Friday, April 30, 2021

Brad Marino - Looking For Trouble


All year long, I've been counting the days until the release of Brad Marino's second full-length album! The album's first teaser single, "What Do You Know?", was released in January. A second teaser, "Even The Score", came out in March. This all led up to Looking For Trouble being perhaps my most highly anticipated album release of 2021. Well release day has finally arrived, and Looking For Trouble does not disappoint! Out today on CD on Rum Bar Records (with digital and vinyl releases from Spaghetty Town Records, Beluga Records, and Ghost Highway Recordings coming soon), Looking For Trouble is very much up to the tall task of topping Marino's superb debut Extra Credit. 

While Marino did enlist several talented friends (Craig Sala, Bobby Davis, Chris Barnard) to play on this release, he remains a veritable one-man band: playing guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums while producing and mixing the album himself. In classic Marino fashion, this is an album full of simple rock and roll songs with great lyrics and killer hooks. There aren't many people who do it better! What I enjoy about this album in particular is that it features a great variety of songs. No two tracks sound the same. Marino touches on just about every sub-style of rock and roll that he's ever been known for. That includes everything from twangy, Stonesy numbers ("Even the Score") to stripped-down rootsy rockers ("Taillights Fade") to upbeat British Invasion style pop hits ("Take Your Time") to Ramones-inspired earworms ("To Bleed") to top-notch surf rock instrumentals ("Tripwire") to vintage Brad Marino shots of power poppin' garage rock and roll ("Something For Nothing"). "Local Show" -- which will strike a chord with anyone who has ever endured the struggles of trying to make it in a band -- is one of Marino's finest songs to date. Also included are new mixes of a couple of old favorites: "False Alarm" and "At Night". When favorite artists of mine re-record old songs, I almost always find myself preferring the original versions. But I've got to hand it to Marino here: he managed to make both of these songs even better! These tracks bookend the album's outstanding second side. You've got to love a record that finishes just as strong as it starts! 

I love that Looking For Trouble is everything you could want from a Brad Marino album without being a copy of Extra Credit. Marino, who excels at blending no-nonsense rock and roll with catchy pop melodies, is very much in his element on this release. But the album also shows a progression in Marino's artistry. It's cool hearing him experimenting with new instruments (like slide guitar) and widening his stylistic repertoire. He shines not just as a songwriter but also as a singer and musician. And isn't that the whole point of making solo records? Looking For Trouble is so stacked with great tunes that I'm having a hard time choosing a favorite. Whether I'm in the mood for something poppy, punky, or straight-up rocking, this album always hits the spot. If you're looking for a modern-day example of what rock and roll is all about, it doesn't get much better than this.

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Pale Lips - After Dark (Rum Bar CD reissue)


I was recently contemplating how Rum Bar Records has worked with almost all of my favorite bands of the moment. With Hayley and the Crushers, The Speedways, The Cheap Cassettes, and Brad Marino already on the roster, I joked to myself that the only band missing was Pale Lips. And then, boom, out of the blue Lou announced he was reissuing Pale Lips' second album After Dark on CD! So yeah: my entire top five list of favorite current bands/artists is now in the Rum Bar family! It's no secret that Pale Lips are my favorite band and that After Dark was my favorite album of 2019. I probably don't need to write a whole new review of an album that I've previously praised at length. But here are my bullet points on this newest release of After Dark:

  • To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time After Dark has been released on compact disc outside of Japan. And that means that I'm enjoying it on CD for the first time ever. With warm weather in the air, these 12 tracks make for some Grade A car jams! 
  • I've discovered that I like this album just as much now as I did two years ago -- perhaps even more! I've had it on repeat as I drive around town. The first Pale Lips album Wanna Be Bad is very good. After Dark is great. 
  • Cooler people than I are huge fans. Rum Bar label mate Brad Marino calls After Dark one his favorite records of the last 10 years and cites it as an influence on his new album (which comes out on CD today, by the way!). 
  • Ilona Szabo is a rock god. Seriously: if you wanna hear how rock and roll guitar ought to be played, give this album a listen. 
  • The lyrics on this record are smart, funny, and very worthy of closer inspection. 
  • My list of favorite tracks has changed (a little). I still consider "I'm A Witch" and "That Old Ghost Don't Lie" to be my top two songs from After Dark, followed by "Cosmic Love". But "All My Baby Brought Back Was The Blues" is gaining on the pack fast. What a delightful and clever song! I'm also way more into "Hanky Panky Franky" than I used to be. And I have to say that "Hiding From the Moon" is one of the true underrated gems from the Pale Lips catalog. Now I better stop before I mention every song on the album! 

