Greenberry Woods - Big Money Item - 1995

The Greenberry Woods' instrumentation and yearning vocal style tend to the emotionally manipulative, heart-on-sleeve side, but lyrics often rise above the vacuous boy-girl stuff that defines the genre. "Love Songs" surveys the cliched landscape with a sly, knowing eye while working completely within the musical formula. At 18 tracks, most hovering under the three-minute mark, Big Money Item serves up a dizzying over-abundance of sugary riches. While some selections remain lightweight trifles, enough substantial moments overflow the cone to coat the listener in captivating sticky goo. "Invisible Threads" combines sudden gear shifts with a phased, baroque pop underpinning. There's the stately soft-psych of "Parachute," and a dew-eyed tip of the hat to Crowded House balladry in "For You." "Nervous" pumps up the fuzz for some garage-y power-pop while "Go Without You" breaks into Bay City Roller handclaps. "Oh Janine"'s soaring chorus recalls both The Beach Boys and Eric Carmen's Raspberries. Even at its most superficial and derivative and unapologetically nerdy, Big Money Item is just so chock full of fatal hooks that...well...life almost starts to feel that fresh and innocent again. -AMG

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Peter Holsapple - Out of My Way - 1997

One of the key figures on the North Carolina jangle pop and new wave scene, Peter Holsapple is perhaps best known to his fans as singer, guitarist, and songwriter with the dB's, but he's also worked with a wide range of other acts, been a sideman with R.E.M. and Hootie & the Blowfish, and was a member of the roots rock supergroup the Continental Drifters. -AMG

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Frank Lee Sprague - Merseybeat - 2004

Frank Lee Sprague, King of the Guitar; the mastery of Frank's nimble fingers play the fretboard like a concert grand piano. If Steinway made a guitar, it would sound like Frank was playing it, for sure. The guitar is Frank's open-ended canvas, on which he can paint any musical picture. For proof, seek out one of this modern musical master's classical recordings. The 'Axe Man Who Cometh', the 'Gee-tar Guru', the
aforementioned 'King of Guitar'. There is simply no one likeFrank Lee Sprague!" -Alan Haber, Buhdge Magazine, Feb 2008

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The Flirts - 10¢ a Dance - 1982

When the Flirts' debut album, 10 Cents a Dance, came out in 1982, the female trio found themselves being compared to the Go-Go's more than anyone. However, while the Go-Go's, who were huge at the time, were a major influence, the Flirts had an equally fun-loving personality of their own. The Go-Go's' influence is hard to miss on "We Just Wanna Dance," "Jukebox," and the wildly infectious surf ditty "On the Beach," but you won't hear them echoed on "Passion" -- a sexy Euro-disco/synth-funk gem that was a hit in dance clubs, despite receiving little radio airplay. (This album contains the three-minute version of "Passion" -- dance club DJs favored the nine-minute version that O Records released on a 12" single). While the Go-Go's were a new wave/power pop band who loved the 1960s girl-group sound, the Flirts were a new wave/power pop group who loved the 1960s girl-group sound, but also got into high-tech Euro-disco, dance-pop, and synth pop. The guitar-powered Go-Go's wouldn't have recorded anything as European-sounding and synthesizer-driven as "Calling All Boys," which sounds like it could have been produced by Giorgio Moroder even though the whole album was produced by Bobby Orlando. From power pop to dance-pop, 10 Cents a Dance is about as fun-loving as it gets. -AMG

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Bonnie Hayes - Good Clean Fun - 1982

