Hoaxxers - Hard Luck EP (Bandcamp Name Your Price)

 

Austin Texas's Hoaxxers certainly remind me of Green Day. A Power Trio that offer up pace and melody. I get sent a lot of Pop Punk and am a bit of an outlier, because followers don't note this place as one that is a haven for the genre.

This is the sort of Pop Punk that I adore. Not a bit of the robotic vocal and standard riffs. The songs at times edge towards a noisier Power Pop. They don't come up for air and you don't want them to. They deserve a wider audience.

Built on killer riffs, big choruses and short blasts. Hard Luck is an engaging EP, 6 songs in 13 minutes, say what you wanna say and get off. Make Your Bed is addictive, driving shake yer fist stuff with a rare extended solo.

The title track is the most Power Pop, a great energetic anthem and a groove that is hypnotic. These three are great at what they do, real up and at 'em stuff. Totally engaging in a way that asks that you realise that Pop Punk encompasses more than one style.

You can listen to and buy the EP here.  It is at Name Your Price, so what have you got to lose?

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Flight Of Mavis - Mavis On Mavis

Mavis Sings Mavis is a great album. 1989 was a time that you relied on friends and constant digging to find out what was going on in the States. I was about 6 years into doing that having turned away from the UK scene during all the New Romantic nonsense which was more about dressing up. C86 and the Glasgow scene dragged me back to UK listening, but America was still were it was at. IRS label etc.

I had friends in Philadelphia who lived the album and one sent me a copy. It was a great listen, but in those days spreading the word was a thankless task at times. A 2003 Reissue brought it to the fore more, helped by the internet, but it was still a major surprise to see them back, 37 years on.

The original trio are joined by multi instrumentalist, John Cunningham and they offer up both new songs and archive material. The band were always unfairly labelled as R.E.M. wannabes, there was far more to them than that. They were a mix of Power Pop, Guitar Pop and Indie.

Mavis On Mavis feels that maturity has softened their approach, but these are still stellar songs. The magnificent Down In The Basement is the biggest reminder of what's gone before. It is accompanied by different styles. The Jangle is predominant, but in different ways.

The album sort of is a mix of slight Americana and Guitar Pop. Crowded House spring to mind at times, particularly on Holding Me Back. But the surprises are joyful. Gotta Get New Car is all Bo Didley groove with mouth organ and everything. A great diversion.

Garage Sale Junk gets really close to something on Stiff Records and Tonight's The Night is a splendid Pop Song, a little Costello. But, the real pull for me is the closer, It All Comes Round, that lights up my senses. A reminder of what they were and still are, a change of tempo enhances the song even more. What a delightful surprise this is. Great then and great now!

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist 15 June

25 songs this week. As usual, a mix of what you might expect genre wise, but there are surprises.

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 those who appear here. 

Modern Marriage - Blue, Red And Yellow…Maybe

Labrador - Too Much Wanting

The Loft - Campervan

Deadbeat Dead - Butchertown

Parent Teacher - Magazines Say

Slippers - Castaways

Mya Angelique - Teenage Popstar

Ben Auld - Talking Dog

The Roland Highlife - Old Atlantic

Linn Cervell - Lonelier

The Wrong Man - Starship

Abandoned Buildings - Intravenous

The Constellations - Stay Strange

Flight Of Mavis - Down In The Basement

Katie Pojidaeva - Inherited Scars

KATIA.POJIDAEVA · Inherited scars

George Adequate - Where Will We Dance

The Valery Trails - Waiting 2026

Legacy Of Lovers - When Will The Eyes Ignite

Gin Wigmore - Rodeo

The Essence Of The Universe - Bring All Your Lovers

The Cosmic Cowboys - But You Lied

Today We Are - Home

Smear - Close To You

smear · Close To You

Mesh Kimono - Supermoon

Landroid - Hank The Dragon

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Parent Teacher - Tricks For Meds

 

I adore Richard Spitzer's Parent Teacher. He offers up deliciously lo-fi songs, but they are extraordinarily inventive. They are songs within songs, unusual in construction, an ability to take all sorts of left field directions, but underpinned by melody and catchy.

The arrangements are particularly clever, but contain killer choruses. He flirts between Indie, Guitar Pop and Psych Pop, but is never too clever to lose the plot. At times, I think of Mythical Motors or even Guided By Voices, but the songs take on more complicated directions, nothing is ever as it seems.

Threat Of A Gun is the nearest that he will get to a straight ahead Pop song, underlined by a driving bassline and a closing Psych solo.Oblivion is more Indie Rock with pace, but also seemingly mixes 80s UK Indie with a little 90s Rock creeping in.

