The Go-Gos documentary premieres July 31

These ladies came from the L.A. punk scene but cleaned up for the mainstream. That was just their image, tho: behind closed doors they were rumored to be as raunchy as Mötley Crüe. I always liked that. And them, of course. Looking forward to this.

Lost and Found: 'Sideways/Backwards'

Best known as guitarist for NYC's No Wave outfit China Shop, Steve Cohen's synth experiments on Sideways/Backwards, under the Aircraft banner, are a trippy cross between Patrick O'Hearn's mid '80s instrumental soundscapes and some of the more interesting and similar forays found on McCartney II, but colored by Cohen's deft touch and unique sensibilities.

A long lost gem.

Today in Music History (July 26)

1968 – The Jackson Five sign a one-year contract with Motown Records.

1969 – Johnny Cash releases the single, “A Boy Named Sue”, a song written by Shel Silverstein.

1970 – Jimi Hendrix plays in his hometown of Seattle for the last time.

1975 – Van McCoy reaches #1 with “The Hustle”, his only chart hit in the US.

1977 – Led Zeppelin cut short their 11th North American tour after Robert Plant's five-year-old son Karac dies unexpectedly of a virus at their home in England.

1980 – The Rolling Stones start a seven week run at #1 with Emotional Rescue, their eighth album to hit #1 in the US. Emotional Rescue was the first Rolling Stones album recorded following Keith Richards' exoneration from a Toronto drugs charge that could have landed him in jail for years.

1986 – Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” goes to #1. It eventually becomes the most played music video in the history of MTV.

1990 – Grateful Dead keyboardist and vocalist Brent Mydland is found dead on the floor of his home at the age of 38 from a drug overdose. His eleven-year tenure was longer than that of any other keyboardist in the band.

1992 – Mary Wells, referred to as The First Lady of Motown, dies of cancer at the age of 49. Wells was forced to give up her career and with no health insurance, was forced to sell her home.

2006 – The final edition of Top Of The Pops is recorded at the BBC Television Centre in London.

2013 – Singer-songwriter JJ Cale dies of a heart attack at the age of 74. He was best known for the songs “After Midnight” and “Cocaine” which Eric Clapton covered and popularized.

2017 – A jury awards Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties for the use of Michael Jackson songs he produced in two Cirque du Soleil shows and the This Is It documentary. Jones filed suit in 2013, asking for $30 million.

Today’s Birthdays include…Bobby Hebb of “Sunny” fame and the great Darlene Love (both 79); Sir Michael Phillip Jagger (77); Queen drummer Roger Taylor (71); former Extreme and Van Halen singer Gary Cherone and Swing Out Sister’s Andy Connell (59); former Sum 41 guitarist Dave Baksh (40).

Milestones: 'Kill 'Em All'

By the way, there's another important heavy record with an anniversary today. One by a certain Bay Area combo you may have heard of.
Yeah, can't let the legendary Aussies have the party to themselves, you know?

Released July 25, 1983.

Milestones: 'Back in Black'

Has it really been 40 years, 50 million copies sold worldwide and now generations of fans grooving to this album? Yes, indeed.

It was their seventh album, second with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, and first with new singer Brian Johnson which catapulted them to mass international success, as well as eventually being recognized as among the greatest albums in the history of rock and roll.
But the beauty of it all—if one could use such a term with this band and this album in particular—is that stripped of all the myth and legend, at the end of the day, it’s a collection of, as the cliché goes, all killer no filler, that sounds so, so good and rocks as hard as it did on that summer day it was released all those years ago.
If, as the lyrics state on album closer and fourth and final single “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution", this music “ain't never gonna die”, then these 10 songs will very likely have something to do with it. Yeah...

Recorded in the Bahamas and mixed in New York City, this perennial favorite was released July 25, 1980.

Thursday Throwback: Black Sabbath [1971]

Milestones: 'Appetite for Destruction' [1987]

If at the time you felt the Winger-Warrant-Poison contingent was a joke and the Metallica-Slayer-Megadeth-Anthrax front was a tad intense, you could probably turn to Aerosmith, right? Except they were in the midst of a, um, permanent vacation. Talk about the right place at the right time, huh?

