WHAT’S GOING AHN

I can’t believe how much has happened in the last few weeks!  Some great links and news to share.  As always, done in a rapid-fire, quick, no duff, not messing around manner.  Well written prose not spoken here! ;-P

Check out the array of light blue hotlinks strewn out below and….Let’s go.  (read through everything below – there are some very important power pop-directly connected gems in this entire post!)

PHIL SEYMOUR – New tunes!  Yes, he died in the mid 90s but his family has put together some unreleaed tunes and released them very quietly.  I’d suggest picking what’s up at the link here.  NO information to go on, which is frustrating and not very geek friendly but I heard some of these songs that Phil shared with me shortly before he died on tape and can vouch for some of them as being quite good!  Order this CD at Kool Kat – HERE

MORE PHIL SEYMOUR – Really.  NEW.  In terms of it being highly doubtful you’ve heard these tunes before.  Forget where I came across this link but enjoy it.  It’s tunes from a guy named Thom Sebastian and Phil is singing on them.  Listen(and smile) at THIS LINK.

Gotta geek out and put my favorite Phil Seymour song below.  I’ve probably played this song 200 times total over the years.  Uh, really.

THE JELLYBRICKS – Little Steven, as in Bruce Springsteens guitar player and ultra-cool guy(and big supporter of Not Lame back in the day and still of The Shazam) has picked one of their songs, “Rock And Roll Suicide” as being the damn rock ‘n roll song in the world for a week.   Listen to STeven’s very awesome and large syndicated show  – here is a link to find a station near you. Buy their latest CD at Kool Kat – HERE.   Also, enjoy a Jellybricks song to download that was in The Surprise Box 4 weeks ago – HERE

 PAUL COLLINS and PETER CASE are ripping it up across the United States right now and doing live shows featuring the material they did together in The Nerves and their own projects – The Beat and The Plimsouls and solo material.  Talk about GEEKING OUT!?!   Articles on the recent  show in Chicago – HERE and another article at THIS LINK.  Oh, found another one!!

UPDATE MARCH 26th:  The Tour Is Over – Collins and Case split!  Sad news.  Info on it HERE and HERE

PAUL COLLINS Again – how about an interview him?  Sure!  It’s, you guessed it, HERE  There’s video of shows on YouTube. The show in San Francisco looks like it was packed to the max!  How COOL is that to see?!?!  Ahh, fuck it, let’s watch some really bad video from that show – why not!

WANDERLUST – Oh, my – this is awesome news!  A new album from the band! All the original rocking’ dudes – no lame, half-assed ‘some members’ reunion.   When is it coming?  I believe ‘very soon’-ish.  I’m hoping to get details on it to share here in next week or so – so stay tuned!   I’m a long time fan since seeing them live in ’94 or so and then Not Lame(my old label) did two albums with them and even a solo album from Scot Sax, the bands’ frontman.

Let’s celebrate the good news w/ a bit ‘o vid from the band, why don’t we?!

I posted this below video back in the early Winter – but now seems like a good time to re-post, yes?  OF COURSE, it’s ‘yes’!   It tells you a bit about the new album….

CANDY – Finally, released on CD is “Whatever Happened To Fun?”, an glam-cum-power-pop hard rock mini-classic that was released in 1985 and has never been out properly on CD.  Now it is – from one of the very best hard-rock reissue labels in the world, Rock Candy.  (I’m a very, very serious hard rock fan with the more obscure side of things from the years 1969-early 80s).   Order it already – HERE   What’s REALLY needed is a reissue of the long, long out of print 1995 melodic rock classic by Jonathan Daniel of Candy w/ his band The Loveless, “A Tale of Gin and Salvation”.  How about a little YouTube action from them. (Daniel also fronted the LA hair band Electric Angels after Candy – also being reissued by Rock Candy soon).

THE CORNER LAUGHERS – If you’ve not heard of them yet, you should and you will.  Like now.  Their previous album was a favorite 3 yrs or so ago. A new one is coming in June. Check a wonderful pop ditty  HERE.   The band features KC Bowman of Agony Aunts and is produced by Allen Clapp.

