Sean McMahon is Workman Song, and this one could possibly be heard as the 2017 equivalent, in scope of message, to the earnest, is he serious, 70’s cheese pop anthem by Norman Greenbaum, “Spirit in the Sky”, though the sound itself is more in the vain of old Elton John, or Nilsson…or at least it is early on. After about a minute it morphs from sparse piano ballad with a metronomic beat to a fat, practically glam rock Mott the Hoople sound-wall namely one with all “All the Young Dudes” spray painted on it. It’s a small epic.
Month: October 2017
Tennis “I Miss That Feeling”
Singer Alaina Moore said she channelled her inner Karen Carpenter on this one, an ode to her personal anxiety. And while it is gorgeously imbued with KC’s immaculate heartbreak, it also brings to mind both Saint Etienne and Todd Rundgren, which is to say it’s melodic and completely swoonworthy and could be timestamped anywhere from 1972- now. It’s off Tennis’s forthcoming ep “We Can Die Happy”, and is seriously one of the finest songs these guys have ever done.
Tearjerker “Getting By”
Here’s some lush post rock/dreampop beauty courtesy of Toronto’s Tearjerker. It’s evocative, and desperate, and probably not a good idea to listen to if you are feeling low because it may trigger floods of tears…but you know what though, it’s worth it, so yeah just grab a tissue or sleeve, and put your headphones on.
Isaac Vallentin “Dear Jesus”
“Dear Jesus where’d you learn to talk to girls like that?”, Isaac croons and twangs in admiration, befuddlement, and something else completely indescribable. This sounds like a lovelorn, or maybe life-lorn Hank Williams, thrown in a blender with the fifties chestnut “I Only Have Eyes for You” in some bizarro alternate universe and is hard to forget once you’ve heard it…meaning it’s damn good.
The Yada Yada Yadas “Oceans”
While the Yadas bio mentions the influences of Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Flaming Lips, “Oceans” has all the earmarks of the classic mid-western power pop sound, namely it’s melodic, hook-laden and features a big fat guitar line. It brings to mind the kind of thing so heartwarmingly served up over the years by Material Issue, and Cheap Trick, as well as easterners, the Gigolo Aunts. The Yadas hail from Durham, England so not sure if they’ve indulged in any of that stuff, but no matter, this thing can stand among the giants proudly.
Lauren Ruth Ward “Well, Hell”
This song is trouble. The vocal sounds both like a maniacal Brenda Lee ( country legend from back in the day) and an actual freight train, and can be likened to the sensation of getting pummeled in the face for 2 minutes, then slowly sliding down a wall, which is to say it totally kicks ass.
Small Talks “Come Back and Haunt Me”
Hey you quiet/loud crunchy guitar 90’s alternative throwback, I have a crush on you and can’t take you off repeat…but anyway…Small Talks are out of Myrtle Beach, Florida, and this one is kind of like peak era Juliana Hatfield with uh…balls (seriously), and is exceedingly great.
Snow in Mexico “Thirteen”
Suggesting the Pet Shop Boys at their most lost, and ineffably pretty, “Thirteen” is solely comprised of synth and sadness, and unquestionably built for staring wistfully out train windows, and playing on repeat.
Album Review : The Bomber Jackets “Kudos to The Bomber Jackets”
Ed Zed on the timeless, wry, & disappointed post-punk pop greyness of The Bomber Jackets…
Imagine if an austere 80s / 90s British TV police drama made an album. Cracker or something like that. It’s tempting to think that Robbie Coltrane’s cynical title character might have created the album in question using various yard sale synths and a 4-track during his younger, marginally more optimistic days before becoming an overweight jaded detective, but I don’t mean that.I mean if the show itself made an album. Its whole environment – the concrete skies, the whimpering tea machine, the energetically melancholy whine of the rusted playground swing and every one of the poor bastards who’s suffered through the monochrome mire of Cracker‘s world, week in, week out. That album might sound something like Kudos to The Bomber Jackets. I mean that as a sincere compliment. Buy it.
Glorious Plastic Love Rubbish: A Love Note
“My songs are like Bic razors, they’re for fun, for modern consumption. People can discard them like a used tissue afterwards. They can listen to it, like it, discard it, then turn onto the next. Disposable pop.”
Freddie Mercury speaking in interview circa late 70’s.
I love that quote. Can totally imagine Freddie delivering it, and adding a “do you understand Darling?” with a flourish after he says it. It describes the true core essence of pop music…buuuut of course some songs are more disposable than others. I mean, there are very few people on earth who would label the average Queen song as disposable (although, we could ostensibly nominate “Body Language”, and I’m pretty sure Freddie would agree). Fact is, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, and ” some girl’s mothers are bigger than other girl’s mothers”…which lands us here. One of the great things about the ’80s and early ’90s was that any crazy piece of whatever could end up in the chart. No matter how off the wall, cheesy, unapologetically ludicrous, drowned in lush earnestness, or buried in chocolate coated jellybeans and sprinkles something was, if it had a chorus, an eye-catching video or a picture sleeve it had the potential to become a hit, especially in the UK. Throughout the ’80s especially, there ran a seemingly endless stream of shameless tunes in garish colors, that if they weren’t pop songs would have been action figures, anime characters or bowls of multi-colored, sugared cereal. There were twisted-tacky euro-tastic anthems ( the earnest WTF*ckedness of Falco’s “Sound of Musik”), frothy fat-synthed joys with anonymous female vocals literally built for the radio ( The Maisonettes “Heartache Avenue”, Rah Band’s “Clouds Across the Moon”) and belligerent teenage girls, chanting homemade slogans, and giving you the finger ( Shampoo, Annabella of Bow Wow Wow). It was all cheese to the core, but like really, really good cheese.
“A bip bam-boogie and a booga-rooga, my cassette’s just like a bazooka”. HELL YES IT IS GIRL.
We no longer have to live in the vacuum of coolness. As a result of streaming, and YouTube, we now live in a musical world without context. There is no need to hide in the closet anymore. If you like trashy pop music, you can like it openly. You can love it out loud. You don’t ever have to start a sentence with ,”I know it’s cheesy/bad/lame but I really like (insert song you hate yourself for liking here)”. You can say, “know what, I f*cking love Mambo No.5″…actually no, don’t say that, because in no universe is it okay to like that song, but anything else you got, OKAY. Take ownership, you are free.
No, it will never be okay to like this song.
And with that here is a Spotify playlist featuring the aforementioned wonders plus a some other equally magnetic pop things from back in the day when the charts were truly the wild west. And hey, I’d love to hear what your favorite cheese tune is, and why the hell you like it. I promise I won’t tell anyone.
PICKING UP ROCKS 