One of the greatest debuts in rock and roll history (and the best selling debut album ever by a rock band), it still rocks as hard as it did then. Hell, maybe harder now.

Released July 21st, 1987.

Today in Music History (July 21)

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience play the first of three nights at the Cafe-a-Go-Go in New York City.

1969 - The Beatles start work on the John Lennon song “Come Together” at Abbey Road studios in London. It became the opening song on The Beatles' Abbey Road album and was later released as a double A-side single with George Harrison’s “Something”.

1973 - Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” begins a two week run at #1. Croce was killed in a plane crash three months later.

1977 - Despite protests, the Sex Pistols make their first appearance on the UK music show Top Of The Pops where they lip-synched to their third single, "Pretty Vacant". The performance helped push the song up the charts to #7 there.

1987 - Guns N' Roses release their debut album Appetite For Destruction becoming the best-selling debut album by a band in the US.

1990 - Roger Waters' performance of The Wall takes place at the Berlin Wall in Potzdamer Platz, Berlin to commemorate the fall of the Wall eight months earlier. Over 350,000 people attended and the event was broadcast live throughout the world, with Van Morrison, Bryan Adams, Joni Mitchell, The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Sinead O’Connor and others taking part.

1994 - Oasis play their first ever American show as part of the New Music Seminar at Wetlands in New York City.

1995 - A judge in Los Angeles throws out a lawsuit against Michael Jackson by five of his former security guards. The guards had claimed they were fired for knowing too much about night-time visits by young boys to Jackson's estate. Jackson denied any improprieties.

2002 - Producer Gus Dudgeon, who worked with artists including Elton John, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, Kiki Dee, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Strawbs, XTC, and Joan Armatrading, is killed at the age of 59 in a car accident along with his wife Sheila.

2004 - Composer Jerry Goldsmith dies after a long battle with cancer at the age of 75. Goldsmith created the music for scores of classic movies and television shows including Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Dr. Kildare.

2005 - Long John Baldry, one of the founding fathers of British rock 'n' roll in the 1960s, dies of a chest infection. He was the inspiration for half of Reginald Dwight’s stage name: Elton John. (Sir Elton legally changed his name in 1972.)

2007 - Music mogul Don Arden, nicknamed “the Al Capone of Pop” for his uncompromising business practices, dies at the age of 81 at a Los Angeles nursing home. Arden managed Black Sabbath, ELO and the Small Faces and was the father of Sharon Osbourne.

2017 - Justin Bieber is banned from performing in China, according to Beijing's Culture Bureau. In a statement, the ministry said it was not appropriate to allow in entertainers who have engaged in "bad behavior." Bieber who had previously toured China in 2013, joined a long list of similarly blacklisted artists like Oasis and Maroon 5.

Today’s Birthdays include…Herman’s Hermits drummer Barry Whitwam (74); singer/songwriter Cat Stevens aka Yusef Islam (72); and former Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin (59).

Nothing's Shocking Anymore

When it comes right down to it, these guys have made 4 albums—one in each decade of their existence (1988, 1990, 2003, 2011) over a span of 30+ years. The first two are alt-rock classics; the other two, well…
In short, not the best batting average out there.

As someone who is still under the spell of those aforementioned classics (Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual) all these decades later, their subsequent output has been both deflating and disappointing. Their last time out, they essentially left behind their classic sound and with TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek on board, contributing to the album on bass guitar and songwriting, they aimed for a darker but less aggressive and less intense sound than they are known for. If Shocking and Ritual were beacons shining thru a fog, The Great Escape Artist is the fog itself.

After his triumphant return to the band, a decade after his departure, original bassist Eric Avery decided his stint would be limited to live performances and voiced his disinterest in recording new material with Farrell, Navarro and Perkins. (Did he hear these new songs and bail? Hmm…) Enter GnR’s Duff McKagan, who spent nine months with the band but left before the recording of this album due to creative differences. (No, really.) He did, however, work with them during the writing phase and contributed to two of the album’s songs. This is one of them.

