power pop

Exotics: Library (1983)

2019/02/01

Faceless and nameless, but not without their charms. Library by Exotics is a fantastically twisted album that orbits between the worlds of power pop and electronic mutant funk. You’d think such a one-off would come out of nowhere, but there were seeds of who the Exotics were (and what they aimed to do) elsewhere.
Kunio Muramatsu: Green Water (1983)

2017/08/11

I so had another post in mind for today, but Kunio Muramatsu’s Green Water spoke to me and said: “hold that powder for some other day, the sun’s still shining!”. From the first song on it’s not hard to see why. A flooring collection of meticulously crafted Pop songs screaming “SUMMER!” merit, at least this…
Happy End: Happy End (1983)

2016/10/26

What’s there to say about an unheralded classic? The origin story is already there for the taking: in 1972, fresh of recording their revolutionary Kazemachi Roman, pioneering Japanese band led by musical visionaries like Haruomi Hosono, Eiichi Ohtaki, and Shigeru Suzuki, travel to Los Angeles in hopes of recording an album more in tune with a huge source…
Nils Lofgren: White Lies and Sometimes (1972)

2014/08/04

Nils in the early ’70s Now that we’ve got some forward momentum let’s sustain it. Eh, fuck it, I was going to hold off on highlighting a Nils Lofgren song until later but I might as well do it now when Neil’s sound is still fresh in your memory. Chicago’s own, though mostly raised in…
The Kinks: Victoria (1969)

2014/08/01

the Kinks – 1969 Can you believe that August is already here? That the end of summer is nigh around the corner? Man, time is flying by this year. Its times like these when my brain starts a ramblin’ and gets ideas of heading out and traveling somewhere in the great US of A before…
The Searchers: Love’s Melody (1981)

2014/04/22

Now ain’t this some bs. I was so prepared to link to this track from the Searchers on Spotify. Apparently, Sire really f’ed up the rights for the album this song, Love’s Melody, came from. Anyway, we’re doing it live. Now, talk about a redemption story! 20 or 15 years after releasing their most popular…