The Classmates: Tasty Powergaragepop Bolognese

Boy/girl/whatev, are we glad we decided to post our favorite song by Bologna band The Classmates at a Facebook group we recently joined called Garage Rock Revival/Post-Punk Revival/Neo-Psychedelia! "Why, pp, WHY?" you may ask. Well, read on, or better yet, skip the verbiage and proceed to the widgets.

But here's why. We'd bought several by them last year and get to jumping every time they come up on our electrified players. Little did we know until posting at GRR/P-PR/Neo-P that four of their songs, including the aforereferenced fave, "Cheatin' soul," are available for name-your-price download at Bandcamp. The download link doesn't show up immediately in each widget, so we're providing the necessary links for nypdling. Click here to check out their entire Bandcamped discography.

So without further ado . . . The Classmates.

NYP download here

NYP download here

NYP download here

NYP download here

Faves from The Final Active Listener Sampler: Fogbound, Invaderband, Nuvem Leopardo, Emily Jones

First, the good news: we've just been graced with a new and customarily fab comp of psych and poppsych from The Active Listener. Now the bad: as any fool (and we proudly qualify) can tell by the sampler title, it's the last one from the marvelous Master Nathan Ford. We've been enriched by his superb comps for several years now and thank him most heartily. Below are our four most fave from this swansong of songs. You can download all 21 tunes for a mere $1 total. (Readers in Lesotho will of course pay in loti. Bandcamp should help you convert to your local currency.)


Those Fogbound freebies we posted previously are still freely available here.

Bearded by Cellar Door Moon Crow

One glance at the beards and we were like, "No way, Josefina." A couple of minutes later we noticed our glutei maximi had been rocked off and were rolling across the floor. And we felt good about it. We found Sheffield brahs Phil and Tommy Goodwin (not sure which is which in the pic) over at new-to-us blog 50ThirdAnd3rd, which we found via new-to-us Bandcamper and Podcaster Erin, a fellow sisterly devotee of The Orange Kyte. So here we go; just hold on to your seat (or something).

Oh, and here's the new song by The Orange Kyte that kind of got this new episode rolling, rolling, rolling.

Music of the Sphere: The Jags, Bram Tchaikovsky, Amber Arcades, Little Triggers, Honeyblood, Kingdom of the Holy Sun

Inexpressible (at least by this inadequate crew) thanks to the magnificent bloggers who have made the following available for download. Special kudos to Still in Rock for posting these classics.

The Jags - Back of My Hand & Party Games - Still in Rock
Bram Tchaikovsky - Girl Of My Dreams & Lady From The USA - Still in Rock

Amber Arcades - Fading Lines - Rollo & Grady

Little Triggers - When The Lights Are Going Out - Little Indie Blogs

Honeyblood - Ready For The Magic - The KEXP Blog
Kingdom of the Holy Sun - Flown Away - The KEXP Blog

Tele Novella Says Caroline Says

Pic from vid.

We got on a little jag involving Austin band Tele Novella earlier this evening and are thankful to them for recommending Austin band Caroline Says. Maybe we aren't as into quieter, low-tempo tuneage as we used to be but we are very much enjoying what Caroline Says say and how they say it. Our favorites are widgeted below, but you might very well enjoy others on 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong as well. Check out even more at their SoundCloud page.







One final note about Tele Novella: their song "Heavy Balloon," which we posted back in September, is shaping up to be one of our very favorite tunes of the year 2016, and we absolutely adore the video. We also recommend your checking out their debut LP, House of Souls, which dropped September 23 via Yellow Year Records. BTW, "Heavy Balloon" is still available for free download at the aforementioned previous post.

Cool Things from Asylums and BAIT

Southend-on-Seaband Asylums are dropping the Alternative Occupations EP 2dec16 on their very own Cool Thing Records label. Below are two of our favorites. Hear more here.

The Toms - Think About Me

Free download & excellent review at 

Still in Rock

From: Las Vegas

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

The Everywheres - End of Time

From: Halifax

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

Dogs At Large - Cumulonimbus (Creos V)

From: Chicago

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

Papernut Cambridge - Love The Things Your Lover Loves

From: Sidcup

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

The Haiduks - I'm Still Here

From: Toronto

Bandcamp Discography

Pixie Cut Tentacle Head - Massive

From: Michigan

Bandcamp Discography

Haiku Garden - Rosetta

Also especially liked #4

From: Ljubljana

Facebook

Kapa Records

Heaven's Gateway Drugs - Copper Hill

Free download - Click "More."

From: Fort Wayne, IN

Facebook

dayflower - Big Blue

From: Leicester

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

Dirty Sidewalks - The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill (Hüsker Dü cover)

Also liked #5 & 11

From: Seattle

Facebook

Thanks to 

TBTCI.

