The Bomboras from Los Angeles, California made some waves in the garage rock world at the end of the last millennium, but after a long time on the sideline they finally dived back into the studio – blood is thicker than water. In the fall of 2021 we could already enjoy The Return Of The Up Up Sound EP, which now gets a sequel with Songs From Beyond! – their first LP in 25 years. It was worth the wait. You’ll hear eleven new surf rock instrumentals that are as refreshing and exciting as ever. They came from afar, but will be welcomed with open arms on the local beach.
Songs From Beyond! is out now digitally and on vinyl LP through MuSick Recordings.
Please meet Bluphoria, a new alternative rock band from the American west coast that could become a sensation just like that. Reign LaFreniere (lead vocals, lead guitar), Dakota Landrum (rhythm guitar, background vocals) Rex Wolf (bass, background vocals) and Dani Janae (drums, background vocals) have the looks and the sound, but above all they have the songs. On their formidable debut LP they show what they’ve got eleven times for three minutes, with an eagerness and swagger that is typical of young musicians. They combine powerful guitar melodies with awesome raw vocals and soulful harmonies, the present with the past, and the blues with coolness.
Bluphoria’s self-titled debut LP is out now via UMG Recordings / Edgeout Records, streaming only at the moment. For fans of The Record Company, Benjamin Booker, Cage the Elephant, Hanni El Khatib.
Danish rock ‘n’ roll outfit PowerSolo has been releasing quirky “Donkey Punk” music for over 20 years, and on their new LP Jambalaya – Xtra Spicy you will again hear everything you didn’t expect. Kim Hjorth Jeppesen (vocals, guitars, bass, drums) and Anders Pedersen (guitars, synth) fuse raucous garage rock and catchy rhythm & blues with influences from some indefinable but cool other genres into a steaming stew, to which a motley crew of guest musicians add surprising toppings. You’ll hear falsetto in opening song Get Back OTG, a kind of barrel organ in Sitting Around, spoken word in Bookstore, the fabulous Courettes in If I Could Fly, a donkey in Daily Grind, woo-hoo’s and handclaps in See Her, and so on and so forth. What a tasty dish this is, a swinging feast for the senses, quite spicy indeed.
Jambalaya – Xtra Spicy, produced/recorded/mixed by Ulrik Petersen (aka The Great Nalna) & Jesper Reginal (aka Yebo from The Tremolo Beer Gut), is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Crunchy Frog / Folc Records. Additional musicians on selected tracks: Jens Benz (drums), Mike Sullivan (drums), Ulrik Petersen (piano, organ, synth, guitar, cavaquinho, backing vocals), Jesper Reginal (percussion, cymbal, cavaquinho, backing vocals), Matti Breschel (guitars), The Courettes’ Flavia Couri Thorsen (vocals), Nouvelle Vague’s Phoebe Killdeer (vocals), Charlie Shapiro (bass), Stefan Friis Ringive (tubas, trombones), Johan Bylling (flutes), Bjarke Nikolajsen (cornets), and Martin Couri Thorsen (jingle bells).
Look at that! Baltimore’s hard-to-google eccentric Velvetesque protopunks Workers Comp return with a new four-song EP. Last March, I first heard the band, and the new EP Crazy With Sweat further builds my excitement for anything this three-piece (Luke Reddick, Ryan McKeever and Joshua Gillis) puts out. Workers Comp have a way of making their songs sound like loose and spontaneous one-take recordings with zero apprehension about the outcome, fully confident their songs will come out great regardless of the production value – or lack thereof. They are not wrong. And Good Look may be the closest Workers Comp has been yet to writing an underground pop hit.
The Crazy With Sweat EP is out now on a limited run of Tapes at Glad Fact.
Scottish indie folk-pop act Withered Hand is basically the solo-but-not-alone project of singer/songwriter Dan Willson, who is slowly but surely building up a majestic discography. The recently released full-length album How To Love is a new masterpiece, featuring nine poignant songs that get under your skin. The rich orchestration approaches perfection, the personal lyrics are hard-hitting, the heartfelt vocals have a raw edge that gives goosebumps. The feeling as expressed in lead single Waking Up also applies to the listening experience here: “I can raise my voice // Nowhere to hide // It don’t come easily to me // Out stone cold // Coming back to life // I’m waking up inside in the dream.” Beautiful.
How To Love, produced/recorded/mixed by Tony Doogan, is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Reveal Records. Featuring Dan Willson (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Malcolm Benzie (electric lead and rhythm guitars), Fraser Hughes (bass), Owen Curtis Williams (drums, percussion), Peter Liddle (keyboards), and Pam Berry (backing vocals). And on selected tracks: Kenny Anderson (vocals), Kathryn Williams (vocals), Benedikt H. Hermannson (organ, harmonium), Richard Merchant (trumpet), Ross McCrae (trombone), Lynsey Payne (saxophone), Seonaid Aitken (violin), Liam Lynch (violin), Emma Connell-Smith (viola), Pete Harvey (cello), and
The WH Salvation Choir.
