Power Pop at SXSW (The Final Chapter).

Going to wrap up the last three days of SXSW downloads in this post. There is some truly outstanding stuff in this batch, hence all the additional comments.

Marah-The Demon of White Sadness
The Latebirds-Set Free The Radio (I need to remember to blog about these guys; Radio Insomnia was one of the overlooked discs of 2005)
Hotel Lights-AM Slow Golden Hit (this is Darren Jessee's band - he was the bassist for Ben Folds Five, this track is the highlight from their great S/T 2004 album)
The Spinto Band-Oh Mandy (one of my favorite tracks of 2005)
Bill Ricchini-She Don't Come Around Here No More
The Mendoza Line-Mysterious In Black
The Silent League-Breathe
The Electric Soft Parade-Cold World (discussed here)
Lucero-Sixteen
The Amazing Pilots-All My Wasted Days
The Foxymorons-Harvard Hands
Luke Doucet-Broken One (great, great track)
The Len Price 3-Christian In The Desert
The Village Green-Under The Covers (from one of the top EPs of 2005)
Richard Swift-As I Go
Okkervil River-No Key, No Plan (more on them later, although they're not power pop)
Salim Nourallah-The World Is Full of People Who Want To Hurt You (discussed here as well)
Moonlight Towers-Everybody Knows Why (another great one)
The Brokedown-Down In The Valley (from yet another of 2005's great EPs)
Jason Collett-We All Lose One Another (see here; this was the best song on the album)
Sam Roberts Band-Brother Down (I was hoping they'd go with "Don't Walk Away Eileen", one of the best power pop songs of the decade, but this isn't bad either).
Wussy-Airborne

CD of the Day, 2/21/06: The Green and Yellow TV-Sinister Barrier

The Green and Yellow TV's third album, Sinister Barrier, is yet another early best-of-2006 contender. I'm going to give myself a break here, and let Popbang Radio take over:

The Green and Yellow TV have created an exceptional album full of Brian Wilson-esque harmonies, Pink Floyd dynamic intense sense, Jellyfish's whimsical musical lushness, The Wondermints' melodic gift, and Queen's power; all wrapped into something that is unique, special, and truly outstanding.

Five stars, 10 out of 10, two thumbs up, what else can be said about this A+ effort from a band that just "has it"! The Green and Yellow TV is essential listening for any fan of melodic, well crafted, perfectly produced, outstanding power pop.

What they said.

There's also a definite psych pop element to this album; I hear some High Dials and Telepathic Butterflies in there as well. And you can impress all your indie friends with this one; the band is Pitchfork-approved, having garnered an 8.6 for their debut album. (Even in that review, however, Pitchfork takes a slam at the power pop scene).

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can go directly to the source and grab these mp3s:

Carrot and a Stick
Temporary Fix

Stream three more at full-length (plus "Temporary Fix") here, and check out 2 minutes of each of the rest at the cdbaby link. eMusic subscribers can get their second album, Record X, here.

This is one TV where you won't want to change the channel.

Power Pop at SXSW (Part 2).

Earlier today, we gave you the downloads of choice for the Wednesday performers; now here are the ones to grab from Thursday's lineup:

Winterpills-Pills For Sara
The Cloud Room-Hey Now Now
The Minus 5-Retrieval of You
The Capes-Tightly Wound
Jay Bennett-5th Grade (I think this is a new unreleased track)
AJ Croce-Don't Let Me Down (Jim's son)
Peel-Moxy Blues
Palaxy Tracks-Grey Snake
Levy-Rotten Love
Immaculate Machine-Phone No. (they're featured at the Not Lame front page right now, for fans of the New Poronographers)
Novillero-The Hypothesist (great band)
Damien Jurado-White Center
Glen Phillips-Released (ex-Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman, great track)

Here's the full lineup for Thursday; as on the last post, if you see a band that has an mp3 available that warrants mentioning, please do so in the comments section.

eMusic Disc of the Day: The Pillcrushers-Welcome to the World

When sifting through the dozens and dozens of new releases that come out each day at CD Baby, I'm constantly seeing some variant of the "If Artist X and Artist Y had a baby, and Artist Z was the babysitter, this is what it would sound like" analogy used by a band to describe its sound. It's effective, though, but getting a bit old. So to tweak it to remain up to speed with current affairs, I'll use this one to describe The Pillcrushers' Welcome To The World: it's as if Tom Petty and Matthew Sweet went quail hunting, and Badfinger was playing on the pickup truck radio on the way over.

