Doug Tuttle - Peace Potato

After listening to plenty of noise lately, it's nice to be back in the more mellow territory of Doug Tuttle. His third album is beautifully played, it's great melodic pop with plenty of jangle but firmly in the Psych Pop land of The Orgone Box and such.

That Byrds like Jangle bookends the album with Bait The Sun and You Have Begun and there are hints of George Harrison solo stuff. However in between it's that laid back Psych Pop that shines through. We aren't talking backward guitars and unexpected keyboards, we are talking about how harmonic it all is.




Tuttle is a fine guitarist, both as a straight ahead player and with effects and that talent shines. It makes it more than a lot of what else is around. I hear so many samey or fake Psych Pop that it's noticeable when you hear something done properly and Peace Potato does that.

The album is wonderfully quaint, you can hear the tape being turned off at times and it's as though so many ideas are encompassed that it can give the impression of being a bit under cooked, the songs sometimes feel slightly unfinished, but that's it's charm.





15 songs in 33 minutes might cement that thought, but this is such a great listen that it really doesn't matter. I'd much rather have that than the opposite with three minute ideas extended to six of boredom. The gentleness is really soothing.

By far the stand out is the magnificent Only In A Dream, but there is something for everyone. All You See aches splendidly, Can It Be is very Gerry Rafferty and there are plenty of hints of West Coast Pop.  All in all, Peace Potato is a most welcome offering. Tune In and Chill Out.






You can listen to and buy the album here.

A Big Stir Is Nearing

I still remain gobsmacked at how I Don't Hear A Single took off. I'm sure it's because of the type of music it covers not getting it's fair share of attention. It also shows people that there is a market for great Guitar Pop if you don't rely on the music press and radio to tell you about it.

During the Blog's short life, I have watched with admiration at what Rex Broome and The Big Stir Gang have been doing. At the start of the year, I wrote an article praising what Big Stir does and asking why we can't do something similar in the UK. You can read that article here.

In the meantime, Big Stir has grown considerably. It's not only a monthly showcase featuring the best in Sunshine Pop, it's also a record label and travelling extravaganza. Plasticsoul's long awaited new album is on the Big Stir label and you'll read all about how great and welcome that is later in the week.

Plasticsoul are also one of the bands on Big Stir's Travelling International Roadshow which hits the UK this month. We bemoan the lack of live offerings over here and what a line up there is. Many of these bands have been featured on here and all are poptastic. These are fantastic events and are countrywide.

Think of the old fashioned Theatre line ups of the 60's when you could see numerous top bands on the same night. Tales are still told of seeing The Beatles at New Brighton Tower Ballroom on the same bill as Gerry And The Pacemakers, Rory Storm and The Merseybeats. Here we have the 2017 updated version.

We know everyone will be in Liverpool for IPO, but so many grumble that this doesn't happen in Yourtown, well this is your chance to show that these things are worth doing. Turn out, make it a success and more worldwide bands will want to come over. Every night of the tour features great bands that are all must see.

Also look out for a  special announcement very soon of an event on my home patch that will feature some special guests and is not to be missed. You can find full details of the 13 date UK and Ireland Tour here.

I Hear More Than A Single

I have here that concentrates on the new in primarily Power Pop, Psych Pop and Pop Rock and this place concentrates on the new and unappreciated. I also write externally, mainly on reissues and lost albums from the same genres.

However I listen to a lot of current releases that don't have a place to go. You wouldn't say see the new Ray Davies here or Aimee Mann etc. So this is a shout out (see how down wiv da kidz I am?) if anyone wants to publish these articles from time to time. It's a quest to find an outlet.

It may be that you are a fledgling website or something in print that wants additional stuff. You may be anywhere in the world. This isn't a post to drum up business in any way, it's an offer of help and an acknowledgement that these sort of releases don't fit on I Don't Hear A Single.

IDHAS works on a policy of only reviewing what I like. If I don't like it, it doesn't get reviewed. All reviews are positive because of this policy. For other stuff, it may be that what I write fits in with what you are trying to do, positive or negative. However what I have never done is gush about something that I dislike.

So if you want the new Kasabian album reviewing, I'd suggest that I'm not the best person to write something positive about it. I can however tell you what I believe is wrong.

If this is of interest to you please get in touch, I'm not pushing this further, if there's no interest, that's cool too.

