ACBs Boy Like Me Music Video Release

"Boy Like Me" is the second single from The ACBs forthcoming album, Stona Rosa. The band is preparing for a late 2010 Midwest tour, to support this album and to promote the video.



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N8 of Studio N8 live premiered his first music video as a director for Kansas City's award-winning pop band, The ACBs

http://www.StudioN8.com

The Hi-Risers - In the Spotlight! - 2001

In the Spotlight! contains more of the same thing from the Hi-Risers, and a fine thing it is indeed. As the new century moved into its second year, chances are you could have counted on less than a few fingers the extant bands and artists who could toss off a James Burton or Chuck Berry-worthy riff, choke out a chorus with Elvis Presley's tremulous enticement, or lustily coax a 12-bar blues bassline down from your ears to your gut and finally to your pelvis. In short, you could probably use a single hand to tally the bands who had any notion that the music they played emanated from some very specific and visceral rock & roll roots. It's hard to imagine, for instance, Matchbox 20 ever having covered a Buddy Holly tune during rehearsal or, for that matter, even a band as remarkable as Radiohead listening to any music that was created before, say, 1968, despite the fact that theoretically you should be able to use their music to chart a course back to those beginnings. With the Hi-Risers, no genealogical chart is necessary. They play the genuine article, no frills and no fey artsy-fartsyness. This is rock & roll, baby: Just let your feet touch the ground, and instantly find yourself transported to the era of Eisenhower and American Bandstand, Brill Cream in the medicine cabinet and packs of cigarettes rolled up in T-shirt sleeves, soda counters and drive-in movie theaters, Packards and tailfins. This is rock & roll before its Frankensteinian mutation, not as moist-eyed baby boomers have tended to play it at county fairs and local pubs but as it originally sounded (and too rarely sounds any longer). In the Spotlight! is packed from rafter to rafter with alternately or synchronously buoyant, greasy, rollicking, sweaty, and propulsive tunes, surf and rockabilly licks, one-note guitar solos ("One Note Joe"), diversions into aw-shucks ("Johnny, Jim & Jack," an ode to fine liquors) and dancehall country ("Fun Lovin' Gal"), vintage angst-filled instrumentals ("Goin' Mad"), and the sort of perfectly thumping backbeat ("That's Gotta Be My Baby") that must keep time in rock & roll heaven. Recommended. -AMG




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The Now People - The Last Great 20th Century Love Affair - 2006

To complain about a lack of originality of an album like The Last Great 20th Century Love Affair would be to miss the point to a fairly astonishing degree. The very concept of originality barely enters into the equation for Now People, a Los Angeles-based chamber pop quartet whose apparent goal isn't to further the stylistic boundaries of pop music, but to create a Platonic ideal of a certain stripe of soft pop from the past. The Zombies' Odessey and Oracle is an obvious touchstone, naturally, as is Love's Forever Changes minus the paranoia and drug-induced angst. (Pet Sounds, like the Beatles' influence on power pop, is so obvious a starting point that it barely even bears mentioning.) Now People's leader, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Stanley, is an old hand at this stuff, having produced or annotated literally dozens of reissues of soft pop rarities, and co-contributors Alan Rubens, Probyn Gregory, and Nelson Bragg have similarly long résumés in the current L.A. pop underground. (Gregory and Bragg are also mainstays of Brian Wilson's current band.) The key to The Last Great 20th Century Love Affair is that Stanley and friends never get hung up on specific emulations of iconic AM pop gems: there are no ostentatious homages to rare Turtles' B-sides for the trainspotters to get excited over. The few overt musical references are impressively wide-ranging, from the lilting bossa nova feel of the summery "A New Life for Us" to the Stevie Wonder-style harmonica that graces the moody ballad "Waiting" to the incongruous appearance of "Old and Gray," a mock '20s trad jazz tune in the style of the early Bonzo Dog Band or the Temperance Seven. In the mold of other successful updatings of this musical style (the High Llamas' Hawaii and John Southworth's Mars, Pennsylvania come immediately to mind), the craft on display is in how Stanley evokes the feel of pop classics of times past in a new, more personal context. Now People are contemporary musicians creatively excited by now-unfashionable sounds and ideas, not clinical genre obsessives whose only artistic criterion is how closely they can approximate one particular retro vibe, which make s The Last Great 20th Century Love Affair an enjoyable, endearing listen. -AMG

