March Roundup.

Mike Barnett-Scattered Debris. Mike Barnett is back with his one-man Traveling Wilburys-inspired roots rock, and this collection is a mix of new and re-recorded previously-released tunes he's done with other projects such as his Barnett/Gurley outing several years ago, hence the title. He has favorites such as Salim Nourallah, Joe Reyes and the aforementioned Dennis Gurley helping out here, and the optimistic (poptimistic?) tunes here are the best - the easygoing "I'm Gonna Be OK" and "I Hope" are highlights. But it's all as comfortable as an old pair of shoes.

iTunes



Dave Kuchler-It's Pronounced... New Jersey's Dave Kuchler is an old school power popper, and when I say "old school" I'm talking about the fact that he's had these songs kicking around for 25-30 years as life got in the way before he could put them on a record. Also during this time Kuchler was in the overlooked band Soul Engines, and some of these were tracks written for the aborted followup to their classic album Closer Still. Thankfully these tunes have seen the light of day and fans of Marshall Crenshaw and Brian Jay Cline will enjoy the jangly roots pop of "If I Saw You" and "Better Things to Do", which fit in nicely with his cover of "When You Walk in the Room". Kuchler's also not averse to throwing in some horns and some R&B flourishes here and there and he'll take you back to a time when the Jersey shore meant Springsteen and Southside Johnny and not Snooki and The Situation.

Bandcamp



VA-Garden of Earthly Delights: An XTC Celebration. Keith Klingensmith and Futureman Records have done it again with another lavish (49 tracks!) and comprehensive tribute project, this time taking on the legendary XTC. As you'd come to expect it has a star-studded lineup of indie power pop with nearly 2/3 of the acts present having been featured on this site over the years. So rather than single out individual tracks (there are a few "re-imaginings" but most are fairly faithful to the originals), I'll just go with a few of my general impressions. One, it's been a long time since I've listed to a lot of XTC as I did in the late 80s and early 90s and it's great to hear these tunes again. Another is that their songs (especially Andy Partridge's) are fairly idiosyncratic (often in their "Englishness" for lack of a better term). So whereas a lot of the covers on say, Futureman's Sloan tribute sounded like the cover artists making them their own, here no matter who's singing it's tough not to hear Partridge and Moulding. Still it's a great chance to hear some of your favorite artists tackle some pop classics.

Bandcamp



Sunbourne Rd-Teenage Lyrics. It's great to hear power pop from around the world, and Italy's brought us some great acts like Radio Days and The Labradors. You can add Sunbourne Rd to the list with their Beatlesque full-length debut Teenage Lyrics. While the raved-up opener "Baby! Baby! Baby!" earns its exclamation marks, "Different Life" and "Fire from the Sun" are mid-tempo standouts with a hint of Lennon. And the wall of sound of "Scars" brings ELO to mind. They have a couple of prior EPs under their belt and I plan to check them out as you should too.

iTunes



Bird Streets-Ghosts EP. John Brodeur's teamup with Jason Falkner brought us the brilliant 2018 Bird Streets album, one of the year's best. While this isn't the proper follow-up to the debut (not sure Falkner is even involved here), Brodeur has released four new tracks he's had kicking around for a while, and they're pretty good. The real highlight is the final track "Fallout", which is on par with the best of the full-length and "Round My Way" is a punchy classic rock-sounding track.

Bandcamp



Travel Lanes-On. Frank Brown is back with his third Travel Lanes album, and it's a tight 8-song collection of quality rock that finds the mean between Tom Petty and Elvis Costello, or perhaps an American Graham Parker. Brown moves from the straight-ahead rock of "True and Tried" to rockabilly of "Answer My Prayers" to the Americana of "It's Time". And "Big Heart" comes right from the Elvis C ballad playbook. Sometimes it's good to stay in your Lanes.

iTunes

Friday Roundup.

