I Don't Hear A Single Radio Show Episode 49

The IDHAS Extravaganza reaches Number 50 Next Week with Butterfly Cakes and Jelly planned. In the meantime, Number 49 is up, dressed and washed and ready for it's Friday Night debut. 17 Tracks all new and sparkling await your ears.

I Don't Hear A Single Radio Excitement is broadcast on KOR Radio at 8pm UK Time on Fridays, repeated at the same time on Saturdays. Due to increased popularity, a Monday Night Repeat has been added at 8pm.

You can listen to it here.

Also, a reminder that the show is archived the following week on Mixcloud. You can listen to the other forty eight shows and two Xmas Specials here.

Here's this week's playlist :


01 The Gold Needles - Daydreamer's Song
02 Seth Timbs - The Pay Off
03 The Speedways - Seen Better Days
04 Caper Clowns - Sacre Bleu
05 The Foreign Films - Summer Fades
06 Caddy - Contageous
07 Keaton Collective - Way To Be
08 The Connection - Wish You Success
09 Super 8 - Hey! Mr. Policeman
10 Luv Dot Gov - Exist Anymore
11 Tom Curless - Always Bloom Forever
12 JetBone - It's So Hard
13 Freedom Fry - For You
14 Sitcom Neighbour - Pimpmobile
15 Burning House - Peach
16 Gin Blossoms - Still Some Room In Heaven
17 The Amazing - Asleep

I Don't Hear A Single Radio Show Episode 48

The IDHAS Radio Variety Performance reaches Number 48 tomorrow night. Two nearer the half century, which has a double helping to celebrate, one show of which is a Best Of on Mixcloud only. Just 15 Tracks this week, all new, so that I could get Even's closing number on, which is Essential Listening.

The I Don't Hear A Single Radio Excitement is broadcast on KOR Radio at 8pm UK Time on Fridays, repeated at the same time on Saturdays. Due to increased popularity, a Monday Night Repeat has been added at 8pm.

You can listen to it here.

Also, a reminder that the show is archived the following week on Mixcloud. You can listen to the other forty seven shows and two Xmas Specials here.

Here's this week's playlist :

01 Ocean Mind - Victim Of Gravity
02 Patrick Windsor & The Black Mail House - In The Wilderness
03 Jeremy Fetzer - Wisdom Of The Octopus
04 Team Picture - Strange Year
05 Phil Yates & The Affiliates - I Don't Hear A Single Promo
06 Phil Yates & The Affiliates - One Man's Trash (Sour Grapes)
07 Local Teen - How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You Dumb Motherfuckers
08 D.A. Stern - Am I Ever On Your Mind!
09 Salim Nourallah - Totally Lost
10 A Place In Time - Maps
11 Zuider Zee - Haunter Of The Darkness
12 Kidd - Looking For The Way Out
13 Checkpoint Charley - Mayday
14 Sunshine Boys - Schoolyard Bully
15 The Shimshaws - Ordinary Girl
16 Even - Return To Stardust

Phil Yates And The Affiliates - Party Music!

I'm in far more familiar territory here as Phil Yates And The Affilliates's third album is released on the joyous Futureman Records label. Party Music! is pure Power Pop, leaning a little to the UK New Wave of the late 70's.

I make that reference because although the feel is very jangly and melodic, there are unusual choruses on the likes of Triple Fisting and Nothing Happened. It tends to be a UK thing at times, a slowed down chorus with more words than you'd expect and it works beautifully. The likes of Joe Jackson and Graham Parker do it really well, as does Phil Yates.







Tom Petty is another adept at this and there are plenty of similarities to Yates's vocal, Petty Wise, there's also a hint of Ian Broudie. The Lead Guitar work is exemplary and I'm constantly reminded of Brinsley Schwarz in Rumour mode.

All tnis matters not one jot, because Party Music! is excellent fayre, beautifully written songs with some bitter lyrics dressed up in a sugar coating. One Man's Trash is like a Sun Studio Version of Power Pop.