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One - 1997

Functioning as a virtual catalog of mid-'90s indie rock trends, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is an astonishing tour de force from Yo La Tengo, establishing their deep talents as songwriters and musicians. Although the album may run a little long for some tastes, there are very few throwaways on the record -- even the shoegazer cover of the Beach Boys' "Little Honda" is a revelatory gem. But what truly impresses is the way the songs, ranging from hypnotically droning instrumentals to tightly written and catchy pop songs, hold together to form what is arguably Yo La Tengo's finest and most coherent album to date. -AMG



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The Runarounds - Waiting For The Hurricane - 2008

Absolutely brilliant New Wave influenced, anthemic, guitar dominated garage pop rock outta Spain! Fifteen rockin' and poppin' tracks that bring to mind The Plimsouls, The Real Kids, Paul Collins' Beat, Flamin' Groovies, Teen Appeal, The Records (Chris Jent period), and The Barracudas (so there is a definite Brit slant) to name a few! "Someday" has a Brinsley Schwarz ("Peace Love & Understanding") feel to it! It's all good for sure! Features lotsa crunchy and jangly guitars and harmonies! -Kool Kat



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Dressy Bessy - Sound Go Round - 2002

Alternative bubblegum quartet Dressy Bessy oozes with sex appeal on Sound Go Round, a short, sharp collection of cute love songs rendered as if they were vintage '60s AM radio singles. Ultimately the band soars via concise classic Brill Building pop-meets-British Invasion songcraft and playful pop arrangements made for mass consumption. Singer/songwriter Tammy Ealom is the center attraction, cooing and dropping G-rated innuendoes ("it's hard as heck") as guitarist John Hill underpins the overtly candy-coated wordplay with minimally distorted counterpoint that rescues the ensemble from sounding like cartoon characters. If this record came out in 1965 they'd be superstars; however, in 2002 they would have to settle for cult favorites. Bouncy, melodic, and uplifting, Sound Go Round is good, clean fun. -AMG



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The Rentals - Return of the Rentals - 1995

Alongside his stint as the bass player for the ever-beloved Weezer, Matt Sharp found time to put out a record from a little side project of his, and unknowingly dropped a surprisingly influential album on the ears of many a listener. Taking a bit of the harmony loving pure-pop songwriting skills honed in his other band, Sharp topped off the Rentals with plenty of Moog powered keyboard flair and ended up with an album that ushered back in a new wave of cheesy electro-keyboard pop with a restored spirit and a knack for unforgettable hooks. From the radio hit "Friends of P" to the clunky opener of "The Love I'm Searching For," Return of the Rentals has few moments that aren't bursting with catchy choruses and lovelorn sentiments. Helping out is a cast that includes Weezer drummer Pat Wilson, and most noticeably, That Dog's Petra Hayden, whose sugary vocals make for some of the disc's most timeless moments. Convincing a new generation of kids that new wave could still be cool, the Rentals' first record may have been a fluke, but it really doesn't matter. Sure, their later recordings were nowhere near as innocent and memorable, but this record is a real benchmark of carefree pop from the '90s and shouldn't be forgotten anytime soon. -AMG



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The Lonely Boys - The Lonely Boys - 1996

The Lonely Boys was from the beginning the name of a novel written by the Swedish writer Mats Olsson. The story was about a young rhythm'n pop band located in the south of Sweden circa 1965. Mats asked me and a mutual friend Nisse Hellberg if the two of us could provide a soundtrack for this book, writing and recording what could in fact be The Lonely Boys' debut album.
What a wonderful idea. A soundtrack to a book. It must be a first.
So,
Nisse and I formed The Lonely Boys together with some friends and recorded the album in 6 days and nights. "Did we have a ball! All of the 14 songs are originals except Jagger/Richards' "So Much In Love". The Rolling Stones never recorded it but The Inmates did. And now The Lonely Boys.
To get the sound we wanted we used only equipment from the era; reverbs, echo chambers, amplifiers, guitars, microphones. Everything in our power was done to make the record "for real".




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KC Bowman - Fresher Tin Villages - 1998

