Ben Folds Five - Do It Anyway (new track!)

Ben Folds posted a link to the new Ben Folds Five track Do It Anyway:


You can download it here: http://bit.ly/IR7qg1

Brendan Benson - What Kind Of World

After five solo albums and two Raconteurs records Brendan Benson has just released What Kind Of World.

What I mostly remember is when I discovered his music years ago was that I thought "He has this very unique sound, no-one else is similar". And that's why my first record from him (Alternative To Love) was in constant rotation on my stereo for a very long time.
Every record from him had superb songs, but I personally think What Kind Of World is his most consistent work until today. 

Track list:
01 What kind of world
02 Bad for me
03 Light of day
04 Happy most of the time
05 Keep me
06 Pretty baby
07 Here in the deadlights
08 Met your match
09 Thru the ceiling
10 No one else but you
11 Come on
12 On the fence

 

Highlights:
Bad For Me, Light of Day, Pretty Baby, What Kind of World

Purchase it at amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.com or at Lojinx (digital, CD and vinyl - Lojinx has a special package with CD/vinyl & T-Shirt).

News May 2012

Farrah - Bees & Honey

The 3CD + DVD box set of Farrah - filled with demos, rare songs and videos - can be purchased at 1977 Records (you can order directly by email).

Official Farrah Website

Mike Viola - Acousto De Perfecto

Mike Viola will release his new record Acousto De Perfecto July 17 2012 (estimated release date).

Mike also playing a gig in London at The Troubadour on June 21 2012, which hints an European release - yay! And I hope for more shows in London - and I'll do my best to be there!

The Beach Boys - That's Why God Made the Radio

The 29th record of The Beach Boys will be out June 5 2012. The first single will be also called That's Why God Made the Radio.

Air Traffic Controller - Nordo

The new album Nordo of Air Traffic Controller will be out June 12 2012. You can already listen to Blame, a truly wonderful song (produced by Bleu):



Ben Folds Five - New Album & Tour

The new record of Ben Folds Five is estimated for an August 2012 release. 

There will be also a tour: 

• North America: September - October
• after that Australia 
• UK/Ireland: November - December

Sweet Diss And The Comebacks - Emerald City Love Song

Sweet Diss And The Comebacks is a band from Washington State. Their new record Emerald City Love Song has just been released... 

Wait a second - 'Band' isn't quite the right word: Vocals, instruments, mixing, and mastering was done by Nathan Reinauer (with a very few exceptions). To say that this is an impressive effort would be an understatement.

Emerald City Love Song is in the spirit of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Jellyfish, Harry Nilsson, Queen, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., The Merrymakers and Seth Swirsky (The Red Button). To compare one artist with other artists is somehow delicate, but I think Nathan is in a very good company with these musicians.

The whole record is very positive - and it's a joy to listen (in a similar way with David Myhr's Soundshine). The opener Twenty-Something starts with an a cappella - with breathtaking harmonies. You Make My Day is PowerPop at perfection. Maybe Someday and Hey Indie Girl are incredibly catchy. And Seattle's Best, a five part song with a length of more than 12 minutes, created goose bumps when I first listened to it (at the end of part four) - it still does.

Nathan - thanks for this record. So, where to get the Japanese CD? Gotta start searching!

My Highlights: Maybe Someday, Hey Indie Girl, Never Stop Wooing You, Seattle's Best

For more information, a link to the Japanese version of the album (which has four bonus tracks), the iTunes link and much more visit the Official Website!

Nathan thankfully also did a Q & A with PowerPopSquare:

Which artist or band would you like to see live but it's not possible anymore?

I want to say The Beatles when they were playing around with their later material in the studio, but that's kind of a cheat. I would have killed to see Jellyfish, Sugarbomb, Merrymakers... the list is too long (which is kind of depressing).

Is music important?

Eh, it's alright. : )

Which record grew the most for you (first you didn't like it at all, now it's one of you favorites)?

