Bloggerhythms

"That Thing You Do," the theme song to the 1996 movie of the same name, was composed by the late Adam Schlesinger, leader of the fun power pop quartet, Fountains of Wayne. This Academy Award nominated record for Best Original Song reminds me of another fantastic one-hit wonder, The Knickerbockers' "Lies,"  a big hit from 1965 that many people believed was actually The Beatles. It's easy to be reminded of the Fab Four while listening to this exuberant production that only reached #41 - especially when you realize the film's story takes place in 1964, the same year the Liverpool guys hit the big time in America. It deserved a much better fate, but power-pop wasn't being played very often on the radio during this grunge infested year of 1996. The fictitious liner notes from the soundtrack CD claimed "That Thing You Do" reached #2 on the Hot 100. The four actors who played The Wonders in the movie didn't record the so...

Here's a recently updated, old post from February 2009 about a very good classic rock album. It's been re-posted along with both of its original comments. Unfortunately, it seems most of the world has forgotten Badfinger. They're probably best known for recording Paul McCartney's "Come and Get It," from their first LP on which the sadly star-crossed band was correctly faulted for sounding too much like a Beatles clone. To me, the Welsh quartet's third album - produced by both George Harrison and Todd Rundgren - is among the best British power pop records of all time. Straight Up is full of Beatlesque influenced pop and is still the biggest selling non-Beatle album ever released by Apple Records.  Badfinger's second album, No Dice (1970), maintained an obvious Beatles influence, but they were now writing their own songs and people were listening. The album featured the hit single "No Matter What," the original version of "Without You,...

The D'Addario brothers - known to most of the world as The Lemon Twigs - have released six full-length albums, an EP and a live set. Their latest, Look For Your Mind! is getting a lot of buzz and deservedly so. Hailing from Hicksville, Long Island, NY brothers Michael and Brian - now 25 and 27 years old - began their careers ten years ago writing and singing their own songs, playing all of the instruments themselves and even producing their own records. They operated differently on this album. In addition to all of the guest musicians lending their assistance The Twigs brought their sturdy road warriors - bassist Danny Ayala and drummer Reza Martin - into the studio with them. Despite their ages the young duo's taste in rock music shows them to be heavily influenced by a long list of 1960's legends on this fourteen-song gem of a record.  Revolver era Beatles instantly comes to mind. The Twigs make full use of woodwinds, brass, strings, a synthesizer, and ...

Despite their obscurity Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg have a good reputation within the music industry. Swirsky has written songs for Rufus Wainwright, Al Green, Tina Turner, and Taylor Dayne. Ruekberg composed the soundtrack for the independent film Dummy and in 2007, they released their first of three albums together as The Red Button. The Red Button blend all of the major components that the best power-pop has to offer: melody, harmony and hooks. It's the British Invasion sound for the new millennium. She's About To Cross My Mind is for music fans who cherish the sound of the early Beatles, The Hollies and The Searchers and a few more groups that flew to America from England during the swinging 60s. The album's first single and lead track, "Cruel Girl," is something the mean side of John Lennon could have written in 1963. "Floating By" is a dead ringer for a post-touring years Paul McCartney track. It's got a little "Penny Lane"...

CD players were first introduced to the United States in early 1983. That made Marshall Crenshaw's second LP, Field Day , the last, new, 33 1/3 rpm album I bought in the 1980s. Unfortunately, I found it boring. All of the songs sounded exactly alike. On the other hand, I believed his eponymous debut was perfect, and I still believe that today. I hadn't purchased a CD player yet when I started buying discs, but I made sure I was going to be well supplied on the day I brought my Onkyo single disc player home from a long out-of-business chain store named Stereo Discounters. Among my initial purchases were Crenshaw's soon-to-be classic that I only owned on a poorly recorded homemade cassette that I dubbed from a friend. On that spectacular release, the rocker went out of his way to look and sound like Buddy Holly while playing a masterful combination of rockabilly, power pop, and garage rock that quickly resonated with music lovers, critics, and musici...

