Powerpunkerpop from Phono Select: Exploding Hearts, Cute Lepers, David Quinton, Odd Numbers, De Cylinders, Little Murders

Better late than too early, that's what we say. The 70s-00s punkerpoppers below have been sitting there for three years now, but we just found them, thanks to "Sacto's Best Indie Record Shop!" (We quote because we aren't on-the-spot familiar with the competition.) We almost wet ourselves with pleasure to find that first number down there, and the other 20 at SoundCloud don't slouch. ("No, not at all.") We're adding a few more faves and leave it to you to follow your own timetable.


Download here.


Download here.


Download here.

Download here.


Download here.


Download here.

We Bow Before Afterpartees

Before, after, and especially during, we're pleasingly pumped by this band of Limburgers. In addition to the two below, you can download their Demo and an Xmas ditty at Bandcamp, all on a name-your-price basis.

Music of the Sphere: Grateful Dead, Blind Shake, Wild Honey, Cosmonaut On Vacation, Cruiserweight, STRNGRS, Echo Friendly, Mikal Cronin, Crocodiles, Hunx & His Punks, Debt, Joanna Gruesome, Bass Drum Of Death, Boogarins, Tuff Love, Theo Verney, Ghost Wave, Pink Mexico, FIDLAR, Beaches, King Khan & The Shrines

Mmmmm, what a year.

The big story this session is Rollo & Grady's excellent Best of 2013 songlist. Thanks, Rollo. You, too, Grady. Of course some of our other faveblogs haven't been shabs themselves. Thanks, fbs.

The Grateful Dead - Mindbender - The Rising Storm

The Blind Shake - Garbage on Glue - Gimme Tinnitus - heavyish

Wild Honey - The Echo - Rollo & Grady
Cosmonaut On Vacation - Dirty World - Rollo & Grady

Cruiserweight - Balboa - Austin Town Hall
STRNGRS - Outta My Mind - Austin Town Hall
The Echo Friendly - Nightmares (Jay Reatard cover) - Austin Town Hall

From R&G's Top 100:
Mikal Cronin - See It My Way - Rollo & Grady - #63
Crocodiles - Cockroach - Rollo & Grady - #57
Hunx & His Punks - You Think You're Tough - Rollo & Grady - #100
Debt - Nothing Forever - Rollo & Grady - #96

Joanna Gruesome - Anti-Parent Cowboy Killers - Rollo & Grady - #91
Bass Drum Of Death - I Wanna Be Forgotten - Rollo & Grady - #87
Boogarins - Lucifernandis - Rollo & Grady - #7
Tuff Love - Sweet Discontent - Rollo & Grady - #13

Theo Verney - Blood Let - Rollo & Grady - #59
Ghost Wave - Here She Comes - Rollo & Grady - #60
Pink Mexico - Hussy Woofer - Rollo & Grady - #82
FIDLAR - Blackout Stout - Rollo & Grady - #51
Beaches - Send Them Away - Rollo & Grady - #34
King Khan & The Shrines - Born To Die - Rollo & Grady - #12

Black Twig Make Pastel Blue

Hailing most recently from Helsinki, these four fine Finns know how to bring the jangle . . .and much more. "Pastel Blue" is the first release from their second LP, Heliogram, due out on Soliti in February 2014. Another freely downloadable number is available at their last.fm page.

Download here.

Lovin' More of Loveless

We love the title cut of this Coshocton, OH native's EP, released last month on Bloodshot Records. That driving bass, relentless strumpicking, and passionate voice plunk our twanger in ways it ain't been plunked in a coon's age. We'll spare you details and let your twanger decide for its ownself.  BTW, that pitcher up yonder's from her 2011 Bloodshot release. Its title is clearly visible.

Free download here

Music of the Sphere: Total Slacker, Gap Dream, White Caves, Mirror Travel, Other Lovers, Magic Trick, Gorgeous Bully, Hunters, The Fratellis, Davis Fetter

Many thanks to the bands, labels, agents, p.r. cos., miscellaneous shills, anonymous tippers, under assistant west coast promotion persons, and hostingpostingbloggerati who have made the following available.

Total Slacker - Keep the Ships at Bay - Rolling Stone (pic)

Gap Dream - You're From The Shadow - Rollo & Grady

White Caves - I've Lost - Who The Hell - Scroll down to Oz.