KC Bowman understands that a song should never be any longer than necessary, and so his solo debut (after two releases as leader of the loosely organized collective the Preoccupied Pipers) features 20 tunes ranging from 30 seconds to four and a half minutes. What's most impressive is that, unlike many who work in similarly constricted time restraints (such as Guided By Voices or Alastair Galbraith), the shortest songs are as well-constructed as the longest, rather than feeling like mere sketches or fragments. In fact, the first five tracks feel like one long, varied song. It's an odd, impressive achievement, as is the rest of this album. So what does Bowman sound like? Imagine if the Apples in Stereo became considerably less hyperactive and then recruited XTC's Colin Moulding as their primary singer/songwriter. The Davis, CA, native favors sturdy mid-tempo melodies, alternately rocking ("Cuban Illness Anxiety"), bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ("Capital I"), quirkily giddy ("Cactus League Game"), and sweetly melancholic ("Pumpkins Angels"). Over this inviting base, Bowman lays lyrics that range from shy declarations of love disguised as science lessons (as in the genuinely lovely "Spacegirl") to tongue-in-cheek but deadly serious social protest (the album's best track, "Be Nice to Plants"). Like his kindred spirits Robyn Hitchcock and R. Stevie Moore, Bowman seems incapable of writing a boring or clichéd lyric. Also like Hitchcock and Moore, Bowman favors a D.I.Y. approach that simultaneously eschews both rough edges and overly lush instrumentation. Even the solo guitar pieces have a crystalline quality about them, and the more arranged tracks have a cozy, small-scale feel that's the natural result of recording nearly all the instruments (save for occasional spots of trumpet, flute, clarinet, violin, sax, and congas) oneself. Fresher Tin Villages is a quirky, intelligently crafted delight from start to finish. -AMG



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The High Dials - A New Devotion - 2003

The High Dials story begins in 2003, when their debut album, "A New Devotion," was released worldwide on NYC-based Rainbow Quartz Records. A wopping 18 songs, ranging from soft, pastoral pop to groovy, garage rave-ups, told the tale of a mysterious and troubled boy known only as "Silas" and his attempt to escape evil powers in a nightmarish city of the future. Drawing on everything from science-fiction, old comic books, movie soundtracks and psychedelia to Trevor’s garden- the album came off like some dark kaleidoscopic cartoon, a soundtrack to a movie that has still not been made. A New Devotion won great reviews and enjoyed college radio success in both Canada and the US. They got tons of airplay from Little Steven, a big fan, on his nationally syndicated radio show the Underground Garage. They hit the top 5 in Canada on the national college radio chart and cracked the U.S. top 50 reaching 42 on the CMJ Top 200 and 31 on the Core Top 75. They made a name for themselves as a strong live act touring North America and were opening acts for the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Kaiser Chiefs and Sloan. In 2004 they released a 6-song EP, "Fields in Glass" with remixes of the title song by Davy Love and Will Caruthers (Spaceman 3, Spiritualized) and Mike Musmanno (Lilys). They performed at Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival in New York with the Strokes, the Stooges and New York Dolls. In March 2005, the New York Post and Spin magazine both listed them as one of the top ten "must-see" bands at SXSW.
Meanwhile, the High Dials worked in secret on their highly anticipated follow-up. They recorded tracks in rehearsal spaces, barns, apartments and Blue Rodeo`s Toronto studio before finally deciding to join forces with Joseph Donovan (the Dears, Marlowe) as co-producer in Montreal. The end result is "War of the Wakening Phantoms," another patchwork of contrasting moods and tones that holds together in vibe without another buried storyline. Mixed by Dave Bianco in L.A. (Teenage Fanclub, Frank Black, Jayhawks), the new album is full of ghost stories that surge with sadness and optimism- bright and melancholy psychedelia touching on rock n' roll's timeless themes: heartbreak, longing and idealistic joy. "War of the Wakening Phantoms" was released in Canada in June 2005 and it went promptly to the number one spot on the college radio charts. Following its July release in the US, the album won glowing reviews from the All-Music Guide and Spin magazine. The band are currently on tour somewhere near you! -rainbowquartz.com



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Alien Crime Syndicate - From the Word Go - 2000

Alien Crime Syndicate had lousy luck with record companies, being dropped by two majors before they even got a chance to release a single proper album -- perhaps the labels thought they were getting '80s-style Goth-glam revivalists, based on the inappropriate band name -- but 2000's From the Word Go isn't the kind of album that tends to do well on major labels anyway. Joe Reineke's brand of lightly-psychedelicized, guitar-heavy power pop rockers is more appropriate for the kind of pop/rock obsessives who will appreciate the jangly strums, vintage synth sounds, and appealingly retro-feeling fondness for singalong choruses repeated once or twice too often. (In fact, the chorus of the album's best song, "In a Dream," sounds familiar for a reason: It's lifted in whole from Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Not Fragile.") Fans who have this album's follow-up, Dust to Dirt -- which confusingly was recorded nearly two years after From the Word Go, but was released before it -- will recognize three songs that were re-recorded for the later album. Those who like Carl Newman's pre-New Pornographers band Zumpano might consider Alien Crime Syndicate a kindred spirit with an outer space preoccupation replacing Zumpano's '60s fixation.-AMG



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