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!



Lisa Mychols at MySpace
Lisa Mychols Website
Nushu at MySpace
Nushu Website
The Masticators at MySpace

They Shoot Square Dancers, Don’t They?

Sometimes song titles already tell you whether you’re going to hear dead-serious music or not… This disc has amused me quite a lot recently. It’s another release from John Borack’s power pop book, and it’s Bamboo Lounge (2001) by Sparkle*Jets U.K. (U.K.? Why U.K.? – I just don’t get it…).

This album really could be described as a divided personality. About half of the material is traditional, absolutely sweet power pop sung and written by Michael Simmons. The other half is Susan West’s energetic and quite unconventional and wild tracks. While Simmons and West pursue very different styles, that contradiction helps in keeping this album interesting through all 14 tracks.

Nearly everything on this album is fantastic. My favourites include.. well, I guess it’d take less time to mention the songs that aren’t my biggest favourites, but that wouldn’t make any sense.. I’ll just say that She May Be Nice, Sorry, and Beautiful Girl are awesome Simmons songs and Monster, Consult Your Physician, and They Shoot Square Dancers, Don’t They? are awesome West songs.

Here’s also a nice discovery.. From sparklejetsuk.com band bio:

”Robbie Rist: The sparkle*jet least likely to realize that he's a sparkle*jet. But that's okay. He's in about 200 bands at any given moment, which is why there are at least 200 bands on the planet at any given moment which completely kick ass. And it's all because of the Bob.”

I guess in a couple of years I’ve found all those 200 bands (all accidentally) and written about them to this blog..

Sparkle*Jets U.K. Website

Audio Saccharine

I really enjoy Receiver’s Inspiration Overload (2001). I spotted it in John Borack’s power pop book Shake Some Action – The Ultimate Power Pop Guide (great book!). Borack himself used to play drums in the band, but on Inspiration Overload powerpop queen Lisa Mychols plays all percussions. Mychols also sings background vocals – sounding amazing.

This album was produced by Robbie Rist (who seems to appear quite often in power pop circles) and it’s a very strong collection of 11 catchy, energetic, and sugary songs written by Kenny West and Kerry Chicoine. It’s very loud pop - exactly the kind of stuff I tend to enjoy very, very much. Killer melodies, absolute sweetness, all wrapped up inside those distorted guitars and great riffs. It’s a simple path to happiness.

Oleander is my #1 favourite song on the album, it has pure low-tone magic, and those melodies.. They’re so good. Faster, Wind Up Girl and Inspiration Overload are also amazing tunes, to mention but a few. Also, it’s enchanting for a girl to discover power pop songs that carry your own first name.. Erica Kane is a wonderful tune. It isn’t even the only power pop song with that name (there’s Game Theory’s Erica’s Word, too), which is absolutely cool.

I just can’t get enough of music like this. Audio sugar and loud pop instrumentation– that’s my thing.

Receiver’s Inspiration Overload at amazon.com (with sound samples)

Mola, guay, OK!

The Mockers really are big in Spain. The Spanish version of their latest album even comes with a booklet containing the album lyrics translated into Spanish! We’re talking about an album called The Lonesome Death of Electric Campfire (2005).

What a great album it is! Seth Gordon and Tony Leventhal’s songs are excellent, again. As a result, the album is full of catchy songs. Something New features absolutely beautiful melodies and some amazing piano playing and jangly guitar sounds. Doin’ Time has very Fountains of Wayne-like lyrics, and the Emperor Strikes out is rock’n’roll fun with anti-Bush lyrics (also, check out the hilarious music video!). Mola, guay, OK (another amazing track) is a treat for Spanish fans due to its entertaining lyrics, partly written in Spanish.

The lyrics are definitely a distinctive feature to the Mockers. ”We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you" it says on their MySpace, and although this probably is true, Gordon and Leventhal’s lyrics are never too arrogant. They always include the essential self-doubt part in their songs: “What makes me think I’m not the same?” Also, what is great about The Mockers, is the exceptionally easy-going feel of their music. There really isn’t much of that angst that you’ll find nearly everywhere in power pop.

The album sounds very good, thanks to the production work of powerpop hero (and The Mockers band member) Robbie Rist. Also, the arrangements are superb. Seriously, who could ever resist the cheerful horns and upbeat rhythms of Straight in the Eye, or the very beatlesque feel of Willoughby Station (again spiced up with those great horns)?

I certainly have to mention that before I listened to this album, I totally fell in love the previous one, Living in the Holland Tunnel (2001). That album has lots of real killer tunes, such as Coronation, Sunflowers, Funk #50, Comes As No Surprise, and, of course, the greatest-of-all Sheepwalking (those jangle guitars!!). That album is simply excellent. The Mockers certainly don’t include fillers on their albums.

It’s actually quite hard to decide, which one of these two albums is better. In fact, I still haven’t listened to The Mockers’ first album (Between Mocksville and Harmony, 1995). Another task to be finished..

That’s it. I’ll go back watching The Rosenbergs on YouTube (my recent favourite hobby)…

The Mockers at MySpace