We totally spaced on yesterday’s universe-wide Star Wars holiday, but Yoda’s cool with that brain freeze…as long as we carry on (see at left) with our Four-Day New Music Songfest. And so we will by bringing you our reviews of three outstanding platters now playing in rotation on Pure Pop Radio.
And now, to get our program off and running…
David Brookings and the Average Lookings | David Brookings and the Average Lookings Sixteen years on from his first solo release in 2000, Richmond, Virginia native, and current California resident David Brookings is set to release his new album, a typically infectious collection of songs centered around his pleasing, catchy melodies and his smooth, inviting voice. Songs like the mid-tempo pacer “Hearts” work around sumptuous melodies and clever chord progressions. The very America vibe of “Don’t Stop to Doubt Yourself” is a clear winner, as is “The Optimist,” a song about riding a wave of positivity.
David exhibits a healthy sense of humor too, in the title of the record, the cover photo, which depicts him as the only one facing the camera, and in the shuffling, country-tinged rocker “I’m in Love With Your Wife,” in which a shameful, overly confident, loose-lipped narrator confesses his empty love for women, singing “I can have any girl I know/Cause I was in Derek and the Dominos” and “If you think you’re living the dream/I played lead guitar in Cream.”
We’re playing seven of these hardly average sounding songs in rotation: “Hearts,” “The Optimist,” “Don’t Stop to Doubt Yourself,” “The Basement Room,” “I’m in Love With Your Wife,” “Place We Can Go,” and “Come Back Home.” David Brookings and the Average Lookings, produced by David, Isaac Fischer and Don Budd at Tone Freq Studio in San Jose, California, is the best album yet in a catalog full of solid releases. Top shelf all the way.
Erik Voeks | “Tired of Feelin’ Alone” and “Mondrian” Longtime Pure Pop Radio favorite Erik Voeks returns with his latest single release, pairing an exciting guitar-driven, horn-accented Rolling Stones-ish pop-rocker, “Tired of Feelin’ Alone,” with the short and sweet ballad “Mondrian.” As we said back in April when we added his last single, “She Loved Her Jangle Pop” b/w “Blue Water,” “New Erik Voeks is always a good thing. A great thing, actually.” And we stand by those words here in the merry month of May.
The Redhill Valleys | The Redhill Valleys This ostensibly Americana band from up north in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada got in touch and charmed us with their melodic, multi-genre approach to their music, which turns out to be perfect for Pure Pop Radio’s eclectic mix. Guitarist Danielle Beaudin, drummer Tim Allard, and bassist Chelsea McWilliams (all three sing) know their way around a good tune, as they prove with the four-on-the-floor, uptempo “Waiting,” the pretty, acoustic picking, harmony-rich “Either Or,” and “Wrong Way Turns Out Right,” a dreamy, melodic wonder. These songs, plus “Can’t Be Alone” and “Lay Me Down” are now playing in rotation. Welcome.
That’ll do it for today. Tomorrow: Much more. More new music that will absolutely blow your mind. Pure Pop Radio makes it happen right here and on the air!
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It’s a good day–a very good day–that fills your heart with lovely melodic sounds from today’s top melodic pop artists. That day–that very good day– is today…day two of Pure Pop Radio’s Four-Day New Music Songfest.
The Explorers Club | Together Aspiring harmony singers, here is your virtual textbook, a collection of songs imbued with the spirit of the best of the Beach Boys, the Four Freshman, the Association and other time-honored practitioners of the art. Here are songs that are beautiful and beautifully sung, lovely and lovelier still.
Winterpills | Love Songs We’ve been playing this Massachusetts band’s seventh album over and over for days on end, living with the songs’ emotions and sensibilities as if they were our own. These songs get under your skin; they become you in some celestial kind of way. You are frankly powerless to regress from their charms.
Peter Lacey | “Jonny and the Aspirations” This lively, horn-shaded, Stax-ian rumination on the price of success, or lack thereof, in the music business marks a new chapter in the evolution of Peter Lacey the recording artist. With nary a Beach Boys or folk nod within earshot, “Jonny and the Aspirations” wouldn’t have sounded out of place following Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Peter’s new album, New Way Lane, is only days away; we can’t wait to hear what that album has in store for our, and your, ears. Now playing in rotation, naturally.
