PowerPopSquare

It's mid-december, the nights getting longer, days shorter - so it's time to finish the year 2014 (musically). It was an incredible year with stunning new music! H ere they are -  my Top Ten Records of 2014 : 1. Dan Wilson - Love Without Fear Love Without Fear  has become an outstanding record with a strong collection of songs. It starts with the title track  Love Without Fear : beautiful harmonies and lyrics create an optimistic, catchy opener which draws the listeners attention to what may come next... ... and you won't be disappointed: songs like  However Long ,  Disappear ,  We Belong Together, When It Pleases You  are mature work and perfect musical handcraft.   The record closes with the amazing  Even The Stars Are Sleeping  (maybe my personal highlight of the record). For me the most amazing aspect about this album is the awareness of having a honest piece of work which carries true emotions. 2. Jeremy Messersmith...

" Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast " is the new full length Disney movie out in early 2015. It is about the relationship that develops between Fawn, a compassionate animal fairy who thinks with her heart, and Gruff, a massive beast with glowing green eyes who seems to be on a mission. The soundtrack may be of interest for the longtime PowerPopSquare reader - it features music from KT Tunstall and Bleu . " Float " (written by Bleu, sung by KT Tunstall), " Strange Sight " (sung by KT Tunstall) and " 1000 Years " (a duet by KT Tunstall and Bleu! ... wait ... !!!) are three damn fine songs.  Especially the latter is Bleu at the top of his game. Listen (and buy) the soundtrack at iTunes:    

Here's a mixtape - a kind of introduction to Adam Levy & The Honeydogs. I hope you enjoy it. PS: Thanks to Bleu McAuley for inviting me to Adam Levy's music. It needed a whole year to accept his advice, but finally it worked out very well.

If you'd ask me who is responsible for the biggest surprise or musical impact on me in the recent months it would surely be The Honeydogs . A lot of people highly recommended them over the last few years - but until a few weeks ago I didn't really look into their musical works. It was such a revelation when I finally did! The Honeydogs is a band from Minnesota led by singer-songwriter Adam Levy (vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards) along with Trent Norton (bass, vocals), Brian Halverson (guitars, vocals), Peter J. Sands (piano, keyboards, organ), Peter Anderson (drums, vocals, percussion) and producer John Fields . If you don't know where to start just listen to both of the records below ( 10.000 Years and Amygdala ), or just to the following songs:  Damascus Way,  Too Close to the Sun, Test Tube Kid, Ms. Ketchup and the Arsonist, 23rd Chromosome, Blues For Castro, Devil's Advocate, Last War Lullaby To describe the music or genre...

I think it's time to give you an overview of all the great other blogs and websites out there about PowerPop. TooPoppy www.toopoppy.com TooPoppy is the most important blog for news and musical discovery for me. I'm following TooPoppy for many many years now. And that's mainly because of the well written and straight to the point articles and the fine selection of artists.  Starting from news of everything related to The Beatles , onwards to IndiePop ( Nada Surf, Del Amitri , Guster ) and a whole lot of PowerPop ( Mike Viola, Jellyfish, Bleu ). Well, that's exactly my taste of good music! Way to go! PopFair popfair.blogspot.com PopFair is THE number one source for live recordings and compilations of rare or unreleased stuff from the best PowerPop artists out there (e.g. Jim Boggia, Adam Levy, Mike Viola, David Myhr, Pugwash ).  And then there is also a damn fine year-end top 25 list every year. Hooks and Harmony www.hooksandharmony...

The new record of Sunday Sun - and after three EPs their first full album - is called ' We Let Go '. It will be available on CD and Vinyl from the 17th of November, 2014. The first single will be I Call You Honey : Pre-order on iTunes: http://bit.ly/SundayiTunes

Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In the End  I was never a big Weezer fan (shame on me) - but the new record " Everything Will Be Alright In the End " sounds very promising. Cleopatra is the first single - listen here: The record will be out October 3, 2014. Minnie Driver - Ask Me To Dance  The third album of Minnie Driver - which is well-known as an actress, but not as much as musician is a collection of cover songs. The lead single is Waltz #2 from Elliott Smith, which is (depending on your point of view) either courageous or very risky. Well, I like the result. Ask Me To Dance will be out October 7, 2014. Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness I mentioned Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness before - it's definitely a record to look forward to. Street date: October 10, 2014. Queen - Queen Forever Again, I wrote about the record before : Queen Forever is just a compilation - but a compilation with three new Queen songs. The first full...

