Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan - 1992

A lo-fi effort cut in a California basement, I, Jonathan returns Richman to the full band setting and manic diversity that recent conceptual efforts have forsaken. Sloppy and wild, the album is a blast from start to finish; among its many concerns are skydiving ("Tandem Jump"), sea life (the surf instrumental "Grunion Run"), nightclubbing ("I Was Dancing in a Lesbian Bar"), and hero worship ("Velvet Underground"). -AMG



Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan - 1992/rs
or
Jonathan Richman - I, Jonathan - 1992/sb

Hellogoodbye - Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! - 2006

With impish attitude and effervescent tunes, Hellogoodbye's 2004 EP was quite well-received among the Warped Tour crowd. Two years later and still riding the success of those few songs, a full-length from the band feels rather overdue. Finally, that album — Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! — has arrived, but was it really worth the wait? Right away, ardent fans may be slightly disappointed at the lack of totally new songs, since versions of old demos (circulating the Internet for a while) dominate; everyone else, however, will presumably be none the wiser. On Z! A! V! D!, Hellogoodbye haven't deviated too far from the fizzy emo-pop quirks that initially drew people in. The spaz-dance blips and kitschy keyboard and programming tricks are still present; frontman Forrest Kline alternates his delivery between straight-up singing and hiding behind a vocoder. But his voice holds up well enough alone, so let's ease up on the vocoder use already, shall we? The band further asserts acoustic sensibilities, whimsical singalongs, and sparkling harmonies. The techno-ish club beats of the opening tracks lead things off mildly enough, but it's not until "All Time Lows" that the guys finally venture into the exuberant feeling of their prior EP. The jangly "Stuck to You" and "Homewrecker" creep around in late-night shadows, while the stripped-down "Oh, It Is Love" brings to mind a mandolin-playing John Mayer wearing tight jeans and a youth-sized T-shirt. Final bursts of energy kick in near the album's end before "Two Weeks in Hawaii," a song that resembles a dark, more angsty Weezer, ends things on a gloomier note. Now, while nothing on this album is bad, everything adds up to be a somewhat uneven listen when taken as a whole. The music fluctuates with a feeling that Hellogoodbye are trying to grow within the confines of their niche — but all without a firm grasp of what direction they really want to head. Despite this, Z! A! V! D! is a charming album that indeed entertains. There are hints that there is more to Hellogoodbye than just quirky antics and ProTools expertise, but until the band exactly figures out what that is, this album should do fans just fine. -AMG



Links removes at copyriight owners request

The Apples in Stereo - Fun Trick Noisemaker - 1995

One of the defining albums of the mid-'90s indie scene, the Apples in Stereo's full-length debut is one of those records that marks a sea change in musical attitudes, akin to Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" or Pavement's early singles. Besides being the breakthrough release of the Elephant 6 collective, which alone is responsible for many of the better albums of the decade, Fun Trick Noisemaker is the album that defines the post-grunge indie pop shift from sullen negativity into a kind of cockeyed, giddy optimism, and is also among the handful of albums that turned Brian Wilson, Arthur Lee, and Burt Bacharach into cool names to drop at the record store. The album opens with a plundered bit of sonic ephemera from an old stereo-effects demonstration record that plunges directly into the manic throb of "Tidal Wave," where Hilarie Sidney's thudding drums sound like "I Want Candy" on speed and Robert Schneider's goofy mixed-metaphor lyrics and boyish vocals blend with sci-fi vintage synth whooshes and a killer fuzz-guitar riff out of the Fillmore West's heyday. From that breathless start, the album skips blithely from high point to high point, like the sugar-sweet bubblegum melody and "la la la" harmonies of "Glowworm" and the hyperspeed rush of the Buzzcocks-meet-the Banana Splits "Dots 1-2-3." Childlike songs like Sidney's lone vocal showcase, "Winter Must Be Cold," add a charmingly naïve sensibility to what could otherwise be a collection of ideas plundered from impossibly hip record collections. Several years' worth of albums covering the same territory might have dulled the album's freshness just a touch, and the group's technical competence would grow with each successive album, but Fun Trick Noisemaker is a minor masterpiece.-AMG



The Apples in Stereo - Fun Trick Noisemaker - 1995/rs
or
The Apples in Stereo - Fun Trick Noisemaker - 1995/sb

