Author: powerpopaholic

Imitation is often called the most sincere form of flattery. Marty Rudnick’s “More Songs about cars and girls” is a gushing love letter to Brian, Carl, Dennis Mike and Al (them Beach Boys). This is a power pop guilty pleasure, given even more credence from the supporting cast here. It’s produced by fan fave Michael Carpenter and includes backing vocals from Tommy Dunbar and Al Chan of the Rubinoos. This is a first class treatment of the material and Rudnick’s tunes are original enough, that you are not busy playing “spot the stolen riff or bassline” and just enjoying the music. Much like contemporaries, Jeffrey Foskett and Jeff Larson he makes this album perfect beach music. Without any bad vibes, all the tunes are light and sunny without a hint of depression to be found (unless you count a cover of Wilson’s “Until I Die”). This is a perfect album to lift your spirits if you’re down, from the light pop of “Lucky Day” to the gorgeous ballad “Only Heaven Knows.” Even a nice group of bonus tracks including vocal versions of the main tune, “Some Summer” and the Beatles “Yes It Is.” And the only thing I can find to be critical about is that it’s not so deep. Even the brothers Wilson added “In My Room” to an album of surf music to give it a small bit of introspection. But that’s being picky here.

MySpace | CD Baby | Moontown Productions | Not Lame | Kool Kat

Instead of making this a segment of one-hit wonders, I also felt “forgotten” hits could be featured. And Todd Rundgren’s songs fit right into that category. By the 1980s Todd and Utopia joined the New Wave bandwagon and while mainstream chart success eluded the group, they were a primary influence on many 90s bands and helped bring synths into power pop during the 80s. Always with a cult following, the masses might remember him from a minor hit called “Bang the Drum All Day” (peaked at #63 on the charts). “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” peaked at #82 and “Crybaby” and “Something To Fall Back On” did not chart.

Here is a small sampling of Utopia tracks from the 80s. Enjoy!

Listen to “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now”

Listen to “Something to Fall Back On”

Listen to “Crybaby”

These albums will be coming out later this month, but after hearing some advanced tracks on MySpace — it looks like these will be tough to beat for best power pop album of the year. Prepare to be blown away by these when they arrive:

• Jackdaw4 MySpace Page – Album out 10/22
• The Nines MySpace Page – Album out 10/??
• Favorita MySpace Page – Album out 10/24

Also coming soon will be the Powerpopaholic Album of the Year Poll. YOU, viewer will get to vote on the best Power Pop album of the year! Winners will get rankings on the final list.

There is a lot to love about Doug Bryan’s “Mad Love” — Bryan was leader of the Austin, TX based band Big Boss Groove and when it broke up, he concentrated on film editing. But after a meeting with Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook in 2005, Bryan got the creative juices flowing again. The result is this album. Bryan’s lyrics and storytelling ability are quite good and worth the repeat listening. “Long Gone” is a perfect example of this. It’s basically a scripted movie in under four minutes to a rock beat. Much like Tilbrook’s “Up The Junction” in storytelling, Doug has the goods. “Brand New Heartbeat” is chock full of cultural references. The production is DIY but very well done, much like The Breetles. “Hattie’s Coming Home” has a good low key guitar and a multi-tracked chorus that kicks butt. The sound is closest to other indie faves, Anton Barbeau and Johnathan Coulton. On some songs Doug is joined by his wife, Jill on backing vocals. “Corporation of Love” is a great Beatlesque pop tune with plenty of hooks and those great chord changes. A few songs here sometimes get a bit too sappy, “This Heart of Mine” has so much treacle, you could pour it over pancakes. “She’s in Love” is another winner, a fast paced guitar tune with energy, like a TV theme song…hmm. “These Final Hours” is a beautiful little Paul Simon-like lounge tune that ends the album. It’s a good outlet for Doug’s musical outpourings and you’d be missing out if you didn’t sample some of this. One last note, I love the album cover here, chock full of stuff I grew up with and loved (Doug and I show our age with that stuff).

MySpace | CD Baby | Moontown Productions

The “The Greatest Living Englishman” Martin Newell talks about Andy Partridge, XTC and stuff. Read it here. Thanks Mark H. for the link

And a great article on Klaatu here. Here’s a teaser…

So what evidence was there that Klaatu was the Beatles? The clues were just so obvious: the lack of any credits on the album (except that the album was “written and performed by Klaatu”), the fact that the words Klaatu and Beatle have the same number of vowels and consonants, and—most especially—the observation that the cover of Ringo Starr’s 1974 album Goodnight Vienna was, in fact, a recreation of the famous scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still where the character Klaatu exits the UFO for the first time. Isn’t it obvious that we’re talking about the ever-so-cryptic Beatles here? Read the whole article here Thanks Michael M. for the link