Farrah & New Album

Farrah, a brilliant UK powerpop quartet, have finished and released a new album. It’s their fourth, a self-titled album, and so far it has only been released in Japan. A release for western citizens will follow later this year. I’ve been following the band’s activity but obviously haven’t been able to keep myself completely up-to-date as the Japanese release came out in July…

This band has a nice back catalog. Especially their first album is superb but I will mention some things about the second and third album as well. Go ahead and comment if you have more experience on the subject.

Moustache (2001)
Farrah’s debut album is a great collection of songs, to me a true classic. The album came out as god knows how many different versions, different song lists and even different album covers and colors. Anyway, the songs are magnificent, the sounds are great, the sounds (I love those percussions) are absolutely cheerful. And then there is of course Jez Ashurst’s voice… To cut a long story short, to me his voice is highly addictive as it is one of those incredibly boyish, sweet, bubblegummy powerpop voices. He is not my #1 favourite but he is definitely one of the best.

The album isn’t addictive just because of Jez, however - the songs are addictive. I will always remember Tired of Apologizing, a song that deals with relationship hardships of with such delightful peacefulness that it actually turns negative things into good. Terry is another song about a certain type of hardships. The song is really nice, catchy, sympathetic, and well... sort of psychedelic. There is also a Rubinoos cover of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, as well as a lovely ballad in Superman theme, Lois Lane. Living for the Weekend and Seventies Superstar are very charming, those songs I also tend to listen to when it's summer and the sun is shining, and even if it's not shining. Seriously, everything on this album is awesome! Some people might think there is a filler or two here but I wouldn’t do that. I like all the songs equally much. Great sounds, great songs, cool arrangements - indeed, a classic.

Me Too (2003)
The band’s sophomore effort is not quite as coherent as the first one was but it’s still very good. It begins with a fabulous song couple, Tongue Tied (check out the video) and Daytime TV. These songs reveal more about Jez’s geeky vocalist persona. I never get tired of the wonderfully silly drum sound of Daytime TV… A drum sound must be good if it brings a smile to the listener's face every time the song starts. This album also contains a cover song, this time it’s Joe Jackson’s It’s Different for Girls – sweet, really sweet. As a whole, Me Too is another collection of charming, slightly melancholic powerpop songs. Wake up is one of my favourites, as well as The Last Word.

Cut Out And Keep (2007)
This is also a nice album. It remains as the most distant of Farrah's albums to me, but the reason is simply that I still haven’t found the time to listen to everything on it properly. On the album there are of course again some really sweet tracks. It is impossible not to enjoy the Weezer-ish Dumb Dumb Ditty (can be heard on MySpace), and No Reason Why that has a cool horn arrangement (also on MySpace). A fancy music video was made for Fear of Flying. Check it out if you like, the song is as sweet as power pop can get - typical of Farrah.

Farrah takes care of the PR. The band likes to keep a video diary and they are even on Twitter. When it comes to their new material, it obviously sounds good. However, I’m not entirely convinced yet, so I’ll wait to hear the new album in its entirety. A part of me certainly thinks this band will probably never reach the greatness of Moustache again… Well, I shouldn’t ever say never. We’ll see.

Farrah on MySpace
Farrah on Twitter
Farrah – Official website

From the new album: Can’t Kick the Habit
From Cut Out And Keep: Fear of Flying
From Me Too: Tongue Tied
From Moustache: Terry

Piece of the Action

A week ago, I witnessed my first gig of the year, and I really can’t help telling everyone about this extremely cool band. The band comes from a small Finnish town called Nakkila, and they are probably the favourite band of every alternative rock fan in the country. If they are not, they should be. They are Penniless.

The gig.. Man! The energy, the loudness, the amazingly catchy songs, the vocal harmonies, and the rocking sounds.. It was a gig I’ll never forget. The gig and all its greatness immediately made me want to listen to more of this band’s music. I actually bought their latest album The Attraction (2007) already when it came out but I never seemed to get excited about it at that time – it wasn’t clearly a time for rock music. Now, I’ve been enjoying this album for a whole week, and it just keeps getting better.. The eight listening was arguably the best – 20th must be even better!

According to various sources, Penniless’ music can be compared to bands and artists like Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, Pixies, [early] Nada Surf, Bob Mould, Foo Fighters, and The Posies. I’d say the band also has something in common with other Finnish rock bands such as Sweatmaster and Hundred Million Martians. I’m not much of an expert because I haven’t even listened to Penniless’ entire catalogue yet, but I attend to.. The band used to be more punk-oriented in the past, I think, but nowadays their music is a nice combination of alternative rock and occasional power pop features. You won’t need to think too long to guess what the song Norman Blake is musically all about.

