Transatlantic Bunnies "Surrender" (SFTRI, 2019)

It's easy to forget just how many excellent records Long Gone John's Sympathy For The Record Industry has released over the years. Recently, the YouTube algorithm dangled "Surrender" by Dutch group Transatlantic Bunnies under Not Unloved's nose and it's a BIG pop winner from the opening "Be My Baby" drum beat. Glockenspiels are always welcome and Angela Won-Yin Mak's ace vocals are more than up to the task of keeping pace with the sweeping musical swells. Thankfully, for us latecomers, a few copies of the 7" are still kicking around. "Surrender" is a timely reminder that I need to revisit Lisa Mychols's music, especially in the run up to Christmas.

Scott McCarl and The Rubinoos "In Love Without A Girl"

A few years ago one of the most played slabs of vinyl around these parts was a late 60s 45 by Yellow Hair. "Sometimes" is a sun-bleached number that wafts on a West Coast breeze of gentle harmonies and unobtrusive instrumentation. It was later compiled by Numero Group on the indispensable "Louis Wayne Moody High" compilation:

"Sometimes" was written by a chap called Scott McCarl. In the late 90s McCarl, backed by California's legendary Rubinoos, cut one of the finest power pop singles since the genre's skinny tied 70s hey day with "In Love Without A Girl". It was released on the Titan label which was the subject of a typically comprehensive boxset via the aforementioned Numero Group. "In Love Without A Girl" is a chunky pop number with lovelorn lyrics and a terrific vocal from McCarl that should have admirers of The Posies circa "Frosting On The Beater" excitedly updating their wants lists. It sounds thrilling when cranked up loud.

 

Ryan Kidd aka The Human B-Side

When it wasn't possible to actually visit record shops last year, Not Unloved did the next best thing and watched a tonne of record shop (ok, 'store' as they were mostly America-based) review videos. This excellent short clip from 2015 on Permanent Records in Chicago was what started it off and remains a favourite. Somewhere along the line one thing led to another, links were followed and Ryan Kidd's YouTube channel unexpectedly became a must-watch. Being a nosy sort, Not Unloved has watched a fair few Vinyl Community YouTube channels over the years but few of the other hosts are as charismatic, curious or as infectiously enthusiastic as Kidd. His predilection is for high energy rock'n'roll of all types with snotty punk and power pop being particular passions. He talks about the records with such evident joy - at points there's something of the old time preacher about his delivery - that it's hard not to get swept along with the result that you find yourself Googling the availability of Dutch punk records that you never knew were missing from yr life. There's nothing pretentious or needy about The Human B-Side and that's key to his charm. There's also no posturing or smug one-upmanship, just a need to evangelize about the good stuff.  Everyone's invited to pull up a chair, bust open a Bud and to "Ride with the Kidd!" and to "Be Somebody!". 

A few years back Kidd was the guitarist and lead singer in The Disconnects. His list of favourite records is the tops and provides a handy guide as to where their music was coming from.

Freedom Rides

When I was 11 years old I was obsessed with football and biscuits (especially Bourbon Creams). I certainly wasn't writing and recording blasting power pop anthems with killer hooks. Dennis Harte, on the other hand, was and "Freedom Rides" (Roundtable, 1967) by his group Pure Madness is something special:

"Love has died
  Freedom rides
  Love has died
  Freedom rides
  I don't love you
  I don't need you
  I don't want you...
  Because you're not mine" 

From what I've read, this his been mis-categorised as a girl garage number which is understandable given Dennis's pre-teen voice. I reckon the young Kim Wilde could've knocked out a cracking version of it in 1981.

The Mice "Little Rage" (What Goes On)

It can't be that often that the mighty Yo La Tengo get upstaged on a split 7" but on 1987's split with Cleveland, Ohio's The Mice (What Goes On Records), I reckon that's exactly what happened. "Little Rage" by The Mice - lifted from their "Scooter" lp - is a cascade of jangling guitars, youthful vocals, melody and even the odd blast of trumpet. Not Unloved bought this for the Yo La Tengo side (the fairly fried"House Fall Down" from "New Wave Hot Dogs") but ended up only having ears for "Little Rage".  Such is the way of things, however, I got distracted and never did dedicate the time to explore the group's other work. Lockdown 2020 seems like just the time to do it, eh?

Breathers "Did You Think"

Lately, the song that has popped up like a cheesy-grinned meerkat whenever my brain has the time to idle is "Did You Think" by Breathers. It's the only song I've heard so far by this Florida, USA group and it's a smashing example of early '80s US power pop (yeah, I know yr bored of that genre definition but it gets the message across) from its Beatles-indebted intro to its sunbleached guitars and supremely catchy melody. I'm sure I'll be singing (and clapping) along for a good while yet.