Mike Barnett-Everybody Gets to Dream. Mike Barnett has been entertaining us for the last several years with his brand of George Harrison/Traveling Wilburys-style pop/rock, and on his latest he finds a kindred spirit in producer Salim Nourallah, whose Hit Parade was my favorite album of 2012 and was itself a Beatlesque tour de force. Nourallah applies his sonic flourishes to Barnett's heretofore low-fi sound and the result is Barnett's best album to date. Opener "Who Loves You Blue?" is a nod to Harrison himself, both in the title and with Barnett's use of slide guitar, "I Could Fall" and "Late at Night" benefit from the Nourallah production with some jaunty keyboard use, while the title track is one of Barnett's most contemplative and sublime tracks. There isn't a bad track here, and the lovely piece of chamber pop "To You" closes things out with a smile on your face. Don't miss out on this one.

CD Baby | iTunes



Marble Party-Plush Up. Marble Party is a San Francisco band with a power pop sound that's both modern and retro. The driving lid-lifter "Afterglow" aligns them with the Weezers of the world, "About Her" channels Squeeze and the extraordinary "Song from the Coast" with its tinges of psychedelia recalls The Beatles by way of The Red Button. Never afraid to genre-hop, they turn to country rock to fine results on "Stuck in the Middle", complete with steel guitar, and close things out with the piano-based Jellyfish-esque "Prove Me Wrong". Showing a clever mastery of various power pop styles, Marble Party is one of my favorite finds of 2014 to date.

CD Baby | iTunes

Two for Tuesday, 10/30/12

Kurt Baker-Brand New Beat. The frontman of The Leftovers has been quite busy lately as a solo artist with various EPs and cover collections, but this is his first proper full-length release of new material. There may never be a more appropriately titled opening track this year than "Hit the Ground" with its lyric "we hit the ground running" as that's exactly what Baker does here with some high-energy power pop. "Don't Go Falling in Love" is another winner, which boasts some clever lyrics about a Halloween party (how timely) and an infectious chorus. Although for the most part the tempos are fast and the guitars rocking, Baker also shows off some skill with the slower tunes, such as "She's Not Sorry". But mostly this is old-school power pop done quite well.

Bandcamp | iTunes

Willow-Charcoal and Blue. Willow is the latest project from our old friend Mike Barnett, whom we've featured as a solo artist and part of Barnett/Gurley. If you liked his earlier releases, you'll love this one as it provides a steady dose of jangle. This time around, he's joined by Jerry & Denise Risner, the latter of whom provides some outstanding backing vocals on Wilbury-esque tracks like "Holiday" and "Good Love is Hard to Find". We also get two versions of the fine "Counting on You", one with Barnett on lead vocals and the other with Denise Risner. Once again, Barnett proves the master of low-key, front-porch-0style jangly pop, whatever his band name.

CD Baby | iTunes

Midweek Roundup.

An American Underdog-Always on the Run. While you may not recognize the band name, you should recognize the man behind the band - in this case, Michigan's Andy Reed, who has followed up his excellent 2008 release Fast Forward with a backing band this time around. So while the circumstances may be different, the general sound isn't as Reed & Co. continue to mine the Jon Brion/David Grahame/Emmit Rhodes/Elliott Smith pop territory. The bright power pop of "Your Reign is Over" channels Brendan Benson, "Portland" makes nice use of keyboards in a poppy Elvis Costello-meets-Jason Falkner track, and the whimsical title track is a tour de force, sprinkling bits of McCartney, Jellyfish and Jon Brion into a pure pop confection. Reed keeps getting better with each release, and might be ready to take his place among the David Grahames and Michael Carpenters of the genre. This one's a must for my regular readers.

CD Baby | SoundCloud | iTunes

Buttonjaw-Things You Should Know. It was a pleasant surprise stumbling upon this Portland band, who have given us a fine debut disc that brings to mind The Posies and The Gin Blossoms. "Polly Nearly" is nearly a perfect album opener, a catchy, guitar-driven number with hooks to spare, "One-Track Mind" has a twisting melody and some great guitar work, and the midtempo "Breakdown" sounds like it just came off a rock-radio station from the 90s. These guys know their way around a tune, and the best part is that the proceeds from the album are going to help build a safe house in Ghana for trafficking victims. Good music and a good cause, can't argue with that.

