powerpopaholic, Author at Powerpopholic

House of Summer Nights, Swedish Fish, HIJK

January 4, 2008September 5, 2024 powerpopaholic

The House of Summer Nights is a singer/songwriter Jason Kesler’s EP project. It has a poppy alt. country feel on the opening title track. “We Were Young” has a bouncy piano with a respectful nod to Brian Wilson. “Umbrella Sky” stays in that mode complete with sleigh bells. The remaining ballads are jazzy and countrified respectively.
My Space | CD Baby | Itunes

Swedish Fish “Dark Light” is similar to The Cranberries in style and sound lead by Martha Bouchier’s sweet vocals. Formed in 1985 they recently reunited at IPO Toronto. The synth and drum beats surround each tune, and a standout is the dramatic “Dark Light” and the guitar heavy “Lisp.” With 16 tracks, it has a lot of stylistic variety to choose from. It ranges from the sunshine pop of “See You in the Morning” to the angry “Secrets.” If you like new wavey power pop, this is a decent pick up produced by Jamie Vernon at Bullseye Records in Canada.
Bullseye Records | My Space

HIJK “The Pen and The Letter” is a different kind of indie pop band. They take influences from all over the map, and lead singer David Tsui weaves the melodic and the angst together similar to Loud Family meets U2 by way of the New Pornographers. This is very hard to pigeonhole, but it is original and interesting. If you want something hip from your alternative pop, you can’t do better. Each track is engrossing and unpredictable and that’s enough to put HIJK on your music radar. Listen to “Alibi” on the My Space page for a sample.
HIJK Site | MySpace | itunes

New Bryan Scary and the Shedding Tears coming!

January 3, 2008July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic 1 Comment

Bryan Scary made our top ten last year and already he’s got a follow up on the way. “Flight of the Knife” is due for release April 1, 2008. It was recorded with producer Brian McTear (Apollo Sunshine, Matt Pond PA) between tours last fall. Featuring a harder rocking sound and heavy emphasis on ensemble dynamics, Flight of the Knife captures the band’s acclaimed live sound while expanding upon the studio wizardry and lush eccentricities of Scary’s self-recorded debut, The Shredding Tears. As a special treat to their fans, the band is offering a FREE track to download every week leading up to the release, starting January 8th at FlightoftheKnife.com

Full album review will come soon.

Beachfield "Brighton Bothways"

January 2, 2008April 1, 2018 powerpopaholic

Beachfield is a new project for Go-Betweens drummer, vocalist Glenn Thompson, and it will appeal to fans of The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera and Crowded House. It’s got a casual breezy feel and tempo. The catchy “One Way Ticket” is a great hummable song and most of the album follows that template. Glenn Thompson’s stories range from the weather (“Wintertime Again”) to his Aussie neighbors (“Suburbian Life”). Most enjoyable track for me is the summery “Birds Eye View” complete with a wonderful silent break before the chorus. A lot of the album takes awhile to grow on you, as the tempos are all similar and this can lead to an auditory monotony. The ballads here like, “Demons” and “Danish Kronor” are okay, but nothing to get too excited about. This album is not so easily available in the states, except through Tower Records Online.

My Space | Eric’s Music | Amazon UK

The Hope Trust "The Incurable Want"

January 1, 2008July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic

The Hope Trust is the project of Kelly Upshaw, a singer-songwriter from Denton, Texas. Along with Andy Odom (bass), Winston Chapman (drums), Jeremy Butler (guitar) and Michael Upshaw (guitars, vocals) they have a sweet Americana sound similar to The Pernice Brothers earlier efforts and Wilco. After the rollicking “Break You Down” and very Pernice-like “Run It Through” it settles into an indie folk groove, with “Ok Alright” complete with wistful choruses similar to Neil Finn. The musicanship is superb and the production is clean here as well. If you like your alt-country with a bit of melodic melancholy, this is the perfect poison for you. On the other side of the coin, there may be too much gloom here with tracks like “Repent”, “World Without End” and “Mountain I Can’t Climb” – it’s enough to drive a man to drink. The lack of any upbeat songs after the opening tracks is a real downer here. Good job, Hope Trust. After hearing this I have an “incurable want” for some Jack Daniels with Gary Louris. Depressed Alt country lovers unite!

Hope Trust site | My Space | CD Baby | Itunes

Mitch Easter "Dynamico"

January 1, 2008July 17, 2017 powerpopaholic 3 Comments

I got several e-mails mentioning this as a year-end contender, and to be fair, it passed me by last month. So I will open the new year with this review. Most respected powerpopaholics knows who Mitch Easter is, but for the others, here is the skinny: Mitch is best known for producing R.E.M. during their rise to fame and as front man for the 80’s new wave pop band Let’s Active as well as a member of the Chris Stamey proto-Db’s band, Sneakers. In addition, he’s produced albums for The Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) and others. But I recognize him as one of the originators of the “jangle pop” movement. After almost twenty years later, the urge to release a solo record emerges.

“Dynamico” is a hell of debut. The same energy that typified the best of Let’s Active is here in spades. It mixes the classic jangle pop with heavy prog rock influences throughout. “Time Warping” opens things well with subtle hooks and hard driving rhythms. “You/Me” shows a bit of the heavier prog guitars with head banging drum work. Considering his hiatus from performing, he sounds great and carries all the tunes here. Another gem here is “Ton of Bricks” that starts off soft and roars to a cool guitar bridge. Every song is good, if not great and fans of Camper Van Beethoven will love the lyrical twists with the melodic assault. “Why is it so Hard?” has that familiar R.E.M. jangle and multi-tracked hooky goodness. “Glazed” adds a Beatlesque touch as well, and you begin to notice this isn’t some “mid-life crisis” for an active producer in the music business, but a true work of pop craftsmanship. A brilliant album without a doubt. This would have made my top ten, had I heard it earlier in 2007.

Mitch Easter site | My Space | eMusic

Listen to “Time Warping”