I guess this was just a long, drawn out way of saying that this is the only thing on the album that caught my ear. And if they continue with their release pattern and put out another album during this new decade, I might check it out for old time’s sake, but my heart belongs to those first two records that blew my mind and remain their greatest musical statements.

Who knows? Maybe they’ve got another great one in them. I’ll wait in a comfortable chair, tho.

Today in Music History (July 19)

1954 - Sun Records releases the first Elvis Presley single, “That's All Right”, a cover of Arthur Crudup's 1946 tune "That's All Right, Mama". Only about 7,000 original copies were pressed, but the disc became a local hit in Memphis.

1968 - Pink Floyd play the second of three nights at the Boston Tea Party in Boston.

1969 – The week’s episode of ‘The Johnny Cash Show’ includes appearances by Ed Ames, Roy Clark, The Monkees and Joni Mitchell. Cash introduced The Monkees by playing the first verse of their hit “Last Train To Clarksville” with The Monkees on backing vocals, The Monkees then performed a version of the Johnny Cash song “Everybody Loves a Nut”, with Cash.

1972 - Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are arrested in Warwick, Rhode Island on charges of assault after a fight broke out with a newspaper photographer.

1975 - While on the Natty Dread tour, Bob Marley & the Wailers appear at the Lyceum Theatre in London. The show was recorded and the live single “No Woman, No Cry” was later released.

1975 - Paul McCartney and Wings hit #1 with “Listen To What The Man Said”, his fourth US #1. Wings also had the #1 album with Venus And Mars, McCartney's fourth #1 album since The Beatles.

1976 - Deep Purple split up at the end of a UK tour. David Coverdale went on to form Whitesnake, Jon Lord and Ian Paice formed a band with Tony Ashton. The classic line up of Blackmore, Gillan, Glover, Lord & Paice reformed in 1984. Glenn Hughes returned to Trapeze and Tommy Bolin put together his own band, (but would die before the end of the year).

1987 - Bruce Springsteen plays his first ever show behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin in front of 180,000 people. The show was broadcast on East German TV.

1989 - James Brown changes accommodations behind bars after $40K in cash and checks was discovered in his minimum security cell. The Godfather of Soul had been given a six year sentence the previous December after several run-ins with the law, including illegal gun possession, resisting arrest, assault and leading the authorities on a number of car chases.

1991 - Steven Adler, ex-drummer with Guns N' Roses, files a suit in Los Angeles alleging he was fraudulently removed from the group and that the band introduced him to hard drugs.

1997 - Oasis go to #1 in the UK with “D'You Know What I Mean?”, the first single from their third album Be Here Now.

2001 - Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol' Dirty Bastard, is sentenced to spend between two and four years behind bars after being found guilty of drug possession.

2010 - Ozzy Osbourne and his former Black Sabbath band mate Tony Iommi settle a long-running legal dispute over the use of the group's name. They later released a joint statement confirming they have settled the dispute "amicably".

Today’s Birthdays include…keyboardist George Frayne aka Commander Cody (76); bassist for Scottish funk and R&B group the Average White Band, Allan Gorrie (74); former Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon and Queens’s Brian May (both 73); and Bauhaus/Tones on Tail/Love and Rockets drummer Kevin Haskins (60).

Happy Birthday: Geezer Butler

A metal icon, his old band's primary lyricist and perhaps one of the genre's most underrated instrumentalists, Mr. Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (71).