They have a couple of mp3s available at their site:

Is It True
Everyday

Get the 30-second sample blitz of those two and the rest from eMu here. If you're not an eMu subscriber (and why the heck aren't ya?) or if you prefer the feel of polycarbonate plastic in your hands, you can get the cd for a very reasonable $8 at Paisley Pop (should be the first one on that page).

Power Pop at SXSW (Part 1).

Music festival SXSW is almost upon us, and they've just released the schedule of artists and bands to play. The great part of this for the vast majority of us who won't end up attending is that they make an mp3 for most of the artists available for download at their site.

So here's a list of downloads that I would recommend for you, the reader, from the opening day (Wednesday) acts. I'll do a post for Thursday's later today or tomorrow, and, so on, for each day. These will be plenty to get you started:

David Mead-Wherever You Are (!)
Derby-Sunk a Few (more on them to come on this site)
The Capitol Years-Juicers
Oranger-New Comes and Goes
The Whigs-Violet Furs
Modern Skirts-My Bully
Irving-White Hot
The Heavy Blinkers-Try Telling That to My Baby
Matt Mays & El Torpedo-On The Hood
The M's-Future Women (we discussed them here the other day)
Of Montreal-Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games
Sam Champion-Slow Rewind
Chris Mills-Chris Mills Is Living The Dream
Healthy White Baby-Soul
Maritime-Parade of Punk Rock T Shirts

Also, here are some alt-country/Americana acts that I've taken a shine to:
Limbeck-People Don't Change
Dan Israel-Good Times
The Mudville Project-The Tea
Collin Herring-The Other Side of Kindness

The full Wednesday list is here. If you think I've missed someone of interest from Wednesday's lineup that has an mp3 available (note that some acts like The New Pornographers don't), please let us know in the comments.

CD of the Day, 2/20/06: Justin Levinson-1175 Boylston

Wow. 2006 is shaping up to be quite a year for great new discoveries. We're barely halfway through February, and here comes another one: Justin Levinson. His debut, 1175 Boylston, sounds like the work of a seasoned pro.

Now while anyone these days with a piano-based sound and some pop smarts gets compared to Ben Folds, the comparison is truly earned here. This cd reminds me, more than any other I can recall, of the Ben Folds Five debut album ( one of my top 10 albums of the 90s), not only musically but in spirit as well. Opener "Sunny Day" is as catchy and bouncy as they come (complete with slide trombone courtesy of Levinson himself), and just when you've caught your breath, "Empty Line Cliche" follows with more of the same. The Folds sense of humor is there as well on the album closer "Nice to See You Guys", in which Levinson & Co. break out the banjos and kazoos (!). But he has more than simple pop ditties on his mind; both "Sky Is Falling" and "Fireflies" address the unpopular Iraq war in a thoughtful manner and without sacrificing the underlying melodies. The strong backing vocals on many of the tracks also remind me of the Five, with the main difference being that Levinson is unafraid to use guitars.

At this point you're saying "enough already - where can I listen to this?" Well, you're in luck. First of all, you can download - yes, download - 3 tracks including "Sunny Day" and "Sky Is Falling" at Justin's Pure Volume site. (Note: these tracks are downloadable by clicking on "download" within a Flash application, which means the normal right-click saving options aren't available. Set your browser's mp3 preferences to "save to disk" instead of opening in, for example, winamp). Over at his myspace page, the same three can be streamed along with a rough demo of a newly written non-album track. And as usual you can stream 2-minute samples of additional tracks and buy the album at CD Baby.

The way things are going - with accomplished debuts from the likes of Levinson, Supraluxe, Travis Hopper and who knows who else to come - the veteran power pop artists are going to have to really start stepping up to the plate to make my year-end of best-of list for 2006.