BLEU – I pre-ordered the vinyl of his new album five months ago, “Besides” and it’s been delayed a few times but it finally arrived.  Here’s the problem. My turntable needs a new needle and I can’t find one!  I gotta check out and see if they sent me download codes or not so I can’t report how good it is, but if yr interested in checking out – www.bleutopia.com – read a review of it at PowerPopAholic – HERE

Let’s stay on the subject.  Come on, give it up for YouTube, Pop Pioneers! Here’s a clip of Bleu playing at a small wedding party in Osaka, Japan along with Mike Viola.

JASON FALKNER produced two songs from this project by a guy named THOM HELL.  Listen to one of the songs that Falkner produced at this YouTube link.

THE RIFFBROKERS – I’ve been a fan of this band the last 10 years or so and Not Lame carried their recorded output during that time, too.  Become a fan, too – it’s easy. Their entire recorded out put is available for FREE DOWNLOAD when you go to THIS LINK.

THE DIODES – Okay. Did you just see that name and go…”WHOA!!”?  If so, I dig you.  I can tell you what color the sky was back in early ’78 when I finally scored an import copy of The Diodes’ self-titled debut – a true 5-star punk classic with lots and lots of sugary pop harmonies – an even more pure pop oriented Ramones.  Well, their second album has been reissued by the fabulific BongoBeat label.  It was called “Action/Reaction” and while it was not as good as the debut, it’s pretty darn good in many spots and I need to score a copy of this on CD myself still!   Read about the band at AMG – HERE.  Buy the album and listen a bit at Amazon – HERE.  More on the band at BongoBeat. What you really want is THIS, though – came out some years back but it’s a comp and it has both album on one CD(I still want the second album on its own, I’m a geek).  Read about it at THIS LINK and just go somewhere/anywhere and pick it up!

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SXSW HAPPENINGS 

This is a major happening in the music business that takes place every year in Austin, Texas.  2,000 official bands and another 1,000 unofficial bands and 40,000 music biz people(term used loosely) over-take the city.  I’ve gone around 12/13 times over the years – it is an amazing experience.  Here are some links to news that share what took place last week in Austin. As it relates to power pop, there was a show by The dB’s and a BIG STAR  tribute.  Read about it HERE.  And…THE SCRUFFS played there, too – HERE. 

Okay, more from The dB’s.  Like how about listening to a live stream of a show that took place 10 days ago?  Yes?  Okay – HERE you go!  AND…they are doing an album.  Read about it at this link.

THE FIGGS played, too.  Read on.

Bruce Springsteen did the keynote at SXSW this year.  I watched all of this video(I did not go this year) – it’s quite entertaining.  I’m a fan of Bruce(and his name – they call me “Bruce”, afterall) but even if you are not, it’s a pretty cool call to action for indie artists and some funny walks down memory lane w/ thim.  Watch it, HERE.  Best quote from the speech and dead center, on the target advice for young musicians:  “Young musicians – learn how to bring it live, and then bring it night after night after night after night after night, your audience will remember you.”

More music reports – HERE and HERE  and how about ONE MORE

Here is some news related to music apps that were talked about in Austin the last few weeks – go THIS LINK.

Okay, that’s all related to SXSW for you!

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NEW POWER POP-RELATED BLOG – Just tripped across THIS BLOG  a few weeks ago. One of the best names, too. ICE CREAM MAN POWER POP AND MORE(DING DING).    Well worth you checking out on a regular basis. Put it into your feed or reader today.

WRECKLESS ERIC – You know, Eric!  “Whole Wide World” Eric!  He’s got a very cool blog – HERE

AUSTRALIA HAS ALL THE FUN!  It was called Homebake Festival. Who played?  The Triffids, The Church and Icehouse.   Read about HERE.

STRATOCRUISER – North Carolina-based power pop band for almost 15 bands and a whole, wonderful large collection of very, very good records under their belt have a new DVD just out.  Just happened across this bit of news by chance so not a lot of details – order it HERE.