John William Coltrane [September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967]

Milestones: Sting - 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' [1985]

Plagued by internal discord that eventually broke up the band, Synchronicity was for all intents and purposes a dry run for what became his solo career. And so, free of the other Policemen, Mr. Sumner teamed up with a cast of first-rate jazz musicians for his first full-length album. Despite the critical shorthand of this being his “jazz” album and there being a taste of it throughout, courtesy of the assembled musicians (including the great Branford Marsalis), it opens with “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”, a funky pop tune that was the album’s first single and remains the highest charting song—reaching #3 in the US—of his post-Police output. (It’s also, thematically speaking, the exact opposite of the Synchronicity hit “Every Breath You Take”. Hmm…)

As his old band broke up at the height of their popularity, commercial expectations were high for this one. And in that regard it delivered, as it became a Top 5 album in both the US and UK. (As well receiving 4 Grammy nominations.) But it ultimately suffers from “serious artist” disease, in this case the afflicted trying a tad too hard to shed his pop star image and history. However, there are some rewarding moments throughout, as evidenced by “Consider Me Gone” and the singles “Fortress Around Your Heart”, “Love Is The Seventh Wave” (which quotes “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”) and the aforementioned “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”.

He would set his future musical template on his next album, but this one was a decent if flawed first step.

Released in the Summer of 1985.

Victor Victor [1948-2020]

Today in Music History (July 13)

1985 - The Live Aid benefit concerts take place simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Among the featured artists were David Bowie, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, Elton John, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Pretenders, Queen, Run-DMC, Sting, U2, and The Who. (Thanks to the time zone differential between London and Philadelphia, Phil Collins was able to perform at both shows.) More than 170,000 attended the concerts (72,000 in London; 100,000 in Philadelphia) and approximately 1.9 billion people, across 150 countries watched the live broadcast. It raised close to $200m.

Today’s Birthdays include...The Byrds’ vocalist/guitarist Roger McGuinn (78); the legendary Cheech Marin (73); Dictators/Twisted Sister bassist Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (65); and screenwriter/film director/music journalist/honorary musician Cameron Crowe (63).

Today in Music History (July 12)

1954 - 19 year old Elvis Presley signs with Sun Records.

1962 - The Rolling Stones play their first ever show, at London’s Marquee Club, with Dick Taylor on bass (later of The Pretty Things) and Mick Avory on drums, (later of The Kinks). Billed as The Rollin’ Stones, they were paid £20 for the gig (a little more than $500 in 2019 money).

1964 - The Beatles' legendary Ed Sullivan Show appearance from February 9th, is re-broadcast for the first time.

1979 - Singer/songwriter Minnie Ripperton dies of cancer at age 31. Aside from her solo career she'd worked at Chess Records singing backup for various artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, sang lead for the esteemed rock/soul outfit Rotary Connection, and was also a member of Wonderlove in 1973, a backup group for Stevie Wonder. In addition, she was the mother of actress/musician Maya Rudolph.

1988 - Michael Jackson arrives in the UK for his first ever-solo appearances. He performs a total of eight nights to 794,000 people.

Today’s Birthdays include...Fleetwood Mac vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie (77); guitarist Wilko Johnson of Dr. Feelgood fame (73); singer/songwriter Walter Egan (72); drummer Simon Fox—BeBop Beluxe, Pretty Things, Trevor Rabin—(71); former Soul Asylum guitarist Dan Murphy (58); Tim Gane, guitarist for Stereolab (56); and guitarist John Petrucci, founding member of Dream Theater (53).

Thursday Throwback: Jimi Hendrix

1969 receipt from a shopping trip at Manny's Music, NYC.

Today in Music History (July 6)

1954 – Memphis radio station WHBQ becomes the first to play an Elvis Presley record when they give “That's Alright, Mama” a spin.

1957 – Paul McCartney first meets John Lennon at a Liverpool church festival concert by John's group, the Quarrymen.

1965 – Marty Balin starts recruiting members for the band that will become Jefferson Airplane.

1971 – Louis Armstrong dies of a heart attack in his sleep in Corona, Queens, New York, a month shy of his 70th birthday.

1973 – “Keep Yourself Alive”, the first single and opening track from Queen’s self-titled debut album, is released.

Today’s birthdays include…original Santana drummer Mike Shrieve (71); singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith (66); Spandau Ballet drummer John Keeble (61); and rapper 50 Cent (45).

