JANGLE ON!
LATE SUMMER – 2020
by Eric Sorensen
Another month of “social distancing” and another month without live music (I’m not counting the neighborhood bands that rehearse in nearby backyards). Thankfully, the Pandemic is providing musicians with lots of time to record and release new material. There continues to be no shortage of chiming, jangly pop/rock tunes. The following CDs and single tracks should appeal to fellow jangle enthusiasts:
The Lockdown Session: June 2020 – Andrew Taylor & The Harmonizers. Andrew Taylor and his Dropkick band mates may not be able to collaborate on a new Dropkick album during the Pandemic, but Taylor and his supporting cast just keep churning out tunes inspired by Dropkick, The Boys With Perpetual Nervousness and Teenage Fanclub. The June 2020 album represents Taylor’s third excellent pop album in a three-month period. Talk about prolific! My favorite tracks on the latest disc are “For This To Pass,” “I’ll Never Win,” “Ploughing On” and “You’re Not Right” (with a slight touch of Neil Young and Crazy Horse – so turn up the volume as you finish this disc!) Long may you run, Sir Andrew!
Bulletproof – by the Lolas. Tim Boykin and his power pop trio have done it again. Every Lolas album is full of melodic, catchy power pop tunes and Bulletproof is no exception. Standout chiming tracks are “Fall Away,” “Oceans Of The Moon” and “L’Internationale.” This is just the remedy that power pop fans need during the “stay at home” summer of 2020. Long may you run, Sir Tim!
Stumbling Blocks – Exploding Flowers. Twelve tracks of pseudo-60s psych-pop with some jangly guitars mixed into the tunes. Jangleholics will really dig the chiming guitar riffs on “Imagine All Possibilities.”
Stars, Bars & Vintage Guitars – CD EP by Borgh. Jan Leonard Borgh is the songwriter and lead vocalist on this CD EP, and Micke Lundblad provides the nicely compressed sound of a Rickenbacker 12-string on “Know Your Exit,” Stars” and May God Love Be With You.” Great find on the part of Kool Kat Musik guru Ray Gianchetti! Go to Kool Kat – HERE
Sideways To New Italy – Rolling Blackouts C.F. This ten-track CD reprises a lot of the jangly sound that was popular in the late 80s/early 90s – e.g., the tracks are more reminiscent of the Mighty Lemon Drops than of the Byrds. No matter what the prior reference is, it’s all good!
Silver Raven – Kai Clark. Eleven Gene Clark tracks performed by Gene’s son Kai. What more needs to be said? Kai sounds more like Gene now than he did twenty years ago – when Kai penned an original tribute song on Not Lame’s Full Circle: A Tribute To Gene Clark. Jangly fans will really enjoy hearing Kai’s cover of “Here Without You.” If you live in northern California, you may be lucky enough to catch one of Kai’s Gene Clark Tribute shows. Gene is smiling down on you, Kai!
To Sing And Be Born Again – The Explorers Club. While this does not fall into the jangly music category, it should appeal to fans of classic AM radio pop music from the mid to late 1960s. Kudos to Matt Goldman and his band mates for mining ten nuggets from that era and recording excellent cover versions of all ten songs!
Some “blasts from the past” that have been getting rotation this summer include: “I Tell Her All The Time” by the Coal Porters (featuring ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin); “Coming Down” by the Pyramidiacs; “Yesterday’s Streets” by Comanche Moon (a great discovery at the Off The Record SDSU location); “Raging Winds Of Time” by the Walking Wounded; “Words Falling Down” by EIEIO; “One More Chance” by the Rumors (a great find through Not Lame); and “Til I Am Myself Again” by Blue Rodeo (a Canadian band with over 20 albums to their credit, and still going strong!)
Some other single tracks that I have added to my music library recently include: “So Long” and “Dusk Till Dawn” by the Jangle Band; “Aerosol” by Green Seagull; “Driftin'” by Bang 74; a fun cover of Love’s “You I’ll Be Following” by the Higher State; and the punchy “A Walk Into Town” and “Long Forgotten Wars” by Matt Purcell.
Until next time, jangle on!
