Shortwaves - Mental Health In The Information Age

This is great and back to what we are primarily known for. From Weezer's Blue through to Tsar's self titled debut, a world of wonderful melodic Power Pop was unleashed in the States. Whilst we had Brit Pop over here, the States was less Retro, bringing a Guitar led melodic Pop that made Summer seem like all year round. Some UK bands, such as Silver Sun, got it.

However, this was an American led thing that demonstrated how life affirming Power Pop could be. Pop song were back in focus, aided by the likes of Not Lame and Kool Kat. There's been much less of it since, it has become a forgotten art. Even Weezer seem to have lost the plot.

Shortwaves are a quartet from Dallas, a state not necessarily known for the genre, and they give people who were around in the past, a big poke to realise what fun it all was. But more importantly, this may all be new to the younger audience that we have picked up and I am certain that they will be enthralled.

Mental Health In The Information Age is wall to wall goodness, full of hooks, riffs and big big choruses. Guitar driven without ever being noisy. The pace doesn't let up, it is ace at everything it attempts and the quality control is top notch.

The problem with this sort of album as time went on was one of front loading. Three great opening tracks that became singles with songs that followed being more filler. There's not a bit of that here. Picking any of the 12 songs here as preference would be difficult. Indeed Track 11, Just Like You, may be the best thing on show.

There's even room for an instrumental, Dances With Cats, that is as engaging as what surrounds it. The album takes me back, but also as its place in the now. It is a chance for the next generation to hear something different and even discover that great past. What an absolutely cracking listen!

You can listen to and buy here. 

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Fib - Heavy Lifting

 

You know how much we love Angular Guitar Pop, I've preached about it wherever I've been. Growing up with the early XTC stuff, moving forward to The Sugarplastic and onwards to Field Music and The Futureheads.

It seems a long time since I've heard it, being so immersed in the new, indeed Philadelphia based quartet, Fib's self titled debut album. The follow up here is even more inventive. This sort of thing relies on constant shifting within songs or else it can all sound the same. Fib do this with ease.

PS, for instance, gets very close to Devo, but as you might expect, there are hints of Talking Heads and Discipline era King Crimson. The time signatures are very Prog at time, but yet there is a real melodic feel in all the songs despite the constant changes within songs.

It takes to the closer, Outro, to get near Pop and that is then taken into different directions by the twin guitar attack. Mutuals, the opener, is probably the most accessible, very close to Field Music's early work. But the whole thing is an incredibly inventive listen. Particularly, if you are as much a fan of Indie as Prog, as indeed I am.

This inventive Indie is what I spend of most of my downtime with and few do it as well as Fib. The need for Three Chord Guitar Pop is something to admire, but when a band wants to stretch across genres and surprise you, the applause is even higher here. This is absolutely wonderful!

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

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Smug Brothers - Stuck On Beta

 

Smug Brothers have become the mark of quality. Every album from the quartet is like an urgent debut album. The 2020s have been especially wonderful for them. 2023's In The Book Of Bad Ideas was in our Top 20 Albums Of The Year.

It was an album that provided the Listening To This Week Playlist with constant material. You can read the review here. I stupidly thought that that album would never be bettered by them, yet here we are with them doing exactly that.

There is a real swagger here as though the band know just how good they are and are waiting for everyone to catch up. They are without doubt a Guitar band, riff after riff just grabs you. They are equally excellent at the Angular as they are at Jangle Pop, but they are not afraid of noise, nor edging into Psych. 

The arrangements are awesome, blowing you away. they add surprises such as adding Sax courtesy of Bass Player, Kyle Sowash and turning Cheers To Everything We Used To Do into a Baroque Pop joy. That is a song that mixes Brit Pop with Psych Pop splendidly. 

Sidetrack Ghosts is the nearest that you will get to pure Guitar Pop with a Clash like intro that leads into something poptastic. Arcade Strange is pure Psych Pop and yet Prank Editions stays in the genre with something noisy, 100 mph and totally riffaholic.

There is also the Jangle Pop excellence of Paper Jane and X-Ray Is Everywhere benefits from a top notch instrumental Rock Out. The Noise Rock of Flushing James is another surprise direction. It is however, the noisier riff driven songs that grab me most, always up my street.

Bands are supposed to be great at the beginning and provide diminishing returns as they age. There's a real argument against that theory here. This is how great Guitar led Indie Rock is supposed to be. This album will go far beyond the Top 20 at the end of the year.

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

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T Shirt Month In July

 

This is just an idea at the moment and would depend on interest from artists and labels etc. I've been thinking of doing something to celebrate our 9th anniversary in Mid July. It would have to be something easy to organise as we have so many reviews to put up over the next couple of months.

I get offered T Shirts a lot and usually say no, simply because I don't want artists spending the postage money when they have other priorities. This is particularly relevant to the States, Canada and Australia, areas that IDHAS is incredibly popular.

The idea would be to publish a daily post with me looking all dapper in the said T Shirt. I would also write about the band with each post. Artists or labels would have to fit in with what we cover. Reviewed here already, likely to be reviewed or fit the genres that we cover. 

It is only something different to aid artists and labels and I would only go ahead if enough were interested. It would also have to be July as with August generally being quieter, we will be using the downtime to introduce the new planned features that we have been trying to get on here since February, including the potential launch of I Do Hear A Single.

