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Seven Decades Of Melodic Rock & Roll

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13 Jun 2014
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New Music For Your Weekend

Hot NunToday’s round-up of new music now making the rounds on Pop That Goes Crunch radio disproves the notion that Power Pop, and its sub-genres, is one-dimensional and repetitive.

Hot Nun, “A Little Too”: Jeff Shelton turns the volume up to 12 (11 is for wimps) on this melodic, metallic fist-pumper ripped from 1975. Transport yourself to the Oakland Arena and make sure to bring a cigarette lighter along to raise up high during the poignant parts:

The Corner Laughers, “Midsommar”: This is the yang to Hot Nun’s yin. The Corner Laughers already have about 5,000 songs spinning in rotation on Pop That Goes Crunch radio. “Midsommar” carries on their tradition quite well, with its ukelele, its clever paean to Sweden’s summer solstice, and its overall sunny disposition. Feel the melodic sunshine warming your skin:

TV Girl, “Birds Don’t Sing”: This is a bit of West Coast Pop and French Pop blended with a subtle hip hop beat and noises and voices that would have been called “tape loops” in ancient times. If this three-plus minutes of joyful happiness doesn’t brighten your day, your day is simply incapable of brightening:

The Bon Mots, “Galahad”: Four songs from the band’s new longplayer, Best Revenge, were added to Pop That Goes Crunch radio. You can stream the entire album here. I’m sharing “Galahad” because it nicely follows the previous two songs with its jaunty, bouncy rhythms, subtle jangling guitars and hook-laden melody:

Trip Wire, “Stay”: This is mid-tempo Power Pop that relentlessly pounds its way into your brain. I try not to make comparisons between bands, but let’s just say that “Stay” had kind of that rocking yet “peaceful, easy feeling” for which this band is particularly known. That makes it great, so listen to it right here, and then get it on Bandcamp:

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So there’s five new songs to add joy to your day. Support the artists since they are working hard for you, and check out the radio station, too.

 

 

 

 

 

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23 May 2014
2 Comments

The Legal Matters Deliver Perfect Harmony

The Legal Matters

Some albums grab you immediately and refuse to let go. You wake up, and one of its songs is in your mind. You’re at work, and another one is seemingly in your ear. You’re making dinner, and yet another one is bouncing around relentlessly in your head. And so on, and so on and so on.

The self-titled debut by The Legal Matters is one of those records. The Legal Matters is a “rockin’ pop project containing equal parts Chris Richards, Andy Reed and Keith Klingensmith,” each of whom has been discussed many times previously on these pages. Given that life’s too short to write about bad music (or even mediocre music, for that matter), it is hardly surprising that I would at least “like” this “rocking’ pop” effort.

That, however, is quite an understatement. The whole of this combination is greater than the sum of its three “equal parts.” The Legal Matters is the best long-player I have heard so far this year. It is hard to imagine anything coming out in the second-half of the year to eclipse it.

The opening track, “Rite Of Spring,” sets the tone for the album in its first few seconds. A simple keyboard riff over strummed guitars bathes the revelry about the perfect girl in undeniable warmth and sweetness. You can feel the sunshine on your skin by the time the million-dollar three-part harmonies kick in at about the one-minute mark:

Gorgeous harmonies are all over this record. Richards, Reed and Klingensmith are superb singers on their own. This record makes the case, though, that they should be singing together until they can sing no more. Check out, in particular, how the harmonies sung during the chorus add a sense of hope to the longing that otherwise characterizes “Have You Changed Your Mind?”

Indeed, several songs on the album adroitly play the bitter against the sweet. “So Long Sunny Days” hides its own sense of longing and melancholy in three-minutes of absolutely perfect melodies. “Mary Anne” is probably the prettiest song about a life full of regret that you will hear this year.

None of this means that the Legal Matters can’t “rock” when they want. But they do it without trying to beat you over the head. “The Legend Of Walter Wright” — a man who was “remarkably clean and mildly polite” — may be the best song in the collection. It will have you reflexively increasing the volume on the car stereo whenever it comes on as you drive around town:

 

Delivering “only” ten songs over thirty-five minutes, The Legal Matters recalls a time when the space limitations of vinyl meant that truly great artists only waxed their best ideas. There is no fluff here, and not a moment of time is wasted from start to finish.