After Dark is out today on Rum Bar Records. All CD orders come with a fold-out mini-poster while supplies last. You know what to do!

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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Kid Gulliver - "Boy In A Bubble"


There aren't many sweeter phrases in the English language than "new Kid Gulliver single"! The Boston foursome has been on fire with its singles over the last couple of years. Its latest, "Boy In A Bubble" , is available now from the always wonderful Red On Records. Again Kid Gulliver delivers a should-be radio hit that combines ear candy melodies with tremendous lyrical substance. The feel of this track is a little bit different from some of the band's recent singles. My man Ralph Rivera compares it to some of The Cure's pop hits, and I'd say he's dead-on. It has a beautifully melancholic vibe to it featuring serene melodic guitars that blend perfectly with Simone's dreamy vocals. Lyrically, the song was inspired by the forced isolation brought on by the pandemic last year. This is a song that almost anyone will be able to relate to, but I imagine it will especially hit you hard if you live alone. Those hooks lines "Oh, how I wish I was kissed by the sun today/Oh, how I wish I was kissed by anyone today" definitely evoke the heyday of black-clad post-punk pop. And a deeper dive into David's lyrics finds him articulating the malaise of COVID isolation with chilling accuracy:

Electric light provides no warmth/
Two plastic arms that cannot love/
The sterile air I cannot smell/
The clock keeps time for nothing

That pretty much nails it, doesn't it? "Boy In A Bubble" is a haunting song, but a beautiful one as well. Part of the appeal of Kid Gulliver is the way David trusts Simone to bring his lyrics to life. The words and voice prove equally important. That, my friends, is true musical chemistry. This is a song about loneliness that will make you feel less alone in the world. In my book, it's Kid Gulliver's best single yet. And now I can't stop imagining David with big hair in the '80s!

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File Under: A Mutant Pop Tribute


Well if I went ahead and reviewed one Mutant Pop Records tribute, I suppose it would have been really bad form to not review the other one too! File Under: A Mutant Pop Tribute was released by Ramonescore Radio Records April 7 -- the very same day that 44 Golden Greats came out on Worst Idea Records. Adding the 19 songs on File Under to the 44 golden greats yielded 63 tracks of Mutant Pop celebration in one day. And I'm all for that!

File Under, compared to 44 Golden Greats, is definitely a little bit "pop-punkier". It also includes a Loblaws cover, which was the only omission from 44 Golden Greats that I considered complaining about. All in all, File Under is a really fantastic tribute to Mutant Pop's legacy and should not be overshadowed by 44 Golden Greats. The lineup represents some of the very best players from the current generation of pop-punk. Included are heavy hitters like J Prozac, Billy Putz, Grim Deeds, and Black Russians -- as well as my favorite present-day pop-punk band Vista Blue. As expected, there's lots of love here for Dirt Bike Annie, The Proms, and Kung Fu Monkeys -- who are each covered twice. But I also appreciate that this collection tackles some of the deep cut gems of the Mutant Pop roster (The Wallys, The Loblaws, The Catalogs, Somethingtons). While I'm ordinarily wary of pop-punk bands doing pop-punk versions of pop-punk songs, several bands pull that very thing off quite successfully here. Classic Pat covering The Loblaws' "Tossing and Turning" does not disappoint! Vista Blue's take on The Wannabes' "Saturday Night" draws a direct line of influence between those two bands. The Pembrokes (covering The Klopecs' "Alyson Hannigan"), Wild Sandals (The Catalogs' "Scrunchy"), and Rip Taylors (Spodie's "Brenda's Got A Devilock") all remain faithful to the original versions while adding plenty of their own flair. There are also a few tracks that surprised me a little. I love Atomic Treehouse's fully punked-up version of the Kung Fu Monkeys' "Luau All Night". Lesser Creatures somehow manage to make The Proms' "Spike A Da Punch" sound like a Sloppy Seconds song. Black Russians rock out Dirt Bike Annie's "Capable of Anything" with full-scale nuclear power. Parasite Diet's inspired rendition of After School Special's "Kitty Corner" makes me feel like I never fully appreciated how good that song was. 

