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.
. . . 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.
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.
Hot off their (his, Jeff Shelton's, really) excellent June release, Comes And Goes, fly two new sizzlers by San Francisco favebandThe 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?
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.)
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 ripebananas. 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 Runhere and here. (For some reason, the Bandcamp widget contains no Buy option.) Click for Facebook connection.
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:
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.
ChicagoanSam 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.
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.
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.
As usual, we're glad we heard the tune first, but Austin bandTele 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.)
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 BrisbandRegurgitator'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.