My Top 20 of 2005, #15-Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team

Well it is fitting that we highlight this release during the Olympics. And if "ass-kickin' rock'n'roll" were an Olympic sport, these guys would be bringing home the gold. Did you love Rockpile? Into NRBQ? Then you'll love this release from Anderson & Co, especially now that Nick Lowe has become a "crooner". Anderson is, as he puts it, "in the tradition of singing drummers such as Mickey Dolenz, Levon Helm and whoever that guy in Night Ranger was." This is probably the most "fun" power pop release of 2005, an antidote for whatever might have you down on a given day, so I'm not going to try and overanalyze it. Suffice it to say that although Anderson displays a great sense of humor on many of these tracks, it doesn't end up being "quirk for quirk's sake" like you'll hear with other bands that attempt to inject some levity into their tunes. My personal favorites are "Inez" and "Gityoassupda Road", the latter of which is a constant thought of mine while driving around in my home area of Pinellas County, Florida, which has the double whammy of being the state's most densely populated county while having an incredibly high number of senior citizens on the road.

First of all, you must visit the band's site, and whatever you do, don't click "Skip Intro". And check out Terry's own blog. Then listen to the samples at CD Baby. Then gityoassovato here, or here, and buy the damn thing.

New at Kool Kat Musik.

We've been kind of partial around here to Not Lame, but another "Kool" place to buy power pop is Kool Kat Musik. Although KKM sells all genres of music, they have a specialty store within that concentrates on our kind of stuff. And Ray, the guy in charge there, has promised to keep me apprised of the latest they receive. So without further ado, here's what the Kat has new for us:

Robert Post-Robert Post

I've been spinning (or should I say my iPod's hard drive has been spinning) this one for a couple of months. Post is from Norway, and has emerged big time in Europe (the disc is only available as an import in the US). Post gives us pure pop of the highest order, from the bouncy, anthemic "Got None" to the Neil Finn-esque "High Tide" and even a little David Mead in "There's One Thing". Although some might lump him in with the David Grays and James Blunts of the world, Post is a superior artist and deserves the same, if not more, success.

You can sample his wares at his official site (just click on "media"), and stream four tracks (including "Got None" and "There's One Thing") at his myspace page.

Patrik Tanner-Soft.

This is a 2004 release I picked up early last year, and it's a good one. With an album titled "Soft", you're kind of know what you're getting. And Tanner delivers the goods - this is quality singer/songwriter pop. My favorite track is the Beatlesque "Hello Tomorrow", complete with chimes at the end.

The best place to sample is the cdbaby page, and yes, Virginia, he has a myspace page with four streaming tracks.

Abandon Ship-The Best Game

This one is brand new, and I have to confess I'm not familiar with these guys. I will note that on name alone, they'd make a good double bill with Barnacle Bill. (I've always called for a double bill of Anthrax and The Cure, but they've never listened to me.) Anyway, I'm doing what any of you who might be interested in checking them out would do, and that is to listen to the samples at their cdbaby page (where it's out of stock, by the way). They self-describe by saying "this is indie pop", and from what I'm hearing as I type, it's a spot-on description. It sounds like fans of the Spectacular Fantastic will enjoy this one.

My Top 20 of 2005, #16-The Golden Apples-Cooler Jets Will Prevail

One of the big stories of 2005 in the power pop scene was the "reunion" of Big Star and release of the album In Space, the first to bear the Big Star name since 1978. Unfortunately, the album turned out to be something of a dud. Although it had its moments, it came off as kind of a half-baked Alex Chilton solo disc, with a couple of lesser Posies songs thrown in for good measure. It was kind of telling that the best track on the album came from original drummer Jody Stephens; telling because he really had minimal creative input on the classic Big Star albums.

