Thoughts on Melody: Sweet and Sinsational

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Sweet and Sinsational

Lisa Mychols, her talent and tremendously beautiful voice have been sweetening the airwaves and enriching the L.A. pop scene since the early 90s. Mychols is a talented singer, musician and songwriter. I haven’t encountered too many women as talented as her – especially not in the field of power pop! Seriously, sometimes I feel like women are almost non-existent in the power pop scene. With this thought in mind, it becomes obvious that Lisa Mychols is a real gem and a musician of high standards. She is an inspiration.

In the early 90s Mychols recorded a Christmas album with Darian Sahanaja and Nick Walusko, the guys that would soon be releasing music as Wondermints. This classic Christmas CD is of course called Lost Winter’s Dream, released in 1991, rereleased in 2002. This album is definitely a strong candidate for the category “coolest psychedelic Christmas music”. Mychols and her Wondermints friends give their Christmas tunes a firm 60s treatment with some interesting edge. Lost Winter’s Dream avoids clichés and is therefore a fresh breeze of Christmas spirit. I played this CD during last year's pre-Christmas party season... It was wonderful and I bet everyone else enjoyed it too. The album made a nice addition to many Christmas moments.

Mychols has later played a part in many projects. I am sure that I don’t even know about all of them. To mention a couple of things, Mychols played drums and sang background vocals on Receiver’s album and also provided backing vocals for The Sun Sawed in 1/2’s 1997 album Fizzy Lift. In the late 90s Mychols founded a band called The Masticators with some talented L.A. musicians – including Robbie Rist, our trusted powerpopster. The Masticators released one album (Masticate!, 2000) before breaking up. The album is of course excellent. Gee, I really should start listening to it again right now..

Then there is Sweet Sinsations (2004), the second solo album by Lisa Mychols. Sweet Sinsations became a big thing for me last fall, such a huge source of energy and melodic cheer. The album is awesome all the way and also contains cool variation. Living Doll is a great opening rocker. Later other fabulous tracks such as Oh To Be in Love, Cycles Per Second, and Las Brisas Sun offer some completely different moods. Other favorites include Gonna Get That Boy, Take a Ride, Fun Fair/Old Memories... It is a neverending demonstration of energy and sweetness, an album that will surely get your spirits up. The same year as Sweet Sinsations an EP called In This City was released but it has not been around much.. One shopping link I tried took me to Japan's Amazon.

Nushu is a project that features Lisa Mychols and Hillary Burton. As everyone probably already know (or at least should know) a new album by Nushu has just been released. It is called Hula. I can't wait to get it. Just check out the video for Another Rainy Weekend. Something as fresh and energetic as this is exactly what makes a perfect summer soundtrack. Nushu's first album Nevermind Lullabye came out in 2007... To be honest, I didn't even remember this album existed. I think I will get it too.

And guess what, it seems that Lisa is even working on another solo album. That is very exciting. Well, no more blabbering, I'll just go and listen to some great music by Lisa Mychols! I recommend you do the same. Just let pure melodic rocking sweetness take you over!