There is a lot to love about Doug Bryan’s “Mad Love” — Bryan was leader of the Austin, TX based band Big Boss Groove and when it broke up, he concentrated on film editing. But after a meeting with Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook in 2005, Bryan got the creative juices flowing again. The result is this album. Bryan’s lyrics and storytelling ability are quite good and worth the repeat listening. “Long Gone” is a perfect example of this. It’s basically a scripted movie in under four minutes to a rock beat. Much like Tilbrook’s “Up The Junction” in storytelling, Doug has the goods. “Brand New Heartbeat” is chock full of cultural references. The production is DIY but very well done, much like The Breetles. “Hattie’s Coming Home” has a good low key guitar and a multi-tracked chorus that kicks butt. The sound is closest to other indie faves, Anton Barbeau and Johnathan Coulton. On some songs Doug is joined by his wife, Jill on backing vocals. “Corporation of Love” is a great Beatlesque pop tune with plenty of hooks and those great chord changes. A few songs here sometimes get a bit too sappy, “This Heart of Mine” has so much treacle, you could pour it over pancakes. “She’s in Love” is another winner, a fast paced guitar tune with energy, like a TV theme song…hmm. “These Final Hours” is a beautiful little Paul Simon-like lounge tune that ends the album. It’s a good outlet for Doug’s musical outpourings and you’d be missing out if you didn’t sample some of this. One last note, I love the album cover here, chock full of stuff I grew up with and loved (Doug and I show our age with that stuff).

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The “The Greatest Living Englishman” Martin Newell talks about Andy Partridge, XTC and stuff. Read it here. Thanks Mark H. for the link

And a great article on Klaatu here. Here’s a teaser…

So what evidence was there that Klaatu was the Beatles? The clues were just so obvious: the lack of any credits on the album (except that the album was “written and performed by Klaatu”), the fact that the words Klaatu and Beatle have the same number of vowels and consonants, and—most especially—the observation that the cover of Ringo Starr’s 1974 album Goodnight Vienna was, in fact, a recreation of the famous scene from The Day the Earth Stood Still where the character Klaatu exits the UFO for the first time. Isn’t it obvious that we’re talking about the ever-so-cryptic Beatles here? Read the whole article here Thanks Michael M. for the link

This is the first in a series. I love obscure pop relics from the height of the late sixties to the start of the disco era (1967 – 1976) and finding out more about them. This was surely the golden era of novelty and bubblegum hits. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

In 1970, this was probably the silliest pop song to crack the top ten ever. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood wrote this for a childrens show. Some other hit songs they wrote include “The Air That I Breathe,” “Free Electric Band” and “It Never Rains In Southern California,” which was a hit for Hammond. Later, it the became background tune used on The Benny Hill show. Also used on the Ally McBeal show, for John Cage (played by Peter MacNicol) to do his “Angry Dance.”

The lyrics are really dopey, but it’s the music that makes this song work. The Pipkins were not even a real group, but the song was recorded by producer Roger Greenaway and session singer Tony Burrows.

Herb Eimerman was the other half of the power pop duo, the Nerk Twins. His collaboration with former Shoes bandmate Jeff Murphy created an excellent album in the late 90s. On his own he has shown his skills on several solo albums, the latest being “Just Barely Famous.” Like Dwight Twilley, Herb has a fine easy going vocal – perfect for romantic pop rock. The expansive clean production, similar to Frank Royster’s “Thru The Years” with a slight echo across all tracks. Some tracks here are true hidden gems – like the George Harrison cover “Stuck Inside a Cloud” and the Byrdsian “Unbreakable.” In the opener “Inside Joke” lyric and melody recalls The Shoes tight pop arrangements. “The Attraction” is another cool song with great hooks. However the album is missing a hard edge – the closest we get is the haunting “Our Fate Was Signed” but most of the tunes here are light. Herb does it all here, writing every song, multi-tracking his voice and playing all instruments. Other classic hook-filled influences come up all over the album. “Make a Wish” has a Beach Boys vibe and “Vanished Shadows” has the Beatlesque vocal touches that make it memorable. Lots of Gene Clark-like guitar mid-tempo ballads like “Be Home Tonight” do an very good job. Others like “I leave it all up to you” didn’t really work for me, but there is enough in the 16 tracks to enjoy for most power pop fans.

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Radiohead fans waiting patiently for the band’s next album will not have to wait too much longer. “In Rainbows” comes out October 10. So what, you say? What makes this event amazing is the fact that YOU the user can set the price. If you order the download only, you can pay what ever you want for it. Much like a free museum with a donation box at the front door. This is only available through the Radiohead website.

A special “discbox” will be released on December 3, 2007, and will contain the physical album on both CD and two 12″ heavyweight vinyl record with artwork and lyric booklets. The discbox will also include a bonus Enhanced CD which contains 8 bonus tracks, as well as digital photos & artwork. The overall set will be packaged in a hardcover book and slipcase. But this will cost about $82 — for the hard core fans only.

I guess this is the first free self-released LP by a major label alternative band. Pay-what-you-want is a pretty common for unknown artists trying to get their name out. Jonathan Coulton has been really sucessful at self promotion with free music. Read his opinion about this on his site. Or you can listen to Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Rezor talk about record company greed. It reflects many artists’ own conflict between wanting the listening public to hear their work and needing to earn enough money to continue making music for a living.

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