Category: Power Pop Review

Jimmy Haber and The Orion Experience

powerpopaholic

Jimmy Haber “New Bondi Hippies”
Jimmy Haber was a founding member of the ’80s Punk band, Degenerates and is currently a member of the musical collective, Maladaptive Solution with Michael Carpenter. Haber’s locale Bondi Beach is a popular spot in the surrounding suburb in Sydney, Australia. Much of New Bondi Hippies is served up with a heavy dose late ’60’s influences and I’m a big fan of this retro approach, as long as the music is good.

Lucky for us, the music is great. “Wonderful Life” opens with its mid-period Beatlesque psychedelic overtones, full of swirling bass and its laid back vocal make it a very neo-hippy anthem. “Mexican Sun” has a dense composition full of soaring guitar riffs in the chorus.  Like The Grip Weeds, Haber also shares the gift of great drum intros on “My Girls Random” and the flowing solos are just amazing. We get a little rock ballad blues on “Liar” about the troubles of an unreliable bandmate. “Alegra” is another sun drenched mid-tempo tune. The gem “Chelsea” starts with a powerful strum a la John Cougar Mellencamp meets The Spongetones. And “Mercenary Kind Of Girl” is a cool Monkees styled tune. Not everything has a hook, but the majority of this album does and that makes it highly recommended.

20px_spacer

The Orion Experience “Children of The Stars”
The transformation is complete.  The Orion Experience started several years ago as a power pop band, led by singer Orion Simprini.  With crunchy guitars and the addition of vocalist Linda Horwatt it made them an “instant” party band. After some commercial success, and getting the notice of Perez Hilton and Maroon 5 producer Jon Kaplan, they’ve grown more commercial. The bands reputation continued to grow, moving closer to ELO styled disco-pop, and they’ve even turned their show into a Broadway-styled event.

Children of The Stars is a blend of electronic, pop and rock music. Thankfully, it offers more than its top-40 ready title track. “S.T.A.R. Child” combines the disco beats with pop smarts, and Horwatt really shines with the amazing melodies on “Made 4 You” and “Dandy.” Her powerful voice reminded me of Chrissie Hynde. Psychedelic sitars and tight vocal harmonies are featured on “Heart In My Pocket.” A hokey sci-fi Aquarius style narrative runs through the album often between songs and these poems are mercifully short (listen to Moody Blues much?). The ELO influence shows up again on “Win It All” and the idealistic “Love Saves The Day,” which is a perfect merging of genres (the only danceable guitar solo I ever heard). Overall a very good album that I dare say will please the most jaded listeners of all ages.

DVD/Blu-ray Review: “Good Ol’ Freda”

powerpopaholic
Good Ol Freda

Over the years nearly everyone remotely connected with the Beatles has offered up an opinion or experience about them and their music. The number of Beatle books listed on Amazon numbers more than 7,700. So it is very special that one of the few living connections to those early days of Beatlmania still has a story to tell that hasn’t been told. Freda Kelly, who became president of the Beatles’ official fan club as a teenager, and was soon after hired as manager Brian Epstein’s secretary, is the main subject of the documentary Good Ol’ Freda. Now a modest 60-ish grandmother, Freda has kept quiet all these years as part of the Beatles family, but here she details her story…
Read the entire review at Blog Critics
 

Amazon

Christmas Without Cancer

powerpopaholic

“Christmas Without Cancer”

Are you ready for Christmas 2013? Vandalay Records prove that they certainly are as they unleash a pop lovers dream of a Holiday album. Artists taking part in the festivities include The Grip Weeds, Mimi Betinis (of Pezband), Frank Royster and The Goldbergs, Michael Carpenter, Lisa Mychols, Bill Lloyd, Jeremy, Brandon Schott, Graham Elvis, The Click Beetles, and Sketch Middle. The best part is this CD benefits The American Cancer Society.

Some of these songs are not found anyplace else making it essential holiday music that needs to be heard! Kudos for Dan Pavelich for getting this collection of stellar artists and their songs together.

Personally, someone very close to me is suffering through a battle with cancer. Buying this album will strike a blow against this terrible disease. 100% of the funds raised from this album go toward cancer treatment and research programs, its a great deal and an excellent way to help the cause.

CD Baby | Kool Kat Musik

Learn how to get a song on itunes at ReverbNation.com

Robert Gay and The Real Impossibles

powerpopaholic

Robert Gay “When I Was Young”
I don’t know much about Nashville musician Robert Gay, but with the help of his band (The Alarms) he’s put together When I Was Young. Gathering memories of his youth, it looks back searching for meaning in life, thematically like The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Opening with the slow wistful title track, but then jumping into the summery melody “For You” full of horns and hope. This slow-fast alternating tempo of songs continues throughout.

“Sunday Afternoon” is a beautifully orchestrated song with woodwinds and harmonies. “Katie” is back to the fast-paced approach, “Floating Away” has a delicate acoustic melody, about the very beginnings of loss and this segues into the dramatic “Trouble.” Next comes the bright Squeeze-like single “Everyone I Know,” with darkness lurking just between each chorus, and a little Ska influence peeks through too. The writing is top notch, especially on the gem “Want To Want Again,” with a perfect hook, catchy beat and a tuned guitar distortion – one of the best songs I’ve heard this year. The album ends off with some orchestral pop, “Open Roads” similar to a Neil Diamond epic. Highly Recommended.
power pop review score 9

Bandcamp

20px_spacer

The Real Impossibles “It’s About Time 1983-1988”
The Real Impossibles were an L.A. band started by Marc Platt in 1983, he hooked up Probyn Gregory (Wondermints, Brian Wilson band) and some friends helped him put out a EP. After some positive reviews, Platt then put together a live band that worked the same club circuit with The Bangles, The Three O’Clock, and The Plimsouls. In fact after the Plimsouls broke up, lead singer Peter Case joined The Impossibles in the studio on a few tracks. But the band never made that leap to national fame. This is a 23 song retrospective from this hard-to-find “lost” power pop band.

Some songs still hold up nicely the opener “Burned” being one of them. An energetic cover of Neil Diamond’s “Cherry Cherry” follows, with highlights being the jangle-filled “Here and Now” and “Turn My World.” Some tunes have a bit of punk attitude, reminding me a little of The Godfathers or The Romantics. Other tracks are very solid 80’s guitar pop, and its hard to see how the mainstream overlooked the band. The production quality varies from song to song, based on the condition of the masters. For fans of the ’80s era, this should be an essential part of your music collection.
power pop review score 9

Zero Hour Records

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs “Under The Covers Vol.3”

powerpopaholic

14 new songs from the Sid and Susie team, this time they pick their favorite 80’s tracks. One of my favorites early on, is Hoffs take on Rockpile’s “Girls Talk.” Another gem is Hoffs perfect rendition of “They Don’t Know” (Kristy MacColl’s big hit also covered by Tracy Ullman). Sweet doesn’t come off as well vocally and he’s given less to do, the exception is a spirited version of The dB’s “Big Brown Eyes.” More great collaborative efforts are on The Pretenders “Kid,” and Lindsey Buckingham’s “Trouble.”

Other tunes just sound merely decent, “Save It For Later” in particular didn’t work for me, compelling me to want to hear the original by The English Beat, and the same goes for a bland version of The Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed.” The only train wreck here is “How Soon Is Now,” a Smiths tune that loses everything without Morrisey’s wailing interpretation. I would have picked a few different songs, but this is Sid and Susie’s karaoke and they’re clearly having fun. Overall this is a perfectly good addition to the Under The Covers series.

Amazon