Alan Haber's Pure Pop Radio

Spins and Reviews | 03.01.17
By Alan Haber – Pure Pop Radio

Certainly somewhat close to the excitement that would be garnered by the discovery of a previously-unknown outtake from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, and most definitely setting off fireworks and shockwaves in the neighborhood of those that pulsated through the melodic pop community upon the release of 1999’s Where Has the Music Gone? The Lost Recordings of Clem Comstock, which gathered a treasure trove of mind-blowing early-to-mid-’60s sides together in one rather influential package, Tacoma, Washington’s Charlatan Record Cartel’s explosive satchel of tracks from across the pop spectrum, set to release throughout this year, is this year’s most exciting and potentially influential pop music bounty that you will encounter this year.

The Pacific Northwest, somewhere west of the east

Known worldwide as the label that released albums by the much-loved Liar’s Club and Vanilla, Charlatan, operated under the watchful ears of musician Jayson Jarmon, has discovered so many wonderful pop nuggets by so many wonderful pop bands that it’s almost criminal, but not quite, that they have waited so long to release them to the world. But we here at Pure Pop Radio can forgive the delay, if indeed there has been a delay, because the company, nestled in the Pacific Northwest, also known as Cascadia, is ramping up to set the world of melodic pop on fire, or at least pop the top off of a barrelful of expectations.

Flannel is alive, as are talent and honest musical emotion, in the world of Charlatan Record Cartel’s The Sunday Brothers (and that’s only the beginning)

First up from the Sunday Brothers, and releasing on Charlatan’s Bandcamp headquarters page, is a somber, ruminative ballad about that night in “Bankside,” complete with a delicate, ’60s British Invasion-esque guitar solo and enough atmosphere to cause light rain to fall from the skies. The song, performed by the Sunday Brothers and, interestingly enough, written by Jayson Jarmon and Gavin Guss, was heard by the Brothers Sunday while they were in London, planning for the burial of their parents, who met their demise in a 2006 plane “incident.” How Jayson and Gavin’s song made its way across the pond is as yet unknown, but thank heavens it did, and thank heavens Ethan, Topher, Theo, and Tiegen Sunday heard it and decided to commit it to wax. (You can find out everything you need to know about the Sunday Brothers, and probably more, by clicking here.)

ELP, just one of the major soft-rock influences the Sunday Brothers hold dear

The Sunday Brothers, obviously influenced by, according to their record label, “Crosby, Stills and Nash, America, ELP, and other soft rock groups of the mid-seventies,” kick off Charlatan’s 2017 Pacific Northwest bounty of musical treasures that will undoubtedly, and most assuredly and indubitably, set the universe of melodic pop denizens ablaze. The tender “Bankside” is available (click here to purchase), as is another new Brothers song, “Save Me” (which you can procure by clicking here).

Knuckle Dragon (well, not actually, actually)

Another surefire hit on Charlatan’s schedule of releases of top tunes from the wealth of Pacific Northwest bands that you need to know about, or else: Knuckle Dragon’s uniquely positioned ode to beer and women, “King of Tacoma,” which features what the record company says are “tasty riffs,” and you know what that means.  This truth-to-power rock, or “rawk” band, hails from Tacoma, as opposed to hailing for cabs. Appropos of nothing, the band rehearses in the Sunday Brothers’ basement, aka they live in the Sunday Brothers’ basement when they’re not working in a local bottle factory, which is a whole other, riff-laden story (click here to purchase “King of Tacoma”). Post Knuckle Dragon, you have chick singer band Cherry Parkes’ “The Man of the Moment” to look forward to. Wow, right?

Chew on that for awhile, and don’t miss the Sunday Brothers’ world-weary balladic achievement, “Bankside,” or their other sweet side, “Save Me.” And don’t forget about Knuckle Dragon. And stay tuned to Pure Pop Radio, and pledge to keep your eye on this website for new songs and information on those songs coming from the Charlatan Record Cartel, a forward-thinking musical enterprise that drives the melodies home to…you.

Now playing in rotation on Pure Pop Radio: The Sunday Brothers’ “Bankside” and “Save Me”

Where to Get Them: The Sunday Brothers’ “Bankside” (Bandcamp) and “Save Me” (Bandcamp), and Knuckle Dragon’s “King of Tacoma” (Bandcamp)