Alex Kasznel & The Board Of Directors - Flightless

 

The Cincinnati Trio describe themselves as Pop Punk for Adults, but the album sounds much closer to something that would be on the IRS label, where it still around. This is a splendid Indie Guitar Pop album, more in the Bob Mould mode than Green Day.

The trio format suits them well, they are locked in and the joint vocal of Alex Kasznel and Bassist, Heather Alene contrast beautifully and Alene and drummer Andrew Gable provide a Rhythm section to die for.

They can get noisy, as proven by The Mummers Parade, but it is controlled. They do get a little Punk, instrumentally, on My Piece With It, but the song even sounds a little R.E.M. Antlers features a solo vocal on Antlers and provides a yearning vocal.

Lock & Key, as featured on a recent Listening To This Week, is a magnificent song. It drives with an outstanding riff and a passionate Kasznel vocal. It is storytelling joy that underlines the lyrical adeptness and quality of his songwriting. That dual vocal works beautifully when utilised sporadically here.

Needle & Thread is almost surprisingly jaunty and that works as well as the deeper songs. Scaphoid Feature also adds a wonderful String Quartet arrangement, betraying the Indie sentiments elsewhere. Flightless is a wonderfully deep and engaging album that underlines the benefit of great playing and great songwriting.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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Feedbacks - Bring Back The Light

 

I'm well late on this with two of my peers and friends at Add To Want List and Faster And Louder getting on the case in February. So it is about time that I remedied my lack of a review.Spain's Feedbacks are masters at the type of Power Pop that we all love.

Available on the ace Hurrah! Musica, a label that has kept the spirit of Guitar Pop thriving, Feedbacks are probably the cream of crop. They've provided great Power Pop over three decades, without ever offering up a duff song, so they are not going to start doing so now.

The album crosses into everything you've known and loved about the genre. Think Shoes, Merseybeat, The Records, Weezer, the 90s Revival, indeed anyone who has graced the scene. Hooks aplenty, massive choruses and engaging solos, they have it all.

Five Hours Drive even gets all Teenage Fanclub whilst Back To The Sun is not a million miles away from Big Star with an absolutely killer Guitar sound. Songs About Her reminds you of the great 70s Pop Rock bands. 1995 sounds very err 1995.

Bring Back The Light closes the album and is the only time the album slows down. Acoustic that sounds a little Smokie, yet could be Chinn And Chapman. This album is Power Pop at its very best. Certainly. likely to be that genre's album of the year. 

It underlines how feel good this sort of music is. It does now feel like the summer. It takes a lot of effort to offer up 11 songs that don't drop in quality. I could have embedded any of the songs and you will have different favourites. But this is a cracking album by a band who know what buttons to press.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl or as a download.

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The Shipbuilders - This Blue Earth

 

The second album from Liverpool's The Shipbuilders is an extraordinary listen. Now expanded to a five piece which has allowed the Brass to flourish, the band cross genres aided by a razor sharp production and lyrical sentiments that are adept, worldly and socially conscious.

Listening to the opener, you would be forgiven for thinking the album is Indie goodness. 95 Miles is all Jangle Pop and Hills Of Mexico follows suit with its Guitar Pop feel, built around a terrific riff. This suits Matty Loughlin-Day's vocals well.

The closer, Heavy Is The Weight is superb, epic light, brooding and beautifully played, hypnotic and mesmerising. Six minutes long, the last minute and a half being an instrumental when they get as rocky as they ever will.

The real strength though is courtesy of Trumpeter Pete Higham who turns the sound completely to part Tijuana, part early Denys, even a little Jazz. The Single, Daydreaming, sounds as great as ever, a little like a chirpier version of The Coral.

The River is another ace arrangement, almost Folk at times, it would make a great film soundtrack opener. You can imagine Polynesia being sung by Gene Pitney with its easy listening feel. Metempsychosis sounds very 60s European chilled and you think of Lee Van Cleef during Flagpole, a song beautifully written with sentiments I share. Never Trust A Man Flagpole In His Garden sums up where we are currently in the UK.

This Blue Earth is an inventive masterpiece. The sound of a band who knows exactly what they are about. An ability to mix Guitar Pop and Folk with Easy Listening mixed with big Brass arrangements and more than a little Scouse Scally Pop. Those Arrangements!!! Absolutely wonderful album!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download. You can find out more about The Shipbuilders here.

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T Shirt Month Update

 

We are currently experiencing issues uploading the images for T Shirt Month. It is frustrating because the articles have been written. The posts will go up when the image will upload and the problem is fixed. However, there are potential reviews in draft that have already had the album covers uploaded. 

So I will concentrate on some of those until the image upload problem is fixed. Look out for them starting to appear tonight. Onwards and Upwards blah blah etc etc.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 14 July

 

Here's the new LTTW Playlist. 23 splendid songs. As well as the traditional version, we have put the playlist on Spotify and you will see the link below. Remember this is early days on Spotify, so the following there is nowhere near our one here. Only 19 of the 23 songs are currently on Spotify.

The weekly playlist is largely for submissions, not just the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. The song order is not about song preference, but how the playlist flows.  All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here. 

The Spotify Version.   (4 Songs are currently not on Spotify)

Link To Spotify.      Link Now Active.