No, if it was a new Big Star album you wanted last year, you would have been better served picking up The Golden Apples' Cooler Jets Will Prevail. And in case you had any doubts, the first track itself is titled "Big Star", and sounds like "In The Street" updated for the 21st century (forget the That 70's Show abomination). It's the best Big Star homage since Paul Westerberg and the Replacements sang "Alex Chilton". This is power pop at its power poppiest, and the highlights continue from there: "McKinley Hill" has the 70s Chilton swagger and attitude and a tres cool melody, "Momentum Is Now" has a fist-pumping, cigarette lighter-waving vibe, and "Around Me" is a dead ringer for Big Star's "Don't Lie to Me". So sell your copy of In Space to the used cd store, and go buy this one.

The best place to sample it is at their myspace page, although among the songs I mentioned above, only "Big Star" is streaming there. And the best place to buy it is here, from the good folks at Not Lame.

EP of the Day: Frank Ciampi

"EP" may be a misleading term here, since as far as I know Frank Ciampi doesn't even have an officially sanctioned EP for sale; instead, he has three tracks streaming at his myspace page, where I got the picture above. Officially released or not, they're three great tracks. The Ben-Folds-meets-Mike-Viola "Anna" was one of my favorite tunes of 2005, the same influence is on display with "The Same", and "Anyway" is a brilliant Brian Wilson homage.

A while back, Frank was giving away cd-rs with these three tunes, but I'm not sure if he's still doing that. I've emailed him to see what's up, so watch this space - I may have a link to get you a cd-r, or permission to post some mp3s. If nothing else, you have some nice tunes to stream on a Sunday morning (or afternoon, depending on where you are).

UPDATE: Just heard back from Frank, and he told me he plans to enable downloading of the three tracks on the myspace page. In the meantime, he's given me permission to post an mp3:

Anna

Click on "download" at the bottom of the page to do so. When he does make them available, I'll disable this link and you should refer to his myspace page.

UPDATE II: Above mp3 link is now disabled, as Frank has made all 3 tracks available for download at his myspace page.

CD of the Day, 2/19/06: Stuart Valentine-Melody's True

Stuart Valentine's Melody's True was an album that was criminally overlooked in 2005. Maybe it's the hair - on the cover, he does kind of look like Eugene Levy as Rockin' Mel Slirrup from SCTV. In any event, this one falls somewhere between the finely crafted pop of Pat Buchanan (this Pat Buchanan, not that one), and the darker, indie pop of Elliott Smith or even Nick Drake. Valentine has been around a while, as he puts it:

I've been playing music since I was way too young to get into bars. The better known bands are probably The Out Crowd, Paramore and Richmond Fontaine. I've been part of six published albums in my life, toured all over and even stumbled into the movie DIG! I started as a drummer and then learned to play other instruments and write songs. This is my first solo album, produced by Brian Coates who has worked with The Dandy Warhols.

Particular highlights here are the opener, "Downtown In Time", and the title track "Melody's True", which is complete with a melody that is true and some "uh ohs" in the chorus; it could have been a hit in a parallel universe somewhere. Judge for yourself, here's an mp3:

Melody's True

You can stream this one, "Downtown in Time", and two more at his myspace page. It'll be worth your time. And who knows, between this one and the David Doll, perhaps we're establishing an inverse relationship between hairstyle choices and musical ability.

Eugene Levy....or Stuart Valentine?

Something that may only interest me.

As an ELO freak since my pre-teen years, I always find it interesting when a contemporary artist covers an ELO track. Today, I noticed one of the more unusual ELO covers, from Grandaddy on their upcoming Just Like The Fambly Cat album: they're covering the outro from the A New World Record track "Shangri-La". Not the whole song, just the outro - the part in which Jeff Lynne sings "I will return to Shangri-La" over a swelling wordless chorus and copious strings.

Making things more intriguing is that frontman Jason Lytle has said that this will be the last Grandaddy album, and the Shangri-La outro is the final track on the album, making this a very cool homage to ELO. Just Like The Fambly Cat is due out May 8, but thanks to the magic of the internets, an advance of this has leaked, and I can confirm that this is pretty much a note-for-note cover.

Top 20 of 2005, #17: Feel-Invisible Train

(Apologies for the low-res cover; it was the best I could find for this largely overlooked release).