Mirror Travel - Mexico - Side One Track One
Other Lovers - New - Side One Track One

Magic Trick - Crazy Teeth - Austin Town Hall
Gorgeous Bully - Sinking Feeling - Austin Town Hall

Hunters - Seizure - Indie Rock Cafe
The Fratellis - This Old Ghost Town - Indie Rock Cafe
Davis Fetter - I Won't Let The World Break My Heart - Indie Rock Cafe

Pink Mexico Makes Music, Man

We kind of had to piece this together, so please bear with us. Apparently sometime after his stint as The Music Man, Robert Preston added an extra last name and formed a band called "Pink Mexico." (Something seems to have happened to his eyeballs, but we're not going there.) PM are about to release Pnik Mxeico via Fleeting Youth Records on December 17. Fleeting Youth had, via email, expressed appreciation for our appreciation of their Basketball Shorts and, we're presuming, decided we might like Pink Mexico, which we do. Therefore:


Download here.


Download here.

The Mighty Mites

We've been intending to post this boyfriend/girlfriend/friendfriend San Antonio band for some time now and are grateful friendfriend Raul Vela IV kicked our aspirations into gear by notifying us of a new single and forthcoming LP. The latter is due out early next year, while the former, "Washaway," is posted below. We're also including a couple of our favorites from their previous Spur of the Summer EP, although truth be told, we love all five songs, earable and downloadable below.

Update: Well, okay, this happens sometimes, and it seems to have happened this one. The Mites appear to have deep-sixed their Bandcamp page, so, like, sorry. We generally try to post songs you can download free and legal like, so hopefully you got them when they were available a couple of weeks ago. We'll go ahead and embed the Soundcloud widgets to the songs we previously posted even though we are just a mite ticked off. (Oooooh, pp, you one bad mofodoggie, woof.)

Update #2-6jan14-Happy to get an email today saying their Bandcamp pages are back!







Incidentally, it's been kinda fun down through the months speculating as to which kind(s) of "mites" they're fronting.

And what the heck, we're loving the video of the above-widgeted "Marjorie's Injury" as well.

Catch-up: Voix de Femmes

We continue playing catch-up, with songs we've long loved but haven't posted. In this one we heed Abigail Adams' admonition to hubby John to  ". . .remember the ladies but don't touch 'em or I'll snatch you bald(er). It's okay to listen, though."

Veronica Falls - Teenage mp3

from Waiting for Something to Happen, 

one of our very fave LPs of 2013

Dum Dum Girls - Oh Those Eyes (The Vagrants cover) mp3

The Manhattan Love Suicides - Never Far From You mp3

Now, Now - Threads mp3

Flowers - When You Lie mp3

Sophie Auster - Wicked Word mp3

TacocaT - Spring Break-Up mp3

!WoW!

A palindrome.

Note: We certainly appreciate the very significant contributions of various hommes to the above, so, please, haters, btfo. Thank you.

The Black Tambourines & Chica

These Cornishmen's first (and eponymous) LP "dropped" in September via Art Is Hard Records. It's excellent lo-fi, and you can buy it here and here, among elsewheres. Their excellent Chica EP is available for free download at Bandcamp. To assist you in the decision-making process, we're posting several of our favorites below. You take it from there.

Catch-up: Tim Gilbertson, Jonathan Coulton, PT Walkley, Ryan Bourne, Vaselines, Bigger Lovers

One advantage of being in the minor little peewee weewee pp leagues of bloggerdom is that nothing we do or don't do in our little nanocosm does much damage. Of course, as Socratease might say, neither does it do much good, but bugger him. Anyway, that last post on The Quiet Americans took us back to the rather long mp3 list we've built over the years and reminded us of some loved ones we shoulda but didna post. Consider this post an act of contrition and continuation of a series.

(Our little exfm widget's been pouting for months now about never getting fed anything to play, so here we go. Sure, we fed it The Student Teachers, but awaken a sleeping widget and you deal with the consequences.)

Tim Gilbertson - Chipped Teeth mp3

Jonathan Coulton - Sucker Punch mp3 

(Could lead to chipped teeth, so watch it.)

PT Walkley - Go Away mp3

Ryan Bourne - Love and Death mp3

The Vaselines - I Hate the 80's mp3

Gee, what a pleasant bunch of songtitles. Oh, well:

The Bigger Lovers - So It Goes mp3

(They reel in some years and then go lowe.)

Be Alone with The Quiet Americans

Quiet but quite sufficiently raucous to rawk us.

The Student Teachers Are Back In Class

It's called "Polaroid," man, and it's très coo.

The Student Teachers were part of the late 70s NYC underground scene and have re-released tuneage via Nacional Records. Here's our favorite of what we've heard. Read and hear more here and here.

