Here we go again. We start with a video from
Oh Bummer!, a band from the mind of Seattle-born, LA-based singer/songwriter Tanner Houghton. Tanner makes honest anti-pop music for people who don’t always fit in. He does this by combining his bedroom-pop delivery with trip-hop-inspired beats. It’s not power pop, but it still has a hook
that kept me listening. Most impressive is the new single by
Extra Arms, “I Don’t Wanna Surrender.” Ryan Allen and crew pick up after his
top ten performance of last year and continue to dazzle us. Great energy from
Friends of Cesar Romero, these guys get better every year and this freebie is a good example.
Orbis Max and Dw Dunphy seem to channel Roger Waters a little here, and
Paul Crane and the Overend Watts debut EP has plenty of crunchy guitars, from the pop-punk “Halfway Home” to the bouncy “Dypsomaniak.” When you gather like-minded artists, you could come up with
The Electromagnets, a “supergroup” with Steve Stoeckel (The Spongtones), Peter Watts (Spygenius), Chris Church, and Dolph Chaney. Finally, I thought
Vanilla’s Pish Posh project was confined to 2023, but it continues to grow, and some real gems appear, like the Lennonesque “Coil Memory.”