Back to Jellyfish again! Both of their albums had to do a little growing on me. When I first got into power pop, I kept hearing about how great Spilt Milk was, but the samples I heard didn't click with me for some reason. I gave it a second chance later and was completely blown away, and now it's probably in my top 5 favorite albums. After that, I tried to get into Bellybutton, but it seemed too tame compared to the insane pop piñata of Spilt Milk. It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered how great that one is in its own right.

If you were to be stranded on a desert island what five records would you take with you?

Now I actually have to put my money where my mouth is and come up with a Top  5? 

"Spilt Milk" by Jellyfish

"SMiLE" by Brian Wilson

"Magical Mystery Tour" by the Beatles

"Solid State Warrior" by Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.

Either "Rockin' the Suburbs" or "Songs For Silverman" by Ben Folds

Those aren't necessarily my favorites, but it's a good mix of things I love listening to and things I feel I can learn a lot from.

What was the golden era for pop music (The 60s/70s, The 80s/90s or 2000 - today) - and why? 

It'd be easy to say the 60s/70s and call it good, but that's probably too simple. There have been tons of insanely great pop since then, even if it's not in the mainstream. Although I guess the fact that great pop WAS the mainstream in the 60s and 70s means it really WAS the golden era. I'm probably overthinking this...

Which artists formed your musical direction?

The Beatles, Green Day, and the Monkees, weirdly enough. When I was growing up my dad would play a lot of Beatles records and my mom would play a lot of Monkees, and those things together made me develop an insatiable desire for adventurous, stupidly catchy pop music. When I was a little older, my brother would blast early Green Day albums in the room next to mine and I fell in love with short, high energy rock songs, too. 

What was it like to release your record "Emerald City Love Song"?

It's been a really great experience! I'd been sitting for years in my bedroom studio churning out songs sporadically that no one would hear, waiting for the right time to get serious and put a full album out there. One day I realized there was no "right" or "wrong" time, and that I was an idiot for not releasing anything yet. So I did! I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but the whole experience has been so ridiculously fun and satisfying and I've learned so much that I'm literally already demoing songs for a second album as we speak. (But it's gonna be quite a while, so please still buy the current one!)

Matt Nathanson - Modern Love

Modern Love is the seventh record of Matt Nathanson, an American singer-songwriter. I just discovered his music some days ago (thanks @ Denise). It's so surprisingly good that I don't want to wait and just present the music to you:

  

Highlights: Run, Modern Love, Faster

The Cry - The Cry

 

I can't even nearly say how often The Cry was recommended to me from different sources. And they were right.  

The Cry are somewhere between The Beach Boys, Jet, The Ramones and The Beatles, which means there's a highly enjoyable mix of 60s sound, punk and pop harmonies packed in 2 minute songs.

The Cry - The Cry (2011)

1. Down In The City 
2. Modern Cinderella
3. Waiting Around 
4. Sleeping Alone 
5. Forget It 
6. Think I'm In Love 
7. I Wanna Know 
8. Wouldn't Las
9. Alone In the Dark 
10. Be True 
11. Girl (I Wanna Know Your Name) 
12. Such A Bore 

It's available digitally at CDBaby and even on CD (only at No Idea Records - from Japan).

Farrah, David Myhr & Pugwash - Live in London (March 31)

If you're able to get there (I can't), mark your calendar on March 31 2012.

Farrah, David Myhr (Ex - The Merrymakers) and Pugwash will perform at The Borderline in London (7:00 PM).

You can buy tickets here or here. Find more information at Lojinx.com or at the facebook event page.

For those who can be there: I'm already insanely jealous.

You can listen to some of their newest songs below.

Pugwash - The Olympus Sound

Pugwash is a band I stumbled upon again and again in the last years. Haper from Popfair posted several times about them. I don't know why, but I ignored them for a long time. With their last record The Olympus Sound I had finally a listen. 

The Olympus Sound is their fifth full album. It was recorded at Abbey Road studios in London with guests like Ben Folds, Andy Partridge and David Gregory (from XTC).

