According to my last few posts, my recent tastes have been mainly female vocalists and all-girl bands, but my true love for powerpop can't be denied, so today's "bonus" post will share this love. I have lots of great powerpop in my collection, but I'm always on the look-out for under appreciated and hard to find albums.
I've found many helpful blogs and web pages dedicated to this genre, check out: powerpopoverdose.blogspot.com, powerpopcriminals.blogspot.com, 60s70s80s90s00sofpowerpop.blogspot.com, powerpopaholic.blogspot.com for full album downloads and/or useful information.
THE SHAZAM- Oh No
THE SHAZAM- Everything- From 1997's debut album, The Shazam, this album is as close to a post-modern powerpop masterpiece as they come. The album buzzes and chimes with it's sweet harmonies and jangly guitars and proceeds to put a big smile on my face! This band went on to record a couple more, under-the-radar classics, but this one is where it bega
n. The Shazam should have been bigger than they were, maybe if this was released in the mid-70's they might have been big...Cheap Trick big, perhaps.download: The Shazam pt1, pt2
SPINNING JENNIES- Carry On Attack
SPINNING JENNIES- So Far So Good- From 2002's, Stratosphere, energetic hard driving powerpop with catchy hooks and soaring harmonies. Sounds similar to the Posies and I could have swore this was The Best Kissers In The World, a band that was produced by Jon Auer (of the Posies)...sweet!
download: Stratosphere (password:password)
THE EXCESSORIES- See In Me
THE EXCESSORIES- Darla-From 2001, Pure Pop For Punk People is a fun poppy girl-fronted punk band. Their sound is super catchy, though the lyrics sound like they were written by a teenager, but don't be fooled this is a sassy punk-pop influenced record with buzz-saw guitars, fuzzed out surf-punk that is consistantly good, not some Avril Lavigne phony punk rock.
download: Pure Pop for Punk People
THE TRIPWIRES- Lessonpony
THE TRIPWIRES- I Hear This Music- This Seattle semi-super group consists of singer/guitarist John Ramberg (Model Rockets, Minus 5, Stumpy Joe),
bassist Jim Sangster (Young Fresh Fellows, Sgt Major, Picketts), drummer Mark Pickerel (Screaming Trees) and guitarist Johnny Sangster (producer, engineer and session player). Makes You Look Around is a smart no nonsense rock'n'roll record that doesn't venture far from the Model Rockets. Their sound also recalls Rockpile with that great guitar interplay between Dave Edmonds and Billy Bremner and interestingly enough, Ramberg and Jim Sangster join Scott McCaughey in a Rockpile/Nick Lowe tribute band, The Lowe Beats. The Model Rocket's were very underrated and deserved a larger audience, so hopefully this project for Ramberg will give him an opportunity to showcase his talents to a larger audience. Unfortunately, this disc probably won't be heard by many, nor will this album be a big seller.download: Makes You Look Around
The Shazam - Everything works for me. It does have a sound from decades before.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason they made me think of that band we went to see at The Pyramid back when I was seeing Sharyl L. Damned if I can remember their name just now. I bought the CD only to lose it when the Bhigg House was robbed.