When you think of powerpop/punk in the 2010s, the Steve Adamyk Band ought to be one of the first bands that comes to mind. Adamyk was there at the beginning of the decade, and he's still here at the end. Out on Dirtnap Records, Paradise is now the sixth SAB album (and first in three years). It's the first to feature the band's most recent three-piece lineup with Pat Johnson of The Acorn and Johnny O of Uranium Comeback backing singer/guitarist Adamyk. Spoiler alert: it rocks!
First things first: Paradise sounds like a Steve Adamyk Band record! No one's going to hear this album and be like, "Whoa! They really changed their sound!". And thank God for that. I'm not saying that Steve Adamyk invented powerpop/punk, but he was one of the individuals most responsible for defining what that genre would become in the present decade. A Steve Adamyk Band record that deviated from the basic formula of power pop influenced punk rock would just seem...wrong! Certain SAB albums have leaned more "pop" or "garage", but the band has never wavered from its general musical style. Paradise, for the lack of a better term, is quite possibly the "punkest" of the band's six albums. Recorded by Mike Bond and mixed by Jesse Gander, this is a huge-sounding album that really punches up the guitars and vocal harmonies. Locked in tight with his latest rhythm section, Adamyk just sounds like a guy who's super inspired to play some fast and tuneful punk rock! There's a palpable Ramones influence propelling "In Death" and the ripping title track. The band has never sounded more powerful or purposeful as it does on "Waiting To Die Part 2". "No Help", in the vernacular of the modern-day punk rock reviewer, is positively crackling! But don't go thinking that Adamyk has come to the table without some goodies for you pop people as well. "Take It To The Top" is powerpop/punk played right down the middle: the sort of song that Adamyk should never stop writing since he's just so damn good at it! "When I Was Gone" and a fine cover of The Kidda Band's "Get Off The Telephone" swing all the way to the power pop side and are total crowd pleasers. "Left In Pieces", which manages to mash the Beach Boys and new wave pop into the band's core sound, is one of this record's true gems.
There are few better than Steve Adamyk at turning out high quality poppy punk
tunes. And my takeaway from Paradise is that his passion for creating
this type of music has never been stronger. It goes without saying that anyone who has bought all of the band's previous albums will love Paradise as well. But I'll take it a step further: if the sixth Steve Adamyk Band album is somehow your first, it will make you want to own the other five!
I fully acknowledge it's weird that after spending so many years touting new music, my list of all-time favorite bands is still comprised almost entirely of artists from the '70s. So I got an idea: what if I wrote a massive list of my all-time favorite bands and then deleted everything that was pre year 2000? What would that look like? It was an easier exercise than I expected. I had no trouble coming up with a long list of bands from the present century that I totally love and still listen to on a regular basis. For bands that were active prior to 2000, I only considered their post-2000 output. For more recent bands, I had to factor in that their recordings may have not yet been subjected to the "test of time". With all of that in mind, here we go!
20. Phone Jerks
I know what you're thinking. "Didn't their first album just come out?!" Fair enough. But in a world without Teengenerate and Loli and the Chones, Phone Jerks are the next best thing. Plus there was no way I could write a list like this and not represent multiple bands from Canada.
19. The Cry!
First album is a bona fide power pop classic. Second one isn't bad either! I anticipate we will finally get a new album from this band in 2019.
18. Something Fierce Don't Be So Cruel still sounds like the best album that the 1980s Clash never made. Rumor has it that Something Fierce is now on the verge of releasing new music for the first time in eight years. 17. The Dahlmanns
I've reviewed this band on seven occasions. It actually seems like more than that! The gold standard for the marriage of pop and punk.
16. Sugar Stems
Super underrated extra awesome power pop group. I highly recommend all three of their albums. Does pop music get any better than "Love You To Pieces"?
15. The Figgs - As the '90s turned over into the 2000s, The Figgs were at the top of their game. I probably listen to Sucking In Stereo as much as I listen to any Figgs album. Badger is my favorite Figgs EP by far. The early stuff gets all the love, but this band's post 2000 output is no less impressive.
14. The Unlovables Crush * Boyfriend * Heartbreak is one of the greatest pop-punk albums ever made.
13. Nato Coles and the Blue Diamond Band Promises To Deliver is my most most listened-to album of this current decade.
12. The Kidnappers
A decade before it was fashionable, The Kidnappers concocted a peanut butter cup mashup of garage punk and power pop, peaking with the "Spanish Girls" single and Neon Signs LP. I have enjoyed the twins' more recent outfit Küken, but I must admit I still miss The Kidnappers!