So, run, don’t walk, to wherever you go to buy the finest music, and get The Legal Matters as soon as you can.

Posted in Music and tagged , , , , , ,
18 May 2014

Retro New Music Sunday

Here’s your weekend round-up of what’s new, cool and now spinning in rotation at Pop That Goes Crunch radio.

phonograph

phonograph — “Don’t Bring Me Down” — In days gone by, this band’s debut collection of radio-ready melodic guitar pop (titled simply, Vol 1) would have yielded an entire basketful of hit songs. So I added four of them to the station. “Don’t Bring Me Down” makes you think for a couple of minutes that its 1965 again. It brazenly breaks no new ground at all. It’s just a couple of guitars, some voices, a bass and some drums living together in perfect harmony:

Dropkick — “Halfway Round Again” — This bit of laid-back jangle pop also stops for a while in 1965, before the band applies a slightly more contemporary gloss to the track’s basic retro stylings:

The Cocktail Slippers, “You Give Me”: The Cocktail Slippers are stridently and unapologetically retro. This bit of foot-pounding, head-bopping call-and-response garage stomp fits perfectly into their oeuvre. You can hear the studio version right here, but also check out the very cool live version recorded on Valentine’s Day:

Andy Klingensmith, “Pangea”: This one appeared on Bandcamp just yesterday. “Bored, so here’s a new solo single,” said Klingensmith on his Facebook page. Well, then, let’s raise a glass to boredom! “Pangea” is beautiful acoustic psych-folk featuring just Klingensmith’s multi-layered voice and his guitars in the vein of his 2013 debut which yielded a song on my year-end Top 20 list. The short break beginning at about 1:13 is awfully pretty:

Static In Verona, “Bitter Branches”: Chicago-based musician Rob Merz plays and sings everything on a wonderfully eclectic album of dreamy, often symphonic pop with occasional electronic flourishes. Merz’ gorgeous vocals play off stunningly against the wall of sound in “Bitter Branches,” one of the more rocking tracks on Everything You Knew Before You Knew Everything:

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So there’a another five new tracks to sample on a Sunday, but this time with a decidedly retro twist. Listen, support the artists and check out Pop That Goes Crunch radio, where the playlist has grown to more than 1,100 songs, and will keep on growing.

 

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04 May 2014

Some More New Music For A Sunday

Propeller

Another Sunday brings another five new and cool songs now spinning in rotation at Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Check them out there, and right here:

Propeller, “You Remind Me Of You”: A future dictionary could identify this song as an example of the classic Power Pop sound. Its three-minutes of hooks and harmonies designed undoubtedly to ring around in your head for days. It’s also is a shoo-in for my year-end list of the best songs of the year:

Attic Lights, “Known Outsider”: This previously unreleased track is available as a B-side to a special release of the band’s tribute to Roy Orbison, a track also spinning in rotation over at the radio station. “Known Outsider” has that peaceful easy guitar pop feeling of latter-day Teenage Fanclub, which means that you should embrace it immediately:

The Green Tambourine Band, “I’m Free”: This Scottish band creates “garage/psych folk-rock” on “vintage analogue gear.” That’s a perfect description. “I’m Free” is a bit of jangly guitar pop enhanced by Mellotron flourishes. Catch this vintage groove:

The Smoove Sailors vs. Ballard, “Piece Of The Dream:” I wrote recently about the one-man band called Ballard. Smoove Sailors is a band out of Jersey City, New Jersey. Here, the man behind Ballard, Darren Riley, says that he would write a song, such as “Piece Of The Dream,” send the band an acoustic demo “and they’d send me back a full backing track for me to put my vocals on.” That inter-continental collaboration works quite well. “Piece Of A Dream” is delightfully uncomplicated Power Pop that will cause unconscious head-bopping:

Dr. Nod, “Walking The Dog”: I know absolutely nothing about this act, except that its double-sided single was released by The Active Listener, whose blog is listed in the Blogroll to your right. That means that it will at least be interesting. “Walking The Dog” has a kind of early-90s “alt rock”/psych/noise pop feel to it and creates a nice hook out of seeming monotony:

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So there’a another five new tracks to check out on a lazy Sunday. Listen, support the artists and check out Pop That Goes Crunch radio, where the playlist has grown to more than 1,000 songs.

