Category: Power Pop Review

The Jennifiers come to you with quite a pedigree. Master guitar-pop producer, Dave Nachodsk has worked with Squeeze, Greenberry Woods, Myracle Brah, Splitsville and Starbelly, releases this Baltimore band’s first full lengther in several years. Sounding like a good indie mix of Guided By Voices guitar pop meets They Might Be Giants quirkiness, I found alot here I like. “Mrs. Gray” is an awesome uptempo rocker similar to the Feelies and Velvet Crush. Following this is a satisfiying opus “Landslide” — over four minutes of hummable magic. Some of the songs have a nice 80’s style of guitar rhythm, like “Starfleet Academy” and “Lazy Stalker.” On some songs the vocals get drowned out, but most of the CD does a great job, like a cover of The Soft Boys “Queen of Eyes.” The song “Lion in Winter” runs all over the place and turns into a pyschedelic jam at one point – didn’t Sloan do things like this near the end of an album? You can visit the Jennifers at their website to hear some tracks. You can get this album at notlame.com or cdbaby it is most definitely worth picking up!

The Naomi Star came out with this gem several months ago. It’s got all the classic power pop stylings. Lots of Badfinger influenced greatness here. Every song here is really good. The title song is a bouncy rock gem similar to early Posies. “Just Let Go” is a Beatle-type ballad that has an awesome musical bridge and heavenly “oohs” that deserves much repeats in your ipod. Speaking of Beatles, the Naomi Star do a great job on a cover of “Paperback Writer” as well. “Englighten” channels some classic Pete Ham — you almost expect this song to be a bonus track on Badfinger’s Straight Up. This is a great classic-styled power pop album, that will be appreciated by everyone who reads this blog regularly. “Find my way Home” starts to head into Bread territory and by the end of the CD, it runs out of energy a little, but overall it is a minor flaw. You can get this album at notlame.com, cdbaby or itunes

On Sunday, February 11, 2007 – 9:00am to 5:00pm
Record Collectors Anonymous is having a winter show at
Hofstra University in the Student Center, Hempstead, NY

I will be selling a huge portion of my power pop collection – over 600+ CD’s, Cassettes, plus a few dozen movies on DVD and VHS. My house is running out of room, storing this massive CD collection, so it’s time to clean house! Lots of rare, hard-to-find, and out of print CDs will be up for quick sale. I hope to see plenty of my fellow powerpopaholics while I’m there.

Look here for directions and details.

Here is another new band from New Zealand, originally billed as Ryan McPhun and the Ruby Suns. These lads sound alot like the Shins meets The Beach Boys. I hope to hear more of them soon!

Maasai Mara sets a benchmark as the best pop record about Zebras. Good, if odd, vibrations all around. — Q Magazine

Sometimes I marvel at who isn’t signed and just floating out there on the myspace network. Here is a guy from Glasgow, UK who’s music would fit in with Rainbow Quartz Records. Sounding alot like Outrageous Cherry mixed with the Jesus and Mary Chain. Bubblegum Lemonade is a nice 60’s influenced treat for your ears. If you love that Byrdsian twelve string jangle you’ll appreciate this. There is no album yet, so download the samples here at his myspace page.

Thanks alot to the boys at Indie MP3 blog for finding this for me. The indie blog has some great stuff most power pop fans from the USA would like but never get to hear, so check’em out!