The Cheap Cassettes and Chris Church

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The Cheap Cassettes

The Cheap Cassettes “Ever Since Ever Since”

Seattle’s Cheap Cassettes starts the year right with a rocking release for 2022, “Ever Since Ever Since” and screams out of the gate with the catchy “She Ain’t Nothing Like You” and is followed by the riff-tastic “Malnutrition.” The band follows the blueprint laid by The Flamin’ Groovies, The Jam, and The Dwight Twilley Band.

This is an album you turn up in the car with the windows down. Lead singer-songwriter Charles Matthews is joined by Mike Isberg (Bass) and Kevin Parkhurst (Drums/Vocals) and they form a tight combo. The songs are quick and very repeatable.  They take the typical power pop riff structure and build original gems all around it. They take a cover of The Elevator’s “Your I’s Are Too Close Together” and make it their own. Most often the band hits with “Red Line Blue”, “Endless Summer,” and the massive crunch of “Wishing The Sun Away.” No filler here, even the 4 minute + “One Black Summer” flys by with its joyous ringing guitars. Very highly recommended.

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Chris Church

Chris Church “Darling Please”

Chris Church unearthed this early work and had it remastered by sonic guru Nick Bertling, with additional backing vocals by Lindsay Murray (Gretchen’s Wheel). Overall a very heavy-sounding album and the Matthew Sweet influence is unmistakable here. Church’s thick layered riffs are the dominant sound throughout, starting with the opener “History” and then the tempo speeds up a bit with “We’re Going Downtown” with its echoing grunge feel.

A big highlight here is “Pillar To Post” and the vocals and harmonies come through. The album’s songs deliver an intimate mood but the sound is very “stadium-sized,” a great example is “Never So Far Away” and “Bad Summer.” A great thing also is the consistency of Church’s sound here, with harmonies added at just the right moments. It gets a little ponderous towards the latter tracks, here “Nepenthean” is a standout with strong keyboard chords leading the way. This is a grower of an album, that gets better with multiple listens and is a welcome addition to the Chris Church catalog. Highly Recommended.

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Lost and Found: Adam Roth and Steve Rosenbaum

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The Lost and Found category is for bands that up to this point were not “discovered” by the power pop community until recently.

Adam Roth

The Adam Roth and his Band of Men “Down The Shore”

Adam Roth was a musician mostly under the radar, but well-loved by those who knew him. Once a member of the Boston rock band Del Fuegos, and regular collaborator with comedian Dennis Leary, his album of 80s frat rock was just about lost to history. The 1982 movie Beach House (aka Down The Shore) was a very low-budget Animal House/Porkys teen comedy without much positive to mention, other than the soundtrack. It jump-started Roth’s career in movie soundtracks (The Ref, Monument Ave, Hollywood Vietnam) and TV commercials. He passed away in 2015 of cancer, but Hozac Records remastered his album and featured new liner notes written by Adam’s brother Charles Roth.

The music is very much a product of its time, but brilliance shows through. “Judy Won’t You Dance With Me” is similar in some ways to The Shoes, and “Now You’re Runnin” and “I Just Wanna Have Some Fun” have more of a punk attitude displayed on the faster-tempo rockers. Overall a good addition to your 80’s power-pop collection.

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Steve Rosenbaum

Steve Rosenbaum “Have A Cool Summer”

Steve Rosenbaum is a DIY San Diego musician with a jangling guitar and lots of songs written between 1979-89. Similar in style to Tom Marolda (The Toms), The Modulators, The Deal, The Rubinoos – Steve really should have been signed by a major label at that time. But it never happened.

Fortunately, these songs are finally available to the public at Bandcamp. The songwriting here is pretty good, but the production was recorded mainly on the Tascam 244 cassette 4-track, and the sound quality is pretty spotty. There are some gems to be found; the Beach Boys-like “Me Alone,” “Come On Over,” the Twilley-like “Got To Tell Ya,” and REM-like jangle of “72 days.” Steve does offer a FREEBIE sample of these tracks on his Two-Cassette Deck Bounces EP. Fans of the era will see the potential in these songs because it’s music that deserves to be heard.

Bandcamp

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.

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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.

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The Power Popaholic Interview: Kurt Reil of The Grip Weeds

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Kurt Reil of The Grip Weeds

I have a long-overdue chat with Kurt Reil, singer, songwriter, and drummer of the power-pop favorite band The Grip Weeds. I first interviewed Kurt back in 2017, so it was great to catch up with him right after a performance at New York’s IPO festival in November 2021. We talk about the band’s new album of covers “DiG” and what he’s been up to at The House of Vibes production studio.