Weekend Listomania: Special "If Brevity is the Soul of Wit, How Come the Minimalists Aren't the Funniest Guys Ever?" Edition

Hey, we're all busy these days, so let's get directly to the business at hand! To wit --

Best or Worst Post-Elvis Pop/Rock/Soul/Folk/R&B/Country/Hip Hop Record Immediately Identifiable by Its Opening Riff/Instrumental Intro!!!

No arbitrary rules, you're welcome very much, but I have to say that after putting this together I was struck -- to my surprise, actually -- by how heavily slanted towards music from the Sixties it is. Then when I thought about it, however, I realized that yeah, opening riffs/intros are pretty much a lost art in contemporary pop.

More to the point, I was in an Uber the other day for about 45 minutes, and the driver had the radio tuned to WKTU, which is a New York station that used to be Disco Central and is now just the link you click that plays all the hits, or the genre officially called Adult Contemporary (yecch!). And I heard recent songs by Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Adele, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande and a few others of that ilk and not one of them had anything like an interesting intro (or even an intro per se period. And don't get me started on the drum parts, none of which were played live on real drums).

Anyway, my Totally Top of My Head Top Ten is...

10. Tone Loc -- Funky Cold Medina

Sampled guitar riffs from Foreigner and Kiss get smushed together and then they all go out to Chipotle.

9. Cream -- Sunshine of Your Love

Hey, when Cream were bad, they really sucked. I mean, that ponderous pompous insufferable riff...yeesh. Seriously, if they were trying to write the "Louie Louie" of the late '60s, couldn't they have rocked a little harder?

8. Norman Greenbaum -- Spirit in the Sky

I don't hate this song as much as a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance does, but I gotta say that when that opening fuzz riff comes on the radio or in a TV commercial I generally (to paraphrase Mission of Burma) start to reach for my revolver.

7. The Beatles -- A Hard Day's Night

The most famous opening (G7sus4) chord in music history, justifiably.

6. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles -- The Tracks of My Tears

From Motown, the home of the Great Opening Riff©.

I gotta tell you, every time I hear that chiming guitar and bass thing at the top of this one I get all warm and runny.

5. Nirvana -- Smells Like Teen Spirit

Well, those kids certainly knew how to grab your attention, didn't they?

4. The Byrds -- Mr. Tambourine Man

Actually, this should be a tie with the Byrds' subsequent hit "Turn Turn Turn," whose opening is equally memorable.

3. Eddie Cochran -- Summertime Blues

Rockabilly anticipating metal, and if you prefer the Who's version, I won't hold it against you. I like the twang on the original a lot, though.

2. The Easybeats -- Friday on My Mind

Those chiming introductary octaves -- be still my beating heart!!!

And the Number One You Know What It Is From The Very First Note song obviously (and don't even try to change my opinion on this) is...

1. The Rolling Stones -- Satisfaction

I should add that I've always loved the fact that the riff came to the song's co-writer Keith Richards in a dream (or so he claims), and that he immediately woke up and recorded it on acoustic guitar onto a cheap mono cassette and went back to bed. And that when he woke up again afterwards, he had forgotten how to play it until he listened to the tape. I mean -- talk about a mysterious creative process.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

[Oh -- and a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© goes to reader Anonymous RS who came up with this week's theme! Congratulations, my elusive pal!]

Closed for Monkey Business

Oish -- I was gonna post something today that Friend of PowerPop© Sal Nunziato had already posted at his place yesterday. Way to go, Steve. Not.

Anyway, an absolutely fabulous new Weekend Listomania goes up tomorrow. Cross my heart etc. 😎

The Kids Were Alright

Eight year old Emily Christine conducts a drum tutorial to show how it's done.

That was shot in 2012, so Emily is now a ripe old 22 if she's still around, which hopefully she is. (I've looked -- so far I haven't found any info about her online that's more recent than 2019).

But wouldn't it be great if she was playing in a band somewhere?

God, I hope so.

[h/t Frank De Stefano]

Tuesday's Cartoon Guffaws

You know, some days I really miss the late Sam Gross. 😎

Insert Pronoun Joke Here

From their soon to be released (end of March) Burning at Both Ends, please enjoy the charmingly monikered Hit Like a Girl and the new album's second single "Only Have Myself."

Okay, that song takes a while to get going, but trust me -- it's worth the wait. And as you can see, the video is freaking priceless. And I'm not just saying that because the band's name takes me back to my youth -- specifically, around 3rd grade, when the expression "He throws like a girl" first impinged on my consciouness.

More to the point, I am absolutely head over heels in love with the Goth chick with the black hair who fails the audition for guitar in the video. Hey -- what can I tell you, I'm a sucker for the look.

Anyway, these kids (who I was previously unaware of) have been around since 2017, and apparently they're quite highly regarded in post-hardcore/power pop/emo circles. You will also probably not be surprised to learn that front person Nicolle Maroulis (they/them) is the founder of No More Dysphoria, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization created to help transgender individuals pay for major aspects of their transition.

Alrighty then, you can (and should) find out more about the band -- including lotsa info on the new album and upcoming tour dates -- over at their official website HERE, you're welcome very much.

Oh...and in case anybody out there has that Goth guitarist's email addy, let's talk. 😎

Weekend Listomania: Special In the Jingle Jangle Morning I'll Come Following You/"Bob Dylan -- Poetic Musical Visionary or CIA Spook?" Edition

Okay ladies and germs -- let's get right to the weekend's business.

To wit:

Best Post-Mr. Tambourine Man Pop/Rock/Folk/Soul Song/Record featuring electric or acoustic 12-string guitar riffage that's NOT the work of either The Beatles or The Byrds!!!

