Hey -- How Did This Happen?

From 1976, please enjoy New Jersey's finest, The Hounds (featuring some guitar player whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels)...

...and the A-side to their 1976 single -- and now the lead off-track of their 2017 compilation CD The Album We Never Made...

...the infectious pop Stones/Who confection "Call Me."



The entire album, which is if I do say so myself quite transplendent, can be purchased and streamed over at CD Baby HERE and Amazon. I am informed that it will also be available at iTunes, Spotify and YouTube shortly. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, this has been several decades in the making, and it is immensely gratifying to have it finally available for public consumption.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Closed for Holiday-Related Monkey Business

Regular posting -- possibly involving some interesting news about a certain bass player whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels -- resumes on the morrow.

The Last Christmas Song

Okay, okay -- I'm as sick of holiday music as the rest of you guys. But my chum Steve Notice -- who wrote and performed the song below -- put up this video earlier in December, and it just fricking slays me.



By which I mean it's both very funny AND genuinely touching.

BTW -- a coveted PowerPop NoPrize© will be awarded to the first reader who comes up with a credible answer to the question -- who does Steve's voice remind you of?

Frankly, it's driving me crazy. Maybe a cross between Dan Fogelberg, Arlo Guthrie and Phil Ochs?

Help me out here, people!!!

Your Tuesday Moment of Bestiality

Okay, okay...I know the name of this blog is PowerPop, not Pissed-Off Leftie. But this is too good not to share.



Although it does end too soon.

POSTSCRIPT: Guess who didn't like it.

It's Christmas Day, So Bill O'Reilly Can Go Fuck Himself!!!

From 2012, please enjoy friends of PowerPop The Mockers and their self-evidently accurate anthem "There's No War on Christmas (If Christmas is in Your Heart)."



A great song, and by now something of a seasonal tradition around this here blog.

Have a terrific day, everybody!!!

It's Graham Gouldman Week (Part V): Special Saving the Best For Last Edition

From British TV in 1998, please enjoy the great Graham Gouldman, hero of the just released CD compilation Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964...

...and an acoustic version, to die for, of his classic "Bus Stop."



This is, if you pressed me, probably my favorite song of all time. Incidentally, that's Neil Finn of Crowded House and Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera to Gouldman's left. As the friend who hipped me to the clip observed:

Notice the faces and body language of Finn and Frame. Looks as if they’re both thinking along the same lines: ‘Motherfuck — he wrote this when he was 19. What are we supposed to be doing up here?’

Yes, indeedy.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

[h/t Matt Mitchell]

It's Graham Gouldman Week (Part IV): Special Oh Lady!!! Edition

From 1966, and now the new CD compilation Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005.....

...please enjoy Gary Lewis (one of the two pop stars who I ever looked like) and the Playboys and their surprisingly not horrible cover of Gouldman's great "Look Through Any Window."



This is such a magnificent song it almost hurts; one of the major regrets of my adult life is that The Floor Models never got around to covering it. That said, the Lewis version quite clearly pales in the face of the original hit version by The Hollies.



Three words: drummer Bobby Elliott.

Tomorrow -- the man himself, in a performance of his greatest song that will absolutely kill you.

It's Graham Gouldman Week (Part III): Special Nom du Disque Edition

From 1969, please enjoy the great Graham Gouldman (and the rest of the guys who would later become 10cc) doing business as The Ohio Express with a song that didn't make the cut for the just released compilation CD Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005...

...but should have; to wit, the infectiously bubble-gummy "Sausalito."



This was a minor hit in 1969; I loved it at the time, but it wasn't till years later that I learned that Gouldman had written and sung the darn thing.

Another Gouldman oddity -- this time featuring the son of a certain beloved by the French comic auteur -- on the morrow.

It's Graham Gouldman Week (Part Deux); Special "Guys From Canada" Edition

From the 2004 album Feedback, and now the just released compilation CD Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005....

...please enjoy (and I can't believe I'm saying this) Rush and their pretty fucking cool cover of the Yardbirds/Gouldman classic "Heart Full of Soul."



I somehow managed to miss that Rush album when it came out, but it's also got some pretty respectable covers of the Who, Love, Buffalo Springfield, and even another Yardbirds song. I still can't say I'm a Rush fan -- although I love "Take Off" with Bob and Doug McKenzie -- but I'll give them this, they obviously have pretty good record collections.