If you like ELO (Answers On A Postcard, Here We Go Round Again), The Beatles (To The Warmth Of You), wall of sound (There You Are), powerpop (Fall Down), The Beach Boys (Be My Friend Awhile), Ben Folds on piano (Dear Belinda) - and beautiful harmonies than you really should list to The Olympus Sound.

Highlights: Every song. Really. Period.

One more thing: The track list is somewhat ... difficult:

Original tracklist:

1. Answers on a postcard
2. There you are
3. The warmth of you
4. Fall down
5. Be my friend a while
6. Dear Belinda
7. 15 Kilocycle tone
8. I don't like it but I gotta do it
9. Here we go 'round again
10. Such beauty thrown away
11. See you mine (Coda)
12. Four days

With the single Answers on a Postcard you get the B-Side Heal Me.
iTunes has also two exclusive bonus songs called You Can Build A House On Love and August Born.
Lojinx releases the record in Europe on April 2 2012 along with Heal Me ... and two completely new songs which gives you the following additional track list:

13. Heal me (bonus)
14. Happy again (bonus)
15. Waltz with me (bonus) 

It's simple, right?

I recommend buying the Lojinx CD version and if necessary the iTunes version, too (you can't buy the two exclusive iTunes tracks separately - thank you Apple ...).

The Shins - Port Of Morrow

Five long years after the last record of The Shins (2007: Wincing The Night Away) the new album is finally out. It's called Port Of Morrow.

James Mercer has the big problem of fighting against high expectations. I believed he can only lose, but he didn't:

The opener The Rifle's Spiral is a classic Shins song and it's some kind of Intro to Simple Song, which is also the first single. Simple Song is a huge grower of a song. At first listen I thought "It's okay, not bad". Now, some weeks later I can't stop listening. Stuck-in-my-head.

It's Only Life is pure ear candy. September is a lovely instant classic. No Way Down is some kind of new sound, something I really didn't expect from this record. I instantly liked this a lot. 

For A Fool is the kind of song you think you know it already form somewhere at first listen.

40 Mark Strasse has a BEAUTIFUL chorus.

The last song and also the title track - Port Of Morrow - is a return to old Shins sounds. It's not as memorable as most of the other songs of the album, but it has an unique sound.

Highlights: Simple Song, 40 Mark Strasse, It's Only Life, No Way Down

Here's the official video for Simple Song (like it a lot):

Ben Kweller - Go Fly A Kite

The new record of Ben Kweller - Go Fly A Kite - is out now (digital, CD and there's also a really nice vinyl/CD package - you can order it here).

Track list:
1. Mean To Me
2. Out The Door
3. Jealous Girl
4. Gossip
5. Free
6. Full Circle
7. Justify Me
8. The Rainbow
9. Time Will Save The Day
10. I Miss You
11. You Can Count On Me

It's a fab album - and it was really worth the wait. His fifth record is also the first record of his own record label The Noise Company.
Mean To Me is the first single - it's a classic Kweller song (which is meant to be a compliment!). Jealous Girl is my personal absolute favorite song from the record. It's in constant rotation.

Standout tracks: Jealous Girl, Full Circle, Free, The Rainbow, Mean To Me

  

Review: Vegas with Randolph - Above The Blue

Vegas with Randolph released their newest CD “Above The Blue” in August 2011. Both of the bands songwriters - John Ratts and Eric Kern - started in high school writing and performing songs. After a bunch of listens I can easily say: “Above The Blue” is a great album with perfect melodies.

Standout tracks are Above The Blue (reminds me a bit of Fountains Of Wayne, which is not a bad thing!), Some Time To Live (a powerpop track to love: upbeat, guitars, catchy chorus), Supergirl (it has Oh-la-la's! - and it would be a superb radio single), Marisa (a song that rocks out straight), The Tree Song (a beautiful little ballad)

The last third of the record is called Double Play. This is kind of a compilation or medley of short songs and song fragments. You find this for example also on The Beatles' Abbey Road. And this is really fun to listen. Even Though is a highlight of the whole record. It has strong Queen feeling in it.

Listen to the full record here: