https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia0uL2vK4dY&feature=related
― per metal injection (Eazy), Friday, 14 October 2011 03:59 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEjutUbgpH8
― frogbs, Friday, 14 October 2011 03:59 (twelve years ago) link
No Tommy Keene mentioned yet? I'd go with Underworld, but the guy has literally dozens of (should be) classic songs.
― jer.fairall, Friday, 14 October 2011 04:20 (twelve years ago) link
"Places That Are Gone" is mixtape gold.
Monroes have amazing hair.
Re: that Mark & the Spies track ... I get what you are saying with the Toms comparison, but IMO that's a lame track, and not alone of late in its old-guy Beatles-ness. I would even put someone like Mike Viola in this category despite his arranging strengths (see this spotify playlist for a lot more http://open.spotify.com/user/roshjosenblum/playlist/62NZXrvkr91d8Ngl0jHfbD ). Too high fidelity? Something that pretty could use some grunge and hiss. Too far removed from the Beatles to know the difference between homage and inspiration? Or maybe it's just songwriting. The chord progressions in the verse and chorus are not only cheesy (forgivable) but boring (not forgivable). The reason hi-fi, poppy tracks by someone like Matthew Sweet tend to work and have replay value is that there is always something at least temporarily ugly and off. e.g. "I've Been Waiting" - there are dissonances everywhere. Of course they eventually resolve, but it's not like it's resonant major chord after chord. "Sick of Myself" is a pretty pat track but the guitar work is good and the lyrics add interest. Those guys should learn from the Toms and do some variations on "Sun" until they learn that dissonance is not necessarily a bad thing.
― skip, Friday, 14 October 2011 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
is this the thread where i mention some of the best power pop songs are probably hard salsa songs
― fauxmarc, Wednesday, 19 October 2011 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
NRBQ - "I Want You Bad", "Ridin' In My Car"Teenage Fanclub - "Star Sign"Nazz - "Forget All About It"Del Amitri - "Roll To Me"Nils Lofgren & Grin - "White Lies"Lemonheads - "Into Your Arms"Hollies - "Look Through Any Window"The Who - "The Kids Are Alright"Marshall Crenshaw - "Our Town"
And since virtually all power pop traces its roots back to the first two Byrds albums, I must mention "All I Really Want To Do", "Feel A Whole Lot Better", and "The World Turns All Around Her".
― Everything else is secondary (Lee626), Thursday, 20 October 2011 05:33 (twelve years ago) link
I'd probably go with "You're My Favorite Waste of Time" for Marshall Crenshaw. Amazing that, to my knowledge, he's only recorded that demo-y sounding take on it.
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 21 October 2011 01:47 (twelve years ago) link
probably something by The Pillows
― billstevejim, Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:31 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcy1RHDHhE
― billstevejim, Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:32 (twelve years ago) link
― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 22 October 2011 00:55 (twelve years ago) link
Great song I found on a compilation a few years ago--someone's put it up on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT7WNJmqn1Q
― clemenza, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 00:45 (ten years ago) link
I wish she'd open her eyes.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 00:46 (ten years ago) link
"Ah! Leah!" by Donnie Iris.
― Doctor Flange, Thursday, 28 November 2013 00:44 (ten years ago) link
Here's a real good one from the 90s. The band is Myracle Brah, the song is called Good Day To The Night. It's not on youtube but you can here a sample below. If you like power pop, it will be worth the 15 seconds.
http://www.pandora.com/myracle-brah/super-automatic/good-day-to-night
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 28 November 2013 01:01 (ten years ago) link
Another great one that should have been a hit. The Wake Ups, Nobody Slows. This isn't on youtube either but you can get a feel for it here. So so great.
http://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Slows/dp/B0015ELT3M
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 28 November 2013 01:03 (ten years ago) link
Can't find the Wake Ups, but that seems to be a Scruffs cover (or maybe vice versa).
― clemenza, Thursday, 28 November 2013 01:39 (ten years ago) link
Same band. Their real name is the Wake Ups but for some reason they were called The Scruffs, but not the Memphis power pop Scruffs of the 70s
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 28 November 2013 05:40 (ten years ago) link
Interesting...strange that they'd risk comparisons. I'm not that big on their song, but I love "Good Day to the Night." Will have to get hold of the whole album.
― clemenza, Thursday, 28 November 2013 14:01 (ten years ago) link
teenage fanclub - alcoholiday
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, 28 November 2013 14:32 (ten years ago) link
This is especially good in the context of the album but one of my '90s favorites - Cotton Mather's Password:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsE1AM5-KHI
― skip, Monday, 2 December 2013 16:44 (ten years ago) link
I love "Good Day to the Night." Will have to get hold of the whole album.