Ulysses - Law And Order

Any of Ulysses's three albums are essential listening. Seeing as we concentrate on the new, Law And Order could be their best ever and it knocks the socks off most of what's around. I'm told that I live in 1975's Pop And Rock excitement. Well if I do this is an ideal example wise. In a field dominated by the U S of A, it's always great to celebrate the better UK bands and Ulysses are certainly one of those.

This year promises to be the best IPO Liverpool ever. You can find details of the line up here. Click on the band names to find more details. You'll be reading more about the Big Stir bands over coming days, but it's also great to see the UK bands in the line up, many of which you'll have seen here and others that you will read more on in the coming months and weeks.




Ulysses are one of the bands appearing and I urge you to catch them. The Bath foursome's brand of Pop Rock gets a bit more rocky than a lot around. I like to think of them as a UK version of Somerdale and lest we forget they came up with one of my two albums of the year last year. Law And Order wears it's influences on it's sleeve without ever sounding derivative ir becoming a pastiche and these boys can play.

There's lots of references that can be made, the album as a whole though keeps dragging me back to Glam Rock. The Glam era is rightly lauded for making music fun and it was largely singles led. Bands struggled to make  albums as strong as the singles, there was a lot of filler and that probably explains why few albums of that era re lauded now.





Ulysses don't have this problem, this is an album and over half of it could be released as singles. The quality never lets up. In fact, my normal practice of embedding three tracks to give you a flavour of the album has been sorely tested. I couldn't narrow it down, so much so that I've gone for four examples.

Smiling reminds me of The Pushbike song, Lady could be Liverpool Express or Jigsaw. Crazy Horses Ride The Snake could be a lost Badfinger tune. Come On This City's Gone is so Thin Lizzy, Dirty Weekend, The Glitter Band and Typical Scorpio is all late 60's Psych Pop. How Long could be sung by Brian Connolly.






There are two versions of Yellow Sunshine, all they share is the same title, both are very different. The second is a cracking slab of 60's Psych, but the first is an absolute gem. It's a real Monkees 60's Pop romp, you'll soon be singing along. A special mention should also be given to the duet on Song That Has To Be Sung. Purson's Rosalie Cunningham duets on what is pure Buckingham Nicks.

I urge to listen to the whole album, you will be as enchanted as I am. Very few albums are such fun, you'll end up air guitaring the solos and singing the choruses. Law And Order is one of those special albums. You feel far better after listening to it and isn't that what music is supposed to be? If you don't appreciate that, you should just enjoy your Ed Sheerhan album and marvel at how banal it all is. This is how music is supposed to be heard.




You can listen to and buy the album here. I'd also urge you to catch the band live and you can find their future dates on their website here.

Gentle Brent - Just Dandy

I've always been a bit confused about Brent Randall. You always sensed that there was something poptastic about the Canadian but that got a bit lost in the meandering range of styles. Did he want to be Rufus Wainwright, John Howard or Paul McCartney? His range of styles meant that you thought everything was a pastiche.

Don't get me wrong, everything he gets involved shows great individualism and is largely great, but you just are never sure what's gonna be next. Thankfully, Gentle Brent settles all of that.  Just Dandy is classic Power Pop that wears it's influences and heart on it's sleeve.





From the Big Star influenced Tea And Butter Tarts to the Freddie And The Dreamers like Never Wanna Make You Cry, this is great 60's pop. The Lonely One reminds me of Cockney Rebel, whilst At The Bazaar is a moody lullaby.






Lollipop Girl could be The Feeling or Ben Folds. The whole album is great jangly power pop, very 60's influenced, Herman's Hermits springs to mind  and that's no bad thing. This is a welcome addition to Seattle's Jigsaw Records label roster that seems to get stronger and stronger.





You can listen to and buy the album here.

The Lunar Laugh - Mama's Boy

If anyone ever wants to get on the Valentine Turntable, the easiest way is to offer up an album that sounds like it's Summer 1975. Oklahoma Trio. The Lunar Laugh, have done just that and Mama's Boy is a splendid affair.

It's a mixture of what was best in both the UK and US post Glam pre New Wave. The Acoustic songs remind you of singalongs on the porch, the Electric songs are much more UK. Everyone of these wonderfully crafted songs are reason to sing out loud.





This is excellent Pop Rock, think Andrew Gold, Mike Nesmith, Bread, Jigsaw, Pilot and John Miles with hints of Simon And Garfunkel, 10CC and ELO. Then unexpectedly you'll get a sax solo or a Country Rock breakout.