Planet Jazz "New To Try" (Crocodile Records)

Two years ago the reactivated Crocodile Records released an ace 7" by The Phrogs which earned a few hastily tapped words on Not Unloved.   Next up for Crocodile is a fizzing 4 tracker from Cornwall's skinny tie/shaky leg merchants Planet Jazz.  "New To Try" bursts out of the traps with youthful vigour and never lets up for two minutes.  It's sure to lift the spirits of those who remember the prime powerpop of the turn of the 80s and anyone who treasures their #1s 7"s as much as I do.  Keep an eye out for it!

Out November 1st (pre-order up soon)

He's A..../She's A... or The Dahlmanns/Baby Shakes

Not many groups are as effervescent or as multi-coloured as Shonen Knife.  Baby Shakes, however, are one of the few.  Their recent "She's A Star" (Surfin' Ki) single is wholesome cartoon glam stomp of the highest order. It really ought to have come with a Hanna Barbera animated video.  7 years ago (zoinks!) a post on the precursor to Did Not Chart had me scrabbling about trying to find a UK distributor able to sort me out with a copy of their first lp.  This autumn I had to look to mainland Europe (thanks soundflat.de!) to snag a copy of their second lp, "Starry Eyes" (Lil' Chewy).  On first listen it's slightly chunkier sonically but still has the tunes to prompt spontaneous outbursts of kitchen dancing which has proved useful for keeping the late autumn chills at bay!

The first thing I noticed when the latest 7" by The Dahlmanns (Ghost Highway) arrived was the Next Big Thing t-shirt.  Any group with the smarts to advertise their love of Lindsay Hutton's seminal N.B.T. fanzine is alright by me!  It's a classic tale of a dud boyfriend set to an insanely catchy  Rock'n'Roll High School tune that's had me repeating "Yeah, yeah, he's no fun!"  till I needed a slap for a few days now.  "He's A Drag" was written by Kurt Baker.  He sure sounds lie a chap who knows how to wrangle a pop melody into shape.  And so another avenue of YouTube investigation (and, possibly, wallet emptying) opens up...  

I'll be giving these 7"s a fair few spins over the coming week to get my dose of top drawer contemporary power pop as, unfortunately, I'll be missing Mary Timony's Ex Hex who roll into Glasgow for a show at Stereo on Friday night that's sure to be a riot of glitter, harmony and riffs.

The Squares "This Is Airebeat"

"If you're bored today
 Stand up and say
 But try and do something constructive
 Instead of just being disruptive"

- The Squares "This Is Airebeat"

The Squares released "This Is Airebeat" in '79 so I'm guessing that these lyrics were a rebuke to the legions of disaffected punk kids lurking around town centres spray painting 'No Future' on every spare inch of wall space.  I'm sure, too, that those punks just shrugged dismissively and ignored them, thinking that they were well named.  Still, it's a sweet pop tune and with such clean guitars and crisp vocals it sits well with some of the acts on Slumberland Records such as Literature  or Devon Williams.

Ruby

If cartoon think bubbles had appeared above my head on today's amble through the park, they would mostly have contained randomly ordered lines from "Ruby" by Sneakers: "Talk is cheap!", "It's funny, you don't look like a character assassin", "Slander me, I'll libel you" and so on.

When I wrote previously about one of Chris Stamey's pop masterpieces I knew then that I didn't know enough about his other work.  Ominvore Recordings have filled-in some of the gaps in my knowledge with their CD release* of his 70s work (and that of Big Quiet and R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter) with Sneakers.  Coming on a like a tougher Big Star, they made the kind of melody riddled power pop that zines like Bucketful of Brains brought to suburban bedrooms the nation over in the wake of R.E.M..  Their take on The Grass Roots'"Let's Live For Today" is a real highlight.  It bursts from the speakers with such verve that it's impossible not to belt out "Sha la la live for today!" at the top of your lungs; neighbours be damned!

* - There was a US 10" for Black Friday 2014 but, if the location of the sellers on discogs is any guide, not many copies made it to Europe.

The Event

Had I been home when the postman arrived today I would have struggled not to give him a hug as the parcel he had in his bag for me contained the lp on which this giddy-making slice of British Invasion revival (it's from 1989 not 1965) POP appears:

Now, that's how to open an album!  I think it's safe to say that the singer has heard Alex Chilton.  If you'd asked me a fortnight ago if I'd ever heard The Event before YouTube's algorithm kindly suggested I give them a whirl, I would have told you unequivocally that I hadn't.   I would, of course, have been entirely wrong as a good friend had included them on a compilation for me a few years back.  I must have been so snowblind from the avalanche of other great pop songs on that disc to notice it at the time.  On first listen "Pop Think In" was only one of a number of tracks on "This Is The Event" to set the pulse racing. "She's Our Girl", in particular, is pop art POP at its best:

Getting to grips with "This Is The Event" (Voxx) over the next few weeks is going to be a blast. 