CD Baby | iTunes



Mike Barnett-Bigger Than This. Have no fear - your FDA-required minimum daily supplement of jangle is about to be filled once again by Missouri's Mike Barnett, who's back to the solo path after his excellent 2009 album with Dennis Gurley. In case you're not familiar, the touchstone for Barnett's sound is Wilbury-era George Harrison, and opener "The Love I Have for You" is a catchy, jangly gem. "Motorcycle" treads somehwere between the 60s and 70s and recalls Bobby Sutliff, and "Life's Better" sounds like a lost Roy Orbison classic. Jangleheads, this one's for you.

CD Baby | iTunes

CD of the Day, 8/23/09: Barnett/Gurley-Evidence

Jangle lovers and lovers of harmony, you're in for a treat. Mike Barnett, the Missourian whose 2006 release Nowhere Tennessee was featured on this site, has teamed up with kindred spirit Dennis Gurley to release Evidence and answer the music question, "What if the Everly Brothers were jangle poppers?"

Barnett on his previous albums has managed to meld a sound that's equal parts George Harrison/Badfinger and Steve Forbert/Bobby Sutliff, and with Gurley, a similarly-styled roots rocker on board, the synergy here is on a level with what Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg did with The Red Button. The proceedings begin with the laid-back, silky-sounding "Elusive Smile", fronted by Barnett, followed by Gurley's "Need a Little Sunshine", a jangly number that also features some fine slide guitar work from Barnett. "She's a Mystery" is a wonderful acoustic-based number that gets double duty on the disc, with both Barnett's fully-produced version and a version of the song with Gurley on vocals as a bonus track.

The guys really hit their stride with the best track on the disc, the aptly-titled "Jingle Jangle", in which they trade vocals and harmonies awash in 12-sting guitars and harmonica. Pure jangly bliss. Elsewhere, the spunky "Hard Thing to Do" brings to mind the recently-reviewed Brian Jay Cline, "A Little at a Time" is positively Byrdsian (Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds that is), and "You Saved Me" is top-notch balladry from Barnett. The album closes with Gurley's excellent "Somebody Else", another jangly standout. Hopefully, this review will be all the Evidence you need to avail yourself of this understated treat.

CD Baby | MySpace

Here's a video for "Somewhere Else", peformed live:

CD of the Day, 6/28/06: Mike Barnett-Nowhere Tennessee

OK, I've built up a bit of a backlog of good discs that I need to start blogging about, and over the next several days I hope to get several posts up. This one I've come to be inspired to blog about much the way I have for many others: by having it pop up randomly on the iPod.

I'm speaking of Mike Barnett's Nowhere Tennessee, a somewhat unassuming but quite tuneful sophomore effort from this Missourian. Barnett has a real interesting sound; it's kind of a mix between classic 70s-style British pop and rootsy American pop. So at times here, like on the opener "I Hope", he sounds like solo George Harrison (Barnett in fact had a song titled "George Harrison" on his 2003 debut Shoes & Gadgets, and "I Hope" reminds me of "Devil's Radio"), and there's also a Joey Molland/Badfinger influence working here as well. But at other times, he sounds like a poppier Steve Forbert on the title track and "My Fault, My Bad". Other influences/similarities I hear are Bobby Sutliff, Tom Petty, and Walter Clevenger.

If Barnett has his own website or myspace page, he's keeping them pretty well hidden, so I'll direct to you to the CD Baby page for Nowhere Tennessee here. I don't see the album on any of the digital download services, but Shoes & Gadgets can be found on eMusic (haven't checked that one out personally yet, but I will be). My recommendation here, though, is to go Nowhere fast.