When I first heard The Grip Weeds they instantly reminded me of another New Jersey band, The Smithereens . Then, while doing research for this article, I found out that The Weeds' lead singer/drummer, Kurt Reil, has a history of working with the late Pat DiNinzio, so the similarities are probably not a coincidence. The band's name is a cool bit of trivia. They're named after Private Gripweed, the character John Lennon portrayed in  How I Won The War , the 1967 movie he made after The Beatles quit touring and before they became heavily involved with  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Kurt is joined by his brother, Rick, on rhythm guitar and by the drummer's wife, Kristen Pinell Reil, on lead guitar. The three made their first CD together in 1994 after forming in the mid-80s. Dave DeSantis was the last to join the band in 2012, stabilizing the lineup after a series of bassists came and went. He replaced Michael Kelly who held...

Concerts Under the Stars is an annual, outdoor, summer concert series in King of Prussia (Upper Merion Township), Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb famous for its absolutely gigantic, high end shopping mall. This past Saturday night Nick Lowe paid his first visit to the venue with Nashville's  Los Straitjackets  who I've seen live twice before. It was my first Lowe concert. For those of you who aren't familiar with Los Straitjackets, the quartet plays an instrumental mixture of surf and garage rock. They feature two electric guitars, bass and drums. Lowe played an amplified acoustic. No keyboards were to be found anywhere. Their Mexican wrestling masks may lead some people to believe Los Straitjackets are nothing more than a gimmick, but they're a really tight band. They're also a perfect fit for Lowe because both acts embrace the sounds of early rock 'n roll. The English star played five songs from his latest album, the fine  Ind...

If you're mostly going to be remembered for one song "There She Goes" is a great one to have as your legacy. The La's - a rock quartet from Liverpool, UK - only issued one full-length, studio album and this very cool, power pop, single was one of its tracks. The song was originally released in Britian in 1988 and only went to #59. Two years later it was remixed by the renowned producer Steve Lillywhite. His version peaked at only #49 stateside when it was issued as a single along with the album. The second time around it did better in the UK, climbing all of the way to #13. It has been alleged that the song is about heroin, but to me, its overall vibe is too bright and popish to be discussing such a depressing subject. Both La's guitarist, Paul Hemmings, and lead singer and songwriter, Lee Mavers, rebuff those assertions despite lyrics such as "Racing through my brain" and "There she goes again, pulsing through my vein...

Rick Murnane isn't a household name. I've just discovered him, but if you're a fan of Marshall Crenshaw - who hasn't released anything new in several years - you may discover that the Massachusetts native is a fine substitute. Murnane is a pop music veteran who makes vintage rock.  Summer Fun  is his sixth album. There is nothing progressive or alternative about this short, nine song set that clocks in at only 27:13. It's a mixture of hook filled power pop, garage rock, and British Invasion influences spiced with a little dose of country thrown in for variety. For several years Murnane released one new song online every summer that he always removed on Labor Day. Now, these cool little tunes are back and available at Bandcamp where you can name your own purchase price at the time you download it. Murnane explains where these songs came from. " While digging around in one of my external backup drives, I rediscovered...

The Rubinoos at World Cafe Live. From left, Tommy Dunbar, Donn Spindt, Jon Rubin, & Al Chan I never heard of  The Rubinoos until I received an invitation to check them out a few nights ago at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. They're a California power-pop quartet that deserves a larger audience than the devoted cult following they've earned through many decades of touring and recording. These seasoned professionals are a tightly knit unit, but they project a looseness and a sense of humor that suits their repertoire. That's because while the band is serious about their music they don't take themselves too seriously. The Rubinoos know they're not playing prog-rock or artsy jazz, and they couldn't care less. The Rubinoos mixed their original songs with well-loved classics by adding a breath of fresh air to power-pop hits such as "I Think We're Alone Now...