11. Night Birds
For my money, this is the best punk group of the last ten years. Favorite album: Born To Die In Suburbia. Second favorite: Mutiny at Muscle Beach. If you like old school hardcore punk with brilliant lyrics and a ton of melody, you need to own this band's entire discography. Little-known fact: I have consciously inserted a Seinfeld or Larry David reference into four different Night Birds reviews. I'm saving "These pretzels are making me thirsty" for the next full-length.
10. Bobbyteens
This band would have ranked higher if I'd allowed myself to consider its early singles and debut album from the late '90s. Still, top ten ain't too shabby! 2000's Not So Sweet is my favorite of the band's albums - a definitive mixture of the Ramones, girl groups, and power pop.
9. Midnite Snaxxx
Is there any punk musician of the last 25 years more under-appreciated than Dulcinea Gonzalez?
8. The Connection
I've referred to The Connection as "America's best rock n' roll band", and I think that sums it up pretty well.
7. Beach Patrol I've been a huge fan of this Green Bay outfit since 2006, when I named its full-length debut my album of the year. Over time, the band has only gotten better. Domenic has become one of our finest songwriters. The recent Levity is, in my opinion, the best album he's ever written.
6. Pale Lips
It seems like only yesterday that I was hearing this band for the very first time. It was actually four years ago! Pale Lips' debut LP was officially listed as my #2 album of 2016, and the band's latest is almost certain to be my #1 for 2019. Definitely my favorite active band.
5. Exploding Hearts
I don't think much explanation is required here.
4. Kung Fu Monkeys
The creation of a Kung Fu Monkeys Bandcamp page officially remains the best thing to ever happen to The Internet. I recently decided to put on School's Out, Surf's Up, Let's Fall in Love to see if it still holds up after 18 years plus. Boy, does it ever! There's never been another album quite like this. It's like pop-punk meets twee meets meets surf meets kiddie pop meets bubblegum meets '60s teenage dance party, propelled by James Cahill's seemingly impossible vocal range and a rhythm section that plays as if it's hopped up on Pixy Stix. Music more joyful than this has never been produced by humans. The early 2000s saw the band moving into its "mature" phase, which produced several less punky yet still totally delightful 7" releases. More recently, 2012's Son Of... The Incredibly Strange Case Of The Mysterious Mystery 7" arrived seemingly out of nowhere and delighted longtime fans with some gorgeous and masterful baroque pop.
3. Stiletto Boys
Yeah, I know this band had a home field
advantage. But I would have been a fan even if they'd been from
thousands of miles away. It's funny how time changes your impressions of
things. When the Stiletto Boys made their first album, I was like, "I
love it, but I kind of miss the rawness of the singles". When their
second album came out, I was like, "I love it, but I kind of miss the
rawness of the last album". Looking back all of these years later, I am
awed by the way the Stiletto Boys pushed themselves to get better and
better with each new release. I can still put on A Company of Wolves and find myself stunned by its greatness. Sean Wolfe was so driven to make Liberator perfect
that he was willing to scrap a completed album and start over. It ended
up being 13 years between albums. And it was worth it. Liberator (2013)
proved to be the band's masterpiece - a must-own for fans of power pop
influenced punk rock with insightful and intensely personal lyrics. If you lost track of the Stiletto Boys after the year 2000, you've got some serious catching up to do. R.I.P. Sean.
2. The Ergs
If you want to see me when I'm angry, call the Ergs a generic pop-punk band. Sure, they were Descendents fans. They were also into hardcore, jazz, and obscure indie rock. They were unabashed music and book geeks, which I related to on a personal level. They fully understood that Dirty Work is one of the true cinematic masterpieces of our time. How can you not appreciate a band that releases a single called "Blue" and backs it with a cover of "Blew" by Nirvana? Only a person well-versed in the road signage of northeastern Pennsylvania interstates can appreciate the humor in writing a song called "Ashley Sugarnotch". Most importantly, the music still holds up. Dorkrockcorkrod is an all-time top five pop-punk album in my book. f'n remains one of the most impressive demo tapes I've ever heard. And don't even get me started on the singles. On my Mt Rushmore of New Jersey rock, I have The Boss, The Shirelles, Dramarama, and The Ergs!
