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?

The Well Wishers' Saturday Surprise

I was about to step out of the house but found some jewels in my emailbox and had to post posthaste. We happily featured San Francisco powerpoppers The Well Wishers back in December and now find WW Jeff Shelton is making new tuneage available. Jeff took two unfinished songs from his previous (excellent) band, Spinning Jennies, and polished them into the gems below. The email also had the exciting news that The Well Wishers are demoing songs for their fifth LP, hope to begin recording this fall, and anticipate releasing it in early '10. Needless to say, we wish them well and know their music will return the favor.

The Well Wishers

I Before E mp3

Down mp3

For good measure, here's one of the previously posted songs from that December post. The other two are still there, so go dig 'em if you dare. (Are we coyly, greedily sending you there just to increase our site traffic, build up our number of page clicks, and augment our massive revenue stream? Surely you jest.)

Moving Mountains mp3 - from Jigsaw Days

The Well Wishers' Dreamy New One Due Next Month

We're delighted to hear from bandleader Jeff Shelton that San Francisco powerpoppers The Well Wishers will be releasing new LP Dreaming of the West Cost on January 24. The song below is downloadable at Bandcamp, where you can also stream the rest of the album. We've loved The Well Wishers for years now, and you can still download some songs we previously posted here and here. We don't usually do end-of-the-year Faves lists, but if we did, last year's Post Modern Romantic most definitely would have been on ours.

MySpace | Facebook | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

Wishing Well

San Francisco's powerpopping The Well Wishers are essentially the solo project of former Spinning Jennies frontman Jeff Shelton, with SJ bandmate Nick Laquintano on skins. I got on a Well Wishers jag this fall and may well never recover, which suits me very well indeed. I was further delighted when Jeff gave me permission to post anything I like from this year's Jigsaw Days. Jeff, you really shouldn't oughta tempt me like that, and I'm assuming you didn't mean to let me go ahead and post the entire superb lp, now did you? Oh, you did? Right then, I will. (Not.) Anyway, it doesn't get any purer than this primo pop, and it's no puzzle why, as you will hear with three simple clicks. Before I post some of my favorites from Jigsaw Days, though, I'd like to mention my favorites from earlier TWW lps, variously available at Not Lame (link gets you to one lp, then use search box for others), eMusic, and iTunes. Your kilometerage will vary, so go test drive at your convenience.

Twenty-Four Seven (2004): Press Begin to Play - Sex & the Suburbs - See for the First Time
Under the Arrows (2005): Brain Trust Odyssey - Break It Up - Double Vision - In Search of Alter Egos
How I Won the War (2007): It's True What they Say About Girls - Broken Glass - I'm In Love - The Optimist - Hope Is Fading - Seashells - Grey Skies Black

While we're at it, you can also find Spinning Jennies tuneage here (as above), here, and here.

Okay, get clicking.

The Well Wishers - from Jigsaw Days

Moving Mountains mp3
Heroes mp3
All The Suckers mp3


MySpace

Faves from The Co-Op Communiqué Volume Four: The Well Wishers, Pseudonym, The Click Beetles, The John Sally Ride, Jonny Weathers, John T. McMullan, Wicked Immigrant

We recently received an emailed communique from Mr. Dw. Dunphy announcing the latest compilation of songs "to break the stalemate between an eager audience and the distribution channels that cannot come together." And break it he certainly does, and with a loud and very satisfying pop. You can read all about it at Bandcamp, but in the meantime, here are our very favorites from the latest, 57-song menu, all available for free download. We might mention that after sampling all 57 and noting our favorites, we found when it came time to post that some of the playing order had been changed. We hope the songs posted below conform to the list of artists we named in the postitle.

Music of the Sphere: Posies, Silver Sun, Well Wishers, Caddy, Candi, S. Miller, Stooges, Tears, OK Go, Flips, Satin Gum, Them, Byrds, et . al. . . .

Many thanks to the wise, generous, and thoughtful bloggerfolk for making the following earable.