Zombie is another song that demonstrates get melody attached to a great chorus. Magazines Say opens proceedings and sort of explains how inventive Spitzer's songs can be. Multi direction, slightly Psych, but more 90s Indie. An incredibly hypnotic listen.

People bemoan the lack of labels, but that has opened the way to home recording. Some of the results of this are dire, but it has opened up a world that allows people to put out material as beguiling as this. A chance to discover something that you might have never heard and Tricks For Meds is definitely worth hearing.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Labrador - The Rosy Red World.

 

Philadelphia quartet, Labrador, had their roots in Alt Country from the 2018 debut. Initially, essentially a solo vehicle for Pat King's songs, since 2023's Hold Through The Strangers, they became a band and the development was rapid.

Now more adjacent to Indie Rock, King's vocals are outstanding and adapt to whatever chosen genre. The Alt Country is still around, particularly on the stripped back Americana of Waiting To Be Useful. Wagers is wonderfully moving storytelling too. Heartfelt to the extreme.

But the Rock dominates throughout The Rosy Red World. The Power Pop interludes resonate just as much. Too Much Wanting and You're Home Is An Eyesore particularly hit the spot, all Riff and Rhythm. There is lyrical excellence throughout, very socially responsible. A slight anger at the world.

The closer, No Man Is An Island is a great closer, epic, anthemic, jangling, a little like The Successful Failures. Slow Down, King is another winner, a jaunty strummer, a little Doolin' Dalton, very West Coast. We Drew Straws is much more in your face, performed at a rapid pace.

The Title Track is a splendid opener, a particularly effective vocal, but also underling the strength of the band, totally locked I'm. Labrador show that they have not forgotten their roots, but they have adapted into  a cracking rocking quartet. The Rosy Red World is a mighty fine listen.

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

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Modern Marriage - Grim Up North

 

Closer to home for today's closing review with a wonderful album released on the splendid Skeleton Records, home of the fine Record Shop and label. Follow them on Facebook to enter the home of twisted wit to which I concur.

Thinking of the Wirral, there are gonna be obvious comparisons to Half Man Half Biscuit and the humour and lyrical dexterity are here, but the arrangements and directions are miles bigger. This is Indie, but takes many unexpected turns.

These songs are stories about characters, filled with observation and biting wit and attitude. Who else would write a song called Gerry And His Pacemaker, wonderfully written and a groove led anthem. Grim Up North is very C86, a little Housemartins, sardonic, yet also houses a killer chorus and Trumpets and everything.

Lobster Pot is more Punky and a reference that most scousers would know. Instrumentally, it is awesome, messy, noisy, yet addictive. Modern Marriage even enters the realm of a Pop song. Dear John gets all Rickenbacker Jingle, maybe the most straight ahead here and it works beautifully.

IKEA Flatpack is glorious Brit Pop with a wonderful string arrangement. Blue,Red And Yellow...Maybe is awesome, great Pop Rock, a song you don't want to end. Speke Now (or Forever Hold Your Peace) starts all Psych Pop and hurtles into great UK New Wave.

Ben Savage is a gifted songwriter with an ability to come up with engaging Pop songs, whilst also having a knack for observation and a sharp tongue. Modern Marriage are also a locked in trio as well as being proof of the inventiveness on The Wirral. Grim Up North is essential.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can buy the album on Vinyl, CD or as a download.

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Slippers - Slippers 08

I still ache from this place being called a boys club around the middle of our 10 years. My argument was that it wasn't, but the female vocal led material at that stage was either wistful and breathy or shouty, neither of which suited what we cover and still don't.

Five years on, look at us now. Without ever changing direction, the ladies are offering up the best of what's around. With three albums in our Top 10 of the Best Albums of 2025 and currently compiling Monday's Listening To This Week which is female dominated. Proof, that we are not sexist, the music is everything, nothing else.

Phew, glad to get that off my chest. On to Slippers and Madeline Bubaka Black's second album is stunning Pop. It may not sound original, reminding you of many different things from the past, but it is so beautifully put together. Stunning Indie Pop.

The vocal is sugar sweet, she could sing the phone book and make it alluring. But the arrangements all take their share of the weight. Every song is different to the last. Beautifully produced and arranged in a way that makes the very best of that top notch vocal.

Castaways is all 60's Studio Pop, whilst Wasted Tonight, a co write with Mo Troper, is perfect 80s Jangling UK Indie Pop. Til You Know is pure Saint Etienne and Fool In Your Room is superb Jangle Pop with crossover Guitars.

Sunday Morning could be Tamar Berk as does Wants For Everything and you know how much we adore Tamar Berk. Slippers 08 demonstrates the joy of melody and even, more the beauty of Pop. Let your cares wash away as you sing along. Wonderful!

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

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