Among the more unusual recording careers a pop star ever experienced belongs to Tony Burrows (born April,14, 1942), a British singer who was a member of six different bands in the late 60s and early 70s. In America, five of them were one-hit wonders that fell into either the novelty or bubblegum sub-genres of pop-rock music. Some of them weren't even real bands, just studio concoctions organized simply to promote a composer's song. In 1967, The Flower Pot Men had their only hit in Britain with a song that had a pronounced, psychedelic, post-Pet Sounds, Beach Boys vibe. "Let's Go To San Francisco" reached #4 in Burrows' native land but that was before he joined the group. So, while this doesn't personally give him the distinction of being part of a sixth one-hit wonder, it's another outfit he was involved with that became infamous for having only one hit. The record never charted in America. Later, Burrows became a session singe...

How can a song be considered a hit without ever making an appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 at all? Easy, release a track as catchy as "The Way." Fastball did just that in 1998 on their second album, All the Pain Money Can Buy . The single charted well in Canada, Australia, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. In America the full length CD reached #29 on the Billboard 200 album chart so it's possible that the success of the album here at home may have hurt sales of the single. "The Way" also spent seven weeks at the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks survey and VH-1 ranked it #94 on their list of the hundred greatest songs of the nineties. Lead singer, Tony Scalzo, who composed "The Way," was inspired by a real news story about an elderly couple who disappeared and were found dead two weeks later in their car a long way from home. The couple, Lela, 83, and Raymond Howard, 88, were driving to a festival nea...

Before digging into the music of the oddly named The 143 you should know where the band got their name. According to  Cyber Definitions ,"143" is a slang term for "I love you," and it's often used as shorthand when texting. The name is derived from the number of letters in each word of that common little phrase: 1 = I, 4 = love, 3 = you. The 143 is a throwback band that proves 1960s pop-rock isn't dead and is still lovingly cultivated by N. A. Smolenski and his bandmates. The new group - from Brooklyn, NYC - is led by Smolenski who stars on guitar, bass, keys and background vocals. He sang lead vocals on two tracks. He also contributed percussion and artwork to their just released debut album, Life in the Time of Robots & Aliens . The leader also wrote twelve of the thirteen songs alone and co-wrote another with bandmate Cory Newell. The psychedelic album cover looks like it could have been inspired by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ,...

Bash! is a great CD by Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Rockpile, Paul McCartney and Nick Lowe. I know your ears have perked up considerably at that statement and I can hear you asking, "What! How could all of these artists appear together on one CD?" Well the answer is easy. They are all performing here under the stage name of Billy Bremner! OK, now let’s get serious. Scottish rock guitarist, singer and composer, Bremner has played with a lot of these folks and their influence on his music is so great that at times he can pass as any one of these rockers' clones. Bash! was originally released in 1984 and was one of the great lost albums of the decade. It was released again in June 2001 with five bonus tracks. All are singles Bremner released around the same time. First, for the uninitiated, and there are a lot of you, let us start with Bremner’s pedigreed rock and roll family tree. He is a thoroughbred through and through. He played with both Nick Lowe and Dave Edmun...

Under The Covers, Volume 1 is the first of three such albums by Matthew Sweet and former Bangles singer and guitarist, Susanna Hoffs. This set covers fourteen songs from the 60s and one, "Run To Me," was an early 70s Bee Gees' single. The duo's next two collaborations featured songs they love from the 70s and 80s. Both Sweet and Hoffs do a fine job on all three albums but my favorite is this one on which they recorded both big hits and more obscure fare that prevents the album from sounding like warmed up leftovers. If you're a person who wants a complete reworking of someone else's original song perhaps you'll be disappointed because many of the tunes are quite faithful to the records we know well. A prime example is The Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing." It's cool that Sweet and Hoffs chose a song by the Liverpool quartet that was never a single, so it's possible that not everyone is familiar with it. This John Lennon track is one o...

