Lolas "Like The Sun"

powerpopaholic 1 Comment

Power pop maestro Tim Boykin has done it again. The Lolas are a band that just keeps getting better with age. “Like The Sun” takes some tracks from 2006’s “Doctor Apache” and added a few newer songs to give the listener a whopping 20 tracks. So it’s almost like a double album. It opens with “Eye Eye” a touch of ELO, Byrds and Beatles that will ring through your head, and stay there. This is followed by the title track, which adds the right about of jangle and harmonies that lead you up the next song “The Laurie Song” – an awesome “Rain”-inspired psyche-pop masterpiece. And the relentless hooks keep on comin’ with the roaring guitars of “Me and Barbara Stanwyck” Fans of their previous incarnation,The Shame Idols will enjoy the great guitar work and indie power on “Going all the Way” – the solo is just awesome. The song “Blue Shadows” has a Beatlesque charm and “Watch The Movie” has Weezers innocent pop sweetness with Brian May styled guitar. Some songs get a bit more rough and garage-y, like “Action Woman” and “Ramon Ghetto Chef.” Toward the ends of album it even has a Sweet cover (“Wig Wham Bam”) and a very Mod-sounding Rolling Stones meet Early Who tune with “I Can Only Give Everything.” The songs go through every incarnation of great power pop from ballad to high powered riff machine and everything in between. With so much here and barely a miscue, it’s an easy choice to nominate this album for my Top Ten of 2008 so far. This album is essential listening – so don’t miss this one. Thanks for the music, Tim.

The Lolas site | My Space | Jam Recordings | Kool Kat Musik | Not Lame

Listen to “Eye Eye”

Listen to “Me and Barbara Stanwyck”

Listen to “Sticker”

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.

The Charlatans and Not Lame FREE music

powerpopaholic

Thanks to XFM, The Charlatans “You Cross My Path” is available as a FREE download. Speaking to Xfm frontman Tim Burgess revealed “We always knew this album was gonna be given away for free, even before we started writing so we wanted to make it the best album we’ve ever made. This isn’t a case of left over tracks and b-sides, we wanted to give our fans a quality record.” And after listening to it, the album is pretty good: plenty of Brit-pop guitars and pounding beats – read the rest of the PR here. An extra thanks to TooPoppy blog for finding this.


The Not Lame Blog has also announced an albums worth of FREE music for download, as well. Bruce is calling it “The Official Not Lame Blog Soundtrack” and it’s got tracks from a big list of favorite artists like, Doug Powell, P. Hux, The Shazam, Bleu and many others. You can’t go wrong with this. The more people hear these artists the better it is for power pop.

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.

Martin Gordon "How Am I Doing So Far?"

powerpopaholic

Best remembered as the bassist for the Californian pop band Sparks, Martin Gordon has built a stellar reputation for himself as a solo artist since 2003. “How Am I Doing So Far?” is a kind-of greatest hits record with tracks from Gordon’s first three solo releases and a good starting point for the noivce. There are Beatles, ELO, Todd Rundgren and ABBA influences here and there. My first thoughts were “Where has this guy been hiding? ” The production is highly polished and the guitars riff away on “Oh no, What shall we do?” remind me of “Baby’s in Black” by way of 10cc. The hooks and new wave-y keyboards in “Love Power” are so catchy, you almost are required to listen again to hear the wacky lyrics. You’ve got to give Martin credit for doing a glam version of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Captain of the Pinafore” – a tough song, done right (Todd would be proud). Even the quirkiness of his early Sparks records show up in “Land of Nod.” The attention to sonic details are very impressive here as well, “Plug and Play” resembles a Cars meets The Move mix. “Anyway Goodbye” lists a pile of health advice you should ignore. The Euro-centric humor and melodies will draw the listener in. With a track titled “Her Daddy was a Dalek, Her Mummy was a non-stick flying pan” how can you not? Also one notices that this is a massive 20-track collection. The Pysche-pop that surrounds songs like “Bad Light Stops Play” is top notch, and fans of The Pillbugs should pay attention too. The subject matter is also about rock star self-awareness (“Next Big Thing” and “Girls Fight Over Me”). There are few miscues here, and occasionally the production gloss is a bit too thick, but if you like good power pop this will encourage you to explore more of Gordon’s amazing work. Maybe my next review will be his current album “The World is Your Lobster.”

Martin Gordon’s website | My Space | I-tunes

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.

Get yer Popcasts & Andy Goldberg interviewed

powerpopaholic

Before I share the new interview news, I’d like you all to sign-up for those great popcasts by Ed James and James Deem. You can download them on their Charlotte Pop Fest page or through Itunes. Since I broke news of this a few months ago, they have amassed several good interviews with some of my favorite artists; Frank Royster, Leisure McCorkle, Jerry Chapman and more. Both Ed and James have a nice on air banter, even if they do act like total fan-boys with their guests. It’s free, what else do you want?

I also have posted an interview with Andy Goldberg of The Goldbergs whose new album “Under The Radar” was reviewed last week. Visit the artist interviews section or click on this direct link to The Goldbergs Interview

power pop reviews, power pop and rock and roll opinions. Power pop and even more power pop and rock and roll.