The album is called Life On Planet Eartsnop. Well worth searching out.
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 2 December 2013 19:19 (ten years ago) link
It occurred to me that this song really belongs on here. A lost classic, in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDDAOJV1xU
― Poliopolice, Monday, 6 January 2014 05:48 (ten years ago) link
Artful Dodger - most people would say "Wayside" but "Think Think" or "Honor Among Thieves" are even better IMO.Dwight Twilley - "You Were So Warm"
― Sandy, Monday, 6 January 2014 09:01 (ten years ago) link
Modern power pop that I think is really great: Title Tracks from Washington D.C.... The chorus on this one just blows up (ca. 1m 45s)!!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1J9AFDstKI
― Walter Galt, Monday, 6 January 2014 12:23 (ten years ago) link
there should be a poll!!
entire Slow Wonder album by ac newman is great, first song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO4OY_pKKVc
― niels, Monday, 6 January 2014 16:32 (ten years ago) link
I know very little about this band except this has been one of my favorite songs for the last two years. I'm pretty sure it belongs in this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDk4INQoIcI
― purrington, Monday, 13 January 2014 06:02 (ten years ago) link
"The Laws Have Changed" by New Pornographers
― intimately bellowing (staggerlee), Monday, 13 January 2014 15:52 (ten years ago) link
I downloaded a compilation series a few years ago out of Australia, The Bam Balam Explosion--seven volumes, 22-24 songs each. I burned Vol. 1 last year, and didn't burn anything more; most of it was the kind of power-pop I don't care for (designated by Chuck Eddy as "crunchy" on one of these power-pop threads). Finally got around to burning the second volume, and even though it's more of the same, I like this a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXjkjFjXDfM
Could almost pass for mid-'60s Who, or at least the vocal could, one of the most Daltrey-like I've ever heard.
― clemenza, Thursday, 20 November 2014 01:36 (nine years ago) link
Will always be "Tonight" by the Raspberries
― dog people (rip van wanko), Thursday, 20 November 2014 01:41 (nine years ago) link
Pshaw. The best power pop song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbVdrnRm4R4
― augh (Control Z), Thursday, 20 November 2014 02:06 (nine years ago) link
"Shakin' Street"'s great--was just reading Greil Marcus' review of Back in the USA not 30 minutes ago (just posted yesterday):
http://greilmarcus.net/2014/11/18/mc5-back-in-the-usa-051470/
― clemenza, Thursday, 20 November 2014 02:17 (nine years ago) link
On the "Nuggets" end of the power pop spectrum, we present: The Grip Weeds - "Astral Man"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGNjoEfKvbg
One more: "Love's Lost on You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0utX0_i-ndA
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 20 November 2014 05:10 (nine years ago) link
The greatest power-pop album ever in the history of everything has just been reissued on vinyl:http://www.lionproductions.org/pages/GREENLP.html
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 20 November 2014 14:57 (nine years ago) link
How about some Japanese power pop? Puffy AmiYumi - "Planet Tokyo". The whole album "Nice" is worth a listen for anyone into '70s/'80s rock pastiche (all of us). http://open.spotify.com/track/3c8QlMUMpzNjMOZnfoImjx
― skip, Wednesday, 10 December 2014 15:49 (nine years ago) link
Having said Radio City is mostly not even remotely power pop, leading to a small chorus of hoots, I feel compelled to say what exactly power pop would be if not that! And yes, September Gurls strikes me as fitting. But songs with a lot of chugging weird rhythmic moves, screwy extra sounds, and audible pain - this describes the bulk of Radio City - don't seem to show up much in the later canon of songs people refer to as power pop.
If power pop means anything other than just a catchy form of "rock" then it should indicate super catchiness, uptempo excitement, a kind of smiling thing going on (that could be messed over by the actual lyrical content: BETTER!), not too many different parts in the same song (i.e. no, seriously, people listing Big Star's far-superior-trippy-bummer-to-roger-waters-era-pink-floyd "Daisy Glaze" as power pop: you wouldn't even call this masterpiece power pop if it were done by any other band).