The Third Sound - Shine a Light on Me

From: Berlin, DE

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

The Persian Leaps - The Weather

Free Download - Click "More"

From: St. Paul, MN

Bandcamp Discography

Website

The Astounds - I Get Astound & Sky Dispatches

Also recommended: #5

From: St. Louis

Bandcamp

Read

Kid Trails - You And Me

From: Oakland

Bandcamp Discography

Facebook

Night Drifting - Disappearing Love

From: Claremont, CA

Bandcamp Discography

Twitter

Mancunian Poppsych from Black Sonic Revolver

Many thanks to Psychgazer for the headsup on this fab Manchester band. Check out more excellent grooves at their SoundCloud page.


If download arrow doesn't work, click here for another free download opportunity.

Click here for free download.

CFM, aka Charles Francis Moothart - The Stooge

Charles Moothart, bandmate of  Mikal Cronin (Moonhearts and Cronin solo LPs), Ty Segall (Fuzz, GØGGS, Ty Segall Band), and head head in the band CFM, has just released a single from his forthcoming EP. Homegrown Paranoia is set to drop in November via In The Red Records. Needless to say, it rawks. Listen below and if you like, head over to Still in Rock for further enlightenment.

Here's one of the collaborations we pointed you towards many moons ago. (Heads should appear once you click the play arrow.)

Recent Explorations Via Hubble Telyscopes

Remember our post last year on Alexandria, VA's A Marc Train Home, Lenclair, Jack Hubble (or Hubbell), and his band Telyscopes???? (Sure, why not, pp, what are you getting at?) Quite a bit, actually, and thank you for remembering, or pretending to, because we just got emailed word that Jack's been up to more mischief, and it's rather stellar. And by checking it out, we found that almost everything in Telyscopes' Bandcamp catalog is now available for name-your-price download, even the stuff we spent our hard-earned on sometime in April of last year.

We sampled everything we hadn't listened to last year and were frankly enraptured. Jack's an adventurous sort, sometimes perhaps an ooch or twelve more than "necessary," but then that's kind of what we thought about Car Seat Headrest, who is now one hot item in the (admittedly smallish) world of blogs Indie. So who knows what the future holds for Jack and the Telys?

We earmarked lots and lots of Telyscopic discoveries for our personal music library but are highlighting our very favorites.



This is from the latest LP, the one we got the email about. We also particularly liked #1 and #8.



We bought this one last year. You don't have to if you click here.



We also bought this one and the one below, along with #3, 5 & 6. We would call #3 pretty pure power pop but for the fact it's one of the most ribald double p songs we've ever heard. Nothing worse than what one of the two major party presidential candidates has uttered (and done), though.




This one dropped in May of this year. We really liked the following as well: #2, 5, 7, 9, 12, & 13.

Oh, and we enjoyed this videoscopic representation of the previously widgeted song, "Victory."

Giving Thanks for The New Frustrations' Plymouth Rock

Maybe we should wait till late next month, but what the hell. Many thanks to Faster and Louder for the headsup on Plymouth, Mass. band The New Frustrations' reissue of early aughts powerpunkpop. Two excellent EPs are available for name-your-price download at Bandcamp. Here are our favorites.

Music of the Sphere: Teenage Fanclub, Kestrels, Tony Molina, Wavves, EZTV, Escobar, Acapulco Lips, the Orwells, B Boys, Chemtrails

Yuge thanks to the following primobloggers for making these excellent songs available. 

Teenage Fanclub - Hold On - The KEXP Blog

Kestrels - No Alternative - The KEXP Blog

Tony Molina - See Me Fall - Side One Track One - That other new one's here.

Wavves - You Gave Your Love To Me Softly (Weezer cover) - Side One Track One

EZTV - High Flying Faith - Still in Rock - plus two more

Escobar - Before You Die & You Must Get Stoned - Still in Rock

Acapulco Lips - Tonight & Shoes On - Still in Rock

The Orwells - Buddy - Rollo & Grady (pic)

B Boys - Seagulls - Rollo & Grady

Chemtrails - Aeons - Rollo & Grady

Streamers: Garden Gate, Teevee, The Orange Kyte, Affordable Hybrid, Our Girl

Songdrop's back, and we're pretty darned happy about it. (How happy are we? Just look at the picture above.) We've gone back through and dropped into our Currents 3 mix all the ones we put in regular posts during Songdrop's hiatus, plus all the ones from lists we've been compiling the last week or so.

Below, though, are a few that for one reason or another, still won't drop. We like them and thought you might want to give ear. Oh, and it's gonna take awhile, but over the next few days, we hope to drop these recent drops into other appropriate Songdrop mixes, such as Powerpop 1, Powerpop 2, Early Powerpop, Indierock 1, Indierock 2, Jangle 1, Jangle 2, Femmes, Oz, Kiwis, Covers, Alternative Heyday, Psych, and Shoegaze.

