Listening To This Week Playlist

 

Another splendid LTTW for your aural pleasure. Running as usual from Monday to Sunday. A monster 28 songs that could very well have provided the best Playlist we have ever compiled in this series. There is no song preference in track order, just what we think flows. So I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first.

This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 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.

Weird Moon - Process Everything

Middlebees - Second Guesses

Screen Frogs - Guts

Sugar Roulette - Fever Dream

Lucky Thief - Spit On The Pavement

The Namesakes - Chiming In

Minus Points - Ocarina Of Crime

Vast Robot Armies - Like a Bug

Terry Gilbey - Swings And Roundabouts

Black Surf - Lights Out 

Ellison Scheuller - Keeping Me Awake

The Candy Strypers - Hey Ethan

Filthy Filthy - Trying Just A Little Too Hard

Jupiter Radio Theatre feat Rubber Band Gun - Ghost Of The Hour

Dylan B - Hourly Wage

Sunshine Lust - Up To You

Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate - Walking To Aldebaran

Borderlines - Too Easy

Top Cutters Union - Ready For The Mess

Stephen Selski - Stand

Ciao Howdy - Go to Hell

The Living Memories - By Your Side

Bikini Beach - Nightmares

Yard Art - Undertow

Reternity - I love the Night Nocturnal Guide Remix

Half Stack - New Light

Jimm McIver - I Wanna Go Where You Go (No Link last week)

Boring Story - Sad Sack

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Chris Farren - Doom Singer

 

Despite the noisy joy of a decade of Fake Problems, Chris Warren is intrinsically linked to Jeff Rodenstock, firstly via Antarticigo Vespucci and onwards from then. Indeed Rodenstock plays on five songs here, three on Bass and two on Saxophone.

However his friendship with Macseal Drummer, Frankie Impastato opened a new world. Impastato co-writes the album and drums throughout, he also introduced Farren to Melina Duterte who produces the album and also guests on Doom Singer.

The results are astounding. Duterte's superb production brings a much cleaner and bigger sound. The higher production values really showcase Farren's Pop Sensibilities and this is is essentially a Pop album. Only Cosmic Leash hints at Farren's past and yet that song may be the best thing here, although the competition is high.

From a mellow verse Cosmic Leash launches into wonderful Noise Rock on the choruses providing a wonderful contrast of genres. Yet compare that to Statue Song which is a big 70s Pop Rock affair, not quite a ballad, but certainly beautifully understated.

Elsewhere, the keyword is Pop. Bluish is great Power Pop, All We Ever is wonderful 80s Guitar Pop and the title track is fantastic 60s Sunshine Pop. My Beauty could be In Outer Space Sparks period and Screensaver is synth led Indie Pop with a fine breakout chorus and closing Guitar solo.

Only U enters 80s Synth Twee Pop and masters it and emphasises how much variety is displayed throughout the album. People who had lost touch with what Chris Farrin will get a big, but pleasant surprise, but for newcomers and long time IDHAS followers will adore the sheer catchiness on show.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available digitally, on CD and on Vinyl and Highly Recommended!

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Swive - Stereophonic Stylings Volume One

 

San Diego quartet Swive release their debut album and it really is rather good. It is hard to pin down where they fit best. There is a stunning versatility in what they do and the male and female vocals enhance this variety either as stand alone or joint vocalists.

Songs handled by Sid Merritt vocally allow her to generally rock things up. A great example is the 90s Indie Alt Rock of Diamond Path which moves along at an exhausting pace. But compare that to magnificent centrepiece that is Desert.

Desert is six and a half minutes of stunning West Coast Country Rock that packs a hell of a twang and some awesome Guitar work, particularly the outro which meanders wonderfully. As that solo progresses, you just stand up and applaud. Sung by Indio Romero, it underlines how the contrasting voices work so well.

Little Did I Know settles beautifully into a mellow-ish Classic Rock. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking Merritt does the Rock and Romero does the poppier stuff. But then you listen to Cat Vs Vacuum and this Romero leading on a really noisy affair that you sense is desperate to be a Teenage Fan Club like song.

Something is great Pop Rock with a Power Pop Beat, whilst Race Car is a heavier Jefferson Airplane. But Bad Tendencies is splendid Indie Pop and a great example of how the joint vocals work so admirably. Another example of those voices is Fenix. Highly Recommended!

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

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The Dumbanimals - Thrift Pop

 

Prepare to be amazed, but first a word from your sponsor. The Listening To This Week project is extremely popular. It does have its detractors worried about a move away from Album Reviews. But I never see that, the album content here is as much as it ever was. LTTW is an addition.

It was set up as a way to help bands who only release stand alone songs, but it was also meant to open up avenues for longer format releases by discovering artists that we wouldn't have fell over and it is also achieving that. Without Listening To This Week, I would never have discovered The Dumbanimals.

They are part of a younger audience, an audience that are much more engaged and want to learn about the past, whilst doing what they do. I will think this band sounds like The Sugarplastic or that band sounds like XTC and they will reply who are they? But then they go off and listen to them.

