What made Milwaukee Smile---The Blow Pops' American Beauties

 

 

I always find it astonishing when I stumble on a great pop band years after the fact. That is exactly what has happened to me with Milwaukee's Blow Pops.

They only released two albums, Charmed I'm Sure, and the topic of this post, American Beauties, which was their sophomore full length, released in 1994 on Get Hip Records. Some groups have an amazing ability to inhabit a sixties pop template years after the fact. I did a post a while back on The Beatifics, a terrific band from Minneapolis, or a band with an advanced degree pop smarts like Champaign, Illinois products Velvet Crush.

I wouldn't say anything groundbreaking on American Beauties, but The Blow Pops have created an album chock full of catchy pop songs that sound like mystery 60's songs that were found on reels in some recording studio vault 20 years after the fact.

When I was a teenager, that was a seemingly tangible musical fantasy. I used to pray that there would be lost Who songs or Beatle songs that would suddenly appear out of mothballs, songs of the caliber of the Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy anthology, or the peerless Revolver. Usually I was listening to those very albums when I thought like this, with the special sort of enthusiasm you have when you fall in love with music for the first time. You're enjoying the music, but you wish there was more!





Unless Neal DeGrasse Tyson is correct about the existence of multiverses, albums like American Beauties are the next best option, the closest thing to an archaeological musical breakthrough we can reasonably expect. If you like The Beatles (I know there must be a few of you out there), Hollies, Byrds, Raspberries, you really can't go wrong with these guys. They make it seem so easy, like pushbutton pop.

Tim Buckley: Guitar, Vocals
Jack Rice: Bass, Vocals
Mike Jarvis: Vocals, Guitar
Nick Randazzo: Drums




Hearing songs like All Night Long, I'm not entirely surprised that Mike Jarvis was at one time a member of Green, the 80s-90's Chicago pop band led by Jeff Lescher. (Their 1st album was reissued by Lion Productions a few years ago)


An essential pop album, which I listened to a lot in the 80's.


Unfortunately, The Blow Pops albums have been out of print for awhile. If you see them being sold for a reasonable price, I would not hesitate. A saving grace is that three of the four members of The Blow Pops have released several more excellent albums of pop music as The Lackloves. The Blow Pops had a reunion back in 2009, but not much has been heard from either band in a while. But they certainly have put together an impressive catalog of pop pearls, well worth your investigation/investment.

"We are Saucy to make People Free"---Blue Eyed Pop---The History of Pop Music In Iceland

Originally I was going to go with the phrase Eru ekki allir í stuði? (Are we having fun yet?) as the Title for this post, but I just found out that this is the title of another book by Dr Gunni from 2001, which Blue-Eyed Pop may well be an updated English language version of. So it no longer seemed like a clever thing to do.

Dr Dr, give me the news........

So I went with the quote made by Helgi Stingrimsson of the band Haukar back in 1972. It sounds weird yet the sentiment rings with a sort of obvious truth that I have trouble elaborating on.

I just finished reading through Blue Eyed Pop, the History of Popular Music in Iceland, by Dr Gunni, a musician/journalist/game show host guy/etc. from Iceland. It is basically what the title says, a history of Icelandic music from the early days to the present. I have to say its a very nice book, loaded with band photos, album and anecdotes. And of course, pithy observations by the good doctor.

The book is a fairly pricey purchase, but this is the sort of stuff I eat up, so I didn't hesitate picking this up directly from Gunni directly. It reminds me of John Dix's History of New Zealand music, Stranded in Paradise, which I picked up a few years ago after a lengthy search.

And as an outsider looking in, all my predispositions about Icelandic music turned out to be correct.
Their music scene is all due to the confluence of excessive Brennivin, eating Puffins, and co-existing with Elves. I'm just kidding......

The book starts early, and details the development of technology and media. I mean you couldn't have autos without gas stations, so for music you need instruments (moving from accordians to guitars), microphones, recording devices, venues where music could be played, radio stations, the development of television. There of course are outside influences like the influx of rock and roll music from the former US airbase at Keflavik in the 1950's.