No arbitrary rules here; we're basically talking about the stuff played on the radio after Roger (nee Jim) McGuinn changed the sound of contemporary music back in June of 1965.

I remember where I was -- do you? 😎

And my totally Top of My Head Top Six is:

6. The Who -- I Can't Explain

Once heard -- particularly at an impressionable age (I was 17) -- that riff can never be unheard. And Pete Townshend's 12-string sound on that is pretty much the definitive non-folk rock/non-arpeggiated guitar examplar.

5. We Five -- You Were on My Mind

This pretty much defined the electric folk-rock sound (non-"Like a Rolling Stone" organ and keyboard version) in the immediate wake of The Byrds. I'm not sure if any of these guys were actually playing the jangly/percussive guitar parts, but whoever LA session players were doing it, the 12-string licks are about as good as it gets.

4. The Beach Boys -- Dance Dance Dance

Utterly killer, and apparently inspired by Carl Wilson having purchased a Rickenbacker 12-string in England after a Beach Boys British tour where he saw George Harrison playing one onstage. And yeah, I know, a lot of the backing stuff on Beach Boys records from this period was actually the work of the legendary (uncredited) session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, but this one seems to be just the actual Boys doing all the great guitar and drum parts, including the 12-string solo in the middle.

I mean my god -- that opening riff!!!

3. You Am I -- Mr. Milk

These guys are (justifiably, as you can hear from this song) gods in their native Australia. I should add that I was introduced to them (and this) one afternoon in 1996 when I wandered into my favorite neighborhood (then the Upper West Side) record store NYCD, and proprietor (and friend of PowerPop©) Sal Nunziato was blasting it over their sound system.

An instant life changer, and I bought the CD on the spot. Thanks, Sal!

2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- The Waiting

Oh god, that guitar at the top. I remember hearing the record on the radio for the first time in 1981 (when it came out) and thinking "oh my god, that validates me on a million levels." 😎

And the bestest chiming geetar work evah, as if you didn't see this coming, is...

1. The Floor Models -- Getting Back Into My Life

Oh right. Like you didn't know this was gonna go to something by my old band. 😎

In all seriousness, that song is by power pop legend Marc Jonson (who also does the beyond gorgeous background vocal harmonies, and who claims to have written it for us, which may well be true; in any case, we played it live all the time back in the early '80s). I should add that the perfecto 12-string stuff on the 2019 version above is the work of my long-time bandmate/friend of PowerPop J.D. Goldberg, who also gets a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© for having suggested the theme of the week's Listomania. Way to go, my friend!!! 😎😎

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Only in New York

From the NY Times "Metropolitan Diary," January 11, 2026.

Dear Diary:

I’ve been obsessed with the Dirty Projectors’ song “Remade Horizon” since it came out in 2009. It’s one of the few songs I keep permanently downloaded on my phone, so I don’t need Wi-Fi when I want to hear it.

When the mood strikes — and it often does — I press play, and there it is: a strange, beautiful bit of art pop with a wild passage at the end where two women’s voices trade off notes so quickly it sounds like one instrument.

Some years after first hearing the song, I moved from Dallas to the Lower East Side. Not long after that, I was at my favorite neighborhood bar, talking with my favorite bartender, Kayla, when her two roommates walked in. They joined us, and I ended up chatting with one of them, Haley, who took the stool next to mine. I asked the usual New York question: “So, what brought you here?”

“Oh,” she said, “I moved to Brooklyn to sing with a band.”

“Would I have heard of them?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she said. “They’re called Dirty Projectors.”

I didn’t say anything, just pulled out my phone, opened my music library and turned the screen toward her so she could see the title: “Remade Horizon.”

“Are you on this track?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, as if it were nothing.

It turned out that the voice I had been hearing for more than a decade leaping through that final passage belonged to the woman now sitting next to me.

We became friends, and I still have “Remade Horizons” on my phone. Now, when it comes on during a crowded subway ride, New York feels exactly like the place I wanted it to be when I moved here.

— Steve Crozier

I'm sorry -- and I say this not out of New York City chauvinism -- but that is like the coolest story I have ever heard.

P.S.: Here's the song in question.

Heh.

Your Wednesday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special "Heart Full of Seoul" Edition

Power Pop from...South Korea?

Anyway, enjoy HOA (not sure how that's pronounced) and a pretty astonishing live performance medley of their "Push Man" and "I Don't Know Why".

Wow. Seriously.

For the record (as it were) I can find very little info about those kids, but apparently they've been doing stuff like the above (those songs seem to have been hits somewhere) since 2015. And they are currently on tour in Asia.

I gotta say I had absolutely no idea that music like that was being made in their, er, neighborhood. Not sure I totally dig the choreography, but stylistically that's some interesting stuff anyway, no? Kinda like Liverpool meets the Demilitarized Zone. 😎

Tuesday's Cartoon and Photo Guffaws

That last one is my favorite. For obvious reasons. 😎

Okay, I Didn't See This One Coming Down Broadway

Seriously...words kind of really fail me on that.

Aside from being musically quite gorgeous (and I love that thing she's playing in lieu of a guitar -- it's called a strumstick), Grant (who made her commercial bones as a so-called Christian artist) is not exactly the first person you'd expect the song's lyrical sentiments from. I mean, if I'm reading it right, her metaphorical equation of the secessionists' attack on Harpers Ferry and the titular more recent dark day in American history is pretty damned explicit.

In any event, pretty damned great, and good for her.

I should add that she actually released it last Tuesday, which of course was January 6.