The Attraction is an utterly wonderful piece of rock music. I love every second of the album. Messenger was the first single, and it surely has some catchy riffs, among other good things. Opening track Action is also a killer, but Perfume is my personal favourite (check it out at MySpace). Tracks from #4 forward are all pure greatness: Police Dogs, Departures, Denial, Hitchhiker (“standing on the roadside!”). Cracks on the Road is the more peaceful spot of the album. In the end of the album you’ll find two more cool rock songs, Electric Blues and New Stuff. Then comes City Birds, a truly lovely song with emotion.. All in all, it’s a brilliant album. There’s energy, anger, other emotions, rock'n'roll attitude, melodic beauty, harmonies (interestingly some sections on the album sound like it’s Serj and Daron from SOAD harmonizing.. which isn’t necessarily the only thing that brings SOAD on mind), everything you need from a first class rock’n’roll experience. It’s got style!

Also, don’t forget to listen to Adam’s Apple Pie at MySpace! It’s the Posies.. No, wait, it’s Penniless after all…

Penniless at MySpace
Messenger Music Video
Adam's Apple Pie Music Video
Penniless Website (See Audio & Video section)

Sweet Apples

It was a few years ago when I started listening to The Apples in Stereo. The band is associated with the famous lo-fi/indie pop collective Elephant 6 that I definitely wish to explore further. I’ve already checked out some material from Beulah and Of Montreal (I also remember listening to a couple of songs by The Olivia Tremor Control), but there are also many other interesting bands to listen to. The collective is big, so I believe there is a whole lot of fun ahead of me – fun and quirkiness. The bands that I’ve already listened to have all proved to be quite unique.

The first Apples in Stereo album that I properly listened to was New Magnetic Wonder (2007). At the time it was the group’s latest. Once I got around to listening to it several times it started showing promise, and it didn’t take long before I start enjoying Robert Schneider’s wild ELO-like backing vocal effects and energetic, upbeat songs. The vocal effects are airy and magnificent, and usually successful. There is a moment or two when the vocal effects are slightly OTT but it’s not such a big sin.

Can You Feel It? and Same Old Drag are examples of successful vocal effect experiments. Both songs are also very catchy. Energy is a hit. It sounds like a mixture of Oasis and Electric Light Orchestra, and probably something else too. Hilarie Sidney who has since left the group provided New Magnetic Wonder with a couple of good tracks: Sunndal Song and Sunday Sounds. Play Tough is a beautiful melody, definitely reminds of The Left Banke’s Walk Away Renee. In the end of the album there are a couple of very grandiose songs: Open Eyes and Non-Pythagorean Composition Pts. 3-4 – perhaps not personal favourites but definitely not bad either.

The album’s biggest problem is the huge number of instrumental interlude tracks. Many people have already stated how unsuccessful the idea of placing them all around the album is. I guess everyone would still agree on the fact that once you’ve removed the interlude tracks from your playlist or mp3 player, New Magnetic Wonder works well as an album. It’s probably best listening to those instrumental tracks separately.

There was a long pause between New Magnetic Wonder and its predecessor Velocity of Sound (2002) which is also one sweet album. While New Magnetic Wonder is ELO-oriented Velocity of Sound sounds like Weezer. It’s clear right from the first moment of Please. Although the album easily brings Weezer to mind with its loud, distorted guitars, it’s not geeky – at least in the same way as Weezer.

One of the absolutely coolest things about The Apples in Stereo is Robert Schneider’s voice. There’s definitely some good nasal vibe there, and the way he makes himself sound like a 6-year-old.. It’s simply amazing - and really sweet. There are many moments on Velocity of Sound album when Schneider’s vocals blow my mind. That’s Something I Do and Do You Understand? are wonderful, as well as Please. Baroque is also brilliant. There is not much baroque instrumental quality but one melodic part definitely is baroque! Another really cool track is Yore Days, a song in which the album’s vocal style suddenly turns completely different.

This band has made many albums and EPs – I don’t even know how many.. They’ve also released a new creation quite recently. It’s called Electronic Projects For Musicians.

The Apples in Stereo at MySpace

The Art of Happy Music Videos

Once again, it’s time for a nice music video. This time it’s Weezer’s Keep Fishing, probably from 2002. It is an excellent video that will surely bring a smile to your face.