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20 Apr 2014
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Easter Sunday Round-Up Of New Tunes

Flora Fauna

Easter Sunday brings a basket full of sweet new treats spinning in rotation at Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Although the first song has a winter theme, you’ll ultimately see a lot of “sun” in this week’s round-up.

Fauna Flora, “The Arms of Winter”: Fauna Flora is the new project of Steve Ward, formerly of Cherry Twister. Its self-titled debut album is relentlessly beautiful collection of soft and loud(er) pop songs, with occasional strings and anchored by Ward’s consistently rich and expressive vocals. “The Arms Of Winter” is a bit of glorious chamber pop:

Sunrise Highway, “Windows”: I wrote a short piece on their cool bit of sand and surf jangle pop, “Endless Summer,” at the end of last summer. “Windows,” the title track from a soon-to-be-released long-player, is cut from a similar cloth with its laid back, jangly guitars and gorgeous West Coast pop harmonies. Here’s a preview:

Sunshine On Mars, “Lower Your Standards”: This virtual band-by-file sharing — an “ill -advised cross-country music collaboration of 3 Facebook friends,” as they say — does covers, and nothing else. Two of its previous digital downloads — “Feelin’ So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y. D.O.O)” and “Sugar, Sugar” — give you a good idea of the sensibility at play here. This is not music that takes itself too seriously, or even seriously at all. Their brand spanking new cover of Slow Runner’s “Lower Your Standards” ups the bubblegum quotient substantially over the original. That’s a good thing, trust me:

Sunday Sun, “Sunday Morning”: This one comes right out of the gate as unabashed bubblegum, and continues dishing out sweet gobs of sticky goo for the next two-and-a-half-minutes. That, of course, makes it quite delectable. Make sure you brush your teeth after this one:

Ballard, “Take Good Care”: Darren Riley, recording as Ballard, says this one resulted from a challenge “to write and record an Everly Brothers-inspired song in a couple of hours.” That’s a good description of this decidedly old school stomper, complete with pounding drums, slightly twangy guitar and a simple sing-along chorus. There is nothing at all complicated here, just good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll:

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So there you have five new tracks to savor this Sunday. Listen, support the artists and check out Pop That Goes Crunch radio, where the playlist has grown to 1,000 songs.

 

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13 Apr 2014
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Some More New Music Nuggets For Your Sunday

The Sharp Things

Here’s another round-up of some of the best recent additions to the rotation at Pop That Goes Crunch radio.

The Sharp Things, “An Ocean, Part Deux”: This track appeared originally on 2007’s wonderful A Moveable Feast. Here it is, however, in a glorious and spirited live version  record last September at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn. I’m not normally a fan of live albums, but this nine-song set shows just how deftly this multi-instrumentalist collective — about whom I have written previously, here and here — handles intricately arranged symphonic pop music in real-time:

Nine Times Blue, “Falling After You”: The band’s new EP, Matter of Time, contains six beautifully crafted, timeless pieces of bass-guitar-drum melodic rock that ends far too quickly. “Falling After You” hooks you immediately with its extended opening guitar riff. Here’s the band performing it live in Atlanta last July:

Phil Ajjarapu, “Sing Along Until You Feel Better”: Ajjarapu crafts West Coast Pop with multi-tracked vocals and swirling harmonies, punctuated by an occasional rock riff, in Austin, Texas, of course. This two-and-a-half minutes of Sunshine Pop is a contender for my year-end “best of” list:

Spirit Kid, “Slow It Down”: The title of this track is the misnomer of year. “Slow It Down” is frenetic, foot-pounding, head-bopping three-chord Power Pop with a decided Buzzcocks‘ underbelly. You won’t be able to sit still while listening:

The Crush, “The Hook”: This is big, 70s-style melodic rock with a pounding, relentless beat and a bushel full of hooks, befitting its title perfectly:

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Each of these songs, along with nine-hundred others, are spinning 24/7 on Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Support the artists, buy their music and check out the station while you are at it.