Another gem from last year was Invisible Train, the second album by the LA-based band Feel. The main man behind Feel is Scott Sax, a sought-after session musician who was once part of the legendary power pop band Wanderlust. Feel is more mellow-sounding than Wanderlust, and that's not a bad thing. Notable tracks include "This Moment", which sounds like early-period solo McCartney, "Fall", a truly wonderful ballad evocative of Bread, and my favorite of the bunch, "Goodbye Baby", which is the best slow Tom Petty song that he never wrote. If you're in the mood for more pop than power, this is one to add to your collection.

Various tracks from Invisible Train can be sampled (and bought) at the Not Lame link above, as well as at the band's site. They do have a myspace page, which streams "Oh Life" from Invisible Train, as well as "Got Your Name On It" from their debut album. And as plugged in to things as I can be, somehow I didn't know that Feel has recently released an EP of new material until I discovered it at their site while putting together this post. Unfortunately, the paypal link to buy it is down at the moment. Ye gads - I might actually be forced to use snail mail to order it.

New and notable on eMusic.

If you were impressed (or at least 50% as impressed) as I was by the Travis Hopper debut I touted the other day, you may have noticed that the man most responsible for that cd after Hopper himself was Salim Nourallah. Nourallah is an outstanding solo artist in his own right, and eMusic just added his most recent release, last year's Beautiful Noise, to its site. Beautiful Noise is kind of a low-key affair (although Nourallah can get it cranked up at times), reminiscent of some of the slower numbers on Wilco's Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, only without all the bells and whistles. And if you like Beautiful Noise, you can also download his previous release, Polaroid, as well as his album with brother Faris, usefully titled the Nourallah Brothers.

Also just in is the latest release from a band that had an impressive debut as any I've heard back in 2002 with Holes In The Wall. I'm talking about the UK's The Electric Soft Parade, who make their bow on eMusic with The Human Body EP. ESP have the ability to sound like a number of different bands; at times they have a more 60s-70s Beatlesque sound; and at others they have a more modern Teenage Fanclub/Blur/Oasis sound. Highlights on the EP include "Cold World" and "Stupid Mistake".

Being reminded of Holes In The Wall makes me think I should start a series of overlooked albums of, say, the last 10 years. Maybe after the 2005 Top 20 is done.

CD of the Day, 2/18/06: Simon Morel-Songs From The City

Released last June, Australian Simon Morel's debut album, Songs From The City, is a solid collection of singer-songwriter pop, from the Squeeze-ish opener "Sick and Tired" to the 80s-sounding standout "Gold Plated", and the beautiful ballad "Stained". Other highlights include the uptempo "Point of View" and the ruminative closer "Home Address".

You can stream "Gold Plated", "Stained" and "Point of View" at Simon's myspace page, and "Sick and Tired" can be streamed here. And the rest can be sampled at the cdbaby page, where of course you can buy it if you like it.

Featured on Not Lame, 2/17/06.

The M's - Future Women

Not familiar with this band, but the namedrops of Ray Davies, Damon Albarn, Marc Bolan, and John Lennon make it sound interesting. You can download the following mp3 from the album:

Plan of the Man

And you can stream four more tracks at the Not Lame link above. It also appears that this album will be available via eMusic once its official street date of February 21 rolls around; there's already a page for it here, with only "Plan of the Man" available for download (but it's free above). I am liking that track.

Fire Marshals of Bethlehem - Songs For Housework

A friend sent me a copy of this last year and after going back and listening to it, I have to say that it's pretty good. Somewhere in between Neko Case with the New Pornographers and maybe a poppier Caitlin Cary. More extensive samples can be found here; the band's site doesn't offer streams or mp3s.

Swan Dive - Popcorn and a Mama Who Loves Me Too

What makes Not Lame great? I scour CD Baby and a few other sites. Not Lame scours the globe. This one's from Thailand, of all places. The cd, that is - the band itself is from Nashville. Sample it at the Not Lame link above; no streams at the band site for this one. It can also be found at iTunes.

New Radiant Storm King-The Steady Hand

We already told you about this one the other day.

