Category: Power Pop Review

The Migrators are truly a international band. They formed in China, it’s members are from Italy and Belgrade and they have a love of alternative pop music. Written in 1999 “Goodbye Uncle” is a rock opera with many influences and styles. Primarily it’s part Pink Floyd “The Wall” meets ‘Til Tuesday with a splash of The Jam thrown in. I will not get into the story so much, as it needs to be experienced with the music. Some tracks here are stronger than others. I like the “The Paradox” a good new wave slice of pop with synths. “Shiny Kids” is also a good tune that recalls early Kate Bush. Some of the tunes suffer under the weight of lots of narrative. The song “Long End” resembles Elastica’s “Connection” a bit but, my favorite is an instrumental called “Vector” with it’s grand guitar playing and driving beat. There are enough good songs here and if you like synth in your pop, this fits the bill. The CD comes with a beautiful color booklet and 19 tracks. It’s for sale at CD Baby

Listen to “Vector”

Just another cool pop band I wanted to hear today. Listen to some nice stuff on the BMX Bandits Myspace page. Stay tuned — some big things are coming to the powerpopaholic.com later this week!

Bravo Johnson falls into a Tom Petty-styled Americana Pop vein. His album “Aimlessly Drifting” features awesome guitar work, much like Joe Walsh and the already mentioned Mr. Petty. We can stretch the term power pop here, because it still has great melody and hooks that won’t quit. Alot like early Joe Walsh LPs, the vocals take a bit of a backseat to the guitarwork and occassional organ. It makes for very pleasant listening in any case, although many of the ten tracks on the album could use a bit of trim, most being over 4 minutes long and the epic track “Change Your Ways” which sounds like a Carlos Santana-rip on “Evil Ways” clocking in at a whopping 8:17 . This jamming style is great in concert, but a bit heavy for a studio album. This is the reason I stopped listening to the Doors back in Jr. High School. Overall the album is a strong one with mass appeal. Best of all you can hear the entire album streaming on Bravo’s website. You can purchase the CD at NotLame for a mere ten bucks! Very nice.

A great example of mid 60s Sunshine pop lost to the ages. The Peppermint Tolley Company were best known for singing the themes to “The Brady Bunch” and “Love American Style” TV shows. Signed to the Acta label in 1967 and vanished from the scene soon after. I have not been able to find a re-issue anywhere and hopefully this video will start some interest in this long forgotten band.

If you love sophisticated lyrics and gorgeous melody you can appreciate The Sheers. Singer/Songwriter Danny DeLaMatyr sounds alot like Roger Manning, doing mid tempo power pop along the lines of Doug Powell and The Posies. The album also does a bit of McCartney balladry with “It is what it is” and then rocks all out for “You’re just Lonely” a nice slice of hooks and chorus. Bill Shupp and Luke Adams round out the band and with great drum work and excellent guitar playing. “Take That” continues The Posies-styled awesomeness. The song “Shakedown” has a great epic rock bridge and a melody line that was made for an arena event. I have to say this is another CD without a weak track on it. Listen to the track below “Goodbye World” for a taste of this great album. For more music to hear, go to the myspace page. You can get this album at CD Baby, Not Lame or KoolKat Music or itunes.