Spring Forward Soundtrack: Power Pop

While still on the drift, a capsule review of Sunday’s extravaganza:

Alice, you just won’t believe
The fan I’ve been for years
Every June when school let out
Your scream rang through my ears

Opportunity
Offered you a role
In JCS on NBC
A show you shoulda stole

So you are the Coop, you’re the great Alice Coop
Prove to me you ‘get’ Herod
(Christ is mocked, not really scare-ed)
Too much Diablo
Try more Mike d’Abo
Come on, you’re king of this biz


I'm stickin with the mood and the era though we may have to start another thread if this keeps up.  So here's a gentle (maybe even mawkish but I don't care) ballad very much of the early 70s tucked into the monster hit rock album "They Only Come Out at Night" by the Edgar Winter Group.  Written and sung by Dan Hartman who I always felt was sort of an anomaly in that rock band - a closeted gay man who went on to make pure pop and dance hits in the late 70s and early 80s.  He died too young:

   


Heh-heh. The “monster” hit album.


literally

DaveSchmidt said:

Heh-heh. The “monster” hit album.



They Only Come Out at Night trivia: Alta Mira was the name of the doctor.


over my head

DaveSchmidt said:

They Only Come Out at Night trivia: Alta Mira was the name of the doctor.



I'm dredging up my early rock listening year until you stop me.

Ur emo here perhaps?  Many have have proffered romanticized western ballads but this is the only on with reverb turned up to 11.  Hang in there for the Leslie West (nee Weinstein) solos.  Such yearning.



Very nice.

My ears are a bit diminished today having listened to Yo La Tengo in Brooklyn last night.  Brooklyn Steel is a very cool venue.  A big old converted factory building of some kind.

DaveSchmidt said:

New Sloan.




Heard on FUV today:

Not in the power pop vein but DJ also played this great blue eyed soul one hit wonder of the 70s.  Did not know until today that Paul Carrack, later of Squeeze and other bands, was the singer.



Once had a co-worker who was a Pernice Brothers fan (and who introduced me to a number of the bands I’ve posted here). I owned “The World Won’t End” for a time but at some point exchanged it at a used-CD store, deciding it deserved a more appreciative home.


I never heard of them until I stumbled upon it recently.

I wish I had brothers who pulled me into a band.  My sister played electric guitar and was in a girl band in high school but it never turned into a family thing.


It took my younger sister to reveal the joys of the entirety of Ziggy Stardust to her older brother, who knew only the title track, Suffragette City and Five Years. Thanks, Sis.


Nice.  That intro bespeaks "Dear Prudence"


Just now spotted in The Times:

12 Essential Lesser-Known Power-Pop Songs

I haven’t sampled them yet. The only one I’ve heard before is I Need That Record, which is a highlight on the Numero Group label’s Yellow Pills collection (which is almost entirely highlights).


Will check out.  Only know the Rubinoos and, of course, The Records, but all of the songs are unfamiliar by name.


I really like Chuck Prophet, who put on a sterling Rent Party show a few years ago.  I'd say this new song of his has serious retro power pop cred:




Sure does.

I once had Age of Miracles on a promo CD. I can no better recall how I got it than I can remember whatever happened to it.


New from Semisonic (all over WFUV), after a loooong hiatus.


A seven plus hour Spotify playlist of "jangly guitar" power pop.  Most of the stuff is not known to me and I'm loving it.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2VnvKMwiALoA2OLOkpxPlD?si=qyCHe7e3Q66sw6y3dIoTUQ


Weird I just clicked it and its not the playlist I posted


If you have access to Spotify, the playlist is called "Jangle Pop, Jangle Rock, Jangly"


bub said:

If you have access to Spotify, the playlist is called "Jangle Pop, Jangle Rock, Jangly"

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PGPFDBYosDpghXFnwYjFy

I can never get enough Queen of Eyes, myself. 

And nice spotting Guadalcanal Diary, a favorite, down there near the end. 


Whoever put this playlist together must have taken an EEG of my brain before doing it.  These songs, the majority unknown to me, are like dead center of the kind of sound I like in my jangly guitar power pop. 


DaveSchmidt said:

bub said:

If you have access to Spotify, the playlist is called "Jangle Pop, Jangle Rock, Jangly"

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PGPFDBYosDpghXFnwYjFy

I can never get enough Queen of Eyes, myself. 

And nice spotting Guadalcanal Diary, a favorite, down there near the end. 

Winner inclusion here for me is "Obscurity Knocks" by Trash Can Sinatras, a real fave of mine.


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