Gretchen’s Wheel | Behind the Curtain Nashville-based Lindsay Murray’s second project as Gretchen’s Wheel is a meaty, inspired collection of songs imbued with powerful emotion. Sounding like a musical cousin to Aimee Mann, Lindsay sings with conviction and spirit on songs like the poppy, mid-tempo ballad “The Good Things” and the waiting-to-be-a-hit-single smash, “Try to Make It.” Catchy melodies and intelligent songwriting abound. We’re playing six songs in rotation: “Invisible Thief,” “Younger Every Year,” “The Good Things,” “Live Through You,” “Vapors,” and “Try to Make It.” Good going, Lindsay.
Nerf Herder | Rockingham Geek rockers Parry Gripp, Steve Sherlock, Linus of Hollywood and Ben Pringle take no prisoners with their fifth album, full of in-your-face pop-punk, most of which is not aimed squarely at our rather less-than-punky playlist. Nevertheless, we’ve added three groovy songs punctuated with pop culture references and a whole lot of fun: “The Girl Who Listened to Rush,” “Allie Goertz,” and “We Opened for Weezer.”
Tin Toy Cars | Falling, Rust and Bones And now for something sorta, kinda totally different from the usual Pure Pop Radio fare: a mandolin-fronted, pop-washed Americana band from Las Vegas. The band’s website makes its brief clear: “With mandolin, violin, banjo, guitar and upright bass, one might expect bluegrass or something with an old time slant, but add the compositional drumming of Aaron Guidry (Cirque du Soleil), and a songwriting approach more in line with Paul Simon than Bill Monroe, and a new image begins to emerge.” Indeed. The songs we’re playing in rotation–“Not for Nothing,” “Addicted to You,” “Desert Dogs,” and “Down on the Bowery” (a gypsy-folk bopper sounding like an otherworldly Roches)–are your entree to this band’s enticing, inviting sound. We dig it.
Torbjorn Petersson and Keith Klingensmith | “Open Up Your Eyes” Indie pop stalwarts Torbjorn Petersson and Keith Klingensmith, the latter a member of the much-loved Legal Matters, turn in a delicious cover of a song by Stereo Tiger. If you look up the word “catchy” in the dictionary, this song will undoubtedly play. Harmonies, melody, and top-flight vocals propel this one into your hearts. Now playing in rotation.
Laurie Biagini | “Stranger in the Mirror” This welcome return to recording finds this Vancouver, British Columbia popster in top form, delivering an infectious shuffle of a tune centered around a strong, catchy melody. Business as usual, as it turns out. Glorious.
Strangely Alright | “Shake It” Regan Lane and crew shake the floorboards with this propulsive, beat-driven pop-rocker. Electric guitars blaze and strong, committed vocals carry the melody along. There is enough energy in this recording to power Las Vegas on a really hot day. Nice.
The Recreations | “Swing Together” Thanks to Pop 4’s Scott McPherson for hipping us to this inventive slice of pure pop from Tokyo’s the Recreations. Fronted by pop visionary Yohei, this is a vital mix of soft pop, Burt Bacharach, Jellyfish, swing and jazz that comes together as a wholly unique creation you will never forget. More to come, but for now this one’s in rotation. Enjoy.
Adam Walsh | “Calico Skies” Here we go again: another fantastic cover from the immensely talented Adam Walsh, whose taste in music is eclipsed only by his own prowess. In Adam’s capable hands, Paul McCartney’s lovely “Calico Skies” gets a slightly sped-up reading, no less emotional than the original. Keep ’em coming, Adam.
Preoccupied Pipers |”Mayday” We’ve said, many times, that KC Bowman, he of Pop 4, Agony Aunts, and the Corner Laughers, is the hardest working man in show business, because he’s also got this Preoccupied Pipers project through which he every-so-often releases such catchy nuggets as this uptempo pop-rocker, which clocks in at 1:47 (that’s minutes, not hours), which is Roger Miller territory, but this is not “King of the Road” or “England Swings,” so make of that what you will. In any case, you’ll love this kicker of a tune. Whew.
Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio is the original 24-hour Internet radio station playing the greatest melodic pop music from the ’60s to today. From the Beatles to the Monkees, the Posies, McPherson Grant, the Connection and the New Trocaderos, we play the hits and a whole lot more. Tune in by clicking on one of the listen links below.