More Gouldman stuff -- that you probably haven't heard -- on the morrow.

It's Graham Gouldman Week!

From the early 21st century motion picture Just My Luck, and now the just released compilation CD Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005....

...please enjoy McFly and the fiendishly catchy Gouldman power pop confection "I've Got You."



Never saw the movie, and was unaware of this band until the CD arrived at Casa BG on Thursday, but damn that's great stuff. Gouldman's been one of my favorite songwriters since forever, and it's nice to know that he hadn't lost his touch.

More, and more oddball, Gouldman stuff on the morrow.

Don't Try This at Home!

From 2017, and their just released eponymous album, please enjoy the pride of New Jersey, AKA Mike Daly and the Planets, and their haunting ode to exactly what it sounds like -- "Kill a Clown (No, Not Really)."



Okay, actually this song has been around for a couple of years, but the album is new, so forgive me.

In any case, you can find out more about these guys -- including where to purchase their CD -- over HERE. Trust me -- this is guitar-driven power pop and general rock-and-roll of a very high order indeed.

Oh, and BTW, Mike --

-- thanks for the t-shirt. I shall wear it proudly.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Pat DiNizio 1955-2017

I heard the news of his passing only a few hours after Wendy and I had decided to get tickets for an upcoming Smithereens show at B. B.B. Kings.

A great musician and one of the nicest guys I ever knew. He and the 'Reens changed my life, literally.

True story: Before his band got signed, Pat was working in some capacity at Folk City in the Village; one of his co-workers was friend of PowerPop Ronnie D'Addario (aka the father of the Lemon Twigs). One day Pat asked Ronnie if he wanted to write a song together, which Ronnie thought was a good idea, and so the two of them repaired to Pat's apartment and they sat around with acoustic guitars throwing out ideas. The following conversation, which I reproduce verbatim, ensued.

PAT: (playing a riff): Holy shit. Did you hear that?

RONNIE: What?

PAT (plays riff again): This.

RONNIE: Uh...what?

PAT (plays riff again): Isn't that great? Wow -- it's almost like "Ticket to Ride."

RONNIE: Uh, Pat...it IS "Ticket to Ride.

Rest in peace, my friend.

UPDATE: Friend of PowerPop Phil Cheese just forwarded me this.

Pat's signature on my guitar from 50 Winters Later Festival, Clear Lake, Iowa 2009. How appropriate that Pat is surrounded by Tommy Allsup, Joe Ely, Graham Nash, and Peter Asher.

Words fail me.

God Fucking Damn It

Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens has passed away at the age of 62.

I am devastated.

More tomorrow, if I can get it together.

Closed for Monkey Legal Business

Been accused of sexual assault of The Incomparable Eddie© for some reason.

Obviously, it's absurd. And fortunately, my high-priced attorney is on it.

Regular totally innocent posting resumes tomorrow.

Programming Notes From All Over

Courtesy of our pal, ace DJ Wayne Lundqvist Ford, our new Floor Models masterpiece will be airing on a fabulous syndicated radio show.

Next weeks show all ready to blow your ears and mind! First airing out of Toronto, Canada on www.bombshellradio.com. Monday at 3pm GMT, 4pm CET. — with Mikah Wilson, The Lemonaids, The Reigning Monarchs, Vanilla, The Wellingtons, The Stems, * Wide Hips 69 *, Dany Laj and The Looks, The Smart Folk, Teenage Fanclub, The Floor Models, The Britemores, The Reaction, The Why oh why's, The Hum Hums, Doojip, Tommy Keene, Gift Horse, Lyres and Stupidity.

That's 3pm East Coast time, by the way. At www.bombshellradio.com.

If you miss it, the show will be archived; we'll keep you posted when it's up.

Annals of Chutzpah (An Occasional Series)

And speaking as we were yesterday of my old garage band chums The Weasels, I don't know if I've told you guys that I'm actually in the process of putting together a Weasels best-of album that will be available for purchase both in physical CD and online form.

It's going to be called Crimes Against Humanity: Greatest Hits 1973-2016.

And it will include this Firesign Theatre-esque promo -- titled "This Album Sells Itself" -- just to show we don't take ourselves too seriously.



I should add that the special effects on that were all pre-digital. I'm particularly fond of the toilet flushes and the toy machine gun noises.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Somewhere in Hell, Lee Atwater is Laughing His Ass Off

Attentive readers may recall that last March I purchased a Danelectro 12-string guitar...