TAL Compilation Faves: The Beginner's Mynd , 8x8, The Planets Collide, Distant Creatures

Sad we were to hear that Mr. Nathan Ford will be somewhat less active bloggily than in times past. Glad we were that he promised continued compilations for and from The Active Listener. Below are our favorites from the latest, Sampler 43. These and the remaining thirteen are available for name-your-price download.

Ice Cream Man's New Flavour of the Month . . .

. . . is busy melting in the mou ears and oh, yeah, we're scarfing, bae bae. Hot on the heels of his gargantuan, hugely incredible 139-scoop summer compilation, Power Pop Brain Freeze, the Ice Cream Man cometh with a new serving of tasty treats. Below are our three favoured flavours, but please do go check out all of them and see which best sate your own particular palate. The (name your) price is right!







And if you really thought we'd let this opportunity slip by without posting the following groovy thing, we're really quite, like, not chuffed.

Beebe Gallini Remember the Sixties

As some wag(s) put it, "If you remember the Sixties, you really weren't there."

So were they, Beebe Gallini, there? Not sure, but this St. Paul, Minnesota band's groovy tuneage hearkens back to the fab decade very nicely indeed. We remember it well, so I guess we weren't there, though this somewhat disjointed intro might suggest otherwise. We're posting our four favorites from their name-your-price EP or LP (not sure about that either . . . it's got eight songs). After that, it's up to you. Click here to go there.

The Well Wishers AREN'T the Enemy and ARE Just Right

Hot off their (his, Jeff Shelton's, really) excellent June release, Comes And Goes, fly two new sizzlers by San Francisco faveband The Well Wishers. "I'm Not The Enemy" is available below for free download, and the understatedly titled "It's Just Right" stands ready to increase pulse rate/dopamine flow beyond optimum levels.*** And in case you missed it, we're including Comes And Goes as well.

We've been enjoying The Well Wishers for quite a while now, and you might want to check out some of our previous posts on the band, not for the writing, of course, but because several of them still have free and legal downloadables available. We've also been enjoying Jeff Shelton's insights over at the I Love Power Pop Facebook group page and his always in-the-know Power Pop Show, which you can hear live or via podcast. The Facebook link is to an enjoyable thread in which a 'booker asks the question, "Are there any powerpop bands/artists that everyone seems to love, but you just couldn't get into?" Go watch the fur fly if you like, but be prepared to find your favorite band dissed and dismissed (but also, in most cases, defended).

***Yassss, we contradict our postitle, but so, like, what?

Video Streamers: Fun Cam, Imperial Broads, Dog Party, Tomorrow Syndicate, Diamond Hands

FYI: Imperial Broads include a . . . narrow.

As promised, here are a few more highly esteemed songs that Songdrop's too busy snoozing to absorb into widgets. Yo, 'drop, wtf up.

Streamers: Sun Angle, La Sera, Miniature Tigers, Tony Molina, The Britanys, Purling Hiss

Were these normal times, we would be dropping these highly esteemed songs into our Songdrop widgets. But alas, these are not normal times, as Songdrop continues to snooze, and so we post them below. (We'll be doing a followup post of videoed tuneage in just a few ticks.)

Columbus' Connections Launch Weapons of Mass Seduction

We're posting this excellent lo-fi powerpop number in two formats: Bandcamp widget and YouTube vid, but please be advised: This video contains graphic depictions of full-frontal (and lateral) intimacy between fruits, in this case, two very ripe bananas. Initially it's just innocent spooning (for which, as you may have noticed, bananas are ideally structured). At that point you might be thinking, "Oh, pp, you're such a prude. I get more excited opening my cutlery drawer." Well, just you wait because at the 1:57 mark they peel and do the full Monty, and it leaves nothing--nothing--to the imagination (unless your reveries run to naughty necking nanners making the beast with two backs). So you've got options.

We've got a bit more to say below, but let's go ahead and "do it."

Yes, the quintet's from Ohio, both Columbus and Dayton, and you know what that means: a Guided by Voices connection!. They were at first signed to Robert Pollard's Rockathon label, and the lead Voice's bona (lo)fides are everywhere evident. (Today Connections are on the Anyway Records label.) Read more about it at this excellent Blurt post. In an earlier post of our own we guided your fingertips to connect with another's Fingerips to check out/maybe download the excellent "Mall Lights." Well, guess what: it's still excellent and it's still there!

Other Connections freebies are available here and here, and you can buy their recently released Midnight Run here and here. (For some reason, the Bandcamp widget contains no Buy option.) Click for Facebook connection.

