Category: Power Pop Review

January Singles and EPs: Pete Donnelly, The Lunar Laugh, Mom Friend, Ex Norwegian, Amoeba Teen, Timmy Sean, The Roxies, J Prozac

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New year, new music.

EPs: We open things with Pete Donnelly (The Figgs) a truly inspired catchy opener “Anthem of Time” that waves its melodic flag high. Then”Play Music” feels a bit closer to NRBQ (they’ve rubbed off on him.) Midwest wonders The Lunar Laugh delivers a FREEBIE of requested covers, tracks by The Talking Heads, The Bangles, and The Smiths are sparse but quite lovely. The band shines doing a deep, deep Beach Boys cut “Somewhere in Japan” and makes it their own.

I heard the music of Mom Friend two years ago, but this time Atlanta-based Emily Backus has raised her game. A combination of post-me-too-feminism and fuzz guitar make “Oooh” and “Scared” early standouts. The heartbroken melody of “Luke Danes” is very moving, and the swooning “Idea” has a great hook. Keep it up the great music, Emily! Roger Houdaille (Ex-Norwegian)has once again picked an obscure artist to cover. This time it’s Brit-rockers Roger Chapman and Charlie Whitney (The Streetwalkers, Family). It sounds great, and encourages me to discover another “lost” artist!

Singles: Amoeba Teen starts the year with twanging “January,” a very impressive composition (check out that middle eight!) and Timmy Sean gets his Elvis on with a FREEBIE cover of “That’s All Right.” A Berlin band signed in Spain and the USA, The Roxies give us a frenetic rhythm and energetic punk-pop. J Prozac is the latest Rum Bar artist to rip the packaging off his “Building Blocks,” and it’s a wonderful thing.

EPs





SINGLES





The Easy Button and The Jimmy C

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Oh, how much was missed in 2021! As per the norm in January, I focus on bands I never got to review until it was too late, and the year was up. Luckily at least one of these bands made my top 25 list. Here’s a pair that deserve some extra attention.

 

The Easy Button

The Easy Button “Lost on Purpose”

The Easy Button, a Tampa, Florida band decided to get very productive during the lockdown last year. A massive collection of 22 songs made this initially a challenge, but the band has all the right influences (Beach Boys, Weezer, Fountains of Wayne) and sets up all the right hooks on “Fast Ones,” a power-pop description of what we all love about those quick tempo melodies. Band members Brian Jones (vocals, guitar), Rich Tiemann (guitar, vocals), Preston Jones (bass), and Cailun Seay (drums) keep the momentum moving from “Beach Singer Man” all the way to the last track “Mississippi.” The focus on nostalgia, rock and roll fantasies, and girls all play out through smart riff-driven melodies.

What drives this album above and beyond is the consistent quality of the songwriting. From the careful composition of “Up and Comer” to the heart-felt “Learning To Drive,” I could not find a single note of filler. The somber “ReRun” does have a different tone, closer to Ben Folds than the other influences, as it name-checks a ton of classic TV shows. It makes my top 25 list at #18 and is essential listening.

Amazon


Jimmy C

The Jimmy C “Ducking”

Melbourne’s Jamie Coghill (aka The Jimmy C) is a skilled rocker who plays to the cheap seats. Opening with a comical false opening (and ending), it settles into a light-hearted “Everything Is OK” as the reassuring whistle helps along with the bouncy rhythm. Coghill doesn’t stick to a specific style, but classic rock influences are easy to spot. “Dead Men Don’t Tango” is a sweet surf guitar instrumental, and psyche-folk ballad “The Holy Lie” has a powerful guitar solo akin to Jimmy Page. The random nature of the styles are part of the fun here, as some songs are quick mood snippets (“Blathering Heights”), pure power-pop (“Poor Boy”), or elegant folk-rock (“Rigmarole.”)

Some tunes are really funny, I mean on “Tommy Two-Balls-Minus-One” he finds a rhyme for “testicle,” while the fantastic instrumentation on “Someone Else’s Crown” and “Can’t Face The Girls” make the songs irresistible and repeatable. Created during the pandemic, Coghill’s impatience mirrors and entertains his audience. Highly Recommended.

Amazon

The Power Popaholic Top 25 EPs of 2021

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The EP has become the format of choice for many bands opting to leave the Long Player format for good.  Even Roger Joesph Manning Jr. (Lickerish Quartet, Jellyfish) has made it known for a while that his LP days are over and done when it comes to new music. My list of EPs is extensive this year, and to qualify your EP had to be anywhere from three to nine songs. Only two songs are considered a single (A/B side) and ten or more is an LP by my definition. Like the LPs, my cup runneth over with choices this year.