Today in Music History (July 5)

1955 - Chuck Berry's song "Maybellene" is copyrighted in Berry's name alone, but Alan Freed's name is added as a form of payola.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson invites The Four Seasons to play at the White House.

1969 - The Rolling Stones put on a free concert in London's Hyde Park, a tribute to their founding member Brian Jones, who died two days earlier.

1983 - Suicidal Tendencies release their self-titled debut album. The album spawns Suicidal Tendencies' biggest hit to date, "Institutionalized."

1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish release their debut album, Cracked Rear View, the best-selling album in the history of Atlantic Records.

Today's birthdays include...The Band's Robbie Robertson (77); Hugh Anthony Cregg III aka Huey Lewis (70); MC, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor/filmmaker Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known as Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA (51); and Cardigans drummer Bengt Lagerberg (47).

4th of July

Don't feel like celebrating. Not with 130K+ lost souls and a country on the brink of implosion. So this song captures my mood in that regard perfectly.

"...'cause I heard in the wind/and I saw it in the sky/and I thought it was the end/I thought it was the 4th of July..."

Today in Music History (July 2)

1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" at RCA Studios, in NYC. (Take 31 was the released version.) The single sold over 10 million copies globally, became his best-selling song and topped the charts for 11 weeks, a record that stood for 36 years.

1962 - Jimi Hendrix is honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump. On this same date, in 1969, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after completing the three-day Denver Pop Festival. Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would later team up with bassist Billy Cox to form the short-lived Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. Also on this day: The Beatles (except John Lennon, who was hospitalized in Golspie, Scotland, following a car accident the previous day) work on the tracks "Her Majesty" and "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" for the Abbey Road album.

1971 - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon play their first gig as Queen at Surrey College, in England.

1979 - Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices.

1988 - Michael Jackson becomes the first artist to have five #1 singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" goes to the top of the charts. The other four chart-toppers from the Bad album were the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror".

1991 - Axl Rose causes a riot to break out during a Guns N' Roses gig after leaping into the crowd to remove a camera from a fan at the Riverpoint Amphitheatre, in Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis. Over 50 people were injured and 15 fans were arrested.

2001 - Liverpool Airport is renamed John Lennon Airport. The airport's slogan "Above Us Only Sky" is from his song "Imagine".

2005 - The G8 concerts, organized ahead of the G8 summit to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa, are held in 10 cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow, with participating artists playing to hundreds of thousands of people. Among the performers: Pink Floyd, The Who, Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Sting, The Scissor Sisters, Keane, Paul McCartney, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Bjork and Green Day.

2008 - The gravestone of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is stolen. Police said his memorial stone was taken from where he is buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. The gravestone had the inscription "Ian Curtis 18-5-80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

2015 - Buddy Holly's widow, Maria Elena Holly, announces she has entrusted the publishing rights to her late husband's influential catalog to BMG. The company was now authorized to administer royalties worldwide of nearly all of Buddy Holly's recordings.

Today's Birthdays include...longtime Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan (71); Johnny Colla, guitarist and saxophonist for Huey Lewis and the News (68); a trio of bass players: Boomtown Rats' Pete Briquette (66), Mike Anker of The Blow Monkeys (63), Transvision Vamp's Dave Parsons (54); and rapper Monie Love (50).

25 [Lost] Power Pop Gems

For some of you, this might be a weird list.

First of all, it’s not meant to be definitive. At all.
Secondly, quite a few of the artists on the list are not of the power pop persuasion, but their entries here most definitely are. By my definition, at least. Which brings us to…
Power pop, as I see it, is a balance of both factors. This gets me in trouble with purists who, for instance, love The Shoes, who I consider too much pop and not enough power. But thems the breaks.
Also, these 25 tracks are all, with 2 exceptions, from the ‘90s and beyond. Make of that what you will.
Finally, I have omitted such power pop touchstones as Badfinger, Big Star, Jellyfish, The Posies, Raspberries, and Matthew Sweet but have included songs by some former members of their ensembles. Often, the mothership gets (all) the love and I wanted to spread it around.

