Cleanup time.

Time to get in the 2016 swing with a quick look at some late 2015 releases I didn't get to in time and a few from the new year.

The Modulators-Try Try Try. Kool Kat released this one late in 2015, and it did manage to squeeze onto my year-end list. These guys have been around since 1980, and this is their second album after re-forming in 2009. Their sound is classic 70s/80s power pop with a bit of the "skinny tie" element. Standout tracks here include "Upper Hand" (with its recurring riff that reminds me of "Picture Book"), the jangly "What's on Your Mind", and "Lucky Stars", which would have been a hit in 1971. Get it a Kool Kat with a bonus EP.

Kool Kat



Hector & The Leaves-Little Bee EP. London's Tom Hector and his Leaves have given us 2016's first standout EP with four tracks of sunshine-y pop that I'd describe as Brian Wilson meets Badly Drawn Boy. Matt Williams (known to readers of this site as The Brigadier) helps out, and the best part is that EP is free to download on Bandcamp.

Bandcamp



The Matt Truman Ego Trip-AM 1670 EP. And the second standout EP of 2016 comes from Ohio's Matt Truman. He says the EP is inspired by 1970's AM Radio, and that will be obvious once you take a listen. "Starry Eyes" and "Hard to Get" just the right mix of rock and melody a la Badfinger/The Raspberries, while "First Kiss" is just the right kind of mellow. And I swear I once had a receiver that looks just like the one on the cover.

Bandcamp



One Like Son-Ugly. And finally we have the incredibly prolific One Like Son, who put out two albums in 2015 (New American Gothic and Classic) or four, if you count this one and Leftovers (an odds-and-ends collection) which were released to Bandcamp on December 31. This one's going on my 2016 ledger, and it's a bit of a departure for the boys who normally go the high-energy route with their sound. In fact you could say the title's ironic as this might be the prettiest collection of tunes they've released, from the father-and-son-themed opener "Crimes and Misdemeanors", to the nearly folky "Stella" to the power balladry of "Midwest Summer Nights". When most artists go years between releases, these guys keep cranking them out and so far the quality has kept pace with the quantity. Guess I'll be writing about them again in six months.

iTunes

First new music of 2015.

Time for the first reviews of 2015, and a couple of familiar names are back.

One Like Son-New American Gothic. This Alabama band made a splash in 2012 with its raucous debut Start the Show, notable because they recorded it on an iPhone. This time around, the boys took part in the 52 Weeks Songwriting Project, and each track was written and recorded within a week. Interesting back stories aside, they've served up another high-energy rocking collection of tunes with some lyrical punch. The opening title track tells the story of a lifelong love with a spin on the classic piece of American art, while "Little Valentine" is a Replacements-style rocker depicting an obsession that comes to a happy end. Elsewhere, we follow a "Punk Rock Prom Queen" while "Sister Mary (Got Her Gun)". And it's all capped off with "A Galaxy Far Away", a 7-minute track that recaps the original Star Wars trilogy, demonstrating that The Force is with them on this disc.

Bandcamp | iTunes



Baby Scream-Fan, Fan, Fan. Juan Pablo Mazolla, our favorite South American power popper, returns with an all-new collection of tunes that are a must if you've enjoyed his music before. This time around, he takes a more sardonic look at the world to accompany his always melodic sound. So we come to learn that "Everybody Sucks", he's "Back to Douche" and of course "Haters Will Hate". All three of these tracks are catchy of course, and he channels the spirit (if not the sound) of Beck in the raved-up "Loner". And the standout track here is the majestic "Human Being on Mars", a midtempo marvel that encapsulates his Lennon-esque sound. Oh and by the way, he also put out another album simultaneous to this, an odds-and-sods collection called the "The Worst of Baby Scream", with 22 more new tracks and five covers that frankly I haven't had a chance to dive into but I'll let you do so by embedding the player for it along with this one.

Bandcamp | iTunes

Monday Roundup.

One Like Son-Start the Show. While most of us with iPhones use them for such illustrious activities as playing Angry Birds or downloading fart apps, the band One Like Son used theirs to make Start the Show. Scattered across the southern USA, the band members recorded their bits wherever they could with an iPhone and put the whole thing together. And the best compliment of all is that from listening to it, you'd have no idea they didn't book weeks of studio time. Of course this would be all be an amusing novelty if the tunes didn't hold up, and here they do. OLS falls into the "Fountains of Weezer" camp as far as their power pop style goes, and they serve this subgenre well with the title track and several others. But they also manage to successfully break from the high-energy, manic pop/rock with the Beatlesque "Buried" and the contemplative "L.A." It's good stuff, and it would be fitting to listen to it on your iPhone.

Kool Kat | iTunes



People on Vacation-The Carry On EP. People on Vacation is the duo of Smile Smile's Ryan Hamilton and Bowling for Soup's Jaret Reddick, who've come together "on vacation" from their regular bands to craft an EP that's poppier and more mature than one might expect from their regular gigs. "Better Off Dead" reminds me of an Americanized Teenage Fanclub, the charming piano-and-guitar "It's Not Love" gets by on its whistle-along "luh-uh-uh-uh-uv" chorus, and "Where Do We Go Now" is quality dream-pop. All in all, it's six tracks of polished pop that should be up there for EP of the Year.

Amazon | iTunes