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06 Apr 2014

Some More New Music Treats For Sunday

Nick PiuntiIts Sunday. That means its time for a round-up of some of the recently-added tracks streaming 24/7 at Pop  That Goes Crunch radio. This week features a bevy of great new music.

Nick Piunti, “Believe It”: This is one of two bonus songs on the forthcoming vinyl release of 13 In My Head, the title track of which captured the number three slot on my “best of 2013.” “Believe It” is a classic mid-tempo guitar rocker anchored by Piunti’s distinctive vocals. If there is a better rock singer around today, I have yet to hear him or her:

Grant Lindberg, “Whatever”: Lindberg is a prolific “one-man band recording rock music in the vein of Superdrag, Brendan Benson, Cheap Trick, Jason Falkner, Nirvana and Ash.” I’ve added three songs from his new long-player, Artificial Inspiration, to the station. “Whatever” does quite a good job of pounding its way relentlessly into your mind for a couple of minutes. Before you know it, you’ll be singing to yourself “whatever you want, whatever you want, whatever you need, whatever you need” over-and-over again:

The New Mendicants, “Cruel Annette”: The New Mendicants feature Joe Pernice and Norman Blake. They take turns singing lead on “Cruel Annette,” and they also create absolutely gorgeous harmonies together. “Cruel Annette” is that rare song that manages to be both relaxed and rather rocking at the same time:

Evil Arrows, “Gods of Light”: Bryan Scary is on a roll with Evil Arrows. I featured the very cool “Jennifer Kills The Giant (Once A Week)” in a recent post. “Gods of Light” has a similar slightly off-kilter mid-80’s English new wave pop and 70’s glam feel to it. In my book, that makes it rather brilliant:

Greg Ieronimo, “Roller Coaster Ride”: Ieronimo recently released a seven-track kind-of long-player of fairly elaborate and lushly produced Power Pop. The entire album is recommended, and can be downloaded here. “Roller Coaster Ride” kicks off the set perfectly by throwing what seems like a couple of dozen hooks your way in the first twenty seconds:

Wait, there’s more:

I’ve added both of the Nick Piunti bonus tracks to the station. The other track, “Quicksand” is an acoustic piece featuring more of those great vocals, and one of the most inviting choruses you’ll likely hear this year:

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Each of these songs, along with nine-hundred others, are spinning 24/7 on Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Support the artists, buy their music and check out the station while you are at it.

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23 Mar 2014
1 Comment

Sunday Round-Up From The Car Wash

Jeyllybricks

Stuck for a couple of hours at a Wi-Fi enabled car wash to see if they can remove evidence of malicious “keying” by a bunch of unruly heshers in a shopping center parking lot? That presents a grand opportunity to update you on some more recent additions to Pop That Goes Crunch radio.

The Jellybricks, “Probably Me” — Bright and shiny guitar-driven Power Pop by a favorite over at the station, who now have seven tracks spinning in rotation. Love the key line of the chorus: “something’s gotta give, and it’s probably me/there’s a hole in my chest where my heart used to be”:

Orgone Box, “Ticket With No Return” — The Active Listener blog, which is featured at the Blogroll to your right, recently released the “retweaked and perfected” digital version of the 90’s classic long-player, Centauar, on Bandcamp. I added four tracks from Centaur to the station recently, which is more than usual from one album. “Ticket With No Return” is pop-psych perfection, featuring the kind of handmade attention to detail found on such other favorites as Cotton Mather’s Kontiki:

Greater California, “The Foolish Son” — This is five years old. It deserves a whole lot more attention, particularly as summertime starts coming into view. Its beautifully constructed West Coast Pop driven by gorgeous harmonies to savor as the days grow longer:

Gen Pop, “Warm Sun” — Some jaunty, breezy guitar pop from Wisconsin. They’ve got a nine-track, name-your-price download over at Bandcamp that you should check out in full. But in the meantime, drink down the bittersweet summer drink of “Warm Sun” punctuated by some way cool glockenspiel:

Goodman, “Isn’t It Sad” — Michael Goodman creates one-man-band Power Pop with garage rock undertones from his perch in Brooklyn. The rockin’ title track from his new longplayer will have you poppin’ and boppin’ all day long:

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Well, that’s all I’ve got time to share with you today, since my vehicle is close to looking new again. After you’ve checked out these five songs, give a listen to the radio station, right here.