This has revitalised IDHAS and more importantly myself. It has also added new faces, big IDHAS activity and most important, more great music. The Dumbanimals are from Arlington Vermont and Thrift Pop is the best thing I have heard this year, maybe even for a few years.

The default position is Power Pop, American Power Pop, Great American Power Pop, but the band also allow themselves to tread into different areas. Hook In Our Jaw could be early Weezer, yet Aim Lame (Call Me Crazy) is slowed down early 90s Guitar Pop, but also has big hints of late 60s clever Pop Rock.

Yay About Today is splendid Slacker Rock, whilst Futz edges towards New Wave Punk. 1995 is real woe is me first half of the 90s College Rock. Then In My Car goes all 60s Drive In Movies. Lullaby Jack is sprawling and chaotic, wonderfully so, it reminds me of bands like Ness.

But it is the Power Pop that shines brightly. Both Lollygagger and Doorknob are classic examples of the Power Pop revival of the 90s, you would expect them to appear on Not Lame. There is also real humour and self effacement in spades, particularly on Scribble.

There is a serious message across some of the songs, but only repeated listens reveal this. You are way too caught up in the hooks and sheer class of the album. Too busy singing along and continually saying wow this is good.

Thrift Pop underlines how special Guitar Pop can be when it is in the right hands. This is beautifully performed and arranged. You should now head over to the link below and get with the IDHAS Cool Kids. You can thank me later.

You can listen to and buy the album here. A CD will be released in a month or so and I will of course update this review when they are on sale.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

 

Another splendid LTTW for your aural pleasure. Running as usual from Monday to Sunday. 24 songs to delight your ear drums. There is no song preference in order, just what we think flows. So I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first.

This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 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.

Friday Boys - Depressed Gang

Diners - Someday I'll Go Surfing

Funkuncle - Okay

MOVIE MOVIE - Born To Win

supergloom - Glass Ajar

Interstate _ The Interstate

TO FOLLOW

MACHINES - Shadows in My Head

Teenage Halloween - Getting Bitter

HardCar - The Ballad Of Jeff

Joey Maxwell - Like A Clown

San Quentin - Feed The Ego

Ben Gel - Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance To The Radio

the world famous - Everyday Fear

The Random Hubiak Band - Captains of Industry

New Driver - Rough

P

Yard Art - Golden Glow

Dan Radin - Pickpocket

The Terrys - Silent Disco

Zanaram - Gooseberry

Barking Poets - Getting Away With It

The Ouija Boards - Leafy Greens

Kensuke Sudo - The Invisible Place

The Crowleys - Seasons

Asher Deverna - Epilogue

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Various Artists - A Sprinkle Of Summer Fun

 

September is the time for my great friend Wayne Lundqvist Ford to put on his Icecreamman tight fitting costume and release his FREE Power Pop & More compilation. It features artists played on his Radio Show, many of whom that have been featured here in one way or another over the years.

Now there are just over 100 songs here for your delight by a fantastic selection of artists. I'm way too busy pretending it is 1974 to tell you all about them, but I can tell you that you will be amazed at the quality on show. 

The internet connection here is powered by two elastic bands and a PP9 battery, so I am relying on followers here to give it a whirl and tell all their friends about it. I note that you don't have to download the whole thing, you can download individual songs. I am also told that you can stream songs, which I would tell you more about if I had read Streaming For Dummies Book that I invested in. 

It is 300 pages long and I didn't expect to have to read so much information to learn about it. With my poor attention span, I rely on others to tell you how great Streaming is. I'm not convinced that putting songs in water will do them much good, but I am willing to be persuaded otherwise.

So the link to this mighty fine compilation is below. Underlining the power of subliminal marketing, I'm now off to fridge to get a Magnum out.

https://icecreammanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-sprinkle-of-summer-fun-various-artists

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Half Catholic - Art In Heaven EP

 

I am a long time fan of John Tillman since discovering Pink Beam way back in 2017 in what were still the early learning days of I Don't Hear A Single. You can read our review of the Pink Beam EP here. It is an EP that I still regularly listen to now. 

Half Catholic have been providing Hansel And Gretel like bread paths via a couple of splendid singles and now the Rockford Illinois quartet offer up their debut EP and it is great melodic Pop Rock built om massive riffs.

The thing that I notice most is that Tallman's vocal seems to have mellowed, not that it was ever harsh, and that really suits the material. The sound is also much bigger and all encompassing. The riffs and hooks are only part of what is on show. 

There is some great Guitar work on It Takes A Lot Of Effort To Be Alone that demands attention. In The Way is very UK New Wave, in essence it sounds like a Graham Parker song. There's Always A Drink In My Hand is great 70s Pop Rock with a hint of John Miles, but also provides a great 60s Jangle and even has a Psych Pop outdo.

Jaded is possibly the best song on the EP, brilliant Power Pop with an absolute killer riff and a Rush Signals like outdo. Pour It On Lightly opens proceedings with a big sounding affair with a chorus you will be singing along too soon. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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