The Wind Ups - That's Just My Dream Girl

Supercobra - Nothing But Lies

Bass Drum Of Death - Do Nothing

Sour Ops - She's So Strange (Will be added to Spotify on 18 July)

Soft Hearted Scietists - Hello Hello

Late Cambrian - 28 Years Later

Witkin - Last Year's Ashes

Feedbacks - Telephone

Scoobert Doobert - Quiet Your Mind!!!

Bad Self Portraits - Pensive

Moletrap - Middle Of The Land

Ryan Loves Sports - Sun Queen Shining

Ryan Loves Sports · Sun Queen Shining

T J Felix - towering inferno

Cherry Fez - Happy Hour (Not On Spotify)

Paul Muldoon & Rogue Oliphant - Visible From Space

Winchester 7& The Runners - Just A Crush (Not On Spotify)

Beddy Rays - Red Lights

The Dirty Nil - Fail In Time

DD Island - Cherry Tongue

The Fishermen Three - Electricity (Not On Spotify)

Deep Sea Camels - Now I Think Maybe You Know

The Probies - My Paradise

Invisible Joe & The Mushroom Gorilla - In Between

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T Shirt Month - Splitsville

 

Here I am again, this time celebrating the return of Splitsville. When I started out with Anything Should Happen all those years ago, the focus was completely Retro, the exact opposite of what here does and so it looked backwards at what had been. I had spent the 90s immersed in the revitalisation of Power Pop and ASH took on that mantle initially. Many bands that were not around in 2007 were celebrated and introduced to a new set of listeners. One time, we talked and talked about our favourite Power Pop band and even revisited every album on John Borack's Best 200 Power Pop Albums. Splitsville came out top and rightly so. So the return of the Baltimore quartet  on the acclaimed Big Stir label is really exciting and having heard the new album before its release next Friday, I had ever reason feel to feel so.

Many people will rightly point you to The Complete Pet Soul as their masterpiece, but I was enamoured before and after. I missed out on their debut, U.S.A. which was largely the introductory demos, but I was a massive fan of the two albums by The Greenberry Woods, the band that became Splitsville. But the follow up, 1997's Ultrasound, gripped me thoroughly and led to the third album, Repeater, an album that is a Power Pop classic and one of my favourite albums ever. The Complete Pet Soul was released in 2001 and is a wonderful listen. It mixed originals that blended the harmony and orchestration of Pet Sounds and the more stripped down Guitar Pop of Rubber Soul. In that Top 200 albums, it was 45th.

2003's Incorporated is another fine listen. It slowed things down a little, less up and at 'em, more thoughtful, allowing more space than the melodic riffathons that had largely defined their career thus far. Now over two decades later comes Mobtown, an album that builds on the strengths of the past, but feels more modern, more now and will fight for space with the next generation as an album that will define Guitar Pop Rock in 2025.As they have matured, it is now not all about Guitar Riffs, there is space for keyboards and roots. My two embeds are the two singles from the new album.

The back catalogue is available on CD fairly cheaply on Discogs. Hopefully, the success of Mobtown will make these albums available for all again. You can find out more about Splitsville on their website here. The new album can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp here and the Big Stir Records site here It is available on CD or as a download. You can listen to the new album in full on Friday 18 July, the release date. It will be reviewed here just after release.

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T Shirt Month - It's Karma It's Cool

 

The second post of T Shirt Month features Bailey, our Lurcher, modelling the It's Karma It's Cool attire. Bailey will be making an appearance or two throughout the month. It was in 2013 that I was introduced to main man Jim Styring in our Anything Should Happen days. He was behind the Pop Dogs and starting out with an EP that I loved and I was so taken with his enthusiasm, that I just wanted to help. As he had grown through various ventures, that enthusiasm has never wavered. It is hard to make any impact in the UK these days, but that doesn't stop Jim and the band has grown well in the USA, supported admirably by the Kool Kat label.

Via B-Leaguers in 2016 and The Ego Ritual in 2019, Jim eventually settled into the established quartet that is It's Karma It's Cool. The quartet consists of Styring, Martyn Berwick, Mikey Barraclough and Danny Krash. The debut, 2019's Hipsters And Aeroplanes has been followed by three more albums, Woke Up In Hollywood, Homesick For Our Future Generations and Thrift Store Troubadours. There has also been a departure from their Guitar led Pop Rock with a side project in Solitary Bee that have released three recent singles. The return of IKIC has been marked by a great single, Crashability, released in May.

Initially built on big choruses, unexpected riffs and a real lyrical adeptness, the band's career developed as did their sound. The Power Pop roots were not as obvious. Ventures into AOR, Modern Rock and Classic Rock revealed that there was far more to the quartet than initially met the eye and ears. Thrift Store Troubadours continued the diversity adding Psych, Glam Rock, West Coast Rock and generally the sound was even bigger. It is a tremendous album and maybe the best place to start for newcomers.

Styring has come a long way in 12 years and It's Karma It's Cool is a tight unit, not one man trying to find a path through the mire. Instrumentally, the development has been magnificent, but the strength is also in his vocals. He has an ability to sing Pop or Rock, easily adapting to whatever he sings. As is the case with all of this series of posts, I am choosing my favourite track by the band and the most current. IKIC are a band that have all the tools to break through considerably, they will need a bit of luck, but they certainly have the talent.

You can read all our reviews by searching the band's name on here and clicking on the tag. The complete back catalogue of the band can be listened to and bought here.

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