When you let slip that you’re a power pop fan, you can often feel the attitude coming from anyone within earshot: Sure, it’s a light, harmless little diversion, but it certainly isn’t “serious” music. Practitioners of power pop, however, refuse to wallow in that lack of respect. You won’t find Wonderboy’s Robbie Rist, who appears […]
Rick Cornell
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Power Pop Primer
Record Labels: Not Lame, Parsol, Permanent Press Mail Order: Jam Records (www.go.to/jamrecords), Kool Kat (www.koolkatmusik.com), Not Lame (www.notlame.com) Magazines: Amplifier (all the other ones I used to know of, such as Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, are now defunct). Fufkin.com e-zine. Compilations: Poptopia! Power Pop Classics of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s (three-disc set on Rhino); Yellow […]
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Jay Farrar
Over the course of their three releases, Son Volt, the post-Uncle Tupelo outfit led by Jay Farrar, increasingly ran the risk of falling into a musical rut. The more cynical listener might even go so far as to say that Son Volt’s material could always be placed in one of two files: big-guitar rock anthems […]
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Ryan Adams
It’s mid-September and ex-Whiskeytowner Ryan Adams’ second solo release, Gold, isn’t even out yet. However, on various music listservs, disagreements continue to flare over whether the radio-aimed, less than startlingly original album represents either a misstep or a step up to the Big Time or, somehow, both. In simplest terms, some folks dig Gold, and […]
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The Art of Surfacing
Interviewing Jeff Calder–songwriter, musician, journalist, acrobatic thinker and, for 20-odd years now, the leader of Atlanta’s Swimming Pool Q’s–is a dream assignment. You ask a few questions and then just stay out of the way. Case in point: I’ve seen the term “art rock” used to describe The Swimming Pool Q’s in various write-ups over […]
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Varnaline
The best ideas come out at night. Cold weather can also serve as a muse of sorts, as you retreat into yourself and use deep thoughts for insulation. Songwriter Anders Parker–the only constant over Varnaline’s five-release career–conjured Songs in a Northern Key on an icy Vermont night, doubling the inspiration potential. Most writers are content […]
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Dexter Romweber
This idea of alien pursuers is a new one: In the past, Dexter Romweber has always played and sung like he had hellhounds on his trail. Whether performing and recording as half of the Flat Duo Jets or commanding a stage all by his lonesome, Romweber has always made a righteous racket that refused to […]
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The Joel Plaskett Emergency
A handful of clued-in writer types entertained themselves in 1999 by using Vic Chesnutt and the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne in all possible combinations to describe In Need of Medical Attention, the appealingly off-center and stripped-down solo release from Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Joel Plaskett, formerly one half of Thrush Hermit. The release of the hopped-up […]
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Divided Counsel
David Childers is a good-sized fellow with a burly voice and, it should be stressed, equally big ideas. He’s a lawyer by day, musician by night, and a husband and father by both. He’s a little tired of talking about that first role when discussing the second: In a recent issue of the alt-country magazine, […]