1. Dimestore Haloes
The Haloes coming in at #1 will surprise no one. Granted, I had to remove their first two albums from
consideration. But their last two albums are actually their best, in my humble opinion. The Ghosts of Saturday Night was the perfect transition between what the Haloes had been and what The Cheap Cassettes would later become. Wait, you don't own it yet?! Get on over to Bandcamp and rectify that immediately!
So there you have it. There were quite a few other bands that just missed the cut (too many to mention, in fact). But I'm pretty satisfied with this list, and I plan on updating every year!
I raved about a new single from Wild Zeros a little while back. But actually that was just one of two new 45s from this veteran band out of La Rochelle and Bordeaux, France. Out on Chickpea Records, "Teenage Lifestyle" of course leads with a cover of the classic track from Syracuse, New York garage punk legends The Penetrators. Why make a cover tune an A-side? I say why NOT make a cover tune an A-side?!
One thing I like about Wild Zeros is their choice of cover material. They have a tendency to cover powerhouse songs from bands that ought to be household names in punk circles but are still unknown to a lot of people. Taking on "Teenage Lifestyle" (first released in 1979), Wild Zeros don't try and out-do the original (that would be impossible). Their rendition is faithful to The Penetrators' version, but with that special Wild Zeros touch. It sounds wild...and French! This track is from sessions recorded by Lo'Spider at Swampland in Toulouse a couple years back, and it totally rips! It is my fervent hope that more than a few people will hear this and immediately want to own the original version on record (Luckily you can still get the re-issue of The Penetrators' Kings of Basement Rock LP from Slovenly Recordings!). To finish off this one-sider, Wild Zeros turn out an original called "Vampire Girl". It's exactly what you've come to expect from this band: trashy garage punk rock n' roll done right! It's like the '90s never ended! Copies of this single are limited, so head on over to Discogs if you want to buy the vinyl. These tracks - and the rest of the Wild Zeros catalog - are available digitally via Bandcamp!
The always wonderful Freak Genes are back with what is already their third album in 20 months. On Qwak Qwak, you could hear Andrew and Charlie flirting with electronic instrumentation. III (out on Drunken Sailor Records) finds them all-in on synth-pop. Think more 154 era Wire, less Pink Flag. That's quite a leap for inside of two years, but in my business we call that a "natural progression" (Wire themselves did the same thing!). Everything that was charming, wonderfully weird, playfully non-conforming, and non-conventionally catchy about the duo's first two albums remains fully in tact. Perhaps the more cohesive synth-pop sound makes this particular album feel less all over the place. But I can assure you that it is still somewhat all over the place! The one-sheet promises "garage rock meets Gary Numan", and tracks like "Get Ready To Go" and "Strange Light" deliver exactly that. You can pick up the influences immediately yet still recognize distinct qualities of these guys' other bands. They are never afraid to experiment, but they always come back to writing memorable tunes with hooks. Meanwhile songs such as "Breach" and "Now It's Done" demonstrate that even synth pop era Freak Genes have not totally left post-punk behind. And if your favorite part of every Freak Genes album is coming across a song that makes you go "I don't know what the hell this is, but I sure like it!", "Stitches" and "Close Up" are oddball tracks that you will surely enjoy. There will never be such a thing as two Freak Genes songs that sound the same. Is it just me, or could "Nothing In Between Us" pass for one of The Cure's "poppy" songs?!
I can't fully put my finger on what delights me so much about Freak Genes. I think it's that they've made me fall in love with post-punk and new wave again. This was music I grew up on, yet I've been mostly lukewarm on its modern adherents. Charlie and Andrew take those influences and actually have fun with them. Even if there's a dark turn or two on III, it remains a joyful musical creation that's an absolute pleasure to listen to. Originally inspired by the idea of recording misfit songs, Freak Genes have become a misfit band (and that's a lower case "misfit"....these guys are probably 20 albums away from attempting horror punk). And I hope that's what they continue to be forever.
You know I can never make it more than a couple weeks without talking up another band from Canada. And today I've got a band from Toronto for you that just might blow your head off!
