Powerpopholic

Holmes "Stop Go"

March 24, 2007July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic

Sometimes you cannot dine on a single entree and crave a smorgasboard. In the same way you can listen to your power pop and want a variety of styles and influences. Holmes (aka Roy Shakked) has a feast here sure to please power pop fans (Okay, enough food analogies here). Using the basic structure of The Beatles, and Electric Light Orchestra, Holmes carves out lush orchestral/lounge pop. On the liner notes, he classifies the style categories as: Power Pop, Rock Ya Body, Rock Ya Soul, Heartbreak Ballad and Little Diddy. This is a good guide, but I’ll elaborate here – Holmes uses Cello, Saxophones and Accordian, to put together a beautiful series of ELO-styled ballads like “Nevermind” and “Nothing at All”. He has gathered a dream-team of quality players here, including Lyle Workman (Bourgeois Tagg) and eleven other musicians. “Be Alone” is pop via Fountains of Wayne type rock tune. “Another Week” has melodies that bounce along with a bit of quirkiness similar to Tally Hall (see below). Although the mid-tempo songs are good, they can’t compare to the ballads here. “Gray World” is my favorite tune here, and the ELO comparisons are more subtle homage, than the stylistic note for note copying of Bleu’s L.E.O. Seek this music out and your soul will be shaked and baked by these teriffic ballads (I knew shouldn’t have skipped dinner). Holmes will go on tour to support this album this June. Visit Holmes site to hear the entire album streaming and then order it directly!

Emusic | NotLame | itunes | Holmes Site

Minibar "Desert After Rain"

March 22, 2007July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic

Thank goodness for Minibar. With The Jayhawks gone, it’s good to see another quality band continue to produce great alt-country pop music. Earlier albums like “Road Movies” and “Fly Below the Radar” established Minibar as a solid rock band with some country leanings. This albums is where the group matures and it’s a joy to listen to. Lead singer Simon Petty evokes Niel Young and Gary Louris with a vocal tenor and emotion that resonates similar to Eddie Vedder. The Byrds-styled guitar work from Tim Walker is also outstanding and would make Roger McGuinn proud. Great tunes here include “Things I left behind” and “Wide Open” with great melody and harmony similar to Del Amitri. “The Sight of You” has a nice West Coast styled flavor is my favorite song here. The mellow mood of the entire album seems to be just right, and until my Wilco album arrives later this month, I can get my fix here. Listen to some tracks on MySpace

Minibar Website | CD Baby | Not Lame

See the video to the song “Crime Scene Ribbon”

The Satellite Program "Adoration in Retreat"

March 19, 2007July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic

The Satellite Program is a power pop-alt country styled group with real DIY spirit and feel to the music. Some really great guitar noodling and melodies that sound like a marriage of The Old 97’s and The Greatful Dead meets Kenny Howes. More than a few tunes are shining through here, notable are “Coin-Op Proxy” and “Inside Man.” Singer/songwriter Mark Malone does a good job of adding some feeling to his lyrics and it complements the guitar work nicely. My favorite here is “Wipeout by Decree” an energy filled song with hot licks that Enuff Znuff would envy. However I found many of the ballads a bit unrefined and not really doing it for me other than the song “Rollaway.” The song “Polychrome” starts out okay and evolves into a real mess as well. But there are still plenty of worthy tracks here like “Bed of Roses in the Snow” and if you like you can listen to the album streaming and judge for yourself.

CD Baby | Not Lame

The Fire Apes "The Fire Apes"

March 17, 2007July 6, 2024 powerpopaholic

Out now is another amazing release from the Fire Apes. This self-titled CD is a 5 song ep that has a little sampling of what makes The Fire Apes an exemplary power pop band. Awesome guitar-driven songs with great melody and energy are what’s here. “Hey Kate” has all the elements of a top ten single. This ain’t your typical retro power pop, it has the spirit of early Kinks and Beatles without any trace of slavish homage. “If things don’t look so good today” is another excellent mid-tempo single as well. The sound of the band is also similar to Philly’s IKE (The John Faye band). This release has just had me salivating for more. I hope they release a new full length album soon, in the meantime you can get tracks from the last two release “A perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Central Park Carousel” on itunes. Check out the links below, The Fire Apes Site has the entire album streaming, so you can try before you buy.

The Fire Apes Site | Itunes | CDBaby | KoolKat Music

Tally Hall "Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum"

March 15, 2007July 17, 2017 powerpopaholic 1 Comment

Here is another overlooked gem from 2005. Tally Hall is a group of young musical prodigies from Michigan. The keyboardist Andrew Horowitz won the 2004 John Lennon Scholarship Competition, presented by Yoko Ono and BMI, for writing “Good Day.” Since then, with the support of the uber-popular www.albinoblacksheep.com, Tally Hall’s music and related videos have attracted an unprecedented amount of internet attention.They sound like a mix of Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants in places and do a fine job of mixing choirs, strings, brass and multiple influences from Beach Boys to Beastie Boys. The production has a nice clean sheen to it all, like a 10cc album. They do a great job on songs like “Greener” and “Apathy” that has even a bit of early Weezer thrown in. Of course, there are some silly Zappa-TMBG styled songs like “The Whole World and You.” The best part here for us power popaholics is that the CD is as cheap as a cup of coffee! Get a used copy on Amazon.com for about three bucks!

Listen to “Good Day”