Jangle Pop

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Albums of 2020

By / / Alternative Rock, Blues & Roots, Funk & Soul, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Psych, Punk / 8 Comments

OK, let’s start with the obligatory cliché intro text. The only good thing about 2020 was that by being at home more often you could listen to even more music and for those who want to hear it, enough good music has been made. Since January I have checked out 1,100+ new albums. Sometimes after half a minute I knew it wasn’t for me, sometimes I just couldn’t get enough. No doubt I missed a few things that I should not have missed, but right now this is what it is. And it doesn’t really matter either. Music lists are by definition debatable, because they say something about taste and taste is personal. What follows does not really say anything about quality, but simply reflects what I have played and enjoyed the most. In my list guitars and distinctive voices predominate, it’s mostly rock orientated (alternative, garage, jangle, roots, post-punk, …) plus a little bit of soul, with both debuting bands and old rockers with renewed energy who could have been their grandfather. It turns out that 2020 was not that bad at all!

…

Music Year-End List || Dennis’ Favorite Albums of 2020Read More »

New album: Bootchy Temple || In Consummated Bloom

By / / Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Bootchy Temple are Milia Colombani, Sam Roux, Luc Martin, Paul Trigoulet and Martin Meilhan-Bordes. Here is the new album from the French band, featuring 12 songs with dreamy Paisley Underground jangle. Music on which sea horses mate. The LP is out now on Howlin’ Banana Records and Safe In The Rain Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Safe In The Rain Records ‎|| Howlin’ Banana 

New album: Permits || Time Permits

By / / Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

What happens if members of The Shifters, Pop Singles, Dag and Chook Race, come together to see what can be made of abandoned songs, left over from each member’s various projects? That’s exactly what Tristan Davies, Tam Matlakowski, Dusty Anastassiou and Rob Remedios did in June 2018, and the result can now be heard. The Melbourne ‘superb-group’ Permits sounds like you would expect from the combination of backgrounds of the band members: ‘a wonky VU-bentism,’ in their own words. Their debut album Time Permits is out today on Tenth Court.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Tenth Court 

New album: The Spunloves || Too Deep For The Desert

By / / Alternative Rock, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

Another band from Australia, Perth to be precise, who make delicious likeable jangly guitar music. What’s in the water over there? Too Deep For The Desert, The Spunloves’ second full length album is one you would love to play again and again. Listen to Love Letter (Return to sender) below, my favorite track from the LP.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

Reissue: The Last || Look Again

By / / Jangle Pop, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

The Last released their debut L.A. Explosion in 1979 on the legendary Bomp! Records. I only discovered the record when my all-time favorite bands, Descendents, cited them as their primary inspiration. I fell in love instantly. L.A. Explosion sounds like a beachy mashup of Nerves and the Clash. Despite their pop sensibilities, great harmonies, and sheer variety in songwriting, the Last never made it out of their L.A. scene. To add insult to injury, their DIY attempt to record their sophomore album ended in a warped sound, and zero label offers. Fast forward 40 years (!), modern technology fixed the original tapes and the record is out at last. It’s a bittersweet release that I can’t wait to have in my collection. Fingers crossed that they will do a deluxe remastered reissue of L.A. Explosion next.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: The Parson Red Heads || Lifetime of Comedy

By / / Blues & Roots, Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

It was worth the wait, The Parson Red Heads are back with a new LP. As they put it themselves: ‘An album full of dreams, self-reflection, and weary yearning (…) beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies, sparkling pedal steel-driven cosmic Americana and folk rock, coupled with (…) layered synths, organs and mellotrons, songs that build and drive to chaotically beautiful peaks.’ I couldn’t have said it better. Listen to stand-out track All I Wanted below.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New compilation: Various Artists || Strum  & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983–1987

By / / Jangle Pop, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

If there is one thing this compilation of obscure mid-eighties US bands shows, it’s that great jangle pop is not exclusive to the UK, AU and NZL. That’s not to say that the bands on display are mere copycats of the C86 or the Flying Nun sound. They incorporate American influences to create their own version of jangle. Slightly more production, a bit more powerpop, a lot of catchiness. All in all, this is a very strong start of Captured Tracks‘ new Excavations series – inspired by the infamous Pebbles, Killed by Death, and Numero Group compilations. It is not cheap, but you get four sides of melodic guitar catchiness as well as an 80+ page booklet with an oral history of this particular music scene. Musthave.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New single: Neutrals || Personal Computing

By / / Jangle Pop, Punk / 1 Comment

Slumberland Records is celebrating 30 years of quality twee, shoegaze, jangle, indiepop and poppunk releases with a singles series. I’ve had its latest installment, by Bay Area (SF) postpunkers Neutrals, on constant repeat. It has the immediate appeal of those classic late ’70’s punk singles that are now way overpriced on Discogs. The full single is available for streaming on Spotify, but it is the A-side that is the true gem here.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Discogs

New album: The Bats || Foothills

By / / Jangle Pop / Leave a Comment

The heyday of Flying Nun Records somehow passed me by at the time, unfortunately, but that won’t happen to me again (#FOMO). The New Zealand record label is still on the right track, and look, tomorrow they are releasing The Bats‘ 10th full-length – one of those bands I also would rather have discovered in the 80’s than 30 years later, but better late than never, right? Either way, they’ve again managed to record 12 addictive songs that you can listen to all day long.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Flying Out

Scroll to Top