IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 35

Volume 34 hit No 2 in the Mixcloud Global Power Pop Chart and No 3 in the Pop Rock Chart and even more impressively made the Top 10 in the much wider Global Indie Pop Chart for the first time. Our 10 favourite songs this week come in at almost 37 minutes

The Mixcloud link is below and at the foot of the page is the Mixcloud Player which takes you directly to the music. Thank you for your continued listening. The Mix is certainly more popular than we ever expected.

Here is the playlist of the ten songs this week :

01 Frass Green - 35 Years

02 Gymnasium - Coast To Coast Companion

03 Nick Frater - Love Heist

04 The Glad Machine - Baby Its You

05 Jonny Weathers - Soulshine

06 St Dukes - Take What You Want

07 Holy Coves - Small And Nothing

08 The Saint Larsen - Middleman

09 The Photocopies - Might As Well Talk To Myself

10 Lords Of The Satellite - The Crow

IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 35

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The Photocopies - Between You and Me EP

Michigan's Sean Turner is a Londoner and The Photocopies and he follows a recent trend over the past few years of being the solo musician behind a band name. I'm thinking of Matt Julian of The Speedways, Michael Collins of The Summer Holiday and now The Photocopies.

All master catchy Guitar Pop in slightly different ways, but the results are splendid and built on choruses with earworm riffs. Turner has been incredibly busy over the past year or so and since February, The Photocopies have had a release every month, most being EPs. 

You can listen and buy them all on Bandcamp, but I've gone for just one and there is a reason for why I have chosen just one of the EPs and I will go into why later. So I've gone for July's Between You And Me, a fine four song selection.

Initially, the earlier releases were undeniably C86, probably the best more recent versions of that genre. But more lately, the songs have entered other areas. Here, Might As Well Talk To Myself is wonderful Power Pop. 

Elsewhere, Somebody's Fool is more rustic, acoustic and very Bolan-esque. Vexed is almost Rockabilly and only Anywhere Without You is anywhere near C86. These are four charming songs, low fi, but wonderfully so and as catchy as catchy can be.

Now the bigger news. On Friday, my great friend Darrin at Subjangle releases a three volume, 2 CD Set that rounds up The Photocopies output thus far and includes unreleased stuff. I am now off to Darrin's to mither him for a download of the set by saying I like Dream Pop very very very much. (Social Media Followers may have come across this subject over previous chapters).

You can listen to and buy this EP here and listen to what's gone before (and after). I will put the Subjangle link up as soon as I have it.

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Frass Green - Buried

 

I took to Facebook at the weekend and in a Jon Landau moment declared that I had heard the future of rock and roll sort of thing. I didn't mean it that way, it was just my excitement at hearing a band that I hadn't heard before and the buzz that you get. That Buzz is still errrrrrrrr buzzing. Frass Green are a quartet from Washington DC but they sound like its 1994 over here in the UK. Wonderfully so! I see Brit Pop mentioned a lot in album reviews, largely by people who weren't there and watched it from afar and it is hard to believe it is nearly 30 years ago.

History is generally written by the victors and so many would have you believe that the genre was Oasis v Blur v Pulp v Suede. But it wasn't you know and really there wasn't really a Brit Pop scene, everything just lumped into it in a way that everything got called Power Pop for a good while. The preceding 90s years had all been Dance, gazing at your shoes and the aftermath of oh so miserable Grunge and it was time for the Guitar to make a proper comeback. The university size venues were free for booking, the FM Radio Stations wanted to play happier stuff and the late night stations wanted bands to interview and play live sessions.

The music press now consisted of a band of monthly magazines that had space to talk about Guitar music and da kidz wanted to be in a band rather than a Call Of Duty group. The scene was most interesting around the poppier edges.Some bands were already formed and recorded such as The Lightning Seeds and Dodgy. Others were new and joyful such as The Bluetones and The Supernaturals. Others didn't get the following that they deserved such as Octopus and Straw. I mention all this not as a nostalgia fest, but because Frass Green sound as though they have morphed from this time. 

