What is it about indie pop that makes for such a winning vessel for the introspection and self-deprecation of songwriters? Perhaps it’s just that hooky guitars and catchy choruses are the spoonful of sugar that allows the lyrics of, say, Courtney Barnett or Liz Stokes of The Beths to go down ultra-smooth. Maybe it’s just because it’s one of the more evergreen flavors of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” indie music, one that can still excel without reinventing the wheel. This question comes to mind a lot when listening to Part of the Problem, Baby, the addictive sophomore record by ex-Tigercat Laura Kovic and her band, Fortitude Valley. For 34 minutes, the British four-piece churns out hit after hit, belter after belter, each one doing an immaculate job of softening…
Category: power-pop
Kai Slater is obsessed with the past. For those of us who share his interests, that’s working out splendidly. Slater, a 21-year-old Chicago singer-songwriter, first gained renown as a member of Lifeguard, a trio whose noisy, melodic post-punk songs turn ’70s and ’80s classics into rocket fuel. He dresses like a mod dandy and publishes a handmade zine titled for NEU!’s krautrock classic “Hallogallo.” It’s not just that he devours the stylistic palette of the 20th century underground; he’s also keeping the flame for its DIY ethos, gritty and grounded in community.
Some of the leading figures from that world have taken notice. Lifeguard signed to Matador Records, one of the current indie landscape’s most direct links back to the years before…
Tony Molina fits grace into the smallest spaces. His songs are abbreviated, mostly in the one to two minute range, but never in a hurry. They make their point with radiant jangles and bittersweet curves of melody, sketch out an indelible chorus, and trail off. If you’re in too much of a hurry for Teenage Fanclub, these songs have the same ineffable bright-and-shadowy wistfulness, without the guitar breaks and middle 16s.
On This Day is typical Molina in that it contains 21 songs, a few of them heart-stopping, and lasts just 23 minutes. It is, perhaps, a bit less amplified than earlier albums like the 2018’s Kill the Lights or 2019’s Songs from San Mateo County, an album whose fuzz-crusted sweetness called Bandwagonesque, but shorter.
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Weiss began drum lessons when he was only four years old and also plays guitar, bass and piano (being self-taught on these). He began writing songs at seven years old and went on to play in various bands throughout his youth. The band Andrew Weiss and Friends was formed in 2016 and the band’s debut LP, The Honeymoon Suite was released in 2018, followed by 2020’s The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry, 2021’s Highly Fascinated, Sunglass & Ash (2022), in 2023, Beverly Hills, Thanksgiving Day and in 2024, the world’s smallest violin.
So the latest release, The Last of the Outdoor Kids, continues the band’s trend of having interesting album titles (the latest one relating…
The Len Price 3 have been around for over 20 years, long enough to know what works for them and how to deliver it in the studio. Their trademark variety of garage rock filtered through the memories of the first British mod era and the maximum R&B that walked hand in hand with it is bold and brawny on 2025’s Misty Medway Magick.
That said, while they reaffirm their strengths with ease here, they also move ever so slightly forward on this LP, with dashes of psychedelic pop and freakbeat audible in tunes like “The Luckiest Guy Alive,” “She Brings the Morning,” and “Emily’s Shop,” as if they’ve chosen to live in the year 1966 instead of 1965 for a change. (They also take a brief detour into 1977 with the punk fury of “You’ve Changed.”) The trio’s instrumental skills are…
It’s 100% ‘Mission Possible’ for Northern Ireland’s indie-power pop legends, Ash. Their ninth studio album, Ad Astra, blasts off in turbocharged style, a blazing follow-up to 2023’s Race the Night, and the band are set to soar into new sonic realms, pushing their sound to new heights and expanding their musical universe.
In the spirit of doing exactly what it says on the tin, or rocket if you are so inclined, Ad Astra lives up to its name, marking the band’s most ambitious and elevated work to date. Of course, it’s not their first rodeo when it comes to their fascination with all things intergalactic, the intriguing world of space has always shaped their sound and inspired their creative vision.
In fact, their debut album, the seminal 1977…
When attempting to provide an overview of a big story – one that encompasses both the myriad achievements of its subjects over a span of several decades and the impacts of those achievements – you can take two routes. There’s the “just the facts” approach, where you list off the people, places, and things that populate the tale, and then there’s another road that winds through the hows and whys behind the names and numbers. Looking at the story of Canadian indie rock institution Sloan, the temptation to look through both lenses is strong.