Silver Sun - Lies - Peter's Power Pop - I've bought dozens of songs by these excellent London powerpoppers the last several years; pure.
The Well Wishers - Grammareater - Peter's Power Pop - Likewise have I expended for TWW. See our previous posts of mp3s by this excellent powerpopping San Francisco band here.
Caddy - Electric Hero & Turn Up The Radio - Peter's Power Pop
The Steve Miller Band - Things I Told You - Peter's Power Pop - I love this deep-cut, long-time fave; Peter doesn't. About such things reasonable poppers will disagree.

OK Go - You're So Damn Hot - Indie Rock Cafe
Super Deluxe - Holly's Dream Vacation - Indie Rock Cafe
The Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun - Indie Rock Cafe
Them - Here Comes the Night - Indie Rock Cafe

The Stooges - 1969 - Star Maker Machine - Star Maker gives us the clap.
Stealers Wheel - Stuck In The Middle - Star Maker Machine
The Rembrandts - I'll Be There For You - Star Maker Machine

Candi and the Strangers - MRI - Covert Curiosity
Watch Out For Rockets - Big Lies - Covert Curiosity

Lost Boy - Fast Burn - Altered Zones
Coma Cinema - Come On Apathy - Altered Zones

The Posies - Earlier Than Expected - For The Sake Of The Song

Tears Run Rings - Reunion - mp3hugger

The Byrds - Wasn't Born to Follow - Groover's Paradise

Starry Eyed & Laughing - Going Down & Lady Came from the South - The Rising Storm - Byrdsian

The Flips - I Just Don't Know Where I Stand - Raven Sings the Blues

Division - Regrets - CYSTSFTS

Satin Gum - Hip Shake Heartbreak - Milk Milk Lemonade

Girls in the Eighties - Awake but Not Aware - Gimme Tinnitus

The Well Wishers Tweak "Father Nature"

Tweakin's tiring.

The Well Wishers' chief Wisher, Jeff Shelton, has been tweaking the final song on this year's superb LP A Shattering Sky and is making it possible for all of "us" to profit thereby. We pp's don't usually make "Best Of" lists, but if we did, A Shattering Sky would most definitely be on ours for 2014. Does that mean we're on the verge of shattering tradition, that for the first time in our blog's eight-year history we're gonna succumb to year-end listomania? Nnnnnnnnnnmaybe, but don't hold your breath.

We do, however, want to expend both breath and cyber in thanks to Jeff for making this free download available. The entire LP is available for purchase here, here, and here. Faceoff friendlily here. Some of our previous Jeff-sanctioned posted freebies can be found here.


Click here to get the name-your-price download.

Free as a Bee: Knightingale, Cheap Horse, Animal Camera, Phenomenal Cat, Buried Feather, Glenn Robinson, ipreferguitars, No Museums, The Loblaws, Vista Blue, Deco Auto, undone

Almost exactly how we feel at this precise moment.

Well, it appears the only way we're getting another post done is to eschew verbiage and get right to free and legal downloadables we've found and loved. Like Antonio, we know we're personally "your bad entertainment" but trust the music won't be.


Knightingale



This Singapore band's debut LP was one of our favorites from 2016, We bought six songs off it but recently found it available for name-your-price download. In addition to the first song cued up above, we also bought #3, 5, 6, 7, & 9. Keen-eared visitors might remember we embedded their latest single in our Faves of the Faves Playmoss Playlist in a recent post. In case you missed it, here it is.




Cheap Horse


Many thanks to longtime friend/visitor johnnybgoode for the headsup on this Santa Cruz band. We also particularly liked #13. And speaking of johnnyb., we remember he kind of liked this next band, who've recently put out some good newstuff.


Animal Camera



We also liked-to-loved #2, 3, 5, & 8. When we got word about this Burien, WA band's recent LP, we looked back at our first Animal Camera post and found to our horror that all the songs had been removed at Bandcamp. But after contacting him, head Animal (or Camera?) Gianni Aiello kindly restored the songs in a comprehensive collection, posted below. We begin with our favorite and note that the others we particularly like are #5, 6, 12, & 13, but do please feel free to listen to them all. (Big of us, sure, but, hey, whatever.)