Brendan Benson - The Alternative to Love - 2005

Each decade has a handful of power pop icons to call its own, each working from the template that the Beatles and the Who constructed in the '60s, adhering to that melodic, guitar-driven sound but subtly updating it to fit the musical and emotional aesthetic of the time. In the '90s, the tradition was kept alive by Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet, who married Big Star and Badfinger to '80s college rock -- there was also Jellyfish, who acted as if the '80s never existed -- and in the 2000s, it's been the New Pornographers, an indie-centric act who fills the Fanclub's spot, and Detroit-based singer/songwriter Brendan Benson, who is this decade's Matthew Sweet. Not that the Sweet-Benson analogy is 100 percent accurate. For one thing, Benson doesn't favor the messy guitars and confessionals that marked Sweet's '90s masterworks Girlfriend, Altered Beast, and 100% Fun, preferring tightly constructed songs and precisely detailed arrangements that emphasize his sweet melodies. Also, where Sweet's music tied neatly into the zeitgeist of the Alternative Nation of the early '90s, Benson's music is deliberately classicist and proudly out of time, belonging neither to the sounds nor the fashion of the 2000s. That is, unless the defining characteristic of this decade truly is smart, sharp revivalism, from the Strokes through LCD Soundsystem, but even if that's the case, Benson is the heir to a tradition that has never had much commercial (or critical) potency since Badfinger and the Raspberries developed it in the early '70s -- too-shy, sensitive pop tunesmiths who are also skilled record-makers but whose sense of pop remains rooted in the golden era of the '60s, so it chiefly appeals to other pop geeks raised on similar sensibilities. Benson, like the New Pornographers and their leader, A.C. Newman, primarily plays to this small, insular cult that cherishes sugary melodies and knowing, referential productions above all else, but he, like the Pornographers, breaks out of this small world thanks to a combination of skill, fortunate timing, and good luck. As he was working on his third album, Alternative to Love, his friendship with White Stripes mastermind Jack White intensified, leading to a collaboration (unreleased as of this writing), which raised Benson's profile considerably around the time of the album's spring release in 2005. That increased profile meant that Alternative to Love received more attention than either his largely ignored 1996 debut, One Mississippi, or his 2002 cult classic Lapalco, suggesting that the album was a creative breakthrough when it really just delivered more of the same smart, hooky classicist pop that distinguished his first album. Not that this was something entirely unexpected -- power poppers pretty much remake the same album each time -- and somebody like Benson who prides himself as a craftsman keeps rewriting until he perfects his ideas, which is what he gets close to doing on Alternative to Love. While there is nothing unexpected here -- the closest it comes is with the modernist touches in the mixes by Tchad Blake, which are very much in the style of Jon Brion but not nearly as arty -- its very familiarity is its strength, both to those already enamored of Benson's music or to those guitar pop fans hearing him for the first time. The first listen of Alternative to Love is like experiencing an old favorite with fresh ears -- the feel is familiar, but the details are all new, from the hooks and harmonies to the subtle details in the production, like the theramin that flows throughout the opener, "Spit It Out." Alternative to Love isn't a bracing record, but rather a friendly, comfortable one, an album that's immediately likeable and gets better with each spin, as all great power pop albums do. And make no mistake, this is close to a great power pop record, due to Benson's strong writing and impeccable sense of craft, which are the primarily appeals for power pop fanatics in the first place. Perhaps it doesn't have the kinetic energy or sense of adventure that mark the genre's true classics from No Dice till Girlfriend, but Alternative to Love also exists in an era that's enamored with the past and doesn't take many risks, and on those terms, it's the perfect power pop album for its decade. -AMG



Brendan Benson - The Alternative to Love - 2005/rs
or
Brendan Benson - The Alternative to Love - 2005/sb

The Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - 2005

Inspired by that moment sometime in the late '70s when punk gave birth to new wave (and looked back to the heyday of '60s mod for inspiration), the Kaiser Chiefs' debut, Employment, expands on the sharp, sussed sound of their singles in surprising ways. A look at London life and its discontents, Employment is a remarkably ambitious debut album that aspires, right down to its cheeky liner notes and graphics, to be the Parklife or All Mod Cons of the 2000s. While it doesn't quite reach those heights, it does have its fair share of memorable songs. Chief among them is the one-two punch of "Everyday I Love You Less and Less," a tightly wound "get lost" song that seamlessly mixes the band's punky guitar-bass-drums attack with synths and drum machines, and their signature single, "I Predict a Riot," another prime example of the band's barbed, pissed-off pop. "Saturday Night" is another standout; with its brassy stomp and lyrics like "watching the boys on their motorbikes/I want to be like those guys," it's a Quadrophenia-like understanding of what it is to be lonely in a crowd. On songs like moody-yet-stylish "Modern Way" and the cheeky, contradictory "Na Na Na Naa," the Kaiser Chiefs sound so effortlessly "on" that it's something of a surprise when Employment begins to lose momentum. Despite its pretty '60s pop melody, "You Can Have It All" drags a bit, while the vaudeville-tinged "Time Honoured Tradition" and "Born to Be a Dancer" are too precious and theatrical for their own good. Although it's not among their best songs musically, and its Beach Boys piss-take title is a little annoying, "Caroline, Yes" is one of the Kaiser Chiefs' more interesting bits of songwriting: on the surface, the narrator is upset because the other guy took Caroline away from him, but what really gets him is that the other guy is "everything I want to be in my life." Likewise, Employment ends with "Team Mate," a tantalizingly short character sketch that is also the band's best ballad. The Kaiser Chiefs' ambition is a double-edged sword: it's admirable that they wanted to branch out in so many directions on their first full-length, but it might have been a better -- or safer, at least -- move to stick to the amazing rockers that made their name in the first place. Employment is an uneven but still very promising debut that suggests that one day the Kaiser Chiefs will pull off something even more ambitious. - AMG




The Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - 2005/rs
or
The Kaiser Chiefs - Employment - 2005/sb

