Category: Power Pop Review

If you liked “The Go” – who I reviewed last week, you’ll also love The Ugly Beats. This Austin, TX based garage band nails the early Kinks and let’s loose with tons of new Nuggets that would fit with any 60’s inspired collection. Oh those riffs! It starts off with the tune “Take A Stand” with plenty of mod flavor. It continues with the excellent “Bring her down” and “Million Dollar Man” which mines the sound made popular by the early 60’s Who and the Easybeats. If you go for this sound, The Ugly Beats are a “must have” group with great guitar work, and unfortunately for Rainbow Quartz, they are only available on Get Hip Records. “I’m gonna break her heart” reminds me of another similar current favorite – The Gripweeds. “Action Plus” is an awesome instrumental, that is catchy as it is retro. Unlike the Go or The Asteriod Four and other garage revival bands, the vocals are not rough and scratchy, but melodic and clean-sounding, like Colin Blunstone of the Zombies. I do not expect a cover of “Louie Louie” anytime soon, however “Let me through” comes off like a Troggs update. This is a great album for a summer drive and has no filler – even the mid-tempo “Ain’t that old” has a little early Dylan vibe with that farfisa organ.

Ugly Beats Website | MySpace | Get Hip Records

Sounding alot like The Cars meets Enuff Znuff – The Pigs new album “Oink” features Geoff Westen, a dead-ringer vocally for Ric Ocasek. The songwriting and instrumentation are equally good – each song has a tight arrangement that possesses catchy guitar and synth keyboard riffs. “Satyurday Night” sounds like it fell off the Cars’ “Heartbeat City” album. The production is sleek and clean, especially nice is the tune “Heartbreak Street” which sounds like a Todd Rundgren-styled tune that borrows a bit from his “Healing” era. This fits really well, as Todd himself is now the leader of the New Cars and there is an overlap of influences. Alot of nice synth work and guitar on “Doesn’t Anyone?” a catchy tune which asks the listener “Doesn’t anyone love me tonight?” “Beat me up” has a rotating chorus that allows for some nice solo guitar work. The album includes two bonus tracks – alternate versions of “Heartbreak Street” and “Saturday Night” The group is a talented bunch and if you harbor any love of 80’s era rock and roll you will want to pick this album up. There are no real weak tracks on the album and after a few listens this will become a favorite!

The Pigs website | CD Baby | MySpace | Not Lame

If you’d like a fun album, you couldn’t do better than The Orion Experience. It starts off with a bouncy dance pop song “The Queen of White Lies” that mines a bit of the neo disco trend made popular by Mika and Scissor Sisters. It’s also followed by the Reggae-beat tune “Obsessed With You” and I thought this dance-styled pop would continue, but slowly the album begins to transform. At the midpoint the power pop begins to show itself, the tune “Adrianne” is a great little gem with hand claps and vocals from both Orion Simprini and Linda Horwatt that makes this track shine like a long lost B-52’s single. And the entire album starts to get better. The band sounds tighter and the melodies shine right through. “There’s no Love in Februray” and “Your New Boyfriend” are great songs comparable to Fountains of Wayne-styled pop. “We are the Ones” is a classic anthem for the younger generation and it ends off with the amazing “Blood & Money” – a great rant type of song that owes alot to Dire Strait’s “Industrial Disease.” Although the more commercial dance tracks on the albums first half are good, the songs on the second half are worth the purchase and shouldn’t be missed.

The Orion Experience website | CD Baby | MySpace | Not Lame

Adam Miner is an Ontario native who’s been playing the Canadian pop circuit for a long time. His latest album “Dangerous Eyes” has intricate arrangements and melodic layers over each song. Vocally he drifts from Chiff Hillis to Eric Matthews a bit, but has his own unique vocal cadence. The album is beautifully polished with a clean production style. “Fool” uses dramatic grand sweeping structure with a bit of Beatles’ “Here There and Everywhere” mixed with ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” including strings and percussion. It’s these densely packed treats that prove Adam is no mere singer/songwriter. “Mother Night” and “Nobody Notices” has a bit of 70’s AOR flavor and after hearing this, somewhere in Canada, Chilliwack fans are smiling. “Lies We Tell” is a great song best described as Alan Parsons Project meets The Posies. Each song has it’s own melodic surprises, although the title track has my favorite chord changes and a catchy chorus. Pick up this on at CD Baby.

CD Baby | MySpace | Kool Kat

Glen Mercer is the former lead singer/guitarist/writer of The Feelies. The Feelies were considered an avante garde post-punk band in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Well now, guitarist Glenn Mercer has put together this solo record and it owes alot less to the “Crazy Rhythms” of those Feelies records. It actually sounds closer to Lou Reed meets Joy Division, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Glenn concentrates on guitar and percussive effects to give his new album “Wheels in Motion” a ethereal quality and songs “Days to Come” and “Another Last Time” are great examples of this. This approach also works on a cover of The Beatles “Within You, Without You.” A mid-tempo “Get it Back” reminds me of a great lost Don Dixon track, but Glenn’s voice gets lost a bit here and the instrumentation pushes his vocals out of the song too much. Other tracks recall a lighter version of Echo and the Bunnymen as “Two Rights” seems to drift along with a hypnotic tamborine beat. Unfortunately, for me too many songs were missing compelling hooks and became pleasant background noise. For some this mellow stuff will be fine, but Glenn’s vocals never seem to come out front for me. You can get this on Amazon or direct from Pravada Music.

Pravda Music’s website | MySpace | Amazon