Much more so than the contemporary New York or London scenes, California punk was very open to female singer/songwriters. From Penelope Houston of the Avengers to Exene Cervenka of X, the San Francisco and Los Angeles punk scenes were emphatically female-friendly, treating women as active, leading participants rather than novelties or pretty faces. It was no accident that the Go-Go's and the Bangles, from Los Angeles, succeeded where so many New York- and London-based female-fronted bands failed. Singer/songwriter and keyboardist Bonnie Hayes was the leader of the Punts, one of San Francisco's best punk bands, but Hayes had more on her mind than the usual three-chord ramalama. Coming from a musical family well-steeped in jazz, blues, and soul (Bonnie's brother Kevin, the Punts' drummer, later joined Robert Cray's band; another sibling, Chris, was lead guitarist and a major songwriter in the R&B-laced pop powerhouse Huey Lewis & the News) and clearly fond of Spector-style '60s girl groups, Hayes took the Punts in a more melodic and musically varied direction; renaming themselves Bonnie Hayes & the Wild Combo, the group signed with LA's Slash Records and released 1982's Good Clean Fun, probably the finest album of the entire early-'80s California girl pop scene. Yes, even better than Beauty and the Beat or All Over the Place. First and foremost, the songs on Good Clean Fun are almost embarrassingly catchy. The first two tracks, "Girls Like Me" and "Shelly's Boyfriend" (both used to fine effect in Martha Coolidge's 1983 cult film Valley Girl), are three-minute classics with more vocal and musical hooks than many whole albums. While the other eight tracks are slightly less immediate, every single one of them has a catchy chorus or appealing riff that imprints itself in the listener's memory. The Hayes siblings, along with guitarist Paul Davis and bassist Hank Maninger, also have the instrumental chops to pull off considerably more sophisticated tunes than anyone was likely to find on, say, a Josie Cotton album. Able to slip from the restrained turmoil of the surprisingly non-whiny indie band lament "Coverage" to the impassioned hard rock of the devastating closer "The Last Word," Bonnie Hayes & the Wild Combo also reveal an unexpectedly jazz-influenced bent on the extended instrumental sections of "Dum Fun" and "Raylene." Aside from the musical heft of the album, Hayes is an acute lyricist with a knack for both clever Elvis Costello-style wordplay and vividly realistic imagery. "Shelly's Boyfriend" is a sympathetic portrait of the frustrations of teenage love, but the immediacy of the lyrics lifts it above similar tunes. Other songs, like "Inside Doubt" and "Separating," deal with more complex emotions without losing the power pop bounce that makes the album so instantly appealing. Good Clean Fun works brilliantly on every level, and only Slash Records' limited distribution muscle -- and possibly the unfortunately cheesy cover art -- kept it from being a hit. As it stands, Good Clean Fun is a neglected '80s pop masterpiece. -AMG

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Josie Cotton - Convertible Music - 1982

Josie Cotton is a classic example of an artist whose entire career is overshadowed by one song. This album's hit, the in-dubious-taste "Johnny Are You Queer?," was such a controversial song at the time of its 1982 release that the rest of this fine album was overlooked in the brouhaha. That's a shame, because Convertible Music is a classic of the whole California girly pop scene of the early '80s, on a level with the Go Go's' Beauty and the Beat, Bonnie Hayes' Good Clean Fun, and the first Bangles EP. The songs, mostly either by Cotton herself or her producers, Bobby and Larson Paine, are neat '60s pastiches with elements of surf (the glorious opener, "He Could Be the One"), Shangri-Las-style melodrama (the sultry "I Need the Night Tonight"), and Farfisa-driven swoony pop bliss ("Rockin' Love," "So Close"). Cotton's voice, which can switch from a bratty whine to a sexy purr from one line to the next, is perfect for this kind of disposable pop, and the production, though a tiny bit slick at times, is sympathetic to the unapologetic good times on display. Convertible Music is one of the most perfectly named albums ever; this is the sort of music that sounds best with the top down on the way to the beach. -AMG

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Myracle Brah - Super Automatic - 2002

