I’m getting ready to release the latest installment in the “Best Power Pop” CD compilation yearly series in about a month. Each year I do something different and hopefully fun, adding an element of discovery to the process of the promotion of the latest in the series. Regardless of whether one decides to purchase the CD(and all its crazy, over-the-top bonuses), I try set up each day to be an experience, a pleasure rabbit hole to go down and encounter new music from the present and past that you might have missed – or just were not aware of.
By the end of the 7 days, you’ll have some great new discoveries and you will have been able to check out some of the 61 artists appearing on this year’s 3-CD set. You’ll hear about ordering it and the extra special package connected to it at the end of these seven days. But leave that all aside…let’s have some fun below!
So, to summarize – Three Sections. THE PRESENT and THE PAST and THE VIDEOS.
Scroll on and let’s begin!
Each day I’ll be spotlighting 4 bands that are appearing on the upcoming “Best Power Pop of 2018” release coming out in next month(October). Step right in, get to know some of the finer power pop artists of the last few years.
LANNIE FLOWERS
Lannie Flowers has been called something of a national treasure for fans of guitar-based, melodic pop music. Combining diverse influences such as British invasion, punk rock and glam rock, He puts forth guitar driven melodies that are at once fresh yet familiar. Lannie was the chief singer/songwriter in Texas legends, the Pengwins, and he has released a slew of solo albums on the Spyderpop label over the last decade that illustrate his gift for writing and recording great pop songs. Starting in 2018 and continuing into 2019 Lannie has been releasing a new single every month – all available on SpyderPop.com. His next album, “Home” is due to be released soon.
www.facebook.com/lannieflowersband/
MUCK AND THE MIRES
Boston’s MUCK & THE MIRES were crowned #1 Garage Rock Band by LITTLE STEVEN Van Zandt on MTV. Their sound has been described as a cross between the 1964 Beatles and The Ramones. The band has played hundreds of shows in the USA, CANADA, SOUTH AMERICA, JAPAN and EUROPE. They have albums produced by RUNAWAYS legend KIM FOWLEY & JIM DIAMOND (White Stripes). And they’ve shared bills with many of their heroes including THE SONICS, NY DOLLS, Ray Davies (THE KINKS), The Stooges to name a few. Their latest release is Muckus Maximus, available on Rum Bar Records.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7zWPqqMyNKebuvCs2t6WCv
https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/muckus-maximus
https://www.muckandthemires.com
https://www.facebook.com/muckandthemires/
https://www.youtube.com/muckandthemires
Contact: info@muckandthemires.com
PHIL YATES
Phil Yates & The Affiliates are a Chicago based, formerly based out of Burlington, Vermont, power pop four-piece band. Yates and company specialize in three minute pop songs played loudly. Influences include Elvis Costello, R.E.M., The Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, Guided By Voices, and The Lemonheads. Their most recent release, 2018’s Party Music!, was released by Detroit’s Futureman Records and ended up on “Best of 2018” lists in the UK (I Don’t Hear a Single), Belgium (Sweet Sweet Music Blog), Spain (Plástico Elástico), and Brazil (Power Pop Station). Phil jokes that the band is “internationally known and locally ignored.” Here’s hoping this changes in 2019 and beyond as they work on material for the next album!
https://philyates.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/PhilYatesTheAffiliates
SPYGENIUS
Spygenius are a classic British four piece pop-combo who have been defiantly doing their thing in a corner of south-east England since the mid-2000s. Their main singer and songwriter is Peter Watts, who once upon a time was the driving force behind 80s jangle-popsters the Murrumbidgee Whalers (check out Giving Way to Trains on Cherry Red’s C88 compilation). Ruth Rogers (bass), Matt Byrne (keys) and Alan Cannings (drums) complete the line-up – and everybody sings. This is a group who know their craft in terms of song writing and arrangement, with melody and harmony to the fore. Their music has echoes of all those classic 60s ‘B’ bands – Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Bonzos – but resonates just as much with British new-wave artists (Costello, Dury, Squeeze, XTC), and college-radio darlings of later generations (Smiths, Hitchcock, REM). And there’s a lot of musical bric-a-brac in there too – souvenirs from surf and psych, folk and exotica, lounge and blues, rock and roll… like so many of the groups that inspired them, they view eclecticism as a strength, happily hoovering up myriad musical influences to produce their signature sound. Vive le bricolage! They are also known for their sophisticated lyrics, as intelligent as they are emotionally charged: sometimes witty, sometimes painful, sometimes insightful, sometimes just nonsensical…
They’ve released four albums to date, all to positive reviews. Their most recent – the ‘not quite a concept album’ ‘Pacéphale – was described by Stencil Mag as “..an album oozing with intelligent songwriting, structure and the knowledge of how to sequence the songs … simply top notch.” Album number five (currently under the working title of Man On The Sea) is slated for release later this year or early next on Big Stir Records. Spygenius have been working closely with the Burbank based Big Stir collective for the last couple of years, and have organised and performed at a number of Big Stir Britannia events across the UK, consolidating their reputation as a distinctive and entertaining live act. They also have an ongoing creative association with the artist (and honorary fifth Spygeniant) Champniss – resulting not only in the sumptuous artwork for ‘Pacéphale, but also in a number of animated videos, a book (the Spygenius Book of Forbidden Fruit Cocktails), and regular contributions to Big Stir Magazine.
Bandcamp: https://spygenius.bandcamp.com/
Bandsite: http://spygenius.co.uk/index.htm
Spygenius – Shall I Show You In My Mirror? (from the album ‘Pacéphale)
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There are THREE parts to each day in ‘the past’ section.
The first part is a re-presentation of a promotion from 2 1/2 years ago called ‘the music discovery experience‘(what can I say, it’s a theme for me – ‘discovery‘) Each day there will be one folder for you to download. In each folder, there will be 5/6 songs of different varieties and sub-genres of the power pop genre, spanning the 60s-00s. These songs are truly off the normal track and go deep.
CLICK HERE to download “MDE – Day 1”
(there are six great ‘finds’ in this folder)
The second part is various fun tracks from the (mostly) 70s and 80s that are rare, unreleased and hard to find or completely unavailable. For the next seven days, I’m calling it…DISCOVERY DAYS. The folders that you will see from each day are similar to the ones right above here. These songs, though, I’ve pulled together just this last week, poring over almost a thousand other tracks before arriving at these. Going deep, going good.
Discovery. Let’s begin.
CLICK HERE to download “Discovery Days – Day 1”
The third part is even easier. If you have the time and inclination, just watch some of the videos I’ve pulled in from over the past 8 years of Pop Geek Heaven video activity.
As always, I leave this kind of activity from me with a simple request….ENJOY.
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