The Student Teachers - Looks mp3

Note: With this post we double our number of posts from the fateful 2012. What this means we have no idea. And as Mersault might say, were he speaking English, "It doesn't matter." Although, come to think, one or more of them bandspersons up there might've been preparing to teach maths.

Black Lizard Got Us Psyched

We recently grooved to this Helsinki band's tunes and just now found one available via a Soliti SoundCloud page. You can probably guess what we decided to do next.

Free download here

3 #s from The #1s

We found this fab Dublin band while exploring a fellow/sisterly Warm Soda fan's Bandcamp collection. They made our State a good deal better than Sorry. We're even including a vid. Gasp, spit, say WHAT?

Music of the Sphere: Veronica Falls, People's Temple, The New P's, Rozwell Kid & Sleeping Bag, Sick Rose, Olivia Tremor Control, Lame Drivers, Swearin', PyPy, Pity Sex, Hookworms, Surfer Blood, Potty Mouth, High Highs, Beliefs, Eagulls, Moon King

Which one's the Kid & which one's the Bag?

Nice finds. Get thee thither before it's too late. Inexpressible thanks to the hosts.

Veronica Falls - Nobody There - Side One Track One

People's Temple - Twice Burned - Requiem Pour Un Twister

The New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed - Heartache With Hard Work

Rozwell Kid & Sleeping Bag - It's Cool - Rollo & Grady
The Sick Rose - Nothing To Say - Rollo & Grady

We're not exactly sure who Newtown Radio are or how they got such great connections, but they post a shipload of great music. So thank you, Newtown Radio, thank you very much. BTW, the following are grouped by post. A small point perhaps, but potentially useful.

Oh, and one other thing: when you get to NR, a song begins playing automatically. Unless you enjoy listening to two songs at once, you might want to click the PAUSE thingy in the pink area labelled "THE BROADCAST." We say "Unless" because occasionally we'll find a page where you can listen to a bunch of songs at once. We'll get, like, seven or eight numbers playing simultaneously and enjoy the strangely satisfying cacophony. A small point perhaps, but potentially useless.

The Olivia Tremor Control - Love Athena - Newtown Radio

Lame Drivers - Excess - Newtown Radio
Swearin' - Movie Star - Newtown Radio

Surfer Blood - Demon Dance - Newtown Radio
Potty Mouth - Black and Studs - Newtown Radio

PyPy - She's Gone - Newtown Radio
Pity Sex - Wind Up - Newtown Radio
Hookworms - On Returning - Newtown Radio

High Highs - A Real Hero - Newtown Radio
Beliefs - She Comes Alive - Newtown Radio
Eagulls - Nerve Endings - Newtown Radio
Moon King - Big Dumb Blue Angel - Newtown Radio

The Resonars

Rest assured that any time we find something freely dlable by this Tucson faveband, it shall be placed within your reach post-haste. (It is in fact happening in this very post, duh.) Follow the labels to previous resonances.

Free download here

Beaming at Borrowed Beams Of Light

A couple of beams are just out of sight.

The first single from the Charlottesville, VA band's just-released On The Wings Of A Bug vaguely reminds us of Mr. L. Buckingham . . . which certainly brings a smile to our face, Mac. Hibernator Gigs dropped the LP this past Tuesday.


Free download here.

You're Getting Close to The Reference Desk

Two Halifax bass players formed a band, redeployed to guitar and drums, hired a drummer to play bass, and began making gear, lo-fi pop. Read more at Pigeon Row.


Free download here.

We Get to First Base!

Just like them osculators! (Well, sorta.)

Hozac Records have just released the first LP by these lo-fi Toronto poppers, so we tracked down a few of their songs for free download at Bandcamp. We seriously contemplated posting all ten faves but are exercising iron self-control in limiting ourselves to those below. If you really, really like them, you just might make it all the way to home.

Capital Comp from Dogs Got A Bone

We recently posted some excelentes from Edinburgh label Dogs Got A Bone. Here are our two favorites from their just-released, ten-song compilation, Capitalised: Tall Tales & Low Lives of Edinburgh, available for free download at Bandcamp.

Velociraptor

Several months ago we bought everything by this Brisbane twelve-piece we could get our hands on at eMusic and just now put our hands on a couple more. If you like what you hear, three freebies are available at their triple j unearthed page. "Walk On By" has been kind of omnipresent in our mind's ear of late, so we lead with it. You'll probably have to pay for that one, but if I were you, I would do it.

