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.

Steve Howe’s Latest

As some of you know, I've been calling Yes guitarist Steve Howe the most underrated guitarist in rock. The man has some serious chops, and he's as comfortable jamming on an extended rock solo as he is caressing a flamenco styled tune from an acoustic. Well, he has a new album out, called "Spectrum," It's not his best work-the best way I can describe the overall feel of this atmospheric album with slightly jazzy overtones is "pleasant"-but there is still enough of Howe's brilliance peppered throughout to hold your attention. What's most interesting about this album is the backup band. In addition to the legendary bassist Tony Levin of King Crimson (as well as a guy who has played with hundreds of other acts-check out the "worked with" section on his AMG All Music Guide entry if you have a couple of hours to set aside), he not only has his sons, Dylan and Virgil, playing with him, but he has Oliver Wakeman, son of keyboard god Rick Wakeman, playing-what else-keyboards on this thing.

It caused me to do a little search on the Wakeman the younger, and apparently him and Steve Howe put an album out together in 2003. I'm gonna have to check it out...

Coverville

I just found this great podcast site today called Coverville which is just what the title implies...Covers.

I've already listened to 4 of them here at work and they are great fun. The very first show Brian (the shows creator) did in Sept 2004 started with "Hold your head Up/Hello" by you know who. This guy is a big power pop fan and you can tell by the covers he unearths.

Give a listen while idling the day away, it's fun I tell ya.