Like a lot of places, there was a lot of emulation of the music being made in the US and England. And of course, plenty of that went on with succeeding generations of bands in those countries too. It seems like every country has had their own approximation of Þorsteinn Eggertsson, the Icelandic Elvis, or Hljomar, the Icelandic Fab Four. It's a part of how scenes develop, how cultural evolution operates.

Reading Blue Eyed Pop has also had me waxing nostalgic. I've been to Iceland a couple of times, but not in quite a while. When I saw the Sugarcubes for the first time on TV, I was very intrigued with Bjork--she seemed to me to be an amazing talent and I immediately tracked down the 1st Cubes album. Though I couldn't have know for sure, I had an impression that there was more going on there than just 1 band. So I decided to go check the place out for myself.

I remember seeing the Hljomalind shop downtown and just going in by accident. It was early afternoon and noone was in the store except for myself and the clerk, so we started chatting about music. I told him of my interest in what was going on musically in the country, and he played me a variety of things. I remember hearing the music of Kolrassa Krókríðandi, for the first time--I thought they were amazing, unique sounding. He played some noisy screamy Big-Black type singles by Dr Gunni, which were completely over the top, and interesting electronic stuff by Curver. A bit later a bunch of kids came in the shop and had a conversation with the clerk. They must have just got out of school. I found out that this was a band called Maus, who had just put out their first album and wanted to see how it was selling. It sold me--I wound up buying a copy after a few songs were played for me in the shop. It still has the little Hljomalind sticker on the back. I think that I did meet Kiddi briefly--at the time of course I had no idea how important he was to the music scene there. What a small scene, but my ears were not lying to me at all.

It struck me that some unique tendencies did exist in the music scene there. Probably part of it has to do with the small population. A small scene, where people collaborate and bands break up to form other bands. And unlike say the US where people want to form bands in a Beatle set up, or a classic power trio, etc., at least until recently, I had the impression that kids in Iceland would go out and form a band, and one friend would pick up a guitar, another drums, but somebody would say, oh my girlfriend plays accordian, or my best friend plays clarinet. And they would proceed from there, which is something you would not see happen often in the states. It seemed like someone in a punk band would start making country or disco albums without any problems. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was a freedom there to try things and to experiment. Less rules about what to do and what not to do. Maybe the childhood dream I had of being part of the American version of the Who doesn't translate within a country with a population smaller than the County I live in in New York. At least not until a certain tangible amount of success occurred for any band on a local level.

Given some success, Icelandic bands have attempted to break out onto the International scene, with mixed success over the years. It has been an ongoing thing, probably since the Beatles. For the most part unsuccessfully. But these days there are a lot of interesting things happening. Since Sigur Ros came on the scene, hipsters are paying close attention to the little island that could. And since then, with Mugison, Mum,  Monsters & Men, Asgeir Trausti, Singapore Sling, Minus, Grisalappalisa, Olof Arnalds, Ghostigital Hafdis Huld, Hjaltalin, just to name a few artists, there is a lot of interesting music being made. There is a reason why so many music people and music fans attend the Icelandic Airwaves Festival each Fall. Maybe someday I'll get to go.

Gunni has an interesting, pithy way with words in the book. I enjoy his sense of humor throughout the book, whether it be discussing country balls, hair metal festivals, pop icon Bubbi Morthens, roadies with odd habits, or Iceland's attempts to win awards at the Eurovision song contest. What is nice about the book is that while you can find out who was making some of the best music of the different eras, he also discusses what was popular, what everyone was listening to at the time, and what popular styles were like, and about music stores, venues and even pizzarias that once existed in Reykjavik.





Gunni also mentions a fair number of children's albums, which is not surprising given that his album Abba Babb is a terrific album for kids. Unfortunately, that album is barely given a mention here, which is too bad. Hopefully, on the 2nd pressing of Blue Eyed Pop he will overcome his humility and expand on Abba Babb, because it deserves some more attention.