While Songdrop Sucks, We Stream: Beach Slang, Kestrels, Death By Unga Bunga, Violent Change, Linn Koch-Emery, Telempathy, Kleenex Girl Wonder, Mumrunner, Painted Zeros, Grandaddy

We probably do, too, but at least the songs don't.

We would have had the songs below sucked into our Songdrop Currents 3 mixwidget, but Songdrop's been sucking by not so sucking for a week now, and the backlog's getting out of hand. Thus do we take emergency measures. We love or very much like the following:

Queens 'n' Greens (Monkeys & PJs)

Many thanks to our Last.fm/We (Heart) Jangle Rock/other places friend Tom Cruz for turning us on to Seattle band, The Queen Annes.


We also very much like #1 & #13, as well as this one from their LP, The Mire.



BTW, The Queen Annes are on the same label (Green Monkey Records) as longtime faveband The Green Pajamas. Of the many loved numbers by The Green Pajamas, below's our favorite. We usually prefer our songs uptempo, but holy shiksa, this one burns slow and sensual-like.

Get Contact High from Sam Vicari's Blunt

Chicagoan Sam Vicari's Giving Up was, ioho, one of the best poprocking LPs of 2015. Well, Sam's back with the recently dropped Blunt, and The KEXP Blog has a free download of our personal favorite, "Contact High." Check it out below and if you like, go to The KEXP Blog for enhanced contact.

.

Streamers: Beaulieu Porch, Andy Klingensmith, The See See, Blood Lips, Purling Hiss

As you may know, we keep a steady stream of lovedsongs a-dropping into that Currents 3 widget in the upper-right-hand corner of this page. Sometimes, though, they won't drop, especially if they're at Bandcamp. (Songdrop and Bandcamp no longer "get it on.") So that's the case with the following, each of which we love or very much like and hope you do, too.

Update, 28vii18: The LP with the beautiful boy pictured above has disappeared, but some of the songs by this much-beloved UK band, including "Giant Supermen," are now found on the LP in the widget. 

A variation of a song we purchased by another much-beloved UK band.

Kind of a "hurling" theme emerges this week, if, that is, you too are a devotee of  Rev. Spooner. And fear not: PH provide the requisite psychedelic hiccup somewhere between the 1:02 and 1:03 mark. (Alas, the SoundCloud counter does not do hundredths of a second.) Click here if the SoundCloud widget tarries in loading.

We really like this song, too, butt just couldn't get with the photo(s), ass you might see.

Tele Novella - Sin & Con

As usual, we're glad we heard the tune first, but Austin band Tele Novella's just-released vid's fun, too. No pressure, but which you click first tells a lot about you. (But then, only you*** will know.)

***And the NSA, et al . . .

Regurgitator Hurl Us a New Oldie

Save your spew 'cause that's the last emetic-based synonymerie we're heaving at you in this post. (Unless, you know . . . )

Anyhoo, we bought some of Brisband Regurgitator's powerpopunk several years ago at eMusic and were quite chuffed to find via email they've just thrown up a "new" one they actually recorded in Rio back in the aughts. Checking it out led to a couple of merry hours checking out the rest of their ouevre at their many Bandcamp pages. And, wow, what an ouevre, all available for free and legal download!

Below are our very favorites, along with links to the download action. The Gurge (it only takes a little bit of reading customer comments at Bandcamp to start sounding like a cognoscente of The Scene Brisbemitic) have quite a range of styles 'n' genres, so naturally we're emphasizing those that hew more closely to guitar-driven power cum pop. We're posting pretty much in chronological order, ending with the recently surfacing song alluded to above.



We also very much like #3. 7, & 11.












Also highly recommended: #6, 9, 13









And here's the newie/oldie:

Okay, we can't resist posting this semi-theme-based fave from back in the aughts.

Music of the Sphere: Sea Wren, Jacuzzi Boys, Flyying Colours, Rogue Wave, Crocodiles, Wyatt Blair, Yum Yums, Searchers, Meat Market, Platinum Boys, Mean Jeans

Wyatt Blair & Friend

Many thanks to these ever-so-generous bloggers for making available this wonderful fare.

Sea Wren - Birds of Slumber - 3hive

Jacuzzi Boys - Boys Like Blood - Rollo & Grady

Flyying Colours - It's Tomorrow Now - KEXP Blog

Rogue Wave - California Bride - KEXP Blog

Crocodiles - Telepathic Lover - KEXP Blog

Wyatt Blair - Monday Morning Mess & No Surrender - Still in Rock

The Yum Yums - Always The Last To Know & Rush Hour - Still in Rock

The Searchers - Almost Saturday Night & Little Bit Of Heaven - Still in Rock

Meat Market - Dig Deep & TNT - Still in Rock

Platinum Boys - Feel Young - Still in Rock

Mean Jeans - Nite Vision & Trash Can - Still in Rock