What a year it has been for Simone Berk! Already she has co-written and sung lead on WhistleStop Rock's single "Queen of the Drive-In", recorded an extraordinary version of "He Knows I Love Him Too Much" for the Goffin & King Foundation ISO BOOTH Cover Competition (she won!), and released a couple of tremendous singles with her power pop band Kid Gulliver. Now we can add a new Kid Gulliver music video to all of this excitement. "Carousel" was originally released in 2018 as part of Kid Gulliver's SPREE EP. The band decided to bring it back this fall as its latest single, and a brand-new video has been produced for the occasion. On the heels of the more straight-forward power pop of "Susie Survived Chemotherapy" and "i wanna be a pop star", "Carousel" is a dreamy and quite beautiful number. I love how the pretty melodies and tenderness of Berk's vocal only heighten the melancholy of David Armillotti's lyrics. The contrast between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment is a timeless theme in art, and here Kid Gulliver explores it in a moving and compelling way. It's a dandy little pop song that absolutely merited a rebirth in 2020. If you like what you hear, I recommend checking out the full EP!
Don't call it a concept album, but Take Me Back To Planet Earth sure finds Muck and the Mires affected by the world we're living in right now. This mini-album was written while all the band members were under lockdown and coping with the frustration of not being able to play shows and entertain live crowds. With nothing else to do, Muck and the gang opted to go the 1967 Beatles route and become a studio band! So they wrote six brand-new songs, which they were eventually able to record at Q-Division Studios in Boston with Matthew Tahaney. The tapes were then shipped off to the legendary Jim Diamond, who proceeded to work his mixing and mastering magic. And so here we are!
Out now on Rum Bar Records, Take Me Back To Planet Earth is a vintage Muck and the Mires high energy garage rock and roll pop extravaganza. It was originally intended to lean in a power pop direction. But as these songs came to life, the band's love for the British Invasion and '60s garage rock ultimately prevailed. If these guys had the COVID blues, they sure didn't allow that to subdue their spirit. This is a super-fun collection of upbeat numbers that will have you dancing around the house and looking forward to the day when you can experience these songs live in the company of other human beings. Lyrically, Muck and the Mires have never been more topical. While not specifically inspired by the pandemic, the title track is about feeling alienated from the modern world and longing for simpler times. Similarly, "Six O'Clock Baby" explores technology addiction and the decline of real social interaction. Elsewhere, the band opines on the strange nature of modern love with the companion pieces "She Blocked My Number" and "Zoom Breakup". While these songs could not be more of a soundtrack to our present moment, I have a feeling that they will be very relevant well beyond 2020. Imagine a person from 30 or even 15 years ago time traveling to today and witnessing a world where relationships can be canceled with one touch on a smartphone and people gather in groups to stare at their screens individually. They probably would think they were on a different planet!
While a few of its songs do say profound things about modern-day society, Muck and the Mires have approached Take Me Back To Planet Earth with a sense of humor (that cover art is a hoot!) and their usual commitment to making music that is meant to be thoroughly enjoyed. This isn't serious stuff. This is rock and roll, and it's absolutely great! Familiarize yourself with these songs now and be prepared to dance and sing along when it's finally safe to go out and see bands again. You know that when Muck and the Mires return to the stage, people are gonna go nuts!
In very recent years, I've found my tastes in punk rock gravitating towards bands that don't take themselves at all seriously. I'm really into bands that are totally stupid, but in a smart sort of way. With that in mind, it all makes sense that a new Nerve Button album was exactly what I needed. I love the band's mix of a classic '77 sound and lyrics that fall into the tongue-in-cheek/of questionable taste/"That's so wrong!" category. Volume 2 is a super fun record full of dumb, obnoxious songs that ought to be played loud enough to irritate neighbors, passersby, spouses, and family pets. You can hear that throwback Canadian (by way of the U.K.) first wave sound on some tracks and a more overt glam influence on others ("Pink Jellybean", "Queen of the Tarts"). In a year in which angry and/or political punk music has been omnipresent (and not without good reason), songs about stolen underwear, getting sloshed, liking it "up the chuck", and the sound life philosophies that will keep you off of Dateline NBC are a welcome reprieve from all of the heavy seriousness of the moment. But while Nerve Button might like to goof around, its music is anything but a joke. Recorded live off the floor, Volume 2 is an absolute ripper of a record. The tunes are killer, and that guitar tone ought to be the envy of any garage/punk group. You may know some of these guys from famous infamous bands they've played in, but Nerve Button ought to be huge in its own right. Volume 2 is hands down the best punk rock album I've heard all year. Get it from Wanda Records!