  1. The Hard Way “New to You”
  2. Roller Disco Combo “The Sun After The Rain”
  3. Bryan Estepa “Back to The Middle”
  4. The Lickerish Quartet “Threesome, Vol. 2”
  5. David Myhr “And Now This”
  6. BPM Collective “Catastrophe Girl”
  7. Chirs Church “Triple Play Single”
  8. Everet Almond’s Greeting From Anton
  9. The Feeders – Kerchoo
  10. Richard Turgeon “Campfire Songs”
  11. Nolan Potter “Music Is Dead”
  12. The Pre-Amps “Four by Four”
  13. The Poppermost “A Piece of The Poppermost”
  14. The Dowling Poole “The Trump Chronicles”
  15. The Blendours “Go On Vacation”
  16. Believe it, It’s Easy “Believe it, It’s Easy” 
  17. Daryl Bean “Mr. Strangelove”
  18. Rich Williams “Ordinary Person”
  19. David Woodard “Butterfly Effect”
  20. Sandy McKnight and Fernando Perdomo “San Fernando Blitz”
  21. The Listening Post “Sad Babbles”
  22. Beachwood Sparks “Sandbox Sessions”
  23. Alex Dominish “Small Batch (Shandy)”
  24. The Cheap Cassettes “See Her In Action!”
  25. The Checkered Hearts “Joystick”

Looking toward 2022

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We’ve got a lot of great music to look forward to in 2022. The group Walcot was formed in Chicago several years back and band leader Asher George is now based in Charlotte, NC. The debut single “Dreamin’ Away” is from the upcoming Songs for the Disenfranchised EP. The timeless hook draws you into its easy-going melody.

Maple Mars teases us with “Goodbye California” an upcoming single from the new 2022 album coming from Big Stir Records.


Speaking of Big Stir — they are now the dominant label in this genre, and they offer a huge FREE download of music from this past year in a worthy retrospective.

Rum Bar Records also is giving us a preview of 2022 with The Dirty Truckers. The blue-collar rockers return to the bar for another round with their highly anticipated brand new full-length in 2022. But here is a three-shot sampler EP.

Any way you look at it 2022 looks to be an even bigger year for power pop and rock n’ roll.

Lovebreakers, Ryan Hamilton, The Armoires

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Lovebreakers “Primary Colours”

The debut album of Lovebreakers is a rare positive social commentary on 2021, and its opener “Eye Roller” is a brilliant slice of Brit-pop. Like a more power-pop version of Oasis, this Birmingham, UK group has a lot going for it. Lead singer/guitarist Jack Perry wrote “Family Man” written about one of his best friends who just started his own family. Overall a lot of fun, danceable rock like “I Will Love Life” and the title track are perfect examples of this optimistic vibe. While it could’ve had more stylistic variety, this is an above-average debut. Highly Recommended.

Apple Music


Ryan Hamilton

Ryan Hamilton “1221”

I was a bit subdued when I heard the first song here was a cover of The Spin Doctors “How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me)?”  Fortunately, Ryan goes back to the power-pop approach of his debut, with lots of fine originals like “Deja Vu I Love You” and “Satellite.” The catchy verses of “Shots Fired” and “Big Man” will stick in your head, and his bittersweet look at the younger generation with “Babies” is just as memorable. Nearly every song hits the mark and the LP will get consideration for the top ten list for sure. Super Highly Recommended.

Amazon


The Armoires

The Armoires “Incognito”

The Armoires are a collective of musicians anchored by the duo of Christina Bulbenko and Rex Broome. And this album was the most challenging album I’ve had the pleasure to listen to all year. It started as a “secret project” where the band released a series of singles under fictitious band names but culminated as an 18 track juggernaut. The diverse direction of styles and covers made this an unexpected joy to dig into.

The compelling cover of John Cale’s “Paris 1919,”  sounds like a combination of The Move and ABBA. The quirky nature of “I Say We Take Off And Nuke The Site From Orbit” is a prog melody with nice violin touches, and then it becomes a country hoedown on “Bagfoot Run,” before the epic folk ballad “Homebound” describes the need to move. A huge standout is 20/20’s cover “The Night I Heard a Scream” with killer harmonies akin to Fleetwood Mac. But after the covers, the originals are just as compelling. “Ohma, Bring Your Light Into This Place,” “Magenta Moon,” and “Great Distances” are the real gems here. Normally several covers would disqualify an album from reaching my top ten, but there are always exceptions. This is one of them. Super Highly Recommended.

Amazon