Late August Roundup.

The Great Affairs-Ten & 2. Denny Smith returns again with The Great Affairs and their latest is a harder-rocking, crunchier-sounding affair that reminds me more of Smith's former band, fORMER. No longer content to play in the Gin Blossoms' sandbox, Ten & 2 owes more to Cheap Trick, KISS and maybe even Bon Jovi. This is vintage 80s/90s AOR with the standouts being "What You Get is Gone", "Unfound" and "Back to Boston", which could become a Fenway Park anthem in the near future. Rock on!

iTunes | Kool Kat



Bird Streets-Bird Streets. It's been quite a while since we heard from John Brodeur and in that time the New York popster has hooked up with Jason Falkner, who co-writes and produces this new Brodeur joint under the name Bird Streets. And damned if it doesn't sound like a Jason Falkner album, which is always a good thing. This is apparent on the chorus of opener "Carry Me" which has that Jellyfish feel, while the other highlights are the anthemic "Stop to Breathe", the angular mid-tempo rocker "Direction" and the trippy "Heel". A first-rate collection of tunes which will appeal to Brodeur fans as well as Falkner/Jellyfish fans.

iTunes



V Sparks-Moderne Life EP. This Chicago 5-piece got on my radar last year with their fine EP New Sensation, but they've taken a leap forward here with the followup. These guys specialize in high-energy pop with manic tempos, synths and pianos, and high-register vocals that recall Bryan Scary, The Format/Nate Ruess and Queen. The latter band is clearly the influence on "The Game of Everybody Knows It's You", which is the best Queen rip I've heard in ages, drawing on A Night at the Opera's "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon". The frenetic "Remodel" and "Hollywood" are also standouts. This is high octane-fun that's perfectly suited to an EP because frankly 10-12 tracks like this would be exhausting.

Bandcamp (out on the 28th)

Updates & Miscellany.

By way of follow-up on some earlier posts, and some other things that I've been meaning to mention over the week or so since I last posted:

* I made reference a few weeks ago to a new David Grahame album becoming available through downloads from his official site. It now turns out that Grahame is only releasing individual tracks as he completes them, and not only are they going for $2 a pop, he's not making any previews of them available before purchase so as to preserve the surprise element. This business model of Grahame's has created quite a lengthy discussion on Audities, with the general consensus being that it's too steep a price, and even those who feel they could justify spending $2/track are put off by the lack of ability to sample the tracks. It is kind of a "pig in a poke" type of setup here, especially with Grahame's hints of a departure from his earlier sound. If anyone here has heard the tracks, please post a comment with your take on them, and if by some reason you're reading this Mr. Grahame, feel free to send me the mp3s on a promo basis and I'll be glad to write up my thoughts on them. :)

UPDATE WHILE PREPARING THIS POST: Apparently bowing to semi-popular demand, Grahame has made samples available. After listening to the five 20-30 second snippets, I'm not detecting that radical a change in his sound, with the exception of "The Slide", which has a horn section and sounds kind of bluesy. The others sound nice enough, assuming the snippets are representative of the tracks as a whole. I'm a bit more tempted to shell out the $2, but I'm not quite there yet.

* Contrary to earlier reports, Derby is not imminently releasing their sophomore disc, Posters Fade. It will probably be out later this year, according to their publicist. Nevertheless, the three new tracks are still playing on their site (click on "music") and I remain eager to hear the rest.

* I'd be remiss not to mention that Jason Falkner has a new disc out, but only in Japan. It's titled I'm OK, You're OK, and if you want it now before it gets a US release (if ever), Kool Kat has it for $32. I may have my power pop membership card taken away for saying this, but I've never really gotten into Falkner that much. It's not that I dislike his music, and maybe it's also due to his very spotty track record of solo releases, but for whatever reason his stuff has never jumped out at me. I'll certainly be glad to give the new one a listen, but not for $32.

* Not Lame put up some new discs today, and one of them looked particularly interesting: This Is Grand Atlantic, by the Australian band of the same name. Although this new full-length is not available yet on eMusic, their EP Smoke and Mirrors (which features several of the same tracks on the full-length along with a cover of Abba's "The Winner Takes It All") can be found there.

* Speaking of Not Lame, they've also rolled out the red carpet for the new disc from The Well Wishers, How I Won The War. So head on over and listen away. You know I'm stoked for this, since their previous release, Under The Arrows, was my #5 disc of 2005. I just got the disc in, so I'm not ready for a full report yet, but it sounds like more of the same goodness.