Young Pretender

(picture from last.fm)

The ole canny shopper instincts kicked-in the other day as I was buying Sauna Youth's latest 7" from Static Shock.  I figured that if I was buying one 7", I might as well buy 2 to save a few bob on postage (that kinda logic'll see me to the poorhouse!) so I went digging around in their mailorder catalogue, a trusty browser to hand for the purpose of music sampling.  "Young Pretender" by Toronto's Dangerloves was the record that set my pulse racing the fastest and which was added to my cart with relish.  As power pop singles go, it's up there with the best I've heard in recent years (it was released in  May, 2008).  It starts off at quite a lick in full Peechees mode but when Zoe Dodd bursts into "Young pretender you don't know who you are!" things go up a gear or two.  Sparky!

Okay

Ric Menck's lovably wimpy singing on Choo Choo Train's sparkling "Wishing On A Star" has long been one of the yardsticks against which I measure other vocal performances.  That it was recorded as an antidote to the 'smelly guy rock' that was prevalent around Illinois in 1987 only makes me love it all the more.  A similar vocal which measures up well on this scale is John Murphy's on Shoes' "Okay" from roughly a decade earlier:

"Okay" was the b-side of Shoes' debut single, "Tomorrow Night" (BOMP!) but only recently came to my attention as it also appears on the brilliant "Black Vinyl Shoes" lp, reissued in late 2012 by the always classy Numero Group.  Despite the recent gulp-inducing hike in the international postage rates charged by the US Postal Service, I still felt the need to snap up an unplayed copy of "Tomorrow Night" from a Stateside seller.  Concerns about the money spent, however, melt away in the face of such a beautiful piece of art.

According to Shoes' Wikipedia page, Ric Menck has drummed for them in the past.  I'll bet that was a dream fulfilled for him!

Other vocals which score highly on the "Wishing On A Star" scale:

The Someloves "Know You Now"

Being the kind of dope who lives in fear of guitar solos, power pop can be tricky.  There's always a bit of trepidation that the first 2 minutes of big, glorious pop is going to marred by excessive fretboard tickling when the solo kicks in. Thankfully, the solo on The Someloves' 1988 single "Know You Now" is brief and restrained so in no way undoes the great work done by the catchy lead guitar, dinky glockenspiels and Dom Mariani's sweet vocals.  There's a fair chance that if I'd heard "Know You Now" 15 years ago it would've sounded too buffed-to-a-shine in comparison to the abraded sounding Hood and Flying Saucer Attack records that dominated my listening back then, but it's 2011 and a big, clean, confident sound doesn't raise the indie vs major hackles to the same extent that it used to.  Plus, certain types of music just sound better minus the fuzz.

Terry Malts "Distracted"

It's just so impeccably clean!  I've never seen a picture of Terry Malts but, from the sound of "Distracted" from the group's debut 7" on Slumberland, I imagine that they sport neat Sta-prest trousers, gingham button-down Ben Shermans and Y(ale) cardigans.  "Distracted" isn't the A-side but it's the song I'm drawn to most.  Not that lead track, "I'm Neurotic", isn't a top punk-pop blast - it is - but "Distracted" is just so catchy (and not just because of the sensible steal from The Go-betweens' "Lee Remick"!) and crisp that it's utterly irresistible.  It may have been recorded cleanly - the vocals in particular - but it's by no means anodyne; the guitars, for example, churn and spin before spinning so fast that they tumble over giddy and laughing in the last 20 seconds.  Slumberland has form when it comes to releasing bubblegum punk -see this smashing Parasites single - and I'm glad that they've embraced it once more. 2011 is the year of my power pop/punk epiphany after all.

Terry Malts - Distracted by Slumberland Records

Agitated Romantic

After an unexpected power pop/vintage punk epiphany earlier this year, I guess the time was right for me to encounter crack Australian power pop troupe The Scientists.  The impetus to finally seek out some of their work came upon spying that Moon Duo's* Agitated Records was reissuing "Frantic Romanitc" for Record Store Day.

From the intro's first Link Wray indebted strum and the first chant of "It was romance!" I was smitten and that was before I'd fully digested the unexpectedly cute lyrics.  Take, for example, the opening verse: 

Met her at a dance; it was romance!

Took her by the hand; it was romance!

Gave her my drink; it was romance!

Told her I loved her; it was rooomance!

Remember, these are not Talulah Gosh lyrics!  Only the most tediously macho oaf could hear them and not melt a little.  Guitar solos are usually a sore point round these parts but not this time; it's bendy enough to be interesting but never so noodly that it's unlistenable.  It didn't look like the 7" was flying off Monorail's shelves during Saturday's Record Store Day mania which is a shame but I, for one, couldn't countenance not buying it once I'd heard it.  "Frantic Romantic" marked Agitated's second brilliant Record Store Day reissue following last year's release of this bratty, wild-eyed masterpiece by The Electric Eels:

Thanks Agitated!

* - Moon Duo already demonstrated their love of The Scientists by recording a tremendous (better than the original?) cover of the pained, brooding "Set It On Fire" for the flip of last year's "Catch As A Catch Can" 7" (also Agitated).