Hands down, my favorite song released this year is a cover of John Prine's "In Spite Of Ourselves" recorded by Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis. No matter how bleak life gets or how doomed this world seems to be, one listen to this recording always gives me a reason to smile. Palmer had been wanting to record this song for years, but it just never quite fit in with any of the records he was making. But once it became apparent that 2020 had been "canceled", Palmer reached out to his good friend Ellis and asked her if she would record "In Spite Of Ourselves" with him. She quickly said yes, and Palmer brought in his pal Zack Sprague to round out the band. In the wake of Prine's death from COVID-19 in April, the Geoff & Lucy version of "In Spite Of Ourselves" proved to be both an extraordinary tribute and a ray of hope in very dark times. Then came the delightful news that this was just the beginning of the Palmer and Ellis duets!
"In Spite Of Ourselves" was originally intended to be one half of a single on Stardumb Records. But these two had so much fun collaborating on recording and chatting about music over Zoom happy hours that they decided to just keep going! Not knowing for sure if any labels would release it, they made an eight-song mini-album. Out today on Stardumb Records on 10" vinyl and Rum Bar Records on CD, Your Face Is Weird includes six covers and two original songs. The idea of these two individuals forming an intercontinental super duo is beyond exciting. They are two of my favorite people in music today. They both have roots in the pop-punk scene and have since grown into two of our finest modern-day creators of pure pop songs. What I love about this project is that these songs are not bound to any specific genre. The idea was for Palmer and Ellis to just record some songs they loved that would be fun to cover. They also wrote a couple of originals that perfectly fit the vibe of the album.
If you're a fan of these two artists as I am, you surely had high hopes for Your Face Is Weird. Well I'm here to tell you: it more than lives up to expectations! The original number "SWIM" matches the pure delightfulness and joyful vibes of "In Spite Of Ourselves". It's a sweet pop song not too far removed from Lucy and the Rats - but with an obvious Geoff Palmer touch as well. In these cynical times, we need songs like this that bask in the wonders of falling deeply in love. It will warm my heart to no end if someone makes this their wedding song. That chorus ("Do that thing you do where you move slowly...") is nothing short of magical. It gives me the feels every single time! The other original "Crash" is a high-energy rocker reminiscent of the Beach Boys and first album era Connection. It's just so much fun. If Mike Love had sung co-lead on a Nikki and the Corvettes track, it would have sounded an awful lot like this! And with this album being three-quarters cover songs, it's fortunate that they're all terrific. Where else are songs by Kieran Kane, Blag Dahlia, Burt Bacharach, and Sam Cooke going to sound like they were meant to be on the same album? I love that these two weren't afraid to take on beloved songs that some people would probably consider untouchable. Seriously: no one will ever do "In Spite of Ourselves" better than John Prine and Iris DeMent. But Palmer and Ellis have come darn close, and in the process they've turned countless individuals into John Prine fans. And while Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know" is one of the most perfect pop songs ever written, Palmer and Ellis just might have made my second-favorite version ever (and that's no slight to The Speedways or Tracey Ullman!). How do you top Sam Cooke's "Having a Party"? Well, you don't. But if you're Geoff Palmer and Lucy Ellis, you work up a super fun version that essentially serves as a theme song for the entire album.
It can be hard to view the glass as half full (or even a quarter full) in a year like 2020. But when Geoff Palmer found himself with time to kill, a door opened to a duet with Lucy Ellis that quickly turned into a full-fledged musical partnership. Had 2020 gone a different way, this dream pairing of pop titans may have never occurred. As expected, these two sound great together. And Your Face Is Weird definitely gives you a taste of what those virtual happy hours were like! To wish for a sequel seems a little greedy, so I'll just focus on enjoying one of this year's true feelgood albums. Vinyl is available in Europe from Stardumb Records and in the USA from The Machine Shop. You can also get the CD from Rum Bar Records and the cassette from Memorable But Not Honorable!