I don't know whether to file "Yellow Balloon," released by the band of the same name, under  Buried Treasure or under  Almost Hits   because both labels easily fit this little ditty by a forgotten "one-hit wonder" quintet.  This slice of Southern California sunshine reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was from the only LP The Yellow Balloon ever made - and believe it or not - it's still available for purchase on iTunes. The most interesting piece of trivia about the short-lived outfit was that the late Don Grady (1944 - 2012) was the group's drummer. He was better known for playing Robbie Douglas on  My Three Sons  and for being a Mouseketeer from 1957 to 1958. For reasons unknown the band sometimes billed him as Luke R. Yoo instead of using his real name. For a brief time the band's lineup also included Daryl Dragon (1942 - 2019) who later became the captain in The Captain & Tennille. "Yellow Balloon" is quite typical of the Laur...

Here is some sad news. Rocker Adam Schlesinger passed away today at 52, another disturbing victim of Coronavirus. Schlesinger was not a household name but he had a very nice career. Among his credits was an Oscar nomination for composing "That Thing You Do," the title track from the 1997 Tom Hanks movie. He was also the leader of Fountains of Wayne (FOW), the New Jersey power-pop outfit named after a lawn ornament store (I am not kidding). He also wrote music for television and theater. "Stacy's Mom," FOW's biggest hit, is a twenty-first century, musical version of the 1967 movie, The Graduate . It was written by Schlesinger and lead singer Chris Collingwood. According to Rolling Stone Magazine , in 2003 Schlesinger told MTV his inspiration for the song. "One of my best friends, when we were maybe 11 or 12, came to me and announced that he thought my grandmother was hot," he recalled. "And I said, 'Hey, you're stepping over the lin...

Maybe Miss America is the third album by power pop devotee Rob Martinez. It's a solid effort that is great for cruising in your convertible with the top down and the volume turned up high on a sunny, summer afternoon. The CD was produced by Adam Marsland who has worked with other pop oriented rockers including former Beach Boy David Marks. Marsland gave the eleven song set a loud wall of sound without losing sight of the melody or the pop atmosphere these songs were meant to have. Maybe Miss America is definitely a throwback record. It's a hybrid of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and post- Pet Sounds Beach Boys, meaning it's psychedelic pop-rock that keeps the listener tuned in from start to finish. "Summer of Love," one of the album's highlights, has both of these ingredients. The rocker composed or co-wrote all of the songs on the disc and everyone of them, especially "Sacrifice," "Free," and the title track will mak...

Cover of the USA 7" release "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" is one of the longer song titles in rock 'n roll and one of the more oddball releases from R.E.M. (probably only superseded by "Leave" from New Adventures In Hi-Fi ). The members of the Rock & Roll Hall-of-Fame took this quirky little single off of their 1987 album, Document . No song with a message should ever have this cool of a groove. Its super-speedy tempo and melody ingratiate themselves into your brain so completely that you must end up moving at least one part of your body whenever you hear it. Released when the Athens, Georgia quartet was at the peak of their powers the song has definite political and social overtones. But, as was usually the case with the famous group, its stream of consciousness lyrics are cryptic to the point where listeners end up scratching their heads trying to understand whatever Michael Stipe and friends have come up wit...

The English version of the 45 RPM outer sleeve Today Bloggerhythms begins an occasional series entitled Almost Hits that originally appeared on a popular rock, pop, and jazz music blog, Something Else , back in 2014. The series featured songs that failed to reach the top #20 on the American Billboard Hot 100 but became popular nonetheless. Many have become classics. The first entry is below. _______________________________ Even though "No Milk Today" (#35, Hot 100 in 1967) was released in the USA by Herman's Hermits as the B-side to "There’s a Kind of Hush" (#4, Hot 100) it was the better song of the two and it received much deserved radio airplay on its own merit. Graham Gouldman, later a founding member of 10cc, wrote the tune that reached #7 when it was released in England as an A-side the previous year. The UK single had a different flip side. I’ve always enjoyed fast moving, power pop ditties with good vocals and on these two counts the track d...