THROWBACK SUBURBIA:  Shot Glass Souvenir

Throwback’s last album was in my Top Ten for ’09 and they are likely to repeat that with this outstanding collection of hooky three-chord power pop.  With four contributing songwriters they never lack for material and the songs are often inspired.  “Give and Take” recalls the Raspberries in excitement and hooks.  Jimi Evan’s possesses a caramel lozenge voice, smooth and buttery.  “Setting Sun” starts off like Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” with chords worthy of Crowded House and a musical quote from “When I’m Sixty-Four.”  “It’s You” is a pulsing power ballad.  “Down to Love” is classic rave-up with pizzicato synth strings and a dancing piano contrapuntal to the guitars.

“Side Effects” with its soulful keyboards and stacked harmonies sounds like something from Dion and the Belmonts.  The record ends with the chiming, charming, churning Byrdsian clang of “Neither Here Nor There.”

Evans has a vocal doppelganger in the Wellington’s Zac Anthony.  The Wellingtons are the Southern Hemisphere balance to Throwback, and can be found on the exact opposite side of the Earth as Throwback at any time.

Four and a half stars.

www.throwbacksuburbia.com

THE JELLYBRICKS:  Suckers

This is how you start a record–with an instantly memorable hook-laden stomper that burrows into your brain like STUXNET.  “Rock and Roll Suicide” changes from major to minor and back again with the same exquisite balance and escalating excitement as the Beau Brummels’ “Laugh Laugh.”  “Their Own Way” is a mid-tempo cautionary tale with elegant hooks and a fat wall of guitars and harmonies.  “Sold” has the presence and relevance of Queen anthems “Another One Bites the Dust” and “We Are the Champions.”  ” SOLD to the girl with the metal through her lip/SOLD to the man with the pile of poker chips/SOLD to the highest bidder rollin’ on a trip/SOLD a life preserver to the captain of the ship…”  They had me at SOLD.  The remaining songs are first-rate but a bit of a breather after their masterful one-two-three punch.  This is an extended EP with seven songs.

Four stars.

www.thejellybricks.com

TROLLEY: Things That Shine and Glow  (Easter)

Milwaukee has a rich tradition of power pop from the Shivvers through The Bloomsbury People, Snopek, Blowpops and Lackloves.  Now Trolley weighs in with a fully-realized vision of hook-crazy rock and roll cuing from the Zombies, Beau Brummels and Hollies.  “I Wake Up” sounds a little like the Seeds crossed with the Electric Prunes but at a higher level of musicianship.  “The Calico Cat” is a rolling calliope of jangles and hooks–with a Brit accent–and impressionistic lyrics.  It sounds so happy until you figure them out:  “The Calico Cat, It makes you feel good.  Pretending there’s nothing wrong like it should.  The Calico Cat, It scratches your hand.  Infections are always there to fester you.”  That last line sounds Swedish.

“In the End” is a bittersweet, hook-crazy mid-tempo rocker, elegantly shifting between major and minor chords (as all great pop bands must.)  “Out of Love” edges into Jellyfish territory with sweeping melody and harmonies and too many grace notes to count.  “Ocean Sounds” is more of the same.  Dig that head-snapping change-up midway through.  Every song is great.  It will take multiple hearings to reveal every grace note.  Excellent, representative cover art.  Very good production too.

Four and a half stars.

ROCKBOTTOM: Revenge  (Target Earth)

This three-cylinder Tokyo-based power pop engine wears its heart on its Fenders–every song suffused with passion and furious guitar. Lead singer and guitarist Tatsuya Inagaki wails his heart out on “Someone In This Town,” a spaghetti Western with a Material Issue vibe, and on every other song.  They show strong if derivative writing chops which means three chords and hooks.  The only cover is the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Shake Some Action,.”  “Perfect Lover” demonstrates Tutsuya’s heart doctor’s ear for melody–dig that staggering bridge leading into the guitar solo.  They can sound a little mush-mouthed which I chalk up to the fact that they’re playing over there rather than over here, but the record comes with lyrics.

Their motto:  “WE, ROCK BOTTOM ARE WITH YOU ALL WHO ARE AGAINST THIS HEARTLESS WORLD!!!”

“We are from Tokyo, Japan!  We have been playing around Tokyo for about 13 years!  We love 20/20, Cheap Trick, MC5, SHOES, DOGS, you know, power pop, punk rock, anything that rock’n’roll us hard!”

Three and a half stars.

www.rockbottom.iinaa.net

SKELETON STAFF:  Psychomorphism  (Swizzle)

“Skeleton Staff are an internationally ignored Psych-pop-folk-glam-baroque’n’roll ensemble from Sydney Australia, that live in a cartoon strip.”  Their second album, Psychomorphism, is a tour-de-force of sweeping chorale-based pop that effortlessly summons the spirits of Jellyfish, Queen, and XTC.  “I Told You I Was Poor” begins the album with a seemingly throw-away snatch of song that grows and thickens into the towering pop with a monster minor-key bridge, Stanton Marriott’s Brian May-like guitar pyrotechnics, and an a capella outro.  “Capsize” begins with a piano riff and brims with the type of melodic invention found in Spilt Milk.  “Prince of Thieves,” with its thumping kazoo chorus, begins with a police siren.  Bands, many of us listen to your music while driving.  Please, for the sake of public safety, do not include police sirens in your recording.  “Gateway to the Stars” is brilliant pop in the Crowded House vein.

“Rat Poison” elbows The Super Powers in its twee symphonic sweep.  Marriott sounds like he’s playing Brian May’s Red Special.  That is to say Marriott is a monster.  “Couldn’t Hear Me Through the Crowd” has more chord shifts than a Formula 1 race, a massive hook, and crazy gypsy violin.  “Turnstyle” evokes ELO.  “Becoming My Old Man” is somber and moving.  “The World In 7 Days” is the type of mad pop pioneered by XTC.  These comparisons are merely to indicate the type of music on this record.  But if you love XTC, Jellyfish and Queen, you’ve love this.

Stanton Marriott is a gifted cartoonist as well and the band never loses its sense of humor.

Five stars.

www.skeletonstaff.net