Phenomenal Cat



This and #12, 14, & 20 are our favorites from the Kentish band's rock opera, Pop Wasteland. Perhaps it's a bit naughty to pick out but four faves from a concept album, but the whole work is available in the widget above. In the widget below you will find "Ramshackle Heart," a favorite we previously posted, along with beaucoup more for your consideration. Just a thought, but perhaps Animal Camera might want to arrange a photoshoot of Phenomenal Cat. AWS, just a thought. Oh, and also too, maybe Cheap Horse. Or Buried Feather. This post is wearing us out.




Buried Feather


Highly diggable Melbourne psych! More here.


Glenn Robinson


Actually we are quite impressed indeed. You probably noticed this particular song features ace powerpoprocker Kurt Baker. We also especially like #5 on this hot lil LP. You can find previously posted free and legals by this Providence, RI rocker here. Suddenly we're writing short, punchy sentences. What gives with that?


ipreferguitars


Thanks to Powerpopaholic for the headsup on this Hamburg/Stockholm/Warsaw band.


No Museums


We were not previously tuned in to the Edmonton surfer scene but sure are now. We also particularly like #1 & 4. Thanks to our Bandcamp friend thorsten sideboard for the headsup.


The Loblaws & Vista Blue


We also really enjoyed #1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 by The Loblaws and #9, 10, 11, & 12 by Vista Blue, both bands courtesy of Radiant Radish.


Deco Auto


Gotta thank The Well Wishers' Jeff Shelton for the headsup on this rocker outta Kansas City. Click here to see our previously posted freely/legally downloadable by DA.


undone


Scope ye out this fine band of Macedonians.


We could keep going in this vein, but you get the drift. We hope to return soon with more free and legals. In the meantime, don't forget to check our Powerpopulist Currents Playmoss widgets up in the right-hand corner of this page for constant updates of songs we like that are not free but definitely legal and downloadable (for nominal fees).

Music of the Sphere: Beatles, Smoking Popes, Well Wishers, Ether Aura, DVS, Stars, Mansun, S. Miller, Pristines, Uh Huh Her, et. al. . . .

Many thanks to the kind hosterposters for the excellent tuneage.

The Beatles - I'll Follow the Sun - Star Maker Machine - Post also has the ur-version by proto-Fabs, The Quarrymen.

Smoking Popes - If You Don't Care - CYSTSFTS
The Well Wishers - Heroes - Pop Sweatshop - Thanks to Auditeer Jeff Shelton for the headsup on this.

Ether Aura - Twist - Hits In The Car - I certainly share Morten's affection for this superb Detroit outfit. In fact, it was he who introduced me to them (musically).
Death Valley Sleepers - Small Town Bells - Hits In The Car - All the DVS tunes there at HITC are muchly recommended.

Stars - Ageless Beauty - Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good
Faded Paper Figures - Metropolis & Logos - Obscure Sound

Mansun - Being a Girl (Pt. 1) - Dead Flowers
¡Andale! - Eventually - Pop Sweatshop - Scroll down to it, if't please you.

The Pristines - Who To Trust - Eardrums
Uh Huh Her - Not a Love Song - a PLAGUE of ANGELS

Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret (Prince cover) - Timedoor - "R.E.M. minus Michael Stipe plus Warren Zevon"
Steve Miller Band - True Fine Love - Some Velvet Blog

Music of the Sphere: Byrds, Well W, JEFF, Nirvana, TMBG, TPoBPaH, JaMC, Cage TE, Flaming L, Wild N, Vandelles, Eerie, Supertramp, Those D, Eat S, etc.

Perhaps it is too soon to be doing another MotS post. Perhaps some of these below might be taken down soon by the gracious hosts (whom we thank). Flip. Tails. Let's roll.

The Byrds - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better - Perceptions! Delusions?