Drink Myself Blind is all Labelled With Love and Peter Francis Geraci is Clash like until the slowed down Costello like Chorus. It's a belter of a song ending up like a buzzed up Monkees. Bite Your Tongue is a lyrically excellent It's You And Me and It's A Quarter To Three Piano affair.

If you wanted to know what the band are really about though it's probably best with the opener, My Favourite Bag. It's a jangling riff happy wisp of a song, exactly what a great Power Pop song should be. Phil Yates And The Affiliates have offered up a crackerjack of an album. Well Done All!







You can listen to and buy the album here.

The Gold Needles - Pearls

I Don't Hear A Single is usually looked upon as my own little kingdom, but there as always been far more to it than that. There is still an Inner Circle extending from the Anything Should Happen Days. This Secret Society recommends artists and albums to one another and some of those gems you see here.

Nick Fletcher is a lynch pin, becoming something of a European Correspondent, but we also have Mick Dillingham, Ian Rushbury and Ray Gianchetti. The latter remains in charge of the last physical outpost of the music we love at Kool Kat Musik and it is with him that my Gold Needles fascination began.

It was during a weekly catch up with Ray that he suggested The Gold Needles warranted my attention. Within a flash, the band had sent me a CD and in the meantime Ray had released Pearls, the debut album on the Kool Kat label. I was hooked on the band, the eclectic nature of what they do just appealed and I've been playing Pearls ever since.






You can read my interview with Mark English here and I thought I'd elaborate more by reviewing the album a little more. Knowing a bit about the band's history, I thought Pearls would be psychy, trippy, less commercial Fruits De Mer enjoyment. Not a bit of it!

The nature of the album, a compilation of their non soundtrack and compilation recordings, allows that originality and versatility to thrive. However that can have a slight downside. 18 Tracks on an album can overawe first time listeners. Combine that with The Gold Needles output being particularly suited to vinyl and you can find a solution. The upcoming Vinyl release is a cut down 13 tracks and that works even better. More on that later.

I generally associate two things with Hull, both equally dear. They are Mick Ronson and The Housemartins, now I have a third, because The Gold Needles are that good. They encapsulate everything I want in Psych Pop, more emphasis on the Pop and less on the backward guitar and Sitar.






Simon Dowson's vocal lends itself beautifully to the laid back dreamscapes of the likes of Daydreamer's Song, City Jungle and Lookout Mountain, but my interest perks even more when the band venture into Pop.

The opener and title track, Pearls, is pure 80's New Wave, think Ric Ocasek. Ghost In The Airwaves is Psych Pop joy and Story Of My Life again conjures up visions of mid 80's Synth Pop Rock. Not Tonight Josephine could be Peter Noone.






Pressure could be Billy Fury fronting latter day Roxy Music, Not Tonight Josephine is like something from a 1960's UK Kitchen Sink Film. Dreamscape Time is immense, a near Seven minute that breaks into an epic Pink Floyd like close. It's awesome.

So finally, the band are taking pre-orders for the Vinyl Edition of Pearls. a 50p deposit secures a copy of this very Limited Edition. With the album, you will also get a free high quality download. You can find details of how to pre order here.







You can buy the CD Version at Kool Kat here. You can also listen to the album and if you don't want something wonderful to sit beautifully in your Album collection, purchase the download here.

Even - Satin Returns

They say that seven is most people's lucky number. If that's true then there can be no coincidence that this is Even's 7th album and that it's almost 7 years since 2012's excellent, In Another Time. Satin Returns just continues the consistent quality of the band's work.

The Melbourne Trio know what they are good at and the resultant albums never disappoint. This album is every bit as good as their outstanding 1996 debut, Less Is More and that's how you expect it to be. The Riff and Chorus count is high.






I'm admirer of Brit Pop in what it achieved at the edges. I do get frustrated at the generation after me's belief that Music began in 1994. Although, Even are very much from those Brit Pop Years, but there is a difference. The excellence and consistency of their output is beyond compare, certainly far more impressive than either Gallagher.