Lead singer Andy Bopp certainly has a good idea of what makes three-minute power pop songs shine and evolve into gems. "Isn't It a Crime," the leadoff track, is a lovable and infectious song with all of the appropriate chords struck in the ideal places. A Beatles vibe works its way throughout "Albert S. Hand," especially the Eastern influences and assorted backward or subliminal sounds. Bopp's voice resembles John Lennon in an almost uncanny fashion. "Message '78" only builds on this foundation, but with more emphasis placed on the melody and backing vocals. One difficulty with the opening songs is how stellar they are both lyrically and structurally. "I'd Rather Be" is an early nominee for best song here, a straightforward power pop track. When Bopp strays into soppy pop ballads in "When She Cries," it still works but isn't quite as effective. A few of the songs don't realize full potential, especially "Action Reaction." But Bopp's vocal theatrics complement the guitar work during "Good Day to The Night." Song on the album's second half tend to gather steam only at the chorus, evoking influences of the Kinks circa "Milk Cow Blues" on "Loli La Letta." There is a hue of dream or psychedelic pop on "Inside of You," but the tune fails to keep one's attention for long. One disappointment is one of two bonus tracks, the tension-building "The Way You Are." Unfortunately, the initial buildup drops off to a rather bland tune. Nonetheless, the album lives up to its power pop expectations. -AMG

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Luna - Bewitched - 1994

Luna's second album drops the superfluous superscript (added to the band name on their first album for contractual reasons) and adds a second guitarist, Sean Eden. New producer Victor Van Vugt, who had previously done good work with Redd Kross and Kirsty MacColl, among others, strips away the reverb-happy haze that Fred Maher had coated 1992's Lunapark with, bringing Dean Wareham's vocals to the fore while (rather unfortunately) de-emphasizing Justin Harwood's bass and Stanley Demeski's drums. This makes Bewitched sound less unique than Lunapark, but happily, Wareham's songwriting is significantly sharper on this outing, with more direct lyrics and more memorable melodies. The witty breakup song "California (All the Way)" opens the album on a high point, and that quality level is maintained throughout the album. The addition of Eden does a lot to open up Luna's arrangements, since Wareham is an extremely distinctive guitarist who tends to get locked in the same sounds and patterns. Having a foil to play off of enlivens Wareham's playing, and instrumental passages like the extended codas of "Friendly Advice" and "Sleeping Pill" are much more interesting than similar bits on Lunapark. -AMG

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Caddy - Go Slow- 2006

Caddy is the one man-band project of Tomas Dahl. Dahl has played in powerpop bands such as The Yum Yums and Wonderfools and is now playing drums for deathpunk rockers Turbonegro. Even though he..s busy touring and playing with Turbonegro, he finds time to worship his one true love…powerpop! Caddy started out just as a project because he wanted to get in the studio all by himself and record some songs. The songs became so good he decided to do a full album. His written all the songs, played every instrument, sung all the harmonies and produced the album himself. He has gotten a lot of radioplay in Norway and has actually done some shows live with it, even though Caddy was never supposed to be a “band”. He gathered some friends and did a smalll tour in Japan and has played shows in Norway and even the IPO (International Pop Overthrow) Festival in Liverpool at the legendary Cavern. Here you have some of the greatest, sparkling and energetic powerpop songs written in many, many years. -Caddy Music

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Happiness Factor - Self-Improvement? - 2001

Cranking out heavily caffeinated pop tunes with a super-sized chaser of smirk and attitude, the Happiness Factor sound as if they're firmly in touch with their inner punk on their debut album, Self-Improvement? Fronted by tunesmith Salim Nourallah, the Happiness Factor are hooky as all get-out on these tunes, with a melodic sense that suggests the Cavedogs or the Flashing Lights after a can or two of Red Bull, but Nourallah's often witty, sometimes caustic lyrics and Paul Averitt's crunchy guitar figures throw a healthy dose of rock & roll into the mix that cuts through any treacle like a knife through Cheez Whiz. While Rip Rowan's by-the-numbers production doesn't do much for the band's energy, the songs are good and the players know how to bring 'em across, especially on "Gonna Be a Rockstar," "I Want You But I Don't," and the suitably cynical closer, "Everything's a Lie," while "Hold" gives Nourallah a chance to show he can convincingly make with the mushy stuff, too. Any band with a song like "Rock 'n Roll Pimp" would seemingly be playing Judas by reaching for the Big Time, but Self-Improvement? suggests that there might be room there for the Happiness Factor, assuming they don't run out of coffee (or whatever their stimulant of choice might be) along the way. -AMG

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