These are great melodic songs that are beautifully arranged, all the right things are present, a great vocalist in Joe Antoshak and generally they are the sound of goodness. The rhythm section of Tyler Rippel and Antonio Peluso, on Bass and Drums respectively, drive these 11 songs and the Lead Guitarist, Matt Lachance is equally at home with both solos and riffs. Lachance even adds violin. Oh those songs!! You will hear three of them here, but the whole album just reeks of quality. The standout is 35 years, just short of four minutes and not one second wasted, anthemic to the extreme. The arrangement is a bit first Bernard Butler album.

Change could be written by Guy Chambers or Karl Wallinger. Farm Life is completely different to what surrounds it. A little bit lounge, a bitt- jazzy with a funk Bassline and all at a sedate pace. Buried has a gentle Acoustic intro and bursts into something that could be Los Angeles pop from 68 or UK Pop Rock from the mid 70s.Indeed there are other unusual intros to surprise you rather than songs just bursting in. I'm thinking Poem and Mysterious. Abigail could be The Monkees whilst Diane is a late 50s / early 60s American Graffiti strut.

You're Right (Is It Right For You?) and is splendidly chaotic. It reminds me a lot of The Supernaturals. Any Better gets a little too close to Oasis for my liking, but will delight many and Mural Music reminds me so much of the Liverpool scally bands of the 80s and 90s.No song seems to finish in the same vein that it started. This is really clever pop, particularly instrumentally and vocally. The quartet seem to blend perfectly. I suspect many more will pick up on Buried after its 9 September release. I could think of lots of words to describe the album, all I can think of at the moment is Wow!

You can listen to the three songs here and pre-order the album here.

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The Valery Trails - The Sky Is Blue

 

Brisbane based Trio The Valery Trails have offered up a wonderful album. It also reminds me of how difficult and frustrating genre labelling is. There is no doubt that The Sky Is Blue is Indie but Indie what? Not Rocky enough for one genre and too unlike Indie Pop which is generally full of Dream Pop. 

So what do you label this Indie Guitar Pop as? I know labels are pointless, but they do drag new fans in. However, The Valery Trails are wonderfully inventive, but not stuck in any one place. The every day punter wouldn't think of them as typically Australian with one exception. Make No Mistake is very very Go-Betweens, impressively so.

Maybe has a real IRS Indie Guitar Jangle and After The Show has a splendid Orbison Twang. The Sky Blue is wonderfully caught between Glasgow 1986 and Paisley Pop. There But For The Grace has that twang again but this time it is more in Mitch Easter territory.

These Times starts with a Girl Band 60s Intro then becomes more San Francisco 1967 and Zancudo goes all gentle Psych Pop. Sometimes is more UK Late 1970s New Wave than anything and works beautifully, underlining how varied the album is.

See My Fall is a little hippy trippy, but a little Canterbury with an absolute killer chorus. But there is no doubt what the showstopper is. Jaisalmer contains everything you could want in an Indie Guitar song, plus there is a fine intervention of Brass.

There is a real chorus hook. It compares to so many different times with the Jangle of The Windbreakers, the Brit Pop of say Northern Uproar and yet remains indelibly UK mid 80s. The Sky Is Blue is a top notch listen, a real example of how Pop and the Guitar can take you into so many joyful areas.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Mommyheads - Genius Killer

 

As you can imagine, I listen to a lot of music. Not as much as old as I would like due to how intensive the new remit of IDHAS has become. I try to give everything that I like a fair crack, but there are two bands that have hit the spot over the six years of I Don't Hear A Single and both have been with me much longer.

These two are Ex Norwegian and The Mommyheads. Both are different to each other, but their common bond is that over long careers, their albums over the I Don't Hear A Single period have grown their reputation and stand as great as anything they've ever released.

Throughout their career, both have evolved and remained interesting. Each album has offered something different without ever losing their pop sensibilities. It is to be admired that they never falter to make albums for themselves that they know will hit the spot because of the quality on display.

So to The Mommyheads. I have had the latest album, Genius Killer, for a while. I've been itching to tell you about it, but I always prefer to do that when I can embed three or four songs. At the moment only Idealist has been made available to the general public, but I see quality writers of the Likes of Bill Kopp reviewing it, thankfully so. The album is released on 20 September.

So I wanted to give people a heads up and then do the review when the songs are available, In the meantime you can go to the band's Bandcamp site here as a lot of the back catalogue is at Name Your Price.