I love this song, I love this band, I love Rivers Cuomo. Also, the gigantic distortion wall brings me constantly a lot of happiness. There really is something about loud and distorted music.

Summer Distortion

Here’s an album that belongs to my every summer. It’s loud, it’s distorted, it sounds like Weezer and The Beach Boys at the same time.. Silver Sun’s self-titled debut (1997) made a huge impression when I found it in the summer of 2005 (if I remember correctly). Since then, I’ve returned to listen to the album countless times and my reaction has always been stunningly positive. I remember writing a personal review on this album some time ago. Expressions like “too good to be true” appeared there..

To me, these tracks are pure joy in musical form. Golden Skin, Dumb, Far Out, and Service are all amazing tunes, and the harmonies are really good. Yellow Light is really stunning with its melancholic and dreamy feel and great dynamics. That same dreamy feel actually keeps appearing on this album (e.g. 2 Digits), and I think it’s really good. I’d call Julia my favourite song, but there isn’t much difference in how much I love each of these tracks. The ultimate hit song is of course Lava, a wild pop-rocker with some interesting lyrics..

On this album, the lyrics are crazy, apparently mostly complete nonsense. To me, that is probably the best alternative, since I’m terrible in understanding songlyrics.. When there isn’t much to be analyzed, mostly just funny rhymes and stuff that doesn’t mean anything, you can focus completely on the melodies. On the other hand, these lyrics may contain some hidden meaning..

James Broad’s great lead vocals are bubblegummy and a bit geeky, I’d say. A very nice arrangement detail is the use of some sort of wind instruments in Julia and Far Out. I guess they are clarinets. They sound very good.

The album has 15 tracks, 14 of which are songs. Everything looks amazing during the first 11. I don’t know why, but for some reason I often end up thinking there is something wrong with the end part of the album. Songs like Wonderful, Bad Haircut and Nobody are not exactly Julia or Golden Skin, but they aren’t bad in any way either. It’s obviously just my brain working again.. Sometimes all it can remember of a good song is a small hint of doubt about whether a song was perfect or not.

What a summery distortion packet! It’s gorgeous, it’s melodic, it’s harmonic, it’s sentimental, and it will drive your mom crazy!

Silver Sun Official Website

Crimson and Clover Over and Over

Jimmy Eat World gained my attention when I read a review on their latest album in a Finnish rock magazine Soundi several years ago. According to the review, Jimmy Eat World is like Weezer but even more geeky. The comparison to Weezer and the geekiness fascinated me, although I still don’t know what that geekiness actually means. Jimmy Eat World didn’t turn out to be particularly geeky kind of rock music, so it might refer to the band’s hobbies or something..

I listened to a couple of Jimmy Eat World songs from their 2001 album Bleed American (that was re-released as Jimmy Eat World due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks) in 2004 or 2005 but for some reason I didn’t listen to the entire album then. That sometimes happens to me. I don’t have time to listen to an album more or I somehow feel it’s not time to listen to more of it yet. However, last autumn I listened to this album in its entirety several times and discovered its beauty.

This album and the single The Middle gained Jimmy Eat World success, which is very nice. Genuine, high quality melodic rock deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. Bleed American is a wonderful album filled with emotion, it’s all very human and at many points has a very personal lyrical approach. What is also important is that it rocks!

The album starts with a track that has two names: originally it was Bleed American but later it was also named Salt Sweat Sugar. It’s an excellent rocking track with amazing sounds and quite claustrophobic lyrics. The next song, A Praise Chorus is one of my biggest favourites. The song contains some serious kick! It’s perfect for its drum beat alone, the kind of beat that constantly seems to turn upside down. It sounds so fresh and energetic. Add great song – the result is perfect. The lyrics have a carpe diem theme and deal with praising several famous songs (check ‘em out here).

The Middle is good, although I don’t find it the most interesting thing on this album. Sweetness, on the other hand, is awesome! It has a very exciting, dynamic, agitated, intermittent, hard rocking arrangement and great structure. I really enjoy the woo-oo-oo’s in the song. Jim Adkins has a brilliant singing voice, I love his vocals.

Your House and Hear You Me represent the softer side of the band. Especially the latter song is very, very gentle. If You Don’t, Don’t follows Hear You Me with a nice yet highly bittersweet feel. It’s another song that is not so very dramatic but gives me shivers anyway. Get It Faster is also awesome. It’s actually quite scary.. In the song Jim Adkins takes a highly cold attitude. With a huge barrier of distorted guitars the result is very impressive.

