Power Pop Lives
Here's Something Different
My mother-in-law had an idea to post transcripts from the show in the newsletter. The scripts I write for the show were originally really strict, which led to me being kind of stiff on the radio. I'm hoping they evolve to become more like conversational guidelines to keep the momentum going but not confine the whole show. But I also realized that I talk about some things in the show that you can't reference just through audio, so below is the script for today's show along with some links and such that might help build out the references. Have fun reading and listening.
Here to Listen 11/26
How many of you understand what Power Pop is? You’ll probably start to recognize a refrain in this show that I think a lot of genre assignments are tedious. But Power Pop is one of those genres I think describes a specific and instantaneous feeling through music. Let’s hear what Wikipedia says.
[Power Pop] incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and cheerful sounding music underpinned by a sense of yearning, l onging, despair, or self-empowerment.
If you’re not familiar, some popular Power Pop artists from the commercial peak of the genre include Cheap Trick, Nick Lowe, the Knack, and Todd Rundgren.
I’d of course rep Tommy Keene, but even in the heyday of the genre he was still of the underground. So was Big Star in the 70s, and they’re provably a perfect Power Pop band.
I think Power Pop is seeing some kind of revitalization or reawakening, much of it in bands adjacent to punk and hardcore who may be getting older and inclined to more melody in their music.
Today we have a slate of bands and solo artists that I think represent fundamentals of the melancholy and buoyancy of Power Pop. Some of them lean country, some shoe-gazier, others even bordering on pop punk. All of them guitar forward.
Here’s Dazy, a band out of Richmond, VA with “Every Little Thing.”
After Dazy, that was Militarie Gun with “Sway Too.” Ian Shelton from Militarie Gun also commands the powerviolence band Regional Justice Center.
The Dazy song has a powerful reference to the high point of Power Pop: fuzzy guitars, harmonizing leads, twelve-string chime (even if there isn’t one, it sounds like it).
The whole band singing harmony in the bridge of “Sway Too” is something we should normalize in guitar music.
Ok, more music. The next song I like to think of as a “what if Everclear and Oasis wrote a song together.” This is Steve Marino with “Got You (In My World Now).”
That was “Down that Road Again” by The Berries, introducing some twang to the playlist, and before that was Angel Du$t with “Racecar.” That song is off of Angel Du$t’s album Brand New Soul that just came out. This and their previous album Yak: a Collection of Truck Songs are endlessly creative pieces of music. Angel Du$t comes from the Pop Wig label collective. Justice Tripp who sings for Angel Du$t also fronts Trapped Under Ice who some credit with revitalizing a heavier New York style Hardcore music. I prefer the Angel Du$t stuff, but it’s all good and points to his honesty as a musician.
I have this rule of thumb that music which seems out of context or without influence is really disruptive to listen to. In a song I want to hear what a band was listening to when they were writing. Influence isn’t unoriginal. One of my favorite books is Reality Hunger by David Shields. The whole book is a collage of excerpts from other texts and some original to the author, but all you have for reference is a series of end notes citing where each excerpt is from. Influence is admiring.
This is “Apartment” by Wish Kit, and maybe not, but I bet they were listening to a lot of Dinosaur Jr.
There’s something about Power Pop as a genre that just immediately fits my temperament. It has this tense but beautiful balance between sadness and playfulness and joy. Each time I listen to a song along these lines I have a feeling like “well, I can’t go back to that feeling again,” and then I listen to the same song or another of the kind and have the exact same feeling after it ends again.
The next song “American Record” by Liquid Mike has a few lyrics that I think take issue with the exact opposite of Power Pop, music that is emotionless.
After “American Record” that was Wishy with “Too True”, the stand out of this playlist for me, and after that “Irreversible Motion” by the band Martha off of their album Please Don’t Take Me Back.
There’s something about a Northern English accent that acts as a guarantee for me to enjoy a band, especially if it’s audible. Martha is from Durham, and the provincial syllables in the vocals add this extra layer of sincerity to their music. I’m hearing them, not what they think people want to hear.
We’re getting close to the end here.
Music is a strange kind of artwork. It can make you and I feel incredibly welcomed, but sometimes with equal parts melancholy. It’s affirming of some of our strongest emotions, but also providing no explanation for them, just friendship.
Too me, Power Pop is one of those genres that is full of this ball of emotional content that puts joy riding shotgun to feelings of failure, or sorrow and success are sharing the same seat on the bus.
Overall, music should be making us feel stuff or validating the way we already feel about life, and not necessarily giving us any rhyme or reason for why things happen the way they do.
Up next we have the band Hurry with ”Didn’t Have to Try,” then Spirit Night with “So Long.”
That was “Your Side” by the Beth’s. Speaking of influence, Spirit Night may have some Sugar-era Bob Mould familiarity to some of you.
“Your Side” is off of the Beth’s album Expert in a Dying Field that came out last year and inverted my world. I remember reading some music blog on my lunch break in the work truck and it was described as a modern power pop album, so I listened to the title track and turned to my buddy Harry, slumped into my seat, covered my face and said “jesus, what the hell is this,” and I’ve since been a super fan of The Biths, speaking of hearing accents. I encourage anyone to watch their live film Auckland, New Zealand, 2020, especially their performance of the song “Out of Sight.”
Let’s listen to “Expert in a Dying Field” too and maybe you’ll hear why that hit so hard as a new sound for me.
This was Here to Listen on 107.7 WVEW in Brattleboro. I’m Gabriel.
Thanks for listening.
Here’s “Cramps” by Slow Pulp. Have a good Sunday.
If you want to continue the discussion, send me an email or put it through the snail mail
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