As I look at great labels today like Monster Zero, Mom's Basement, OUTLOUD, Eccentric Pop, etc., it's clear that the legacy of Mutant Pop Records is the enduring community of pop-punk. Mutant Pop was (arguably) the first record label devoted entirely to promoting pop-punk as a musical aesthetic. A couple of decades later, there are enough excellent bands floating around to easily justify the existence of several labels specializing in pop-punk. Quite a few of those bands are represented on File Under. I could be a nitpicker and demand a third tribute to ensure that my homeboys Jake and the Stiffs and Explosive Kate are not overlooked. But I think I'll just leave well enough alone and commend both labels on a job well done. File Under, like 44 Golden Greats, is a swell deal for just a $5 download. You can also grab a CD for 8 bucks. All proceeds go directly to The American Association of Suicidology.

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Friday, April 23, 2021

Various artists - 44 Golden Greats


Had Poppy Robbie not double-dog dared me to tackle the 44-track Mutant Pop Records tribute compiled by Grath Madden and Chadd Derkins, I might not have even bothered. I have presumed that anyone who would be interested in hearing a quadruple album Mutant Pop tribute has already purchased it. That's how passionate the fan base remains after all of these years. And so here we have 44 Golden Greats -- lovingly assembled by two of the most passionate of all of those fans. 

While a 44-track tribute album is a grand and ambitious project, anything less might have seemed unsatisfactory. We're talking about a label with over 100 releases! Mutant Pop was a label I steadfastly championed throughout my up-and-coming years in the record reviewing racket. 20-25 years later, it's fun to look back at particular MP releases and examine which ones I still really like and which ones I can't believe I ever liked in the first place! Today I rank The Kung Fu Monkeys as my #1 favorite Mutant Pop band by far --- followed by The Automatics and Ruth's Hat. I was excited to see all three bands well represented on 44 Golden Greats. But as a true fan of the label, I was also stoked that this tribute doesn't neglect lesser-known and overlooked players in the Mutant Pop story. This collection would have been far less cool without representation for the likes of Spodie, The Beldons, Dead Like Elvis, and The Hitchcocks. And holy smokes: there are two Buglite covers on this release! 

What I like about 44 Golden Greats is that the majority of the bands/artists went to the trouble to creatively interpret the original songs. Obviously we're all pop-punk fans here (otherwise you wouldn't have read this far!). But I doubt any of us wanted to hear 44 cover songs that sounded exactly like the original. Probably the most "faithful" cover that actually works here is Doc Hopper's ripping rendition of Boris the Sprinkler's "Drugs and Masturbation", and that's largely due to the track opening with Joe Keller's brilliant and truly hilarious spoof of a Rev. Norb monologue. You'd have to have a heart of stone to not be delighted by The Steinways' version of Dirt Bike Annie's "What's Happening, Hot Stuff?". But the real highlights for me are the versions that honor the originals by transforming them. It almost goes without saying that the Kung Fu Monkeys' interpretation of The Hissyfits' "In My Dreams" is beautiful and perfect and extraordinary in every way. Poppy Robbie gets points for covering one of the best Automatics songs ("No Big Deal") and making it sound like...a Poppy Robbie song! I was previously unfamiliar with Nicky Reynolds and his Pushers, but I love, love, love, love the band's take on After School Special's "Kelly Burkett"! Jeanie Lee's version of Egghead's "Donna's Always Mad At Me" is a royal treat for all of us who can never get enough of Jeanie Lee...or Egghead! Also really excellent are covers by Andrew Furtal (Dirt Bike Annie's "All Systems Go"), P.J. Sloan of Ruth's Hat (The Proms' "May I Cut In"), and Dr. Princess (The Wanna-Bes' "ATM"). And you've gotta love Skinny Genes (which is Azeem from The Steinways) doing a clever mashup of Moral Crux's "Firing Squad" and the Ramones' "She's the One"!  