The Mommyheads have a unique ability to enter multiple genres without ever losing sight of the song. At times they can appear to be Queen or XTC, at others be a cross between Adrian Belew or a more focussed King Crimson and  a less wanky Radiohead, think of The Bends era.

Intelligent lyrics abound accompanying unusual chord structures and surprise departures. A song is only as long as it needs to be, if the odd one is six minutes, it is because it needs that time. Genius Killer is outstandingly original, yet reassuringly familiar.

I've posted the You Tube video to Idealist here, but the two killer songs are Privilege and the title track. Privilege is wonderfully Elephant Talk era King Crimson with many more lyrics. It is everything that the band do so well in three and a half minutes.

Genius Killer is a magnificent song, both instrumentally and lyrically. It sums up exactly how I feel about both the UK and the States at the moment. So good that it is the only song to appear on the IDHAS 10 Song Mix twice. I can't wait to telly you more about the complete album. In the meantime dig into that back catalogue. 

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Nick Frater - Aerodrome Motel

 

Nick Frater is prolific. An album a year is something that rarely happens these days unless you are Guided By Voices when they appear almost monthly. There is also much being recorded in between the releases, the man never stops.

There can be a danger with this. Frater's sugar sweet vocals across the ten year period risk becoming too much of a good thing with the sheer volume of music. Thankfully, he has avoided this by evolving album to album, not majorly, bit by bit and this has been both admirable and effective.

People may expect that Frater wants to be Paul McCartney or Andy Sturmer when I sense it is really Todd Rundgren that is the target, Aerodrome Motel sounds very and deliberately 70s as well as being the nearest thing to a group album. The vocals are certainly varied and fir the songs wonderfully.

This group sound is aided by the collaborators that include Dana Countryman, The Vapour Trails, Nick Bertling, Whelligan, Joe Kane and Luke Smith. I'm particularly delighted about Smith as I burst into tears constantly about the loss of Ulysses. 

That 70s feeling covers the decade. Rough & Tumble adds a Thunderthighs like Sax and an hypnotic The Equalizer type background synth. Frater's vocal takes on a more earthy tone and the song moves at a rapid pace underlining the man's gift with a chorus.

Dancing With A Gertrude is very different, a big studio ballad, the type you used to hear on those classic 70s Pop Rock albums from the likes of Jigsaw when the singles in no way revealed the delights on the album. No Hard Feelings aches with a weeping twang.

Dear Modern Times is magnificent piano pop, beautifully arranged with a chorus to die for. White Courtesy Telephone is a great closer, part lullaby, part melancholic with a magnificent Country guitar steel twang.

The stand out song though is the splendid Love Heist, a potential pop single of the highest order. It is the type of song that you hear less and less these days with the singles chart being so irrelevant. Iain Hornal gets there at times, but nothing matches this. The chorus will stay with you forever.

Aerodrome is a wonderful album. I'm not gonna go on about it being Frater's best ever because every album he offers up is great, always a little different. It is like having a Brill Building in Croydon and oh those choruses!!!! Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here, here and here and everywhere.

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IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 34

Volume 33 hit No 3 in the Mixcloud Global Power Pop Chart and No 4 in the Pop Rock Chart. It was a little more Guitar Pop orientated that week and Volume 34 still has the chorus led songs, but also indulges in some excellent Gravitas Pop. Thank you to all you listeners and I do hope you visited the artist pages to listen to more.

Our 10 favourite songs this week come in at just under 38 minutes. The exclusive single from the upcoming Andy Bopp EP is something we are very proud of. So too the addition of Adrian Belew and The Fernweh.

After deciding that Genius Killer was a great closer to last week's mix, repeated listening convinced me that the song is an equally great opener. So it appears again for you to decide where it is best placed. The Mixcloud link is below and at the foot of the page is the Mixcloud Player which takes you directly to the music. 

Here is the playlist of the ten songs this week :

01 The Mommyheads - Genius Killer

02 The Prize - Wrong Side Of Town

03 Adrian Belew - Backwards And Upside Down

04 Andy Bopp - King Of The Day

05 The Fernweh - The Wounds Of Love

06 L.A. Mood - Catch The Sun

07 The Needs - Funny How

08 R.E. Seraphin - Playing House

09 The Legendary Swagger - She

10 The Dead Century - Exit On An Interstate

IDHAS Ten Songs Mix 34

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