When I listen to superior pop music like this Big Baby tape, I remember Game Theory’s Scott Miller saying: “There's nothing really impressive about any mystique that I have. I'm just...it's just pop. And that's kind of hard to sell sometimes."
What would make Big Baby’s songs - and they’re really very good, you know - sell? If Pretty in Pink 2 gets made, then the power pop and fragility of String Of Pearls beats any fist pumpin' soft rock to pull the emotional levers.
Any of those Netflix dramas about love and self loathing and teenage dreams - all improved by a song off Fizzy Cola. Selling pop music to me is easy - I stockpile it whatever the climate - but I feel certain that with exposure and a bit of luck these immediate songs would win many new fans no bother.
Sunday 29 March 2020
Saturday 28 March 2020
Beach Bunny - Honeymoon
Name a song by Snail Mail? Thinning, right. Now name a song by Mothers. It Hurts Until It Doesn’t, right. What about Soccer Mommy? Nope, you got me there.
But what if any of those bands wrote nothing but hits? Well, you’d have Beach Bunny who keep the emo on the down-low, open the windows on their bedroom music and let Best Coast’s sunshine pop stream in.
Honeymoon elevates suburban boredom - heartbreak, restlessness and disaffection - to the state of celebration by matching it with instant hooks and fuzzy guitars. If you liked All Of Nothing by Remember Sports, Honeymoon will rock your socks off.
Biographical detail? They’re from Chicago. Honeymoon is their first album. There’s an ep Prom Queen. You need both of these records.
But what if any of those bands wrote nothing but hits? Well, you’d have Beach Bunny who keep the emo on the down-low, open the windows on their bedroom music and let Best Coast’s sunshine pop stream in.
Honeymoon elevates suburban boredom - heartbreak, restlessness and disaffection - to the state of celebration by matching it with instant hooks and fuzzy guitars. If you liked All Of Nothing by Remember Sports, Honeymoon will rock your socks off.
Biographical detail? They’re from Chicago. Honeymoon is their first album. There’s an ep Prom Queen. You need both of these records.
Tuesday 10 March 2020
Pop Crimes - Debuts
Goes is 2020’s first true classic pop song - guitars set to jangle, the big box marked ‘tune!’ opened and the foot slammed on the fx pedal. Seasons & Storms isn’t far behind if you’re looking for the second true classic pop song of the year. Then listen to The Sun. You’ll very quickly get the idea something special is starting to happen.
They sound like Ride when they got it right all those years ago, first album Pains of Being Pure At Heart, exlovers frenzied noise, and the addictive, biting snarl of the Boo Radleys on Everything’s Alright Forever.
No idea why they’ve either named themselves after a Roland S Howard album or think they’ve in fact committed crimes against pop. Neither of these things ring true. But these songs? This band? Time to get very excited.
They sound like Ride when they got it right all those years ago, first album Pains of Being Pure At Heart, exlovers frenzied noise, and the addictive, biting snarl of the Boo Radleys on Everything’s Alright Forever.
No idea why they’ve either named themselves after a Roland S Howard album or think they’ve in fact committed crimes against pop. Neither of these things ring true. But these songs? This band? Time to get very excited.
Wednesday 4 March 2020
PGX - Naive
This is worth the entry price just for the pagan tribute to the titular Peter Gutteridge.
PGX aren’t the sound of Dunedin, or even Christchurch. Maybe they looked to Gutteridge’s words for inspiration on their first 4 songs: “I like certain sounds. Certain rhythms. I’m interested in drone music as well as melody.”
Their spoken word vocals put them in league with Black Country, New Road, developing repetitive rhythms and oblique tunes on songs like the excellent Chocolate Factory.
Lead track Mopeds tips more to the recent LA punk stylings of Daddy Issues and Shit Bitch, and I’d love to see them on a bill with Breakup Haircut.
That’s a lot of ways to go, right? Well, apparently they’re “not sure what sound they’re going for but are finding their way with distortion”. Whichever way they go - and I secretly hope Speedy Wunderground have opened their chequebook - PGX are a band to watch out for.
PGX aren’t the sound of Dunedin, or even Christchurch. Maybe they looked to Gutteridge’s words for inspiration on their first 4 songs: “I like certain sounds. Certain rhythms. I’m interested in drone music as well as melody.”
Their spoken word vocals put them in league with Black Country, New Road, developing repetitive rhythms and oblique tunes on songs like the excellent Chocolate Factory.
Lead track Mopeds tips more to the recent LA punk stylings of Daddy Issues and Shit Bitch, and I’d love to see them on a bill with Breakup Haircut.
That’s a lot of ways to go, right? Well, apparently they’re “not sure what sound they’re going for but are finding their way with distortion”. Whichever way they go - and I secretly hope Speedy Wunderground have opened their chequebook - PGX are a band to watch out for.
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