Crunch!

New And Noteworthy Nuggets By The Jeanies, Trees and Timber and The Fad

Here’s a short rundown of new and noteworthy rockin’ pop nuggets that came across my virtual desk in recent days.

The Jeanies: “Amilee”/”Bad Side”: The Jeanies’ 2014 self-titled debut long-player nicely captured old-school Power Pop, with occasional nods to traditional rock ‘n’ roll, a stick or two of bubblegum and a whole lot of vintage 70’s sonics.

That recipe is in fine form on the band’s recently released digital single. “Amilee” is a muscular rocker about romantic perseverance even when she’s “slippin’ through my hands, again.” The flip side, “Bad Side,” is a slower, jangling r&b number featuring Joey Farber’s sweet, strong vocals and a very cool guitar flourish at about the 2:10 mark:

“Amilee”/”Bad Side” is highly recommended, and makes the band’s sophomore long-player highly anticipated. You can get the single, along with an early acoustic demo of “Amilee,” right here.

Trees and Timber, “Good Is In The Graveyard”/Official Music Video: Great rockin’ pop emanates from the Pacific Northwest these days, and Trees and Timber is among the region’s finest purveyors of the form. The band’s 2014 release, Hello My Name Is Love, is a stellar collection of pop tunes enlivened by occasionally biting humor.

The release of a fun music video for “Good Is In The Graveyard,” a rather catchy track from Hello My Name Is Love, presents a good opportunity to spread the word about a band that is deserving of attention. You can explore Hello right here. You can watch the video for “Good Is In The Graveyard” directly below:

The Fad, The Now Sound: This is not new at all. Its a collection of lost tracks recorded more than  three decades ago by “a three-piece Mod/Power Pop group who often dressed in ‘Star Trek’-type outfits” and whose 6 song EP was unfortunately “marred by the fact that their producer strong-armed them into speeding up the vocal tracks to almost Chipmunk-like speed.”

Sounds absolutely horrible, right? It’s actually one of the coolest things you will hear this year. Kool Kat Musik has resurrected 12 songs by the band, slowed the vocals to normal speed and unleashed this authentic bit of Mod revivalism on the unsuspecting. This is hip-shaking, head-bopping stuff. Try, for example, to sit still through “The Now Sound.” It’s physically impossible:

The same thing can be said about most of the tracks on this thirty-five minute collection. There is nothing even remotely innovative or groundbreaking here, but who cares? This is just good, clean fun from a bygone era of sharp, immediate and “to the point” songcraft. Start bopping along to “Broken Hearts” right here, and jump over to Kool Kat Musik and get The Now Sound.