Overall, I enjoyed the book immensely, but it probably isn't for just anybody. Sure there are chapters on Bjork & Sigur Ros, but I liked reading about less known artists like Megas, Curver, Purrkur Pillnikk, Siggi Armann, Bogomil Font, Maus. And I learned about groups that I want to listen to that I hadn't heard of before, like Retro Stefson, 200.000 Naglbitar, or Grisalappalisa, or FM Belfast.
And about cultural things like Stuð music, the Rokk i Reykjavik movie, hair-do pop, Krutt music, and Pludo Sweaters. I was glad that I got this book. I wish there were more books out there like this.

If you want to hear more interesting music from Iceland check out Gunni's playlists at 8tracks.com/dr-gunni. A good way to learn some music history, and also find out what's happening in Iceland today.‎

Alejandro Escovedo & The Sensitive Boys--Live from Fairfield Ct.--Punk Energy meets Alt-Country

On April 11 I went to see Alejandro Escovedo live for the 3rd time, at the FTC in Fairfield, Ct.

Pointy toed wonder visits Nutmeg State

In retrospect, I should have gone again the next night there too. I really had a great time. I had hoped he would play a little closer to me, but it was worth the drive. I never saw him perform with a full band before (& the Sensitive Boys), so I was looking forward to this show. The first time I saw him, he played with guitarist David Pulkingham, and the 2nd time he was accompanied by Susan Voelz on violin. Both shows were superb--in particular, the show with Pulkingham was one of my favorite shows I have seen at the Tarrytown Music Hall.

Let me just briefly say that the FTC is a terrific place to see a show. It is a matchbook size venue, not much larger than late lamented Maxwell's was in Hoboken--not one bad seat in the house. It's right in downtown Fairfield near the train station. Plenty of places to eat and hang out nearby.

I got there pretty early and was chatting a little with the woman who was setting up the merch table in the lobby outside the theater. Apparently, there had been some personnel changes in the group. Pulkingham was no longer in the band, and there was also a new drummer. While I was a little disappointed that Pulkingham was no longer involved, as he and Alejandro seemed to have a real synchronicity together on stage, I have been around the block enough to know that change can make things interesting.

Once again the show was fantastic. The combination of Alejandro's music and the intimacy of the venue (I was about ten feet from the stage), made the show more like a party than a concert. He had the whole place singing along and dancing, a crowd composed of mostly greybeards and large people from Texas. I didn't realize it but there seems to be a real Austin vs Houston thing going, as was evidenced in Escovedo's preemptive remarks for his song "Bottom of the World". But it seemed as though no Texans seemed to mind that night.

While the previous shows were rather quietly intense and emotional, this concert rocked quite hard. In fact, when he performed the song "Arizona" he apologized for creating a buzzkill, well, because its a very sad song, kind of about him almost dying a little over ten years ago. While I don't have other full band shows to compare it to, I have to believe that this new lineup may be injecting some new vitality into the band. This was a simple four piece, not the gigantic band I saw him with on Austin City Limits. But the new guitarist, Johnny Sanchez, is without a doubt a true gunslinger, who played with a lot of fire. My take is that I don't think he has been in the band for too long and maybe the on-stage timing is still a work in progress, but it in no way detracted from the performance.



While most fans probably acknowledge him as an Alt-Country performer first and foremost, Alejandro was letting his his punk rock roots that night. By the second song of the night the band was in full throttle, with a rip-roaring version of Tender Heart, from Street Songs of Love. Alejandro was pumped up--it seemed like he Sanchez were picking up energy from each other. Throughout the night when they were riffing out together, their postures on stage kept reminding me of the Clash on the cover of London Calling, rather than sensitive singer song-writing fare.

I can't emphasize how much people need to get out and see him live. I won't name names, but somebody who obviously has seen a few of his shows mentioned to me that Alejandro is much better live than on record. I agree, with the caveat that his albums are great, in particular his most recent four. It is only by comparison. He really is one of our best modern American songwriters and a great live act. He seems to tour constantly so he probably is coming to your area soon.