We’ve rolled up our collective sleeves and we’re digging the sounds. All you need to do to join in on the excitement of our Four-Day New Music Songfest is tune into Pure Pop Radio by clicking on one of the listen links below, and, of course, see what we’ve just added to the playlist by reading the reviews that follow below.
The Monkees | “She Makes Me Laugh” You’d have to be living well under a rock–somewhere so deep that even Pizza Hut won’t deliver there–to have missed the biggest news of the century: The Monkees are back with a new album in mere weeks from now with songs written by such talents as XTC’s Andy Partridge and Paul Weller. Produced by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger. Did we say the Monkees are back? Good Times is the album, and the first single is “She Makes Me Laugh,” written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo. That it’s inordinately catchy and very Monkees-ish goes without saying. That we’re playing this song in heavy rotation…well, that goes without saying, too. Welcome back, boys.
The Posies | Solid States We continue with this week’s festivities with this new, long-awaited album from power pop heroes the Posies–an album that is poised to be a massive hit with fans, and for very good reason. Solid States finds Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow, in large part, in pure, melodic pop mode throughout. Lovers of gorgeous, catchy melodies will swoon to such terrific songs as the should-be-hit-bound “Unlikely Places,” with its seductive verse melody and knockout chorus; the dramatic, powerful “Squirrel vs Snake” (the album’s title is part of the lyric); and “Rollercoaster Zen,” sounding like it could have been on a late-period Steely Dan album (a good thing). Do Auer and Stringfellow hit the ubiquitous “it” out of the park? You know we like a good baseball metaphor, so…yes they do. Essential listening. We’re playing six songs in rotation: “Unlikely Places,” “Scattered,” “Titanic,” “Squirrel vs Snake,” “The Definition,” and “Rollercoaster Zen.”
Lindsay Cowsill | Love is Strange A shot of joy like you haven’t felt in seemingly forever will hit you squarely in the melodic pleasure zone upon listening to the bright and lovely sounds on this mighty terrific EP from Mark Lindsay and Susan Cowsill.
McPherson Grant | “Cheese” and “My Favorite Thing” Pop 4’s Scott McPherson and his partner-in-musical mayhem, Jamie Grant, return to Pure Pop Radio with another two massively entertaining tunes–a double a-sided single, no less–that will have you desiring so much more.
Joe Giddings | Better from Here Joe Giddings, forever a Pure Pop Radio star for his work with Star Collector and the JTG Implosion, returns with a knockout collection of one-man-band tracks that sparkle and explode out of your speakers. Joe serves up everything from pure, melodic pop nuggets (“If I Don’t Have Love,” with just a hint of the Partridge Family sound in the background vocals, “Gone So Far” and “Always Raining Somewhere”) to power poppers (“Brand New Day,” with a slight country-campfire element, and “Irrelevant”) and even a heartfelt ballad, inexplicably titled “Final Track.” It’s a veritable feast of Joe, and we’re popping and rocking with seven tracks, including those just mentioned, and “Better from Here.”
Sundown | Sundown From Paris, France (not Texas) comes this pop trio with varying degrees of power in its sound. Sundown’s self-titled EP announces itself with catchy songs performed with gusto. We’re playing all four songs: “Solutions and Remedies,””All Woman Like,” “After Some Time,” and the amazing, saxophone-charged “It’s Very Strange.” Good stuff.
Hector and the Leaves | Little Bee London, England’s pure pop explosion Hector and the Leaves, aka Tom Hector, delights with a four-song EP that covers all the catchy, melodic bases we love. Two songs strike a Beach Boys chord: “Loved by You” is a love letter to harmony singing and, in particular, Beach Boys vocal arrangements, and “I Ride My Bicycle” charms with the kind of instrumental flight of fancy the Boys of Summer might have indulged in circa Smiley Smile. “Good Times” is a gorgeous ballad with a lovely melody, and “Little Bee” is a concise, mid-tempo melodic wonder. A home run (there goes another baseball metaphor).
Matt Duncan | Free Music This little wonder from up New York way (well, up from where we are) is a fine melodic pop specimen ground in a soulful ’70s, sorta-Bee Gees pop groove (and you can dance to it). “Chutes and Ladders” is a catchy mid-tempo number; “Waking Up” sports beautiful harmonies; and “Night Job” is a pretty ballad, soulful and swinging, with more delicious harmonies. We’re playing these songs, and “Somewhere in Between,” “Tell You What I Know” and “Light Bright.” Lovely.
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