The album art of the new Curious Things LP Naif is not subtle. Curious Things? Naif? Sticking a fork in an electrical outlet! I worried that the art was a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for the quality of the LP, perhaps a case of self-deprecation. Fortunately, Naif doesn’t make want me to electrocute myself neither literally nor figuratively. Rather, I find the record to be electrifying.
Curious Things (Denver) consists of guitar pop/punk veterans Cameron Hawk (The Gamits, Lawsuit Models, The Dead Girls, Bandaid Brigade etc), Forrest Bartosh (The Gamits, Bud Bronson and the Good Timers, Pinhead Circus), and Ryan Heller (Tuff Bluff, Lawsuit Models). The three-piece plays crisp and powerful power pop that has its roots in ’90s pop punk and alt pop rather than in the late ’70s pop punk successors or the ’80s skinny tie movement. It’s an energetic sound that’s super poppy, and transcended by the amazing vocals of Cameron Hawk. Naif has a familiar sound that invites a pleasant sense of nostalgia and escapes the dreaded longing for the glory days. I kinda like that feeling – the new Samiam record evokes a similar response.
Naif is out now on LP that is co-released by Snappy Little Numbers and Dumb Ghost Recording Enterprises.
The Ashenden Papers are one of the projects of Californian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jason Dezember. Together with some friends he recorded the eight songs that together form this Night Walk, actually a compilation of the previous four digital singles: Summer (August 2021), Fall (November 2021), Winter (March 2022) and Spring (June 2022). To be honest, I can’t immediately tell which tune belongs to which season – they all have both the twinkle of the spring sun and the color tones of autumn leaves. Jason told JanglePopHub how the tracks came about, making it sound easier that it must have actually been (about opening song Summer’s Coming On: “I wrote it during a camping trip; I was afraid I was going to forget it so kept singing it in my head all weekend until I was well tired of it”). Anyway, this is half an hour of delicious jangle pop that can be enjoyed all year round.
Night Walk is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP through Secret Center Records / Subjangle. Featuring Jason Dezember (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion), Leon Levy (bass), Matt Hull (drums), Ella Cross (vocals), Matt Bullimore (lead guitar on The Margins), Marie Davenport (bass and keys on The River Highway), and Rose Melberg (backing vocals on Summer’s Coming On and Little Jumpy T).
Add to wantlist: Bandcamp (Secret Center) || Bandcamp (Subjangle)
The Growers is a (mostly) bedroom recording project by Steven Boyle out of Pleasant Hill (California). Five years in the making, Boyle has been slowly writing and reworking the eleven songs that make up his self-titled debut album. “I’ve been releasing a couple songs at a time since 2019, but always had the intention of combining them into a full-length. I think of it like the Megazord from Power Rangers,” Boyle explained to me in an e-mail. Boyle cites personal reasons as the primary driver behind his songwriting, “but if other people like it, that’s cool too!”
I for one think this record deserves an audience. The Growers is a scrappy indie/punk rock record with an emotional edge. Boyle’s voice and sound reminds me somewhat of The Cardinal Sin, a band fronted by Cadillac Blindside drummer Becky Hanten. It’s an honest and unpolished sound I have a soft spot for.
Kissa (translated: the cat) is the untamed rock ‘n’ roll project by Finnish singer/songwriter/guitarist Günter Kivioja, in which he and five other colorful musicians cause loud commotion with fun at the forefront. What you see is what you get: this is a theatrical and carefree collective of friends who took inspiration from the glam aesthetics of the early 70s, who generate primal and straightforward punk rock energy, where glitter and glamour hide how dangerous and dirty the band and their sound actually are. Kissa’s sophomore full-length Apinalinna (translated: monkey castle) consists of nine new pieces of catchy music full of hooks and screams. These animals may be wild, but they make for a good time.
Apinalinna, produced by Liisa Tani, is out now digitally, and on cassette, CD and vinyl LP through Svart Records. Featuring Günter Kivioja (vocals, guitar), Sampo Kääriainen (guitar, glockenspiel backing vocals), Oskari Ahtola (bass), Jussi Himberg (backing vocals), Tytti Roto (keys, backing vocals) and Markus Hietamies (drums).
Current band or lost ’70s punk single? When the album art and the music evokes that sort of confusion, you know it’s a good one. I’d like to introduce you to Plastic Act, a project started by Private Lives bass player Josh Herlihey after he moved from Vancouver to Montreal. Plastic Act’s debut three-song 7″ single is out now on Brain Gum Records. It’s essential listening, particularly for fans of lo-fi proto punk that is wrapped in duct tape to harness the ramshackle energy and catchy melodies. More of where this came from please! Limited to 100 copies, so act quick if you want one.
