POWER POP! - The LAST Frontier

 

Alright, I adore power pop and it's about time I said something about it.  Nothing makes me feel quite so giddy as those jangly guitars, four-part harmonies and song structures lifted directly from the first 4 Beatles records - that and the crusty punk attitude lying just beneath the surface. It's like somebody pouring fresh squeezed orange juice down my ear canal.  Generally surfing, cruising in your sweet muscle car, drinking beers and saying Ghee Wiz with your best girl are topics of interest amongst the power pop elite.  I could filibuster about The Flamin' Groovies, The Barracudas, The Nerves, Plimsouls, The Raspberries etc. ad nauseam, but today is devoted to a very special band that nobody (to my knowledge) gives a rat fuck about, and they really should.

The Last (good luck googling them) are absolute power-pop poetry perfection.  Their first record came out on Bomp! and it was called L.A. Explosion, notice a trend...you