Drowning in Drowners

Two bands, same name, one of them drops the The. 

Confusing? 

Maybe so, so maybe just listen.

From New York City:

Free download here.

From Skelleftea:

Free download here.

Music of the Sphere: King Khan, People's Temple, Ovlov, Chambermaids, Audacity, Persian Leaps, Medicine, Guthrie & Irion, Bleeding Rainbow, Jacco Gardner, Twin Peaks, Gross Magic

We thank the ever-gracious postmeisters for hosting the following. Some of them are on "Best Of"-type lists, so you'll have to scroll 'n' search 'n' strut 'n' stuff.

King Khan & The Shrines - Better Luck Next Time - Polaroid

The People's Temple - Twice Burned - Requiem Pour Un Twister

Ovlov - nu punk OR The Valley - Gimme Tinnitus - Blog says TV, download says np.

The Chambermaids - Electric Sky - Austin Town Hall
Audacity - Couldn't Hold A Candle - Austin Town Hall

The Persian Leaps - Silent Treatment - Indie Rock Cafe
Medicine - It's Not Enough - Indie Rock Cafe
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion - Chairman Meow - Indie Rock Cafe

Bleeding Rainbow - Wasted Youth - Rollo & Grady
Jacco Gardner - Clear The Air - Rollo & Grady
Twin Peaks - Irene - Rollo & Grady
Gross Magic - Sweetest Touch - Rollo & Grady

Never Too Much Monkey Business From Ballard

Ballard of Bolton returns with yet another EP of excellent indiepowerpop. We've raved before and hope we'll have opportunities in future to rave on and on. 

Long-time Ballard fans will notice less lo- and more hi- on this fi-ne effort. It would also appear that frontman Darren Riley has moved out of the bedroom while simultaneously enlisting sidekicks for tub-thumping and knob-twiddling duties. Songs 1 & 3 are our particular faves.

A little poking around revealed we missed the following excellent EP in August, so, like, apos and such. Kudos especially for songs 1, 2, & 3.

Males Make Us Lucky Too

We previously posted Males ware and feel fortunate the Dunedin, NZ band let us know their double EP/mini album, Run Run Run/Males/Males/Males, is due to drop via Fishrider Records come November. Here's the fab new single.

We Say "The Migs"

To launch the orchestrated phase of today's musical festivities, we tapped into our "Recently Added" playlist, and this jaunty little jangler randomed forth. We checked and, as you might notice below, IT'S AVAILABLE!!! For free download!!! All the more reason to love New Hampshire. It and others are also available for nypdl at Bandcamp, if you so prefer.


Free download here.

Basketball Shorts

The Austin band's split EP with the Austin band Big Bill is due out on Fleeting Youth Records the 29th of this mo. There's quite a bit of name-your-pricery involved in all this, so click and find.


Free download here.




Free download here.

Redd Kross Pop Up

Like on a playlist we were just listening to. Hear it in the vid, download it here.

Activated x 8x8, Shadow Folk, Os Noctàmbulos, Schnauser, Dark Ocean Colors . . .and Nathan

We're so, so glad once again to get activated by the ever-active Nathan over at The Active Listener. Here are our three favorites from his latest name-your-price compilation, which just so happens to be lucky No. 13.

And once again, the pleasure of what we found at No. 12 supercedes the embarrassment we feel at being far less active of late than the aforementioned ever-active Nathan.

Mushy Over Slushy

Not sure if you wanta/needta know the provenance of our various infatuations, but this one came via an email from Mindy over at Bachelor Records. Thanks, Mind, for putting us in touch with these Chicago poppers. There are more name-your-own-pricers over at Bandcamp, along with some that are denominated for ya.



Track 5 ("Ivory Soap") is our preferred ditty on Nuggish.

Meow, meow, meow: Old Pretender, Milk Maid, Snøffeltøffs, Mazes, Paws, Pinact, Yucky Slime, Viscous Liquid, Tweens

We went on a fishin' expedition for "Blood Pool" by Technicolor Teeth and got herded over to Fat Cat Records' Soundcloud page. That's one cool cat, maaan! Here're our picks of the litter (genus downloadablensis).


Download here.




Download here.
 

Download here.

Traditional breakup line, for comfortable viewing purposes


Download here.


Download here.


Download here.


Download here.


Download here.

At the risk of offending those who prefer widget purity, here's that TT song previously referenced (genus adownloadablebutneverthelesswidgetablensis).