I'm taking a pass on the rest, especially the one that sounds like Hillary Duff and Avril Lavigne.

This just in from the Stopped Clock Dept.

Those who have been with me here since the early days (you know, late last week) know that I have no love lost for Pitchfork. But I will give them props for being right about this one. I really did enjoy Idols of Exile quite a bit last year - it's great singer-songwriter pop. It was just released in the US, but I bought it from a Canadian retailer last summer when it came out up there on the strength of my enjoyment of Collett's first solo disc, Motor Motel Love Songs.

In fact, I even concur with the reviewer's choices of the standout tracks on the album. But I guess I shouldn't give them too much credit; Collett is a member of indie darlings Broken Social Scene, so it's not like they're suddenly throwing out a 7.6 to, say, a Michael Carpenter release.

UPDATE: I'm not doing my job here if I hype a release and don't link to where you can hear it. So sample it here (click on "music"). I don't think he has a myspace page; like James Cooper yesterday, there's a teenager with the same name at the obvious myspace address.

My Top 20 of 2005, #18: Sparkwood-Jalopy Pop

Sparkwood's Jalopy Pop is much in the same vein as my #20, Checkpoint Charley: Catchy as hell, influenced by Jellyfish/Queen/Fountains of Wayne, etc. I'd even say there's some ELO influence in here as well, and a bit more of a 50s/60s vibe than Checkpoint. Standouts here include "Emergency", "In Your Lovin' Arms", and "D".

Some abdridged mp3s and a music video can be had at the band's site, and you can get some full-length streaming at their myspace page. It's all good - this Jalopy is one smooth-running machine.

UPDATE: I just noticed that Jalopy Pop was David Bash's #1 album of 2005. For those of you who don't know who he is, David is the man behind International Pop Overthrow, which is power pop's Lollapalooza, SXSW and Woodstock rolled into one. Actually IPO is several regional shows around the USA (and elsewhere) throughout the year. Here's the current schedule:

Nashville: March 15-19 and 21-22
Chicago: April 21-May 6
Liverpool: May 24-29
Los Angeles: July 28-August 13
San Francisco: August 16-22
East Coast U.S. (Philadelphia, New York, Boston): November

Make sure you go to one of these if it's in a city near you.

Celebration Time!

In just our 9th day of blogging, AbPow celebrates its 1,000th visitor to the site! I'm grateful for the response so far, and to quote Steve Martin, I'd like to thank each and every one of you who's visited:

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
thankyouthankyou...

So, here's to our 1000th visitor, a person from Reston, Virginia who obviously has good taste in web sites. I raise my Supraluxe mug of root beer (it's noon time, a bit too early to drink) to you:

CD of the Day, 2/17/06: Barnacle Bill-Towards The Pebbled Shore

Avast ye maties! Yar, today's CD for ye is Barrrrnacle Bill's Towards The Pebbled Shore. (When I picked this one out a week or so back, I promised myself I wouldn't go with the pirate talk. But I'm weak, I tell you, weak.) BB is a 3-piece out of NYC featuring two principal singer/songwriters: Yianni Naslas and Stu Klinger. I've always considered it a good thing for a band to have at least two creative voices of relatively equal ability; instead of getting one guy's sixth to tenth-best tracks, for example, you get a different guy's best five. The ultimate example of this dynamic was The Beatles, but even contemporary power pop bands like Fastball (Scalzo/Zuniga) and Sloan (Murphy, Pentland, Ferguson *and* Scott, except on the last one), have demonstrated the value in this arrangement.

For Barnacle Bill, the Fastball comparison is apt. Klinger is the Scalzo of the band, more of the classic power popper, sounding a lot like Fountains of Wayne on the leadoff track "Best For Last" and "Santa Fe", while Naslas is the Zuniga, a bit more laid-back, although he can turn it up as well, as demonstrated on "See You Through". This is a fine debut, and once it gets in front of the right ears, I can see it becoming a popular release in the power pop community.

The good news is that you can stream this album in its entirety (although you have to select one track at a time) at their website. And of course it can be purchased at CD Baby for $10. Yarrrr!