For those who prefer the factual take, there are certainly enough noteworthy events and experiences peppered through the band’s over 30-year history to make for a good yarn.
After some turbulent late teen years in her former pop punk band, Mixtapes, Maura Weaver needed a break. Months became years and the songs still weren’t coming. It wasn’t until being thrust into personal heartache in 2020 that she began to write songs again and the result was her 2023 solo debut I Was Due For A Heartbreak.
The record was a personal breakthrough for Weaver, characterized by Weaver’s distinctive emotional intelligence, the record was intimate and relatable-filled with quiet moments counterbalanced by big ideas about love, loss, and life. Weaver’s sophomore effort Strange Devotion continues in a similar vein.
Written and recorded over the course of 2024 with longtime collaborator John Hoffman…
If the 1970s were when power pop was invented and made into one of the more exciting styles of music around, and even occasionally very popular, the ’80s were when the style permeated the music scene as it split into multiple tendrils of guitar-based pop. Following up on their excellent collection Looking for the Magic: American Power Pop in the ’70s, Grapefruit Records delivers another brilliant set of freshly scrubbed power pop tracks on I Wanna Be a Teen Again: American Power Pop, 1980-1989. On the three-disc set, one gets to listen as the classic power pop sound of the previous decade shoots off in different directions. Its chiming guitars and swirls of sound inform the paisley underground, a slicked-up version wends its way through the new wave…
After a break and a series of deeply unfortunate events, the California trio Hunx and His Punx have returned from the brink of oblivion with Walk Out On This World, their first album in 12 years. In their early days, Hunx and His Punx were music blog staples with Seth Bogart’s (aka Hunx) NSFW antics and lyrics that provided an out, proud and loud twist on the girl group sounds and garage rock sensibilities that permeated late-‘00s indie rock. When Bogart, Shannon Shaw and Erin Emslie last collaborated on an LP, they were still bratty, gritty and righteously profane in pre-Obergefell America. Over a decade later, they’ve mellowed out a little, polished their sound a lot and mounted a comeback as tragedy-touched survivors who still wear their influences, whether they be…
It’s a testament to Marshall Crenshaw’s songwriting and performance that even his castaways make for a compelling record. Recorded across two decades starting in 1990, From the Hellhole is a 14-track collection of remixed and remastered songs culled from a series of EPs and several rare deep cuts, that were mostly recorded in Crenshaw’s home studio (dubbed The Hellhole).
Among the tracks here is a solid cover of The Carpenters’ “(They Long To Be) Close to You.” With close to a dozen cover versions of this sappy pop classic out in the world, it should be pointed out that his version – originally released on an EP in 2013 – is arguably among the best thanks to his earnest delivery. Other covers songs here include a previously unreleased take…
With a 30-day window to return gear bought with a “borrowed” credit card, young wannabe rock stars Jeff Whalen and Dan Kern were on a mission in 1998 to record the songs they had been kicking around for a few months. Those tunes were a winning mixture of shimmering power pop, strutting glam rock, and non-clichéd alternative rock that eventually became the basis of Tsar’s self-titled debut album. The two guys called in favors from friends for more gear as needed while fighting off a faltering 8-track recorder and racing to the finish line with one goal in mind: scoring a record deal. These tapes have circulated before in less official channels, but Omnivore’s 2025 release of The Drugboy Tapes is their official coming out party, and it’s a blast to hear…
Big Stir Records presents a very special new album from power pop legends The Spongetones, celebrating the band’s illustrious past, their live onstage present, and the promise of future recordings yet to come: The 40th Anniversary Concert… and Beyond. Featuring 18 live tracks from the band’s rapturously-received 2021 homestate gig, drawing from all four decades of the Power Pop Hall Of Famers’ catalog, as well as three brand new studio tracks released as singles this year, it’s a comprehensive look at what makes The Spongetones so beloved… and a cornucopia of hooks and harmonies for the ages.
The Spongetones likely need no introduction to our audience: singer-songwriters Jamie Hoover (guitar), Steve Stoeckel (bass) and Pat Walters (guitar)…
…The record has been lovingly remastered and cut from the original tapes by John Baldwin at Infrasonic Sound in Nashville, TN.
After recording the material that would later comprise the bulk of Invisible Hits, The Soft Boys recorded their masterpiece, the shimmering neo-psychedelic Underwater Moonlight.
