A Penny For Your Thoughts?

And given the current price of diesel, that's pretty damn cheap.

But seriously, folks, I've gotten hooked of late on a news/political website called No More Mr. Nice Blog. Hosted and written by the charmingly abbreviated Steve M, who seems to be a weepy old bolshie like moi, it's consistently entertaining and thought provoking, and I recommend it highly in today's troubling times.

More to the point, Mr. M had this to say in a recent piece making sport of a conservative pundit at the NY Times who thinks the Republicans are winning the wider culture wars because there are a couple of hit western shows on teevee at the moment. M saves his larger thesis for the conclusion. To wit:

...As for music, country might be thriving because it continues to embrace satisfyingly basic pop song structures, at a time when hip-hop rarely does and there's no energy left in rock apart from eccentric acts like Geese and Angine de Poitrine, or abrasive, laryngitis-inducing metal. Noah Kahan, Taylor Swift, and Olivia Rodrigo write old-fashioned songs, and they're hugely popular (and all politically left-leaning). Maybe verse-chorus-verse songs are what Americans want, not social conservatism

And you know what -- I think he's onto something there. In any case, you can read the whole piece over at the link above.

Insert today's title here. 😎

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "You're Twangin' That Sitar Pretty Good, Mahatma!" Edition

[An earlier version of the below originally ran here in 2009, a time so distant in the past that my testicles hadn't yet descended. I've added the essay question section of it and done some rewriting on the rest in yet another vain attempt to convince you guys I'm not the slacker you all know I am. -- S.S.]

From 1970, please enjoy bubblegum legends The Ohio Express and their infernally addictive (and more substantial than the genre usually gets) "Sausalito."

Written by -- wait for it -- Graham Gouldman. Yes, him.

Anyway, the interesting (I know, I know -- you'll be the judge of that) thing is that the guys in the clip were NOT the guys who played and sang the record. The clip guys, who admittedly have the then contemporary rock star look down pretty good, were a Mansfield, Ohio band called Sir Timothy & The Royals, who were renamed The Ohio Express and hired by the Kasenetz/Katz bubblegum factory to represent, as the kids say.

So who played on the record? Well, given Gouldman's fingerprints on the thing, you might guess it was his future band 10cc, and you'd be right; "Sausalito" is, in fact, the work of the same pop geniuses behind records like "Rubber Bullets" and "I'm Not in Love." Gouldman and company spent a year basically toiling as Brill Building hacks for Kasenetz and Katz; they had their own recording studio which they were trying to turn into a viable commercial enterprise at the time, and grinding out bubblegum tracks for K&K paid the bills. For more on the whole history of the Ohio Express, you should probably go over here.

And all of which leads us, inexorably and inevitably, to the larger subject of the business at hand. To wit:

...and the post-Elvis pop/rock/soul/folk/country song you would most like to cover or have covered either live or in the digital domain as a solo artist or band member is...???

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules, except that if you actually are or have been a musician it can't be something you have already covered at some point in what passed for your career.

Obviously, my first choice would be the song above, but since I love you all more than food, I'll pass along my runner-up.

Unfortunately, that came out in 1997, which is to say two years after I hung up my bass guitar and retired from performing. But man -- what I wouldn't have given.

Alrighty, then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

In the Not Too Distant Future...

In theaters last night, with an encore performance Sunday September 13th. Consult your local listings.

I gotta say, I've always thought that song was brilliant, by which I mean coulda/shoulda been a hit single, and the above is both the most recent and the best of the several versions of it over the years.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I once actually got to meet/interview the guys -- Mike, Bill and Kevin -- in 1996, when they were doing a book tour in support of their then just-released MST3K Amazing Collossal Episode Guide. An hour which remains one of the greatest thrills of my adult life.

Seriously -- I was just a huge fan, and as far as I was concerned, it was like getting to be in a room hanging out with the Beatles or something. 😎

How Do You Say "Wretched Excess" in Yiddish?

Okay, as you may have heard yesterday over at our pal Sal's invaluable BURNING WOOD BLOG (or elsewhere on the Intertubes), but there's a brand new six disc (CD and Blu-ray) box set of The Who's 1975 album The Who By Numbers just out. I haven't heard it yet, nor am I likely to anytime soon; frankly, a) it's a little pricey, and b) I'm still trying to digest the recent 7CD complete Lovin' Spoonful anthology on Cherry Red I got as an early birthday present the other week. Plus, at this point in life, my attention span is pretty much shot to shit, and I'm reminded of a friend's comment when I asked if he'd seen Christopher Nolan's recent and much-raved about film version of The Odyssey. "Are you kidding?" he replied. "Jeebus, it's like four hours long."