Frantic Chant

Frantic Chant are back, and we love what we're hearing by these Edinburghers. The first song below has nice Byrdsian pickery, while the second is pretty pure psych. Find more songs and info at Bandcamp and Facebook.

Music of the Sphere: The Young Sinclairs, The Proper Ornaments, Cheatahs, Frankie Rose, The Casket Girls, Gap Dream, Tony Molina

This is an emergency post of the Powerpopulist Blogcasting System (PBS). We have just come into contact with seven excellent songs to which we think you might want to give ear. We are well aware we just did a MotS post a mere two days ago, but the excellent Austin blog Side One Track One just posted a Fifecta,*** in which every single song plunked our twanger big time. SOTO usually only leaves them up for a week or two, and if you were to miss out on these, we would feel very sad.

The Young Sinclairs - You Know Where To Find Me - Austin Town Hall

The Proper Ornaments - Shining Bright - Rollo & Grady

Cheatahs - Cut The Grass - Side One Track One
Frankie Rose - Street Of Dreams - Side One Track One
The Casket Girls - Holding You Back - Side One Track One
Gap Dream - Shine Your Love - Side One Track One
Tony Molina - Breakin' Up - Side One Track One

We hadn't yet heard San Franciscan Tony Molina but were so "turned on" by the song SOTO posted, we went out and crammed his entire Dissed And Dismissed LP into our Bandcamp shopping cart. (We're widgeting it below.) The songs are short but pretty pure power pop (which, incidentally, is a genre we like).

Update: The Bandcamp widget has disappeared, so here are some streamers courtesy of SoundCloud.







***Made-up word, but a darned good one

Gross Relations Still Aren't Gross, Oh, No, Far From It

But the album cover? Your call.

We've been loving this Brooklyn quintet for some time now and recently sent you to Austin Town Hall to discover "Discovery Zone." Well, we just discovered the widget ourselves, so here 'tis. It's off their recently released self-titled LP. Below the widget we're pasting the first song we posted by them, still available for free download via Insound.


Download here.

Gross Relations - You Don't Know Me mp3

Music of the Sphere: Bubblegum Lemonade, Crinkles, Bad Sports, Gross Relations, Bent Shapes, Jeff The Brotherhood, Temple Songs, The Mantles, The Mentalettes, Audacity

Pickings have been slimmer of late, but quality is high, ioho. We humbly thank the hosts, the artists, the whole wide universe for making these available.

Bubblegum Lemonade - Cool Guitar Girl - Polaroid

Crinkles - Keys To The Cop Car - Gimme Tinnitus

Bad Sports - Get You - Side One Track One

Gross Relations - Discovery Zone - Austin Town Hall
Bent Shapes - Hex Maneuvers - Austin Town Hall

Jeff The Brotherhood - Marie Provost (Nick Lowe cover) - Rollo & Grady
Temple Songs - Past Caring & I Can't Look After You - Rollo & Grady - pic
The Mantles - More That I Pay - Rollo & Grady
The Mentalettes - Fine Fine Fine - Rollo & Grady
Audacity - Hole In The Sky - Rollo & Grady

Back to the Futureman: kk + tm (1)

Yes, we know, this is so, like, March 2013 and all, but we're proceeding anyway because we very much like the songs and regret not having posted them sooner. You probably already got them elsewhere and in a more timely manner, and that's a-o-kk. In case you missed it, we posted our faves from Volume 2 yesterday. You can get the rest of the first volume of covers by Futureman Records' Keith Klingensmith and the TM Collective here at Bandcamp.

That first one down there is our all-time favorite song by one of our all-time favorite bands, in case anyone was wondering. The names of the original artists are noted below the appropriate widgets.


The Byrds


The Bevis Frond


Martin Newell


The Replacements

Another Good One from Goodman

Perhaps you remember our effusions over NYC popper Michael Goodman back in January. On the other hand, perhaps you do not. Either way, we do understand. There's a lot to keep up with these days.

We were very glad, though, that Goodman just now let us know he has released the second single from his forthcoming LP, due to "drop" later this year or early the next. And, yes, if "they" like it, then so do we. But if "they" don't, we still do. Very much. You can find a lot more Good(man)stuff to download at his Bandcamp page, including more name-your-price freebies here and here.

One final note, before the ones in the widget. As you can see in the photos, Michael is ever so slightly more ebullient now than he was eight months ago (in addition to looking somewhat younger). We obviously, though, all need to put forth more effort to augment that smallish grin on his handsome puss. He's taking darned good care of our ears, so it's the least we can do.