Eat Skull - Heaven's Stranger - Rose Quartz - not perhaps to every popper's taste; we like the hook, the bass, the drive

Murder Mystery - Honey Come Home - It All Started With Carbon Monoxide

The Well Wishers - All For Nothing - Peter's Power Pop
Hey Mercedes - The Switch - Peter's Power Pop

They Might Be Giants - Ana Ng - Popdose
The Stone Roses - She Bangs the Drums & I Wanna Be Adored - Popdose

Ghost Wave - Sunsetter - Swedesplease - Scroll down to New Zealand.
Weston - So Sorry - Swedesplease

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say No to Love - Austin Town Hall
Those Darlins - Screws Get Loose - Austin Town Hall
JEFF the Brotherhood - Shredder - Austin Town Hall

Cage The Elephant - Around My Head - Indie Rock Cafe
Nirvana - Molly's Lips (The Vaselines cover) - Indie Rock Cafe
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize? - Indie Rock Cafe
Wild Nothing - Gruesome Castle (The Wake cover) - Indie Rock Cafe
The Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies - Indie Rock Cafe
Supertramp - It's Raining Again - Indie Rock Cafe
The Vandelles - Lovely Weather - Indie Rock Cafe - pic
Eerie - In The Twinkle Of An Eye - Indie Rock Cafe - There's a lot of good stuff in this IRC Royal Wedding post.

Faves of the Faves - March 2018: Bromide, Michael Simmons, Wyatt Blair, The Well Wishers, Bad Moves, Be Like Pablo, K7s, The Lazy Lies, GRDNS, The Orange Kyte, Black Lizard, The Kumari, Parliamo, ta toy boy, Starman Jr., Boys Forever, Jo Passed, The Love-Birds, Ama, Nick Eng, Jack Perrett, The Color Waves

Posted below are our very favorite powerpop, indiepop, janglepop, psychpop, whateverpop songs found during the month of March. For some reason, Playmoss didn't digest all the information about some of the songs, so we're providing it just above the widget. If either of the two Bandcamp songs don't immediately play, click the play arrow to activate. Click if you'd like to hear the full March 2018 playlist at Playmoss. We do hope you'll find some songs to like.

#2 - Michael Simmons - No More Girls

#7 - K7s - Listen to My Heart

#8 - K7s - It's the CIA

#12 - The Orange Kyte - Anti-Establishment Haircut

#18 -  Boys Forever - If You Don't Mind

Playmoss and SoundCloud just aren't "gettin' it on" anymore, so here are two more songs we'd like to include.

Soundcloudownloadables: The Well Wishers, Dignan Porch, Tiger Waves, Wimps and Machos, Summer Fiction, Party Lights

Sorry we've gotten a "little behind" in posting. (Pants fit better, though.) Here are some recent, fairly recent, and downright ancient downloadables we've been much enjoying.

Many thanks to Jeff Shelton of long-time faveband The Well Wishers for making this available, as well as this excellent ABBA cover:

Facebook

Free & legals still available 

here.

Facebook

Facebook

Some previously posteds by this much-beloved band are still available 

here.

Facebook

Facebook

Facebook

Faves of the Faves - March/April 2019: The Decibels, Smile from Tokyo, More Kicks, An Horse, David Woodard, The Popravinas, R. Stevie Moore, The Well Wishers, The Figgs, The Bevis Frond, Lucille Furs, The Cosmic Raspberry Morning, The Good Water, The Smallgoods, Ride, Violet, Flying Fish Cove, L7, Rascalton, Gaspar Sanz, Disq, Th Da Freak, Ex Hex, More Kicks, Blue Jeans, ViVii, Dressy Bessy, Abbie Ozard

Behold and behear our very favorite powerpop, indiepop, janglepop, psychpop, and other hooky melodic pop songs discovered during the third and fourth months of 2019. Please keep in mind (or, like, totally ignore the fact) that some of these songs predate the current year, even going back as far as 2015 and 2016, for Pete's sake. We just didn't find them until the months indicated. Most, though, are recent releases. If you'd like to see the two monthly lists from which these are curated, click here and here. As always, we do hope you'll find some songs to like or love.

