Tag: Mo Troper

Mo Troper and The Amplifier Heads

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Mo Troper

Mo Troper “Dilettante”

After a daunting Beatles cover album, Mo Troper is back to his bedroom DIY fuzzy melodies and Dilettant is more hit than miss over the course of 28 short snippets. The influences are too numerous to mention but the opener “Total Euphoria” sets up a single hook before its gone, and then the driving guitar of “The Expendables Ride Again,” a rant about how ephemeral the music is, and the reaction “What’s the name of your new band? The one with you and my old friends?”

There are thematic gems sprinkled throughout, with others being simple song sketches. “The Perfect Song” is the goal here, one that “gets stuck in my head all day long.” Some artistic anger on “All My Friends are Venmo,” and plenty of highlights that compare well with GBV; “My Master’s Voice,” “Armpit,” “Better Than Nothing” and “Blake and Lanny.” Like a bag of Halloween candy, you may not eat everything but it sure is sweet.

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Amplifier Heads

The Amplifier Heads “Saturnaliens”

Boston rocker Sal Baglio (The Stompers) skillfully continues his journey with his band The Amplifier Heads as they cruise through their third album on Bar Rum Records. Described as “a  graphic novel for the ears and head” I just start by giving kudos to the cover design. These UFOs would kick Boston’s ass.

The fine opener “Ghost Star Rider” mines that Western motif in the instrumental, and then the raw garage rock of “Rocket Boys” delivers the first salvo. Loving those riffs on “Earth Girls on the Loose,” and “All Fueled Up,” it almost goes full rockabilly with a hint of punk attitude. “GlamOrama,” “Candi Starr,” and “Bast Shit Crazy” are very Sweet-esque tributes, and the band doesn’t ease up on the gas. All lots of fun, but it can be a bit exhausting by the end of the album. Still more hits than misses here, and definitely highly recommended.

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August Singles: Ex-Norwegian, Ezrat, The Dowling Poole, Bagful of Beez, Tommy Lorente, Mo Troper, I Was King

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Summer is slowly fading, but we have plenty of good music. Ex-Norwegian is back with an eclectic single “Thot Patrol” which combines so many sounds, it defies categorization. Ezrat presents a light indie-pop that floats on by a bed of synths. The Dowling Poole lays it all down with a bombastic rocker backed by lush orchestral strings about fiddling through the apocalypse. Getting tripper is the melodic stylings of Bagful of Bees “Syco” which brings to mind XTC and I’ll be happy to hear the rest of this LP soon. French rocker Tommy Lorente finds a sweet guitar hook in the sparse reggae beat on “A Mes Yeux.” Mo Troper still has some acoustic demos from Natural Beauty and it sounds great, so check it out. We started with an “Ex,” so let’s end with a real Norwegian band I Was A King, who sounds damn good with those jangling pop hooks, hear “happy.”

Super Singles, EPs and Freebies: The Morning Line, Mo Troper, Voltz, Eddie Mooney & The Grave, BPMCollective, Andy Bopp, Michael Carpenter, Sofa City Sweetheart, Vista Blue, Reno Bo

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Glad to bring you some new songs, as we close out July. First is a neat freebie, The Morning Line‘s collection of outtakes. The opener “Straight Lines” is a solid single, and the rest aren’t shabby either. Mo Troper‘s freebie is the grinding grungey single “Ballad of Big Nothing” in the best Posies tradition, with a bit too much texture. Voltz from Sheffield, UK gives us a bit o’ glam mixed with pop on “Glitterbomb.” German band Eddie Mooney & The Grave has an 80s-styled pop gem with the catchy “Telephones.” I was also impressed with this debut EP from Seattle’s BPM Collective; “Adelaide” hooked me right away, and “Mr. Congeniality” has fantastic chord changes. I so much missed the music of Andy Bopp, and his single “Camera” is worth the wait. The first song I ever heard from Michael Carpenter gets a remix treatment, and Sofa City Sweetheart does a sweet Brian Wilson cover. Vista Blue‘s Ramones-styled pop returns with an Olympic-themed freebie and Reno Bo rocks both “Count Your Karma,” and a Todd Rundgren cover. Quiet a nice mixtape we have here.


Singles: Beebe Gallini, The Nobility, The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco, Gentle Hen, Mo Troper, Janita, Timmy Sean

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Beebe Gallini is the newest garage rock, girl pop hybrid and they can shred like nobody’s business. The new LP Pandemos is her first full-length album, made up of demos she cut earlier in the pandemic. Nashville’s The Nobility delivers a theme of celebration and The 1957 Tail-Fin Fiasco doubles down on the quirkinesses, with key changes everywhere! Gentle Hen‘s freebie channels They Might Be Giants here with every parents’ cry for help. Plus, Mo Troper is doing a cover of the entire Revolver album. Darn good too! Speaking of covers Finnish-born talent Janita gives us a solid cover of Peter Gabriel’s classic “Digging in the Dirt.” With WandaVision in the rearview mirror, Timmy Sean did a quick cover of the jingle “Agatha All Along” and it’s his biggest viral post yet! Where is Reed Richards?

Mo Troper and Dropkick

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Mo Troper

Mo Troper “Natural Beauty”

Mo Troper is back with his third full-length album, where he opines on relationships, obsessions, love and does it with an unmistakable vocal style. “I Eat” opens the set as a slow-building gem about self-destructive habits. The jangling “Your Boy” has a little DNA from The La’s “There She Goes” and it’s every bit as infectious. Each tune builds this picture of a hopeless romantic like “In Love With Everyone” and the multi-tracked acapella “Everything.” Mo goes on about long-distance relationships in “Jas From Australia” and the catchy jealousy of “Your New Friend.”

Few I know can make regret and loss sound so bright and sunny in under two minutes. “Potential” is another lush melody with strong guitars “we had so much potential when
we were young and stupid/but nothing ever came of it/we left it there and now it’s dead.” You almost wish there were more verses here to fill it out and keep those hooks fresh in your head. Eventually, Mo comes crashing back to sober reality on the church organ dirge of “Business As Usual.” Overall a wonderful album, that will get many repeats on my playlist. Highly Recommended.

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Dropkick

Dropkick “The Scenic Route”

After his stint in last years hit The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, Andrew Taylor returns to his home-band Dropkick to continue making great indie-pop. The band sounds like Elliot Smith fronting for Teenage Fanclub on the jangling opener “Feeling Never Goes Away.” Taylor’s light vocal floats above the rhythms on “Catching On” and the mid-tempo ballad “I’m Over You, Goodbye.”

The slower tempo rockers “For Too Long” and “Disappearing”  emphasize the guitars a bit more, but overall as the title suggests, the band’s tone is mostly mellow here. After the up-tempo catchy “A Matter of Time,” the songs slow considerably. The ballad “Broken From The Start” boasts great guitar solos between the verses and helps make this an above-average album that deserves to be heard all the way through. Highly Recommended.

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