 

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05 Mar 2014
1 Comment

Toxic Melons Deserve Your Support

Toxic Melons -- Bus ThearpyThe last post on this site discussed five tracks that proved to be quite popular in the inaugural month of Pop That Goes Crunch radio. One of the highlighted tracks is “Diffidence” by Toxic Melons. I’ve now had a chance to listen to the soon-to-be released Bus Therapy by Paul Fairbairn and pals in its entirety. It is one of the most wildly eclectic pop albums you likely will hear this year, or any other year for that matter. A Kickstarter campaign is nearing its conclusion. Here’s why you should happily contribute to this effort, as I did last month.

Fairbairn says on the Kickstarter page “if you’re a fan of The Beatles, Jellyfish, Queen, The Beach Boys, E.L.O and Power Pop in general, I think you might enjoy the album!” Indeed you will as Bus Therapy takes you on a dizzying roadtrip through the last five decades of pop music in just thirty-three minutes.

The festivities begin rather quickly with “More Or Less,” a song about accepting that not everything in life is black or white but enjoying the “bumper ride” anyway, propelled by swirling keyboards and copious harmonies. “Journey” takes us on the first of many wide left turns — a slow instrumental right up front. “Let Me Sleep” is, well, a rather sleepy track about begging to sleep for another ten minutes and features a nicely placed glam flourish here and there.

The two best tracks come soon thereafter.

“Change The World” is sung beautifully throughout by Linus Of Hollywood. Fairbairn’s keyboards and accordion, and the overall waltzing tempo of the track, give the whole thing a wonderfully circus-like feel.

Keith Klingensmith lends his pitch perfect vocals to the rather jaunty “Not In Love?” which, as far as I can tell, must have knocked an Elton John song off of the top spot on Billboard charts back when I was in elementary school. Like “Change The World,” it also has been added to Pop That Goes Crunch radio.

“Getting Old” wraps piano, strings and trumpet around decidedly craggy vocals about fighting the inevitable. Quite naturally, then, the track is followed by the closer, “Take Me Back” a bit of sublime Beach Boys pop nostalgia about days gone by.

You can stream the whole thing right here:

 

 

 

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01 Mar 2014
1 Comment

5 More Songs You Will Hear On Pop That Goes Crunch Radio

RadioMore then 500 hours of music was heard in the first month at Pop That Goes Crunch radio. More than 1,200 individual streams were launched, and the station page itself was visited more than 1,000 times. Its the third most popular “Power Pop” station on Live365 — not bad for the first month.

Here are five more tracks spinning in rotation that proved to be among the most popular songs in the first month. This is music that should be heard. You can hear it in this post — full tracks are embedded below — and you certainly can hear it on the station.

The Bye Bye Blackbirds — “All In Light” — This Bay Area band had the Number 10 song on my Best of 2013 list. “All In Light” opens their We Need The Rain long-player in a pounding, fist-pumping fashion before settling into three-plus minutes of hooks and harmonies:

And The Professors — “Our Postmortem” — This collective led by Adam Levy of The Honeydogs snagged the Number 8 song on my Best of 2013 list. The title track of their 2013 release closes that effort with a bit of Wilco-meets-ELO string-based rock:

Toxic Melons — “Diffidence” — Paul Fairbairn and friends mix West Coast Pop, strings and some tasty 70s-style lead guitar into an epic piece of melancholy:

The Shivvers — “Teen Line” — Now we’re shifting gears radically. This piece of stripped down old school Power Pop from 1980 becomes increasingly brilliant each time its heard. I could have embedded a simple audio track. Here, however, is the band kicking out the song sometime in the distant past on WMTV in Madison, Wisconsin:

The Loud Family — “Chicago And Miss Jovan’s Land-O-Mat”: Scott Miller’s original band, Game Theory, is a favorite and is well-represented on Pop That Goes Crunch radio. Although there is not necessarily anything “Midwestern” about this track that appears on Volume 4 of the Yellow Pills collection, this perfect piece of AM pop rock somehow transports me to Chicago whenever I hear it:

So, there’s another five rather popular tracks getting some serious airplay over at the radio station. Why not take a few minute and check it out?

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