At the zenith of the Beatles popularity, the Merry-Go-Round was riding the stylistic coat tails of the Fab Four. Emmit Rhodes and the group are shown here in perfect Sgt. Pepper’s style on a variety show singing “Listen Listen.” It also looks like they stole the wardrobe of Paul Revere and The Raiders. The Beatles had inspired numerous imitators of thier style, but the Merry-Go-Round did it with class and folk-rock overtones. Don Knotts introduces them, and it looks to me like the group is lip syncing to a recording (likely a very common practice on TV in 1967).

Occassionally I will trot out a lost classic video like this one, but I wanted to let you all know there is a blog out there that’s got alot of these classic music videos from YouTube called Side Three – he finds the cool power pop videos so you don’t have to…

Scott Rhodes and Khoi Huynh are Bigwheel, a cool band that kinda sounds like Richard X. Heyman playing for The Barenaked Ladies. The vocal interplay between Rhodes and Huynh also reminds me of The Rembrandts. It also helps that the album was produced by power pop legend Chris Von Sneidern. Lots of the songs are beat and guitar driven melodies that unfold with each chorus. Recommended tracks are the very BNL-like “Over My Head” and the Heyman-like “Anna Lydia”. However the best track to me is the hilarious “I Hate my Band” – it sounds like a rant by some disgruntled rocker forced to play pop he hates, but he loves the fan attention too much to quit. This 2005 album is available on emusic. Some years ago, Bigwheel had a much talked about release “Rugby Train” – it came out in ’99 and you can get that on emusic too. Both albums are great examples of tight song structure and harmonies.

Every year since 2000, I’ve seen at least one or two shows whenever International Pop Overthrow music festival came to New York City. Well it’s almost here again. This November 9-14th and 16-19th you will get an opportunity to see several power pop bands at once at a single venue. Click here to see the band listing. If you are in the NYC area – you really can’t go wrong when you see these shows. First of all, admission is around $10 – an amazing value! Second, while some of these bands are not well known, most of them deliver pretty good music. You could “discover” a new favorite artist here. And lastly, you support Power Pop artists directly – you can usually buy CDs after the show, and even chat with band members between sets if you’re lucky. IPO is also great place to also meet other fans with similar musical tastes. Thanks to Dave Bash, who’s efforts have kept this thing alive and growing for all these years. So mark out your calendars now.

I would like to give a big public thank you to my fellow blogger, Steve at Absolute Power Pop for pointing the way from his blog to mine. There is so much good music out there – and another opinion is always welcome.

The Mellowmen are a Swedish outfit that does great mid sixties Beatlesque pop. In fact, the title should be called “Yesterday’s Sound Today” – that said the group does great stuff and is comparable to The Winnerys. “You better leave now” is an awesome sunny pop hit single if there ever was one. My only problem with them is the non-beatlesque songs tend to be a little too much of a 60’s novelty act like “The 1910 Fruitgum Company”. You can listen to the new stuff at myspace. You can pick this album up at Miles of Music. If you need a quicker Mellowmen fix then you can always get their last album from e-music Get Out Of Shape With The Mellowmen. It is a great download. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahhhh!

Yes, this isn’t Power Pop, but the controversy surrounding this group is fueling a fire on blogs everywhere. I need to add my two cents as well. Taking inspiration from cabaret and burlesque via Roxy Music, Bee Gees and Elton John, Scissor Sisters new album “Ta-Dah” is instantly catchy and pure lighthearted funk. Some of the members of the band are openly gay, but this isn’t the contoversy.

Jake Shears, the lead singer of Scissor Sisters, mentioned to members of the NARM [the National Association of Recording Merchandisers] that prices for CDs were too high. This honest comment about the industry has brought a virtual ban of the CD from over 1,000 Retail outlets, including Fye, Sam Goody, Strawberries, Wherehouse, Specs and Coconuts. Read all about it here. This is a perfect example of how the mainstream music industry kills the messenger – rather than fix the problem. Does this remind you of how they handled Napster? Kurt has the right idea here.