Chances are that if you're a Mutant Pop Records fan, you don't need me to tell you that 44 Golden Greats is worth buying -- because you've already bought it! But if you haven't bought it yet, you certainly should. It's a wonderful reminder that a lot of incredible music was released on the Mutant Pop label. And you can feel the love that went into the creation of this project. Many of the artists appearing on this collection are Mutant Pop alumni paying tribute to other Mutant Pop artists. A few others represent the best of the generation of pop-punk that was directly inspired by Mutant Pop. And seriously: 44 tracks for five bucks is a deal and a steal! All proceeds from this digital release go to the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs.

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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Andrea Gillis - "Leave The Light On"

Andrea Gillis has been one of the most outstanding singers and live performers in American rock and roll going back to the early 2000s. As Red On Red Records continues to add premium talent from the Boston music scene to its roster, the addition of Andrea Gillis was a no-brainer. While you might think of Gillis as a soul/blues singer first and foremost, she has created a diverse catalog of music that crosses many genres. "Leave The Light On", her new single on Red On Red, really shows her pop side. Her inspiration for this track was to write a "feel good, coming out of the darkness, good old fashioned dance number". And thus "Leave The Light On" is a wonderfully suitable song for this moment in time -- as we collectively eye the light at the end of the tunnel. For a dance track, it's quite mellow. That might seem like a contradiction, but actually it's not. This is a song that warms the soul. Gillis delivers a beautiful, powerfully empathic vocal. The production on this track (courtesy of Gillis, Marc Pinansky, and Pat DiCenso) is absolutely stunning -- weaving together gorgeous synthesizers, a simple & satisfying beat, and a veritable chorus of  backup singers. This track features some of the finest musicians in all of the Boston scene (Pinansky, Mike Oram, Ed Valauskas) and really ought to be all over the radio. And, hey, it might be all over your radio if you know which shows to listen to! "Leave The Light On" is the song we all needed right now. If this is your introduction to Andrea Gillis, you'll want to dig into her catalog over at Bandcamp. It's full of killer releases bridging the worlds of rock, soul, and pop. Check it out, and you'll know what people have known in Boston for years: Andrea Gillis is a star! 

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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

The Dictators - "Let's Get the Band Back Together"


How great it is to live in a world in which The Dictators again exist! Having already released the anthem "God Damn New York" back in January, the recently reformed Dictators have returned with another new single that will delight longtime fans along with anyone else who truly "gets" rock and roll. Some of you may recall that Andy Shernoff released "Let's Get the Band Back Together" as a solo track back in 2012. Well, the song has been properly "Dictatorized" for re-release in 2021! One listen to this song will confirm that The Dictators are in vintage form --- rocking as hard as ever and refusing as always to to take themselves seriously. It's seems corny to call it a "comeback", so let's just say that this has been a triumphant return! And would you expect anything less from a band that made one its best albums nearly three decades into its existence? 

It has been a good news/bad news situation with The Dictators lately. While it's exciting that Andy Shernoff, Ross the Boss, and Scott Kempner (along with old pal Albert Bouchard) rebooted one of the greatest bands of all-time, Kempner is sadly leaving the group due to health reasons. He was a driving force behind the band's reunion, and to call him a legendary figure in rock and roll is no understatement. While he won't be on stage when the band returns to live shows, he will forever be a Dictator. 

2021 could end today, and we'd have to call it a good year since it gave us two great Dictators singles! Can we expect more? Stay tuned!

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