Cliff Hillis has become one of the most interesting artists in indie-pop in the recent years. Following his stunning record "Dream Good" from 2012 his new EP "Song Machine" is out now (on vinyl, CD and digital). The EP is and extremely strong collection of songs: Song Machines opens with Dashboard , whose increasing intensity impresses. Just One More and Hang On To The Moment are a more laid back tracks with a haunting melody. Tonight is my personal highlight (if you can choose one song from the record - which is really hard). Could You Be The Enemy is pure classic Power-Pop - perfect from start to end. The final track ( Goodnight Sunlight ) could have been a good Fab Four single - sounds like flattery but fits quite well. Listen to all 7 songs here: I also clearly recommend his fabulous cover songs on the records Drink Toast to Innocence: Tribute Lite Rock (Shake It) and Here Comes The Reign Again (Wouldn't It Be Good).  www....

The Uncle Devil Show are a Scottish band by Langton Herring, Jason Barr and Terrence . Strangely these three guys were mixed up with the famous Justin Currie (from Del Amitri), Kevin McDermott (from the Kevin McDermott Orchestra) and Jim McDermott (brother of Kevin McDermott and also from the Kevin McDermott Orchestra). Justin Currie clarified:  "It has recently come to my attention that some bunch of tossers calling themselves The Uncle Devil Show are being claimed by some to be something to do with Del Amitri. Let me state once and for all that nobody in Del Amitri has any involvement whatsoever with these pricks and having heard some of their woeful attempts at indie-pop ... has no desire to be. Anyone claiming that members of Del Amitri are associated with the above group may well find themselves talking to our lawyers. Where this absurd rumour came from I don't know but I'll hazard a guess that these desperate self-promoting talentless limpnecked w...

Twenty-Three (!) years after Freddie Mercury sadly passed away Queen are back with a new record - Queen Forever. Well, it's rather a compilation than a proper record, but you'll find some new gems on it. First of there is a completely new track called " Let Me In Your Heart Again ". And it's just amazing! A second new track called " There Must Be More To Life Than This " is a duet - with Michael Jackson . Yes that's right, Queen & Michael Jackson . Finally there is a new edit of the Freddie Mercury solo song " Love Kills ". Track List: Disc One 1. Let Me In Your Heart Again 2. Love Kills 3. There Must Be More to Life Than This (duet with Michael Jackson) 4. Play the Game 5. Dear Friends 6. You're My Best Friend 7. Love of My Life 8. Drowse 9. You Take My Breath Away 10. Spread Your Wings 11. Long Away 12. Lily of the Valley 13. Don't Try So Hard 14. Bijou 15. These Are the Days of ...

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness is the debut record of Andrew McMahon's same titled band. Andrew McMahon is a singer-songwriter and pianist known from bands like  Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin . In 2013 he released his first solo EP - The Pop Underground . Every single song I heard from him so far is just stunning. Do yourself a favor and listen to his music NOW ! The album was partially produced and co-written by Mike Viola and is to be released on October 14, 2014. Listen to the first and second single " Cecilia and the Satellite " and " High Dive " here: www.andrewmcmahon.com

Jim Boggia has a new project - and it's all about his passion for a very special instrument: the ukulele ! It's a kind of crowdfunding, but quite different than you may know it. Jim explains it like this:  "The easiest way to think of it is that it’s like Kickstarter, except in the ways that it’s not. What? That’s not easy enough?  Okay, Patreon is like Kickstarter in that it allows creators of things (that’s me) to find folks to support the making of those things (that’s you, potentially, I mean, I don’t want to make any assumptions, but you seem nice). It’s different from Kickstarter in that instead of trying to get large amounts of support for one big project, Patreon looks to get smaller, recurring contributions for a number of smaller, recurring creations. Another difference is that instead of paying money up front and waiting months for an album to “drop” (I heard a young person say that once), you give AFTER I make these small, yet in their own way...

Seven years ago, strolling through Vienna on a hot summer day we decided to recover and cool down in a small repertory cinema. There was this movie I heard of before: Once . All I knew was it would be about music. So we watched it without big expectations. Well, we couldn't have been more wrong. Once is a 2006 Irish musical film - and it's all about passion for music. Set in Dublin, Once stars Glen Hansard (singer of The Frames ) and Markéta Irglová as struggling musicians during an eventful week as they write, rehearse and record songs that reveal their unique love story: It's a story in a pseudo-documentary style of two people which fell in love with music and each other. Once lasted longer in the US top 30 box office list in 2007 than Spider-Man 3 and Shrek 3 .  With a budget of 150.000 USD it grossed 20 million USD worldwide. After filming " Falling Slowly ", Glen Hansard jokingly said " and the Oscar for Best Song goes to... ...