The New Pornographers

Found another Canadian pop band worth checking out (brings the total up to three, I think). Anyway, I read about these guys a while back in Rolling Stone, and meant to check them out, but I could never remember to. Enter Steve Jones on Indie 103.1. "The Sire of Wilshire" spun a song by them on his show the other day (it's so great to be able to say that a DJ turned me onto this-just like radio used to be!), and it was catchy as a cold in December. Their sound is inspired by equal parts Beatles, T Rex, David Bowie, and Todd Rundgren. At the same time, it is forged with the same sensibilities that make the power pop bands of the last 15 years so wonderful (in their case, bits reminiscient of The Posies and fellow Canadians Sloan going on here). Dig 'em today!

The Jessica Fletchers

Rich should edit this post (or leave a comment) with the story of how he discovered "The Jessica Fletchers". I'll just tell you that you should get their album "Less Sophistication". While Rich was telling me about them on the phone, we listened to some of the 30-second song samples on dat der dang ol' innernet. It grabbed me and I quickly jumped over to Amazon where I saw that a seller was selling a new, sealed copy for $7.99. So I ordered it while we were still on the phone. Got it yesterday and I've spun the whole thing three times. It's greatly influenced by late-'60s or early-'70s pop. Just go listen to the samples and then get it.

Jason Falkner

I just found out that Jason Falkner is going to be playing August 27th at the Sunset Junction Street Fair. Tickets are just $10 and it looks like he will be playing a 45-50 minute set.

I'm not going to be able to make it and I'm bummed because he's almost finished recording his latest album and will probably be showing off tracks from it.

Here's a link to the lineup for both days of the festival: http://www.sunsetjunction.org/schedule1.htm

Hit It!

Podcasting seems to be the thing lately, and a new one that has just surfaced is called "Hit It!" hosted by Jeff McDonald. Basically it's a sampling of Red Kross tunes (they play the whole songs) hosted by one of their own. Great stuff if you've never gotten into them, and even if you have, it's very cool to hear the inside scoop on the songs and band members between tunes. Check it out on iTunes, or ODEO, or elsewhere.

Tiny Volcano

Thanks to Dan, I've been enjoying that Coverville show quite a bit. I've downloaded every episode (!) and have been making my way through them. During a show back in November, Brian (host of Coverville) played a song called "Father Nature" by Tiny Volcano. It was a great song, so I followed up on the band checking into various links to hear more song samples. Very much a Jellyfish influence and very cool stuff. If you like any of the Jellyfish and post-Jellyfish "Not Lame" pop, be sure to check out Tiny Volcano.