Yeah, yeah, both he and I were kidding about the above to some degree, and in fact, I've loved most of TWBN since forever, although to be equally honest I haven't listened to it since probably sometime in the last century. Still, upon reading Sal's thoughts on the album, I got curious as to what I had said about it when it was new. So here, exactly as it appeared in the January 1976 issue of The Magazine Formerly Known as Stereo Review, is my critique. If you have difficulty reading, you should be able to click on it to enlarge.

I'm not sure I still completely agree with all the judgements expressed in the piece, but I think I got most of it basically right. In any case, please enjoy if possible, and cut me some slacque, Jacques -- I was a kid at the time. 😎

Your thoughts?

Your Tuesday Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles

Of course, you do have to be at least over 50 to get that last one. 😎

It's Labor Day!!!

From 1982, please enjoy the irrepressible Gary U.S. Bonds and his ironically upbeat ode to unemployment "Out of Work."

Attentive readers will recall that the above is something of a holiday tradition around these parts of late, primarily due to the fact that its predecessor in that regard, The Strawbs' "Part of the Union," turns out to be considered something of a Tory anthem in its home country (I'm still a little puzzled by that, actually). In any event, I've always loved the Bonds record, and it remains, to this day, pretty much my favorite of all the songs Bruce Springsteen gave away to other artists.

In any event, enjoy your holiday barbecues, and my apologies for the weekend screw-up in the comments section; I have no idea what caused the problem, but apparently it's been resolved.

Your Fin de La Semaine Moment of Reflected Glory

More specifically, the promo video for Uncovered, the latest album from longtime occasional bandmate and Friend of PowerPop© (and moi) Ronnie D'Addario.

Apart from Ronnie's usual batch of to die for new 60s-inspired pop confections, ss you can see from the track listings, there are a lot of really brilliantly chosen cover songs on the album -- here's a venerable folkie classic that Ronnie assures us is pretty much his favorite of the bunch.

Attentive readers will of course recall Ronnie both as the father of The Lemon Twigs and as a frequent contributor to some of The Floor Models recordings in the current century; if you're familiar with the music his kids make, you'll grok that talent is inheritable, and that in this case the proverbial apples don't fall very far from the tree.

In any case, Ronnie's been releasing stuff as good as the above on his own CDs since the 80s (or maybe the '90s, but I'll check) and I couldn't be happier that he's finally getting the kind of critical recognition that he has long deserved. I don't have the CD purchase/streaming link for the new one yet, but I left him a message about same (it was his birthday this past Wednesday) and I'll put the link up as soon as Ronnie recovers from his celebratory hangover (I keed, I keed!!!). I should also add that one of the most admirable things about him is that he differs from most contemporary musical icons in that he has a genuine work ethic reminiscent of the 60s musicians -- Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys -- who inspired him. Here's what I had to say about his last album (which he did with The Twigs, who work pretty hard themselves, come to think of it) and which dropped (as today's yutes say) all the way back in the misty dim historical recesses of late November last year.

You should get that one too, it goes without saying. 😎

Meanwhile, have a great holiday weekend everybody!!!

Closed for Monkey Business

Computer trouble AND some serious back stuff from that injury five weeks ago. Here's a hint: Don't get old, kids.

Regular -- and extremely groovy -- music posting involving a long-time Friend of PowerPop© resumes on the morrow.

The Present-Day Avant-Pop Weirdo Refuses to Die

Okay, now here's something you don't hear as often as you used to.

By which I mean a quirky, unbelievably well produced, conceivably even commercially-radio ready pop-rock confection that clocks in, remarkably, at under two minutes.

That's LA duo Scaled Alps and "Celestial Sighs," the second track from their just released new album Let the Alpine Play. I haven't really completely digested it (the song) yet, but in its own surprisingly accessible way, it strikes me at the moment as kinda the most genuinely contemporary-sounding thing I've heard (and more confoundingly actually liked) in what seems like ages.

You can find out more about these guys -- and order the above and the rest of their earlier output -- at this convenient link OVER HERE.

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles

The Lennon one made me laugh out loud. 😎