Essentially, the band didn’t change their style for the record — they merely perfected it. The Soft Boys don’t hide their influences — whether its the ringing guitars of the Beatles and Byrds or the surreal humor of John Lennon and Syd Barrett — but they assimilate them, resulting in a fresh, edgy take on ’60s guitar pop. Robyn Hitchcock‘s subject matter tends to be more explicitly weird and absurdist than his influences, as titles…
A new 4CD clamshell box set by the acclaimed British ‘retro rockers’ Cats in Space. This special collection features the band’s first four albums with original singer Paul Manzi, ‘Too Many Gods’, ‘Scarescrow’, ‘Cats Alive!’ (recorded at The Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff) & ‘Daytrip To Narnia’.
Chapter 1 gathers together these deleted and sold-out albums in this remastered collection which also includes some exclusive bonus tracks, a historical, illustrated booklet with essay and a pull-out colour poster.
Announcing this release Cats in Space said: “Our early albums are no longer available, so it made sense to re-release them with our record label team at Esoteric Recordings and Cherry Red Records orchestrating something extra special…
Martha celebrate over a decade of fiercely melodic power-pop with Standing Where It All Began: Singles and B-Sides 2012–2025, a 20-track collection gathering deep cuts, rarities and out-of-print favourites.
…Standing Where It All Began has been lovingly re-mastered by the brilliant Dave Williams (Eight Floors Above). The band felt it would be fitting to use the remastered version of the first song they ever recorded and released, “1978, Smiling Politely”, as the de-facto ‘single’ to promote this collection. It’s a song inspired by Audre Lorde, that they still love, but it’s one that has never been available on streaming platforms before.
The band had the following to say about the release: “It’s been cool going back to these…
The Bongos’ derived from a vibrant New York City area music and art scene that had given rise to bands like Television, Talking Heads, and Blondie. Hailing from Hoboken, New Jersey and led by guitarist, singer, songwriter Richard Barone, the band played over 300 shows in 1985, and on Memorial Day weekend of that year played the succulent, sun stroked New Jersey shoreline and recorded a live album for RCA records.
For the 40th anniversary of this performance, JEM Records is releasing The Bongos,’ The Shroud of Touring: Live In 1985, remastered from the original 24 track analog tapes. Previously unreleased, the recording is a revelation. Recorded at the Tradewinds in Sea Bright, NJ on May 24, 1985, the recording features the Richard Barone…
Here’s another salvo from the power-popping, windmill chording, Nuggets-mod-turned-mildly psychedelic Smug Brothers, a four piece out of the heartland’s lo-fi capitol, Columbus, Ohio. We last ran into the band circa 2023’s In the Book of Bad Ideas, observing “Smug Brothers kick up a jangly, tuneful racket, with brash power chords and sweetly rueful lyrics, battering drums and liquid flourishes of guitar.” That’s all still in play but Stuck on Beta kicks harder and daydreams less. It’s melodic guitar pop with the lines drawn in thick black sharpie, nothing cloudy or indefinite about it.
Take the early single, “Sidewalk Champagne,” which cranks a sirening guitar lick and bumps it up with a bounce of bass. High, not-quite-falsetto vocals keen over it all, but don’t soften the tone.
The Circles, one of the defining bands of the mod revival movement, proudly unveil Anthology, a career-spanning double LP celebrating 5 decades of recordings. Featuring iconic tracks such as “Opening Up”, “Billy”, “Mr Suburbia”, “Better Days” and “Angry Voices” alongside two brand new songs, Anthology showcases the band’s evolution while staying true to their roots.
Emerging from the West Midlands in the late 70’s, The Circles fused mod aesthetics with punk energy, quickly earning a devoted following whilst remaining accessible to fans. Despite the passage of time, their music has remained a staple of the mod revival scene, with Mick Walker’s songs as relevant and strong today as when written over 40 years ago.
If you were to draw a Venn diagram regarding American bands tagged variously as No Depression, College Rock, Alt-Country, Paisley Underground and power pop, chances are that Scott McCaughey would be at the centre of the intersections. To quote a recent article, “Over the last four decades, McCaughey has been the Mad Hatter at an eternally rocking tea party where pals from Wilco, The Baseball Project, R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, The Decemberists, The Bangles, NRBQ, The Dream Syndicate, The Posies, and others help bring his slightly skewed visions to life.”
In his own right, McCaughey has helmed two fine bands, Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5, the latter quite a moveable feast of a band, the lineup fluctuating with various members…
100% agree. Also, the description of the record was CLEARLY written but RA. Such a douche.