The Beatersband out of Italy operates under a cool concept. Formed in 2018, this trio aims to modernize the vocal music of the '50s and '60s by re-arranging it in a punk/pop/rock and roll style. In its choice of covers, the band especially emphasizes the rock and roll, girl groups, and doo wop music of the pre British Invasion years (1955-63). On its first release last year, the band produced a lively set of covers of Ritchie Valens, The Crystals, The Ronettes, Paul Anka, Bobby Freeman, and Elvis. Now The Beatersband are back with a second volume of covers. This time, the group tackles such songs as the Goffin & King/Shirelles classic "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", Neil Sedaka's 1960 smash "Calendar Girl", the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby", and The Chantels' early girl group favorite "Maybe". Expanding their repertoire from just American music, The Beatersband also take on 1960s European hits by i Ribelli and Francoise Hardy as well the folk standard "If I Had A Hammer" in the style of Rita Pavone's cover version. I don't think I've ever reviewed a cover band before, but I really love the idea of this band and the way it's executed. Singer/guitarist Donatella Guida has a lovely, appealing voice. And while all of these songs have been given fresh arrangements, they retain the soul of the original versions. Whether you're into punk rock and roll or just plain rock and roll, you are sure to enjoy The Beatersband. I mean, come on: who doesn't love oldies?!
The mighty Heap returns! Legends of New York City punk rock and roll since the mid-'90s, Heap have a new self-titled EP out on Rave On Records. Produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, this three-songer is truly all hits and no shit! On this collection of tunes, Tim Heap shows why he's the patron saint of fuck-ups, beautiful losers, tough luck cases, and perpetual outcasts everywhere. This man is one of the most underrated songwriters out there. He continues to combine boozy rock and roll a la Johnny Thunders, The Replacements, and the Dogmatics with a clever, insightful, and devastatingly funny lyrical vision. "No Mas" is of course inspired by the famous Roberto Duran quote. On this trashy rock and roll meets power pop number, Heap reflects on "things that used to be that aren't anymore". Lyrics like "I've never been the right amount of drunk...or punk" are truly classic Heap! "Renting" is literally about renting - and figuratively about how we're all fighting an uphill battle until the day we die. Who can't relate to that? The high-energy rocker "You Remind Me of Me" is one of those "it's funny because it's true" type songs - exploring how we often take an immediate dislike to people who remind us of the worst parts of ourselves. "You remind me of me...when I'm being an asshole" has to be the line of the year!
It has been a number of years since Heap released new music, and clearly the band had some great material stockpiled for this new release. Any of these three songs could have been an A-side in its own right. Together, these tracks form an absolutely unstoppable release. Tim Heap has written a trio of profound songs touching on the universal themes of impermanence and self-loathing. And as always, he and his band mates (George Chambers on lead guitar, Paul Koenigsberg on bass, and Frank Saitta on drums) demonstrate how to play rock and roll with hooks and heart. If this EP leaves you wanting more, head on over to Bandcamp and dig into the classic Heap long players Don't Call Us We Already BrokeUp and Heap on the Cheap!
Out today from Boston foursome Field Day, "Everything, Everyone"/"The Next Day" is essentially a pair of singles released on one 45. Field Day features former Boston Globe rock critic Joan Anderman and her longtime colleague Dan Zedek on guitar and vocals. As you might expect, this duo's songwriting and musical aesthetic bring to mind the classic indie rock of '80s and '90s Boston. These new songs were recorded at Boston's Q Division studios with Rafi Sofer. What makes this such an appealing release is that the two tracks are so different from each other.
"Everything, Everyone", featuring Anderman and Zedek on dual vocals, has a warm, jangly feel to it that I would describe as textbook indie pop. I like that the song is on the mellow side but still packs a solid punch. Anderman and Zedek are a likable pairing on vocals, and the lead guitar on the track is absolutely dazzling. If you fondly recall late '80s/early '90s college radio, you need this song in your digital collection. "The Next Day", featuring Anderman on lead vocals, proceeds in a darker, more mysterious direction. The band achieves an extraordinary tone on this slow-burning rocker. The song is cool, elegant, and haunting all at the same time. I love the way the hard-striking bass lines and angular guitars support Anderman's captivating vocals and lyrics. I've been completely fascinated by this song - hanging on every word and taking it in as if it's a short film or story. I could not be more impressed. "The Next Day" is a true work of art. At no point could I just casually hear it in the background. I'm compelled to immerse myself in it.
"Everything, Everyone"/"The Next Day" is that rare pairing of four minute+ songs that don't drag. Each track unfolds into a beautifully developed work of passionate & literate rock. These tracks are being released as a limited-edition 7" record on Light of Day Records. They're also available via the usual streaming platforms. If you like what you hear, be sure to also check out Field Day's three excellent EPs via Bandcamp!