Faves of the Faves - June & May 2017: Superchunk, Wellingtons, Johnny Kills, Alvvays, Triptides, Ride, Wesley Fuller, Warm Soda, Primitives, Well Wishers, Violet Swells, Bopp, Pinact, etc., etc., etc. . . .

  

In addition to the Currents 2 Playlist in the upper right-hand corner of this page, we've also been keeping monthly playlists at Playmoss since early this year. For the past several months we've been going through them at the end of each month and curating our very favorites for each month. Below are our Faves of the Faves playlists for June and May of this year. You can see the full lists for each month by clicking the following: June 2017 & May 2017.

As sometimes happens with Playmoss, some of the artists are not identified in the widgets, so we've done so further below. The songs in each playlist are listed in the order we found them each month. We hope you find lots to like or love, 'cause we sure did.

May

#20 - Black Sonic Revolver - So Many Ways

SoundCloud 9: Echo Ladies, HYLA, Spinning Jennies, The Sky Drops, Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel, Viv and The Sect, The Phantom Sound, Hollow Trees, The Colors

Looking over our list of free and legals from SoundCloud we discovered a bunch we like or love but, to our horror, hadn't yet posted. So here they are, beginning with the most recently found (although not necessarily most recently recorded). They cover quite a range of genres and moods, so be prepared. Click the down-arrows to download, except as noted.

From: Malmo - Facebook

From: Perth - Facebook

From: San Francisco - Facebook

Many thanks to Jeff Shelton of The Well Wishers for making this longtime fave available.

From: Wilmington, DE - Facebook

From: Los Angeles - Facebook

From: Mexico - Facebook

For free download, go here and click ". . . More--Download."

From: London - Facebook

From: Austin - Facebook

And here's a nice little Baroque pop number that's downloadable but, for some reason, unwidgetable (by us anyway). Listen to it below via YouTube if you, like, want to.

The Colors - When Worlds Collide - Go here and then click ". . . More--Download." - from their 2016 LP Teenage Furniture on Nacional Records - As soon as we nail down further info, we'll put it here.

Hot Nun's Hot

We always get excited when finding out Spinning Jennies/The Well Wishers aceman Jeff Shelton is up to something new. Thus are we well fired up to hear of his latest project, Hot Nun, some early fruit of which is posted below and final harvest of which is due out early next year. We may follow up on this soon, but want to post it right away, the mad, mega-competitive world of powerpop being what it is(n't). BTW, there's another selection by Hot Nun st(r)eaming at Bandcamp. Click here to check out our previous Well Wishers posts containing Shelton-sanctioned free and legals.

Faves of the Faves - January 2018: On and Ons, Eyelids, Emperor Penguin, Ups and Downs, Well Wishers, Calva Louise, Lucille Furs, Maharajas, Strangers In A Strange Land, Serpent Power, Jay Som, Hurry, Bee Bee Sea, Red Cities, Honeyrude, American Darlings, Moniker, Kindling, Coywolf, Trevor and The Joneses, Peyote Coyote, Flower Graves, Rotten Mangos, Olden Yolk, Ty Segall, Overlord, Waking Hours, Triptides, Crazy Squeeze

Below is the playlist of our very favorite songs discovered during the first month of 2018. It was a rich month indeed, partly because of new songs released but also because of songs encountered on various end-of-year lists by bloggers and aficionados whose tastes we admire. Sure, we'd posted our own 2017 Powerpopulist Faves playlist but found a number of songs elsewhere we had either overlooked or not attended to closely enough.

So thanks to Absolute Powerpop, Power Popaholic, I Don't Hear A Single, Ice Cream Man Powerpop And More, Powerpopnews, Jeff Shelton, David Bash, John Borack, Pablo Ferrayra, and Jack Rabid/Big Takeover for helping us supplement the 119 songs on our list and for helping make January a most merry musical month.  (As usual, this is not a ranking but more of a discovery-based chronology.)

Song #6 is by Calva Louise.