If you are interested, contact details are all on IDHAS.

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Optdemics - The Atom Complex

 

Portland's Optdemics have fashioned up an album that lives in the second half of the 60s. It could either be on the West Coast or close to Carnaby Street. Jangle fans will aslo adore it as will Medway fans. It is primarily Psych Pop, but also fits UK Beat wonderfully wet.

There are also surprises, splendid Brass breaks out in a few songs and a great heavier Guitar solo can also catch you unawares, such as on Honest Dan. It is at its best when it gets a little trippy and it does so without ever losing the Pop or seeming unnecessary.

Conman at Oktoberfest is much more straight ahead, with a plumier vocal, great female backing vocals and added excellent Farfisa. It is also has a fine Guitar solo that keeps line with the song. The Searchers comes across as very Spygenius, but even heads towards Toyshop.

T Street is top notch Jangle Pop and the Brass arrangement on No Good Deeds is totally engaging, a fine addition to a song that takes quite a few directions. There is so much to like here, beautifully performed and arranged by a band that you suspect have a twinkle in their eye.

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

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Tombstones In Their Eyes - Asylum Harbour

 

We are way behind with Album Reviews. 60 are in draft, but plenty of those are awaiting Release. However, I cannot use that excuse with this gem. I started the review 6 months ago, but didn't write the Title in and shamefully discovered it last week. 

Los Angeles's Tombstones In Their Eyes are a Rock band, but not your ordinary Rock band. They crash over genres, often anthemic, but songs are also often built around a groove, almost Jam like. However the killer for me is the overtone of melodic Psych that overarches most of what they do.

They could be classed as anything due to their adeptness. Certainly Shoegaze, Alt Rock and Psychedelic Rock are well engulfed here. At times, they could be Masters Of Reality, but could also be in the 90s UK Shoegaze scene that predated Britpop.

The vocals are distant and hazy, the sound threatening to become Heavy and Riffs are dominant, they hit one and don't let go. They are also won't to break out on a different noisier Guitar interruption before returning to the fray.

They can break out of the mould. Gimme Some Pain has a much more upfront vocal and gets a little Britpop. I Am Cold is built around a killer, almost Heroes like riff and gets a little Hawkwind. If you want big choruses, this is not the album for you. If you want a full length soundscape that completely sucks you in, this is splendidly so.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl or as a download. The CD is now sold out, but you may fight it around still in decent emporiums. 

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The Friends - Daydreaming

I do like what The Friends come up with. The duo of Ezra Gale and Kevin Woodruff are from New Oregon in New York. Their base is sort of 80s Indie Pop and New Wave, but they stretch much further afield into the realms of Intelligent Indie.

You know how much we love Intelligent Indie and these two can mix it with the best. Whichever angle they come in at, the songs are incredibly catchy with hooks that just grab hold of you and the songs are beautifully arranged.

The variety on show here is incredible, no two songs sound the same. They are bold off to get instrumentally like INXS on Bond with me. Yet that song is bookmarked by the great angular Indie Rock of Glass and the pure laidback Pop of For Your Consideration which is wonderfully melodic.

They are also not afraid of 80s Synth Pop. The closer, Quitting Time has a keyboard run that just absolutely hooks in, The Pop is great too. Daydream is almost Dream Pop, instrumentally very Bates Motel with its bass led run.

But as you might expect, it is the inventive Indie that grabs me most. Crush Season is a wonderful example of late 60s Village Pop, almost Toytown, a little Small Faces. Paralysed gets all Field Music and The Futureheads. 

I'm especially enamoured with Lifeboat, a jaunty singalong pop song lit up by its hippy trippy riff. What a cracking album this is, extremely accessible, yet surprising with the changes of direction. The sort of album that lights up a year. Well done you two!

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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The Velvoids - Jersey Cotton

After all that wonderful noise from Wyldlife, it is nice to go off in a completely different that is equally rewarding. The Velvoids are from Athens, that's Greece, not America and at their heart, they are the multi instrumentalists Vice Lesley and Dorah X.

They do take their time with releases, largely because of other things that they are involved with. They've even worked with our beloved Richard Lloyd in the past. Jersey Cotton was recorded over a four year period, initially in Lockdown.

Initially, lumped in with both Shoegaze and Art Rock, this is neither. It is Psychedelic in feel, whilst also treading into Folk and the more Pastoral. Songs are beautifully arranged soundscapes, sung wistfully mainly by either, both are equally engaging, neither are gonna shout. 

They are left field, but not in a wanky unfocussed way. Indeed, Lake Of Eyelids is a wonderful Joint Vocal that heads into Baroque Pop. Melancholic and intriguing, it is an essential listening and it is always nice to hear the continued comeback of whistling in songs. Just wait for the Fripp like Guitar run.

The album is very experimental, as most things Velvoids are, but it is totally engaging. Lying On A Terrace, sung by X, is all moody, almost desert riff with a delightful Twang. I Wore My Torn Suit when edges towards Pop and breaks out into a great meandering psychedelic riff.

Because I Love Her is moody and magnificent, more Alt Rock at times and is close to the best thing here, very Psych, but with another wonderful Joint Vocal. I know people like to think that I am all about crashing chords, but this is just as great and certainly rewarding as there isn't much around like it. A cracking listen.

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