On Album Number Seven, there are plenty of nods to Brit Pop, you'd expect that, but there are even more comparisons to 60's and 70's Classic Rock. Out Of The Woods is all jangly Psych Pop, not much unlike The Church. Falling Down is all 60's UK Beat and this just goes to emphasise why Even excel at what they do. There is no hint of staidness.






Jet Black is like a popped up Rolling Stones, yet Indian Ocean is an aching Power Pop ballad. The opening track, suitably called The Opener, is a song that defines Even most, it could appear on any of their albums. The real gem though is Return To Stardust. I've been trying to get it on the Radio Show for the past couple of weeks, but 9 minutes plus is a big chunk out of an hour.

The closing track will close this week's show though. It's too good not too, a wonderful sprawling venture into Pink Floyd territory, it's mesmerising. An Even album is one to be listened to throughout, there's so much variation. If you don't you'll miss a gem.






You can listen to and buy the album here.

I Don't Hear A Single Radio Show Episode 47

After all the excitement of Blogger Jail and crass Top 10 Worst Power Pop Artists, normality is reality with the 47th IDHAS Radio Stroll. Just one archive track this week, the magnificent Stealers Wheel and 16 newbies to delight your lugholes.

The I Don't Hear A Single Radio Excitement is broadcast on KOR Radio at 8pm UK Time on Fridays, repeated at the same time on Saturdays. Due to increased popularity, a Monday Night Repeat has been added at 8pm.

You can listen to it here.

Also, a reminder that the show is archived the following week on Mixcloud. You can listen to the other forty six shows and two Xmas Specials here.

Here's this week's playlist :

01 Stealers Wheel - Benediction
02 The Gold Needles - Pearls
03 The Red Button featuring Peter Noone - Ooh Girl
04 Nick Lowe - Tokyo Bay
05 The Yellbows - Bloody Cadillac
06 The Scrags - Never Looking Back
07 Lannie Flowers - About You
08 The Trend - Tune Me In
09 Steve Ellis - Black Sheep Boy
10 Three Hour Tour - Gray Waves
11 The Right Here - Buy Me a Round
12 Richard Turgeon - Look Away
13 The Capital - Only Human
14 Zurich - My Protocol
15 Melody's Echo Chamber - Breathe In Breathe Out
16 The Chocolate Watchband - Secret Rendezvous
17 Custard Flux - Helium

Kidd - Where Are The Strange People?

Stuart Kidd's time in the likes of BMX Bandits and The Wellgreen confirm his credentials as part of the Glasgow Music Mafia. There can be a tendency for Scottish bands to want to be Big Star or perhaps a cross between Teenage Fanclub and Nada Surf. There is none of that here.

Where Are The Strange People? is more in Wellgreen territory, but a much in a much more poppier space. Kidd puts the Pop into Psych Pop and these 11 songs form an enchanting laid back joy. I'm a little late to the review party, I've been meaning to review this for a while. This tardiness shouldn't fool people into thinking that the album isn't a priority, because it's a cracking piece of work.





I've seen the album described as lo-fi, I don't hear any of that, it sounds great blasting out here. It's a pastoral trippy affair that never loses sight of wanted to be melodic. There's a real charm here. It does hint heavily at Psych, but not in a far out man kinda way. The instrumental, Calisto, is a bit getting it together in the country with added tape hiss, but the rest of the album is a real sit back and enjoy affair.

Baby Bird could be a 1970's low calorie Bread TV Advert, Misty's Golden Years has a real wit and is almost Blue Mink. Mr Bumble Bee is mentioned in the opener, Little Flower and you can readily imagine those Bees. There's an almost Motown Back Beat to the Summer driven lyrics.





An Afternoon Is April is a great slab of Folk Pop, Independence Day reminds me of John Howard until the beat driven drum close, but it's Looking For The Way Out that I identify most with. That is a perfect example of how to write a Psych Pop song, it doesn't have to all be about backward guitars.

Where Are The Strange People? is beautifully put together, perfect for Summer Days. It's a splendid collection of songs. Turn On, Tune In, but don't Drop Out.





You can listen to and buy the album here.