PlasticHeads is the latest outfit from the legendary Jon Sharron (Brutal Knights/Career Suicide/Chokehold). He's on guitar and vocals along side the likes of Ellis from Flesh Rag and Erik from School Jerks. PlasticHeads are pretty much what you'd expect given the involvement of the above individuals. Think snotty '77 punk smashing head-on into early '80s hardcore. Nowhere To Run is the band's ripper of a debut album, and it's set for a vinyl release on the venerable Ugly Pop Records. If you've been desiring some real deal punk fucking rock in your life lately, these ten tracks are exactly the kick in the pants you need. The band tears through these songs hot and fast, with seven of the ten tracks clocking in under two minutes. Musically and vocally, the intensity is relentless. Yet the songwriting is definitely rooted in '70s punk - always a sweet spot for me personally. Could there be a more fitting soundtrack for our modern day dystopian reality than "The End Is Near"? And how many people will quickly adopt "I Can't Sleep" as their personal anthem? If you dig Zero Boys, DOA, early Black Flag, or anything that Jon Sharron has ever been involved in, you're gonna go nuts for this record!
It has been an annual birthday tradition of mine to list my top ten favorite bands of all-time. Every year, I reflect on how this list might have changed over the past 12 months - based on which bands I still listen to the most and connect to the most on a personal level. Analyzing this latest list, I offer the following notes:
My musical tastes for the most part seem to be permanently stuck in the '70s. That maybe has something to do with me being born in '71. Or maybe there was just a lot of great music in the '70s.
While I consider myself a fan of many genres of music, there's still nothing that lights my fire like '77 punk.
The Ramones keep rising on these lists. It's not like I ever didn't appreciate the greatness of the Ramones. But the more I go back to all of those records, the more awestruck I am by how well they hold up.
Still nobody on the list from post 2000. Maybe I need to do a separate write-up for that sometime.
I'm kind of surprised that there aren't more power pop bands on this list. Material Issue is holding it down!
Bands that just missed the cut: Undertones, Sex Pistols, The Who, Kinks, Real Kids.
On to the list: 1. The Clash 2. AC/DC 3. Ramones 4. Material Issue 5. Buzzcocks 6. Husker Du 7. New York Dolls 8. Rolling Stones 9. Generation X 10. Dictators
With each advancing birthday, I used to wonder if a window was closing for me doing this blog to be "age appropriate". In more recent years, it has occurred to me that it always be age appropriate for me to write about rock n' roll.With any luck, I'll still be reviewing records when I'm 90. And I'll probably still be stuck in the '70s.
I suppose I need to squeeze this one in while it's still winter! And with the snow accumulating at this very moment, there's no time like the present. I'm well-known to be a fan of Rum Bar Records. And who isn't a fan of free stuff? So of course I'm going to be pushing free stuff from Rum Bar Records with the utmost enthusiasm!
I'll be the first to admit that I didn't do the best job of keeping up with Malibu Lou's multitude of releases last year. Counting digital-only releases, he put out over 30 titles in 2018 alone! That's a lot of moving and shaking! I feel like he's reached the point where he may need to move Rum Bar HQ into a multi-story office building. I'm envisioning something like the Capitol Records Building, but with colder weather and a much better drink menu. Anyhoo, the label's 2019 winter sampler compiles 19 tracks from 19 Rum Bar artists. Most of these tracks are taken from existing Rum Bar releases, and a few are from forthcoming releases (I gotta tell you that the Brad Marino solo album is gonna have you all jumping for joy. It's sooooooo good!). The sampler is a free download from Bandcamp, or you can buy a hard copy on CD for five bucks. Either way, it's a sweet deal. You get ace tracks from artists I've touted before (The Cheap Cassettes, The Peawees, Justine and the Unclean, Indonesian Junk, Watts) plus many more from bands I'm just discovering myself. "The Next One", a teaser track for the upcoming Cromm Fallon solo album, has me really looking forward to that particular release. Tad Overbaugh and the Late Arrivals make a fine addition to the growing heartland rock wing of the Rum Bar roster. "Good Enough" finds veteran garage rockers Muck and the Mire flirting heavily with power pop.
Covering styles ranging from garage to punk to glam to Americana to psychedelic rock to swamp-pop, the Rum Bar Records Winter 2019 Label Sampler is a great way to familiarize yourself with one of the best record labels out there. And if you like what you hear, more from all of these artists can be obtained at the Rum Bar Bandcamp. Now can winter please be over?!