WONDERFUL ITALIAN MUSIC BLOG –  UNDER THE TANGERINE TREE.  Yes, Yes…I know. You do not speak Italian.  Two Things:  1. it’s called a browser translater – get one, they work fairly well! 2. It talks about music with linkage.  Check it HERE.

Speaking of great music blogs, Bill Kopp does an excellent one at MusoScribe.  A Van Dyke Parks interview is one very, very good reason to go to THIS LINK and a proper, empowering, informative review of a Utopia DVD is HERE.  Of course, there’s plenty more if you are going to stick around the blog – you will get lost for a very, very long time. You are forewarned.

LETTERS FROM US – interesting band I tripped across – you may like. Listen at this link.

The Neuroscience of Music – I find the study of how the brain works fascinating, even more when I find interesting articles on the subject when it relates to listening to music. If you do, jump over to HERE.

AUDIOPHILES – PREPARE TO CRY EVEN MORE.   The digital holocaust continues to take out proper sonics at the knees.  Read about how audio engineers savage, brutalize, defile and adulterate your music.  Wince away HERE.

ACE FREHLEY of KISS – He’s done it. His biography, in his own(sic) words!  Honestly, I may pick this up, actually.  Info at this link.  

AS IT SHOULD BE – JOHN PEEL.  His record collection will not be sold, it will become part of museum.  Enjoy the news and feel better about the world HERE.

SLEEPER AGENT – I don’t expect Rolling Stone to turn me to onto any cool bands that often but it does happen.  Free, very Strokes-like song HERE.

Must have sucked so bad to be a musician and be Paul McCartney’s little brother. Such was the card dealt to Mike McGear, whose 1974 album “McGear” is quite excellent and well worth tracking down on CD.  I bought the LP shortly after it came out as a kid – never let it go, too.  Here is a AMG link. I bring him because I came across THIS ‘new’, old release from him that dates back to 1968, which I had never heard about before – at all.  Evidently, he was part of a music/poetry/comedy act that recorded an album in 1967.  It’s out on CD.  Listen to snippets at Amazon HERE.

QUEEN & ADAM LAMBERT: I’m sorry.  If I lived in the U.K., I’d be all over this.  I absolutely love every album Queen did up until and including “Jazz”.  I absolutely loathed every single album they did after “Jazz”.  But I’d drop some quid to see one of these shows.   And, you know, the dude is wicked nice and genuine.  I admit it, I now watch American Idol.  I started to the season he was on. He was my pick to win that year.  Love that he’s got a bonafide career and he’s singing with his idols now.  Now, if he’d only get some good ‘n proper advice and just make a freakin’ proper, guitar-oriented, balls-out rock album, he’s right fully right the ship.  Aw, let’s watch his AI audition.  (and see how utterly clueless the men judges are with a real star developing right in front of them…)

 Click Right Here

BANDS:  Want to increase sales?  Think about…death.  It worked pretty well for Whitney.  Don’t Fear The Reaper – HERE

MOTORHEAD and their $600 box set they do not want you to buy.  HERE.  I saw them on one of their very first US dates in Boston, “Ace Of Spades” tour. By that time,  I had already picked up on import because, hey, I was so darn cool but…. gawd, this band still does it for me.  I saw them live a few years ago with Deep Purple and it ripped, though, that first show in 1980, though, was  special.  It had Motorhead, Eddie & The Hot Rods, David Johansen Band and The Ramones on the same bill.

Come on, now that dropped the word “Motorhead’, you know…you want some!  Oh, yes you do.  (I was in the 5th row at the aforementioned show in Boston so this is exactly how I remember them….Man, YouTube is just THE best thing ever to happen for a music geek!)

 ‘BORING’ MUSIC INDUSTRY NEWS but I find it mildly interesting, despite extricating myself from the music industry the last year(Pop Geek Heaven nothwithstanding – PGH is me getting back to enjoying music as a fan again!) but it appears you all still prefer to own and buy music?  Really?  I don’t buy it(sic) but read about HERE, if you are so inclined.

Wow!! I’m tired – that took a LONG time to put together for you all!  If you liked, loved, hated what was here, feel free to share your thoughts or any new discoveries below for all to see.  Next post and update in two weeks.