The warm-up artist was Amy Cook, a singer-songwriter who I think is also from Austin, Texas. She was pretty entertaining. I would idiosyncratically describe her as Stevie Nicks singing Billy Bragg songs, only not the political ones. I guess I'm saying that she sings with a lot of heart, on stage being herself and not a poor imitation so somebody else. I thought she was a real talent.

Toward the end Alejandro and the band performed a few choice covers, which gave Sanchez a chance to show Fairfieldites his chops. Alejandro and Johnny traded leads on their version of Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane". I'm not always thrilled about things like this, but I thought it was a lot of fun. They also performed Mott the Hoople's classic "All the Young Dudes" perhaps in homage to the young blood in his revamped lineup, and that was also a blast. He must have been really influenced by Mott, as I had the privilege of seeing him duet with Ian Hunter on "I wish I was your Mother" at Tarrytown a few years ago.

So go see Alejandro while you can. He said he was working on a new album with Chuck Prophet, so expect more great music soon. And always support great venues like the FTC, because without our support, the Arts wither and die on the vine. Every town should be so lucky as to have a spot like this!

Rockin' in Rijeka----My Buddy Moose--Alt-Country Croatian Sensations

The Majestic Moose. An iconic noble beast whose image has many meanings in many cultures.

 

Alces alces......

In New Hampshire, the Moose is the large animal that mashes the crumple zone of your SUV like an accordion, as you head northwards for your drunken ski weekend. The highway signs listing roadkill stats along the way attest to this irrefutable fact.

In Sweden, the Moose is a delicious stew often served with lingonberries. I know this from my travels in Sweden, home of some of my many ancestors.

In Minnesota, the Moose is an American hero from Frostbite Falls, with a flying squirrel as a sidekick. I know this because I watched too much TV as a child. I was that kid that got up at 5:00 A.M. on Saturdays to watch "Agriculture U.S.A."

In London, Moose is synonymous with 90's Shoegaze music--thanks Big Takeover for the tip!

But in Central and Eastern Massachusetts, the Moose is oft regarded as a symbol of awesomeness...........

But unfortunately, with more of the beasts' natural habitat being destroyed daily, the herd may be thinning.....

Shed a tear, Boston......R.I.P.

But I will save such an insider story (stories) for another time....

Today I will be touting a pretty great alt-country band from Rijeka, Croatia.
They are My Buddy Moose, and they are definitely worth your time.

Got everything I Need.....

I found out about them accidentally, when I was checking out the website of Chris Eckman of The Walkabouts. Clearly he works with a lot of interesting groups, from Eastern Europe and Africa, and My Buddy Moose is one of the groups that he has spent some time with. I gave this group a listen and I liked what I heard very much. So I grabbed a copy Shine! Shine! Shine!, which I believe is their 3rd album, released in 2013, which Eckman was the producer on.



Luka Bencic--Vocals, Guitar, Organ
Matko Botic--Guitars, Mandolin
Jasmin Decevic--Drums, Tambourine, Backing vocals
Istvan Sirola--Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocs on Roulette

I'll simply say that if you enjoy groups like Wilco (or Uncle Tupelo), The Band, R.E.M., Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Replacements, or The Felice Brothers, you will really have fun with this one. If it matters to you at all, the vocals are all in English. Except for a slight accent in places, you would imagine that this band is 100 % American. It doesn't matter that much to me what language they choose to use.

There is some very nice guitar work throughout, and the songs are full of big meaty hooks. The music is fairly high energy--these guys rock out rather nicely. I don't know if they bring anything particularly new to this genre (so what), but they are very very good at what they do. At least 2 of their albums including Shine, are available digitally. For a hard copy, Discogs would be a good place to look, or maybe Ebay.



And check out Chris Eckman's website---you will find some interesting music to listen to there.

This song is not on Shine! Shine! Shine!, but I like it so much that I couldn't resist. From their  eponymous 1st album...

I was stranded in the Combat Zone....