indy mike's "pick ONE favorite tune" topic: Power Pop

Here's 5 from teh 90's that fome to mind

Girl From Mars - Ash
Sparky's Dream - Teenage Fanclub
Wonderwall - Oasis
Switchblade Sister - Redd Kross
I've Been Waiting - Matthew Sweet


Thanks,
Aaron

 

OH Yeah, forgot about this one. Love this song. We had a DJ here in Poughkeepsie who would play this one every Friday at 5:00PM, used to tune in specially to here it. Finally tracked it down on CD a couple of years ago.

Jeff

 

Sorry to be unoriginal, but I'd pick either "There She Goes," "September Gurls," or "Shake Some Action." And edging into the grey area between power pop and punk, I''d add "Ever Fallen in Love" and "Teenage Kicks."

For anyone looking for a good Power Pop various artists compilations, I highly recommend Rhino's Poptopia series and their DIY series (especially the two UK Pop volumes). All of these are now OOP, I think, but not impossible to find.

 

Another "No Matter What" here.

 

The Babys - Everytime I Think Of You

 

Donnie Iris - Ah Lea(h)...or however you spell it.

 

Thank you for playing ball choicewise!!!! I'm gonna have to think of a way of getting folks to post their ONE fave without turning the thread into a big, long list o' goodies - I kinda thought limiting folks to one choice would make 'em work hard to narrow it down to one awesome pick... I could easily list a buncha juicy picks when I start up the thread, which influenced my going with a single song. Heck, getting Hal Blaine picks was tough - this turned out to be a monster topic - I guess I'll have to keep that in mind next time.

 

Man, this is tough! Love this genre...With Badfinger, Big Star, Raspberries, Cheap Trick, Matthew Sweet, etc, etc already running multiple nods, I'll throw a vote to The Posies, my fave of the modern age (edging Matthew Sweet). Dear 23 & Frosting On The Beater are flawless albums, but if I have to pick a song, I'll go with "Please Return It" from (the somewhat flawed) Amazing Disgrace album. These guys (Ken Stringfellow & Jon Auer) are absolute masters at digesting past influences and making something out of them that's all their own. Wish they were still working together....

Mark

 

Maybe no one will notice that I already posted once before, but I just can't let the Hoodoo Gurus go with this being their only notice. Any song off of 'Blow Your Cool!" will do just fine, but I will choose Out That Door off of that fine album.

 

I have also posted before, but I came up with two 45rpm-only prospects you all MUST hunt down.

1) Combo Audio - "Romanticide" . . . has keyboards that resemble "Enola Gay"

2) . . . and a Bill Lloyd college era band. Before hack country production smothered his real pop songwriting talents, he was really great at Marshall Crenshaw-type power pop.
Seargent Arms - "Walking On The Roof". It has a guitar figure that resembles "Western Union".

 

Yep, Crash and Burn was a super closer...

Heard little of Altered Images so far. The album that has the song you mention, BZ, is it spotty (with only a few good tracks) or pretty solid all the way?

 

The entire Romantics debut, actually, is perfect power pop. I'm surprised not many people have mentioned the Romantics compared with the repeated mentions of the Raspberries, Big Star, Cheap Trick, etc.

I'll add, too, "Baby It's You" by Phil Seymour.

Funny this thread happens to come up not more than three weeks after I picked up all three Poptopia! CD's that Rhino put out about five years ago at CD Wherehouse for only $3.99 a piece! Damn good deal! And the one I went to isn't even one of the ones that's going out of business. Life is good

 

Re: Just one? Don't think so!

ED

 

Next time, pick the Archies or the Partirdge Family!

 

Two of you mentioned two bands I had nearly fogotten about: The White Animals and Pezband. I spent several nights listening to these bands live, and they were both great. The White Animals were particularly great live. I saw them a couple times in Richmond, VA back in the mid-80's.

Yes, Pezband was from the Chicago area.

Are there any good reissues of their stuff? I seem to recall talk of a Pezband reunion but I don't know if it happened. Their album "Cover To Cover" was a great fave of mine as a youngster.

Chris

 

A few late entries, from a recently unearthed mixtape I made in 1981(!):

Blondie: "I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear"

Criminals: "The Kids Are Back"

Fast: "Kids Just Wanna Dance"

 

Don't know if this brought up earlier in the thread, but I was listening to the Police's live album this morning, and remembered how straight 'power pop' the Outlandos D'Amour material is. I mean, tunes like 'Next to You', 'Peanuts', 'Truth Hits Everyone', 'So Lonely".....that is power pop of the highest order. While I love almost all of the Police's work, the 'power' in 'power pop' went away when Andy Summers discovered his guitar flanging and the other stuff he added to his rack of effects starting with their second album.

 

Easybeats:
Friday on My Mind or
Good Times.
Ahhhh......

 

The White Animals and Pezband. I spent several nights listening to these bands live, and they were both great. The White Animals were particularly great live. I saw them a couple times in Richmond, VA back in the mid-80's.

The White Animals were particularly scorching live, playing around 300 nights a year through most of the 80s. I saw them a half-dozen times, in 200 seat clubs and outdoor shows of several thousand.

Unfortunately, their whole catalog is OOP, including a career overview released in 2000 called 2000 Nights in Babylon. A few of their things are floating around in rarity sites, mostly vinyl, of which I have a couple from those days.

And my second power-pop pick: Runt/Mod Todd's We Gotta Get You A Woman.

doug

 

Plimsouls - most anything
FGroovies - Shake Some Action
Chevelles - Be My Friend b/w She Don't Come Around
Green - most anything
Twilley - most anything
Flying Color - I'm Your Shadow