And so, in alphabetical order by artist...

RYAN ADAMS “PS”
He has covered plenty of ground, so a bit of power pop is no surprise.

JON AUER “The Perfect Size”
The Posies’ co-frontman goes completely solo with the exception of the late Darius Minwalla on drums and it’s a more than worthy excursion.

CHRIS BELL “I Am the Cosmos”
The defining solo statement from the late Big Star co-leader.

BRENDAN BENSON “I’m Blessed”
Best known as a Raconteur, his catalog is rich in melodic, rocking gems. This one is from his debut album and was co-written by Jason Falkner.

CAFE TACUBA “53100”
Since it was Pete Townshend who coined the term “power pop”, it’s more than apropos that Mexico City’s premiere art rockers appear here with a Who-influenced tune.

WES CUNNINGHAM “Only You Know”
A gifted songwriter whose lack of commercial success led him to stop making records and turn to jingles instead. A music biz crime if there ever was one.

JASON FALKNER “I Live”
A talented multi-instrumentalist and former Jellyfish guitarist with a respectable solo career of his own.

FASTBALL “Emily”
Tasty slice of punky power pop from these Texas rockers.

GIGOLO AUNTS “Mr. Tomorrow”
Another coulda/shoulda/woulda…their key members are now songwriters for Hollywood films. This is from their final album, released in 2002.

JOE JACKSON “Tonight and Forever”
Like Adams, he’s covered a lot of musical ground, albeit in slightly different directions. This one is par for the course, tho.

JUMBO “Siento Que”
A powerful anthem of longing and love on its last sighs that would subsequently come to define the Monterrey, Mexico rockers' sound.

KARA’S FLOWERS “Myself”
The initial, commercially failed version of Maroon 5 before they changed their name and added another guitarist. I prefer this incarnation.

THE KATIES “Noggin’ Poundin’”
Without a doubt the hardest rocker on this list but its Cheap Trick-influenced vibe won it a spot.

THE LEMONHEADS “Poughkeepsie” 
Evan Dando knows his way around a melody and he’s been known to rock out. Here he does both.

MATERIAL ISSUE “Diane”
Power pop lovers know this long gone beloved Chicago outfit quite well but, like all of the artists listed here, they should be even better known.

THE MERRYMAKERS “Troubled Times”
Produced by Jellyfish honcho Andy Sturmer, this one is simply Swedish ear candy bliss.

MYRACLE BRAH “Eleven”
Andy Bopp is a master at crafting hooks and melodies and deserves to be a household name, damn it!

NADA SURF “Happy Kid” 
Brooklyn in the house! They went from almost MTV one-hit wonders to one of indie rock's most reliable purveyors of guitar pop and this is why.

OWSLEY “Oh No, The Radio!”
William Reese Owsley [1966-2010] was simply a brilliant popsmith who left us way too soon. It’s a point of personal pride that I have turned into a fan everyone I’ve played his music for over the years. But it’s way more about how awesome he was than my hard sell.

THE SHAZAM “Getting Higher”
Underground power poppers from Nashville with a string of great but unknown albums under their belt.

SUMMERCAMP “Should I Walk Away?”
Think Descendents with Beach Boys harmonies. Um, yeah.

LOS TRES “Feria Verdadera”
Chile’s premiere cult band have been rock royalty in their homeland and in Mexico—Café Tacuba paid tribute by recording an EP of their songs—for decades.

12 RODS “Marionette”
Produced by Todd Rundgren, the band’s third release got itself hammered by Pitchfork, who gave their terribly overrated debut a 10.0 rating. It’s all good, sometimes great and P4K was wrong both times. What else is new?

VELVET CRUSH “Hold Me Up”
Started by longtime Matthew Sweet drummer Ric Menck in 1989, with a similar sound to that of Menck’s on-and-off boss (who produced their debut album), they have been on hiatus since 2004 but reunited briefly in 2019.

THE WRENS “Dance the Midwest”
A different batch of New Jersey misfits with a taste for chaos. In this case, the angular power pop of this tune.