You can imagine the songs accompanying 70's American Sitcoms on being played on Mike Mansfield's Supersonic. The whole album is harmony and melody led, it reminds me a lot of a slightly more mellow version of The Connells.





The album is so well constructed and you sense there's far more to come from the band, perhaps a bit more of the rockier stuff. Certainly when the guitar solos break out, their are big hints of that. Mama's Boy will easily appeal to the Power Pop brigade, but also people who like Glen Campbell.

There's a definite summer delight to the album and this feel good factor makes it hard to select individual songs. Hopefully the three examples that I've embedded in this post, give you some indication of the overall joy of this highly enjoyable affair.





You can listen to and buy the album here.  The album lends itself particularly to Vinyl and You Are The Cosmos have a generously priced double offering of CD and Vinyl with the addition of an extra track on both. You can buy that here.

Daisy House - Crossroads

Although I've become more noted for Power Pop over the past few years, it was never meant to be that way. I'd always been known for Glam and New Wave but my collection has always been diverse and grows much to the bewilderment of the Queen Of Burtonwood. I'm as at home with Can, King Crimson, Hank Williams, Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre as I am with sun three minute symphonies about love lost and found and masses against the classes.

I only mention the above because this Power Pop notoriety means that at times I lose sight of what else is around and there is no greater example of this than Daisy House. Crossroads is album number four and I'm only pissed off because I missed the first three completely. Since my ears have been perked, I've found that the band are friends of the Big Stir crowd which is more familiar territory to me.





Longbeach's Daisy House are a Father and Daughter duo and their influences are far and wide and it shows. Multi instrumentalist Doug is the writer and muse, but daughter Tatiana's voice is something very splendid indeed. The two voices make this album so different, whether it is separate or together. Doug's voice lends itself to latter day Beatlesque Pop. almost Gerry Rafferty. Tatiana however is a sort of Annie Haslam joy. When the mix, sparks fly.

Crossroads is also not just about those voices, the arrangements are great, well thought out and coming from unusual directions. Beloved is a cross between the Psych flavours of late 60's US and Fairport Convention. Leaving The Star Girl is all Byrds Jangle, it could be Teenage Fanclub. The Title Track, Crossroads, has Tatiana and THAT voice in Aimee Mann mode.






Remembering The Arc is very Donovan and more like I imagined the album to be. Albion is very Sandy Denny, Grand Canyon is early solo Lennon. The arrangement on Nocturne is exceptional, the two minutes featuring an operatic voice in the background. The Girl Who Holds My Hand is a gem, probably my favourite track. It's very Elliott Smith, but the harmonies between father and daughter are ace.

Crossroads is a splendid album due to all that I note. The mix of genres, the mix of voices and the quality of the songwriting and arrangements. This is the sort of album that doesn't get made any more and the odd time that one is, it usually suffers from a lack of production or front loading. I can't find a flaw, I love it and urge you to give it a go.






You can listen to and buy the album here.

The Travoltas - Until We Hit The Shore

The sun is shining and so it seems only fit to celebrate the return of The Travoltas and their wonderful brand of Summer Pop. The Dutch Power Poppers split in 2006 and since the reunion EP of 2014, I've waited for the promised full length return.

Here is the resulting album and it's everything that you'd want it to be. The band were labelled as Pop Punk before it became fashionable and as the likes of Green Day made that genre something different, they got bracketed in with the surf pop gang. I suppose having a surfer on the cover emphasises that tag, but Until We Hit The Shore is far far more than that.





Yes, there are the Beach Boys comparisons with the harmonies, but it's more in the mould of The Legal Matters and The Explorers Club. You could easily compare them to rocked up versions of both those bands and that's a great compliment.

However, the likes of Sugar Thing are pure Glitter Band and even the harmonic pop of Dying To Do That With You end rocking up with a Power Pop Bridge Lead Guitar. Better Days has more akin to Brit Beat New Wave and the superb opener, Ain't That Enough ends with a great Psych Pop solo.





It wouldn't be a Travoltas album without an epic final track and this time it's This Can't Be Goodbye and it's a real anthem. There's everything here that any long established fan will love, no matter how suspicious people are of reunions, the past is acknowledged.

The real treat is that this will appeal far more to a newer audience. It's very popped up, those harmonies are more sparsely used but just as effective, the solos are crisp and the choruses are rampant. I've been so disappointed by so many returns that you end up wishing that they'd left well alone, not The Travoltas, this album is fine thing indeed. It's exceptional.





You can listen to and buy the album here.