The Rhinos - Year of the Rhinos - 2003

Year of the Rhinos is a pop underground release from Swedish natives the Rhinos. From the first guitar pickings, one can tell that the Rhinos have listened to all of their Byrds records many times. "Stop the Time" has guitar tones that jangle along, while multi-layered vocals harmonize. As the Rhinos push on, the reference to the Byrds goes only so far as the picking and tones of the guitars are concerned. At the Rhinos' best moments, they take some cues from Teenage Fanclub's uniquely modern take on the '60s, making you want to bust out all of your Teenage Fanclub records. "On Bus No. 9" is a bouncy pop tune that touches on an area that the Rhinos could focus and fine-tune. Unfortunately, Year of the Rhinos' midtempo picking gets to be a bit much for the length of the record, but hints at a direction that the Rhinos could tighten up and make their own in future releases. -AMG



The Rhinos - Year of the Rhinos - 2003/rs
or
The Rhinos - Year of the Rhinos - 2003/sb

The Squares - #1 Cassette - 1985

Right after REM knocked the rock-n-roll Establishment on the head with Murmur, the sQuares left the corn fields of Indiana and headed north. For some unknown reason (cheap rent and beer?) the boys landed in Milwaukee. It was 1985 and since they hardly knew a soul in town they spent most of their time writing songs and practicing. In the Autumn of that year they spent a weekend in the studio and produced the critically aclaimed Number 1 Cassette. -The Squares

The Squares - #1 Cassette - 1985/rs
or
The Squares - #1 Cassette - 1985/sb

The Rockwells - Little Symphonies for Kids - 2002

The Rockwells were formed in 1999 by singer/guitarist Jonathan Kelly, who was living in Knoxville, TN, and his brother, singer/bassist Fred Kelly, who was in Memphis, TN. In 2000, Fred Kelly moved to Knoxville, and the brothers were joined in the group by another set of brothers, Tommy Bateman (guitar, organ) and Trace Bateman (drums). Signed to Migrant Records, the Rockwells released their first album, Little Symphonies for Kids, on April 30, 2002. Two EPs followed: EP (2003) and The Brown E.P. (April 15, 2004), the latter released on the same day as the Rockwells' second album, Star*smile*strong. Later in 2004, another EP, Tear It Down, appeared, and it attracted radio play on NPR. The Rockwells spent two years working on their next album, Place & Time, which was released on December 2, 2008. -AMG



The Rockwells - Little Symphonies for Kids - 2002/rs
or
The Rockwells - Little Symphonies for Kids - 2002/sb

Here is the missing track 02 Lonesome No More

The Lonely H - Kick Upstairs - 2006

There's a great tradition in rock & roll of small-town teenagers who get together in the proverbial garage and put together a band that takes on the world. It dates back at least to the 1960s and was given cinematic treatment in Tom Hanks' 1996 film That Thing You Do! The Lonely H, a pop/rock quintet from Port Angeles, WA, may remind listeners somewhat of the Wonders, the fictional band from that movie, if only because their musical sensibility is not far removed from the mid-'60s sound that group made, a sound also immortalized on the first Nuggets compilation. But if garage rock is one touchstone for the Lonely H, it also seems clear that lead singer and keyboard player Mark Fredson has been listening not only to the Beatles and the Beach Boys, from whom he and his bandmates have taken notions of song structure, melody, and harmony, but also from Queen, particularly in the piano-based ballads "Sweet Madeline" and "Simple Love." Fredson has facetiously referred to "Zelda" as an "epic ballad," and he is forthright about the swooning effect that a song like "Simple Love" has on the group's female fans. But kidding and pandering aside, he clearly has a strong talent for melody that the group matches with its arranging skill, which is what makes those songs work for audiences as good power ballads always do. That is not to say, however, that the group can't rock out, and it does so elsewhere on the disc. But the Lonely H makes rock music imbued with pop sophistication; they change keys and tempos, and then they throw in an a cappella harmony part to go along with those loud guitars. Fredson, meanwhile, has one of those foggy, nasal tenors that have been cutting through charging rock bands for decades. But while the Lonely H would seem destined for stardom, their very abilities may limit their appeal. All that straight, unkempt blond hair falling across their beardless faces can be less reminiscent of Kurt Cobain than of Hanson, and another great tradition in rock & roll is the coolness factor, which Cobain, for all his troubles, possessed, while Hanson, for all their talent, did not. Like their idols of the '60s and '70s, the members of the Lonely H will have to balance the rock with the pop if they are to succeed. If Kick Upstairs is any indication, they may do just that. -AMG



The Lonely H - Kick Upstairs - 2006/rs
or
The Lonely H - Kick Upstairs - 2006/sb

The Daylight Titans - The Daylight Titans - 2005

I don't know if there's such a thing as "hard roots rock", but if there is these Texans fit the description. With a driving power pop undercurrent, they call to mind early REM, The Hoodoo Gurus, The Church, and The Replacements ..." -Absolute Powerpop



The Daylight Titans - The Daylight Titans - 2005/rs
or
The Daylight Titans - The Daylight Titans - 2005/sb