In the end of the album there is Cautioners, a very pretty song with again a very interesting arrangement. The Authority Song is upbeat and frustrated at the same and has great melodies. My Sundown is a peaceful ending track – good but not very memorable.

The songs on this album are in excellent order. The running order helps to display all the brilliant dynamics, and when the songs are also all good, it’s impossible not to enjoy it. This album is a real experience.

Jimmy Eat World at MySpace

If You Want to Destroy My Sweater…

My summer holiday has begun. This means I’m gonna have lots of time to blab about whatever type of music I choose, and I really don’t have much else to do.. However, I intend to do lots of other things, too, such as watch good movies and my favourite science fiction TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Today, I think I’ll blab a bit about great 90’s alternative rock/power pop (someone might even call it emo..). Already for four years one of my ultimate summer soundtracks has been Weezer’s self-titled debut album from 1994, also known as The Blue Album. The first Weezer album that I listened to was The Green Album in the summer of 2004. I remember I liked it instantly: although it didn’t really sound like anything I’d listened to before, something about it struck a chord with me. It was very loud and distorted music with harmonies and a sympathetic feel.

Soon, I found out Weezer had made a great debut album back in the 90s, produced by Ric Ocasek. I studied the band’s interesting history and started listening to The Blue Album. It sounded very good right from the start and as weeks and months went by, I noticed I never got tired of the album. My little brother liked the album, too, and it’s still one of the few albums that we both love very much.

What is so great about The Blue Album is that it’s quite simple. It’s not very fast-paced and there aren’t dozens of different instruments or basically anything too complex on the album. Instead, there are excellent Rivers Cuomo compositions and melodies added with very economical arrangements. Those features and the huge wall of distorted electric guitars that were to become Weezer’s trademark make this music magical. Personally, I find that distorted sound very comforting. The loud, yet soft, kind of fuzzy but tight sound always makes me feel good.

All in all, this music is very genuine and sincere. Rivers Cuomo’s brilliant lyrics add a very important layer to this geeky rock. In songs like No One Else his straightforward style of writing very emotion-appealing lyrics is clearly displayed. No One Else is one of my favourites, although all ten songs on the album are worth serious attention – and appreciation.

Buddy Holly is a classic. The Happy Days-themed video for the song is also memorable. I remember seeing it on MTV although I was only six years old at the time. The song is a great example of what Weezer, in my opinion, is at its best: easy-going (and perhaps happy, too). The entire album is quite easy-going and happy although there certainly are a couple of more melancholic tracks. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here is beautiful and sentimental. It’s amazing how effective it is despite its relatively discreet, peacefully sad feel. Say It Ain’t So is also quite melancholic, and its totally enchants me with its gorgeous dynamics. Only in Dreams ends the album wonderfully, with its bass line bringing Pixies to mind.

In the Garage is a salute to all garage musicians, such as myself.. The song and the sound of it is amazing, listen to that low-tone guitar - it’s insanely crunchy! My Name Is Jonas, Holiday, Surf Wax America – they’re all great. Debut single Undone -- The Sweater Song is another song not to be missed. It includes hilarious geek lyrics, and everything about it is brilliant.

The Blue Album is such a classic. I’m so happy that so many people have discovered it and its greatness, and new people keep discovering it, too!

Weezer at MySpace
The Blue Album samples at Amazon.com

Just What I Needed

This music truly is something I happily welcome. During the past few days, I’ve been listening to The Cars, and the number of songs I like just keeps increasing. Just What I Needed is really one of the greatest songs I’ve heard in a long time. There’s some amazing melodic quality there..

As a great new wave band The Cars scored some pretty big hits, like Drive (btw, I found out like yesterday that it’s a Cars song… Had heard it a million times on the radio but never knew whose song it was.) The Cars were a group of great musicians and they had two lead singers, Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. Ric is a familiar name, credited as producer on some of my favourite albums, like Weezer’s Blue Album. Ben, on the other hand, is something completely new and exciting for me. Although he isn’t among us anymore, he can be seen performing on many Cars videos on YouTube, and well, that guy had some good charisma..

This may not be the easiest kind of music to listen to, although The Cars’ early music has some real power pop qualities. Their later stuff sounds very good, too, ‘cause I’m generally very interested in 80’s new wave synth-pop/rock. Now I really want to dig deeper into this music.

The Cars at MySpace

Shamelessly Solid Pop

Sometimes I find great CD’s when I listen to those cool power pop radio stations at www.live365.com (e.g. Power Pop Jangle Radio, Power Pop Guitars SFSB and d23 Power Pop Plus). The sound quality isn’t the greatest, but you get the point of the songs you hear.