People start power pop off with Beatles & Kinks & Who & Troggs which is almost cheating! Isn't that just "rock"? Nevertheless, "So Sad About Us" & "With a Girl Like You" do cross over into that super-catchy but still rocking-zone which I'm figuring is the hallmark. personally, I'd say some serious 60s/early 70s power pop examples are:
Beach Boys - Darlin Grass Roots - Temptation EyesBoyce & Hart - I wonder what she's doing tonightBobby Fuller Four - I Fought the Law & The Law WonNazz - Open My Eyes (this one allegedly an example of 60s punk via nuggets inclusion)Crabby Appleton - Go BackBadfinger - No Matter What (if this ain't power pop the genre doesn't exist)
An obvious question --- well, obvious as soon as I ask it --- is the relationship between power pop and bubblegum. I'd say you can't stick a pubic hair between them in some cases: Yummy Yummy by the Ohio Express isn't just pop, and it isn't just powerful, it's the most obvious template for "Holidays in the Sun"
Another obvious question --- why isn't any black music called power pop? (was everything Christgau said about Trouser Press true?) If there is any black power pop then let me nominate "Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie" by Jay & The Techniques (any excuse to praise that record!!) and "Fun" by Sly & The Family Stone (road-tested with a battalion of power pop fans who loved it). Just for starters, mind you.
There's plenty more lame genre arguments I can troll here but let me get into safer territory now: some examples of great power pop from the 'recognized power pop era' that I shouldn't get many arguments about, at least if you go and listen to them:
Sniff'n the Tears - Driver's SeatUndertones - HypnotizedUndertones - His Good Looking Girlfriend (2 undertones songs out of many candidates)Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy NowadaysMonochrome Set - Martians Go HomeAltered Images - Funny Funny MeThe Adverts - Safety in Numbers (allegedly punk I know but Adverts is pretty pop & good for them)The Vibrators - Baby Baby (ditto)Shonen Knife - Bear Up Bison (Pretty Little Baka Guy version is more pop & less punk)
― Vic Perry, Friday, 12 December 2014 00:15 (nine years ago) link
This is the best power pop song of all time:
DWIGHT TWILLEY - LOOKING FOR DA MAGICZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq0ykm_SrM
― Moka, Friday, 12 December 2014 00:25 (nine years ago) link
And this the second best:
CIRRUS EDDY - GET DA MSG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Dtg295wVk
― Moka, Friday, 12 December 2014 00:26 (nine years ago) link
This is a storming piece of power pop imo, but might have flown under lots of people's radars through being on a metal album (warning: most pop thing on the record, which is 'only' a great sludge album elsewhere).
http://youtu.be/s7uokNi7qEw
― the bowels are not what they seem (aldo), Friday, 12 December 2014 10:25 (nine years ago) link
The entire Adam Schmitt - World So Bright album is amazing. His second record is worth checking out too although it's a little darker/more disjointed.
― DavidLeeRoth, Friday, 12 December 2014 13:21 (nine years ago) link
weird why did it take me so long to hear about Emitt Rhodes?
reminds me a lot of the s/t Flame album
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 December 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_YWc0RszxU
― Moka, Saturday, 13 December 2014 21:17 (nine years ago) link
I don't care for them, but when I think of power pop I think of FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
― brimstead, Saturday, 13 December 2014 21:20 (nine years ago) link
And why have XTC not been mentioned yet. This is one of the highlights for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P1o3YRYBmY
― Moka, Saturday, 13 December 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link
No Game Theory or Loud Family? Ok then: "Nine Lives to Rigel Five," "24," "Erica's Word," "We Love You Carol and Alison," "Inverness," "Motion of Ariel."
― mike a, Thursday, 18 December 2014 16:03 (nine years ago) link
LOVE the first Loud Family album. I'll add Take Me Down To Haloo to your list.
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 18 December 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
We're also missing some of the most popular songs that flirt with the genre:
PILOT - MAGIC
THE ROMANTICS - WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU
THE RUBINOOS - I WANNA BE YOUR BOYFRIEND
THE CARS - JUST WHAT I NEEDED
and I'm not if it qualifies but I see it dumped in several 'power pop' lists:
THE OUTFIELD - YOUR LOVE
― Moka, Thursday, 18 December 2014 18:27 (nine years ago) link
Pilot "Magic" might have been the first power pop song I fell in love with, unless "Little Willy" by Sweet and/or "Jet" by Paul McCartney count.
The Romantics one I go for is "Talking in Your Sleep"
― Vic Perry, Thursday, 18 December 2014 18:32 (nine years ago) link
The Sun Sawed in 1/2 were almost as good as Jellyfish (and very similar in style) for a couple albums. too bad they never really took off. one of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-Na1Athas
― yusef latifah (unregistered), Saturday, 3 January 2015 02:00 (nine years ago) link
Chumped's "Something About Geography"--I count it, most wouldn't.
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Something+About+Geography/7aJL92?src=5
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 January 2015 14:23 (nine years ago) link
Last weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-ll0dttXM
― timellison, Wednesday, 29 July 2015 03:24 (nine years ago) link