...that cost a third of what a Rickenbacker goes for and turns out to be a lot easier to play. I've been in the studio of late with the Floor Models and our ace guitarist J.D. Goldberg used it to put down a McGuinn-esque track on the new song we're working on that has blown my tiny mind; as soon as we're finished, I will of course share it with you guys.

But in the meantime, I am so depressed and angry over the stupidity of the Democratic Party in allowing the Acorning of Al Franken that I am almost beside myself.

So here is a new song by my garage band chums The Weasels, featuring the aforementioned Danelectro...



...that has given me a little comfort.

I'm playing the first half of the solo (up to when the harmonica comes in); the other credits include the song's composer Glenn Leeds on vocals, drum programming and the rest of the 12-string stuff, and Alan Weissman on bass.

Enjoy.

Oh, and in the meantime fuck you Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillbrand. By which I mean with a rusty chainsaw.

It Came From Music City!!!

And speaking as we were last week of all-around Renaissance dude and friend of PowerPop Gwil Owen...

...formerly of Nashville alt-rockers The Thieves...

...please enjoy his quite splendidly Revolver-ish "She Doesn't Love You."



What a cool song; I really need to cover that with my garage band chums The Weasels one of these days.

BTW, when I described Gwil as a Renaissance dude, I wasn't kidding; apart from his marvelous music, he also has turned into a quite splendid and critically acclaimed collage artist.

You can see more of his work HERE.

Closed for Medical Monkey Business

Hey, I'm old. All I do these days is see doctors.

Nothing serious, but between being poked and prodded and continuing work on my mom's apartment, I just couldn't get it together today.

Regular and extremely healthy postings resume on the morrow.

Coelacanth Discovered in Toronto!

Actually, something even rarer, that I frankly didn't even know still existed.

An indie record store. In Canadia -- home of Rush, Gino Vanelli and Ed the Sock -- no less.

Long time readers may recall that back in 2011, I posted something about a similar emporium in Hackensack, N.J., my then home town.

Which, BTW, I am happy to report is still there. By which I mean the store AND the town.

In any event, KOPS RECORDS stalwart Chris Edwards, who has been following my poor scribblings since the STEREO REVIEW days, has been hipping me of late to some interesting music that I have, in turn, passed along to everbody else who hangs here. And to express my gratitude, I recently sent him some CDs by the fabulous Floor Models.

Which occasioned the literary effort by Chris below. Please enjoy.

THE BEATLES MEET THE FLOOR MODELS -- A THEATER PIECE IN ONE SCENE

The setting: A radio studio at Abbey Road.

JOHN LENNON: ... yes, and the really special thing about these Floor Models CDs is that they're actually SEALED.

PAUL McCARTNEY: Yeah, I mean normally when I think of a floor model, I think of something sort of open & accessible, you know, something that people can test out and kind of... get a feel for. It IS very unusual to find a floor model that's SHRINK-WRAPPED.

LENNON (aside): Well, I've rapped a lot to my shrink over the last few years, as you know.

McCARTNEY (deadpanning): Excuse me, John. This segment IS actually about the Floor Models, not Primal Scream.

(Laughter from studio audience)

LENNON: Yes, you're quite right.

McCARTNEY: Well, one thing I'd like to say. I haven't heard this band's music yet, but I already feel a bit of empathy for them. I mean, they titled one of their songs "Letter From Liverpool", after our home town.

LENNON: I noticed that, too. (Deadpanning) Yes, we've got a "Letter From Liverpool", a package from New Jersey and an e-mail from Canada. I'm not sure how all this happened but I think somebody should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

(Laughter from studio audience)

LENNON (continuing): Well, our producer's just told me that they've taken the shrink-wrap OFF one of the Floor Models and now we can actually hear the song Paul just mentioned. So let's all give a listen to the Floor Models, "Letter From Liverpool", through the miracle of radio waves.

THE END

I should add that after the Senate passed that America-killing tax bill on Friday, a certain Shady Dame and I decided to move to Canada on the condition that Chris adopt us. So far, he's still thinking about it.

It's Moving Day!

In the process of leaving/selling my mom's co-op...



...an experience I can only compare to spinal meningitis.

Regular posting resumes on Monday.

Have a great weekend, everybody.