So, I tend to make notes whenever I hear something exceptionally interesting. I occasionally check my markings and see if they’re available on CD for a reasonable price. This is what happened with me and The Shame Idols. I heard their song She’s on the Phone, and for some reason thought it was really, really good at the moment. Then, I got the entire Rocket Cat (1998) album, listened to it and was happy about what I heard.

Most of The Shame Idols members have a background in a punk band called Working Mothers, and their singer-songwriter Tim Boykin used to be a part of the alternative rock band Carnival Season. What these guys have come up with is pop music characterized by loud guitars, great melodies and some pretty good harmonies. I think this solid guitar sound quite brings Weezer to mind. Many of these songs are nicely uptempo and give some nice pop-punk vibes.

I think Rocket Cat is generally different from many other power pop albums. That is because this album contains hooks but they aren't as obvious as power pop hooks usually are. However, I don’t find that a bad thing at all. There is something uniquely charming about these songs. What makes this music very enjoyable is the combination of great guitar sounds and the overall smooth and easy-going spirit. So, although this music is very loud and rocking, it might even manage to make you calm. Also, you will notice that the melodies are playing in your head once you've listened to them a couple of times.

Every song on this album is enjoyable, and the song running order is great. She’s on the Phone is obviously very good but it’s also very easy to pick up such favourites as Neon Geyser, Picture of a Clown, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, My Star and I Don’t Trust You. I’m sure that many people would find this music a bit dull and monotonic but personally I don’t really support those views. Good songs, sounds and melodies make this CD a great purchase.

The Shame Idols at MySpace

I Get a Funny Feeling

Material Issue is so great. Although they were among the first powerpop groups I ran into I didn’t start listening to them properly until last fall. Material Issue may not actually be the right kind of thing to start with when getting into powerpop (at least it obviously wasn’t the right thing for me). But that’s OK. After spending four years listening to many other PP bands, I realized that Material Issue had suddenly become pure sweetness to my ears.

Material Issue was a 1990s trio lead by songwriter Jim Ellison. They released four albums. So far, I’ve got acquainted with the first, International Pop Overthrow (1991), and the third, Freak City Soundtrack (1994). IPO is an absolutely wonderful album containing many catchy songs such as Valerie Loves Me, Diane, Crazy, and of course the great title track. My personal favourite is the bouncy Li’l Christine, a perfect ending for a near-perfect album.

Freak City Soundtrack is sometimes regarded as Material Issue’s greatest album and that opinion might just ring true even with me. While IPO is characterized by quite moderate, jangly early 90s sounds, FCS is a lot louder, faster and more rocking. There aren’t many slow songs on Freak City Soundtrack, which makes the album great to listen to when you need energy (for me that is often). And the songs! The songs are excellent. Goin’ Through Your Purse is amazing, and the same is true of Funny Feeling, The Fan, Very Good Thing, and basically every song on the album.

Jim Ellison’s lyrics often remind me of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s awesome, geeky texts. Both deal with love, girlfriends, and all kinds of problems related to them. Jim and Rivers have a quite similar approach to these subjects. You could say that they write so extremely emotion-appealing lyrics that it’s almost silly. On the other hand, what is also true is that heartbreak may not really be a thing to be discussed lightly.

Somehow, I still constantly find myself very amused listening to these heartbreak stories and I’m certain I’m not the only one who feels this way. I guess you just never can get used to how dramatic life can occasionally be. This is one difficult thing to explain – especially in a foreign language! However, it’s indeed very strange how serious things turn into something quite different when they are discussed in a certain way. Is it that I’m just able to see the humorous side of other people’s terrible misfortune or is it that I’m a bad person enjoying someone else’s setback?

The most memorable moments listening to Material Issue are those when you get touched and amused at the same time. It’s one big confusing emotional rollercoaster. What is great about this kind of music is that it’s much more than just something you listen to. It’s life, feelings, and being a human, too.

Oh how I love Jim Ellison’s voice. It’s bright, high-pitched and very expressive. I really think there is a difference between Material Issue’s first and third album. Ellison has certainly learned to realize his full potential as a singer on FCS. Also, as a sort-of-fan of The Cure I can’t help comparing his voice to the one of Robert Smith’s. They really bare some resemblance, but that’s not a bad thing.

RIP, Jim Ellison. You certainly left something wonderful for us pop fanatics to enjoy.

Listen to Material Issue at YouTube:

Valerie Loves Me music video
Diane music video
What Girls Want music video