Author: powerpopaholic

Yes, this isn’t Power Pop, but the controversy surrounding this group is fueling a fire on blogs everywhere. I need to add my two cents as well. Taking inspiration from cabaret and burlesque via Roxy Music, Bee Gees and Elton John, Scissor Sisters new album “Ta-Dah” is instantly catchy and pure lighthearted funk. Some of the members of the band are openly gay, but this isn’t the contoversy.

Jake Shears, the lead singer of Scissor Sisters, mentioned to members of the NARM [the National Association of Recording Merchandisers] that prices for CDs were too high. This honest comment about the industry has brought a virtual ban of the CD from over 1,000 Retail outlets, including Fye, Sam Goody, Strawberries, Wherehouse, Specs and Coconuts. Read all about it here. This is a perfect example of how the mainstream music industry kills the messenger – rather than fix the problem. Does this remind you of how they handled Napster? Kurt has the right idea here.

Alot of new music has been flooding my ipod and as I prepare a fresh batch of reviews I wanted to highlight some emerging artists I think power pop fans may like:

The Tacticians
Some nice retro style garagey guitars help make this band sound a bit Tommy Keene-ish. I reccomend listening to “London’s Alight”. Waiting for an album’s worth of material to come out, but so far not a bad start. Visit their site here or listen to them from the myspace page they’ve set up.

Courtney Jaye
Move over Jewel. Here is something really special. A really nice voice – think a mix between Paula Kelly and Sheryl Crow. Playing steady alt. country riffs and sparse drums – she will break out big soon. So far only a EP is for sale. Hear it now and tell your friends, yeah I heard her when she wasn’t a megastar! She also does an awesome Stevie Nicks imitation! Listen on her website or the myspace page

The Lava Province – Strangeway
A solo project from Laurens Vernot. He has an early Marillion pop vibe meets Robert Pollard. The music has a cool hypnotic quality I can’t really describe. This music also reminds me alot of Bob Mould’s poppier stuff – I recommend you listen to “Back here again” and “Let it Go” from his my space page

COMING SOON: Almost here — October 17 is the release of L.E.O.’s new album, “Alpacas Orgling” and the hype is building to stratospheric levels for this. From what I heard as far as samples this is as good as or even better than Roger Manning Jr.’s album. Because power pop greatness doesn’t come very often – check out the pre-order page at Not Lame and give it a listen. You won’t be sorry.

Really Nice. I love discovering a new group debut like this. Even though it offically came out last August, it has not gotten enough press among the Power Pop media elite. Imagine a perfect melding of The Strokes and Travis with a bit of Rooney thrown in. Lots of killer melodies and gorgeous instrumentation and cool harmonies. Slender Means are a Seattle band that has a big clean sound that is a bit of power pop, a bit of glam and all rock n’ roll. Each song is catchy and lyrically brilliant – no weak tracks here, although some songs are a little similar sounding. Every year people are looking for a band in the Northwest that will be as big as The Shins. I think we have a winner here. Get this from emusic now. It is a great download!

This is a tough one to review. There is a great power pop combo in the Vinyltones waiting to come out. “Memoirs of a Songbook” has great punk/pop like “Numb(on a Monday)” that rock like the Marvelous Three. There are also tracks like “Leaving Northport” which are in Ben Folds’ territory and truly wonderful. Then another stylistic shift on “Nashville” which almost sounds like the group Train. This is an album where you will want to pluck tracks you like and avoid the one’s you don’t like. The good news here is it is availble on iTunes and you can do this easily. I reccomend “If it’s gonna rain”, “Motorcycle” and “Hey Soloman” as standout tracks. The bad news is the group is a bit all over the place stylistically. But that’s okay – the good tracks are worth downloading.

Alot of new music has been released recently and I’m trying to cover the most common power pop artists first. When I hear Eric Matthews, I pretty much know what to expect. His classically styled orch-pop was near perfection with “Fanfare” from his first album It’s Heavy In Here. Following this triumph, Matthews following albums have tried to build on his lyrical and melodic gifts. But I feel he’s never been able to build up his sound, as much a copy the same breathy wispering vocals onto variations of the same song. How the mighty have fallen… None of these tracks standout much even though he plays on every instrument. Lots of bitterness in the lyrics too. Just how many words rhyme with “despise?” I feel Matthews should devote more time to songwriting. Foundation Sounds has about 17 tracks, and most of them will put you to sleep. “All the Clowns” uses some horns and because of this, its a standout track among the rest. You can download it from e-music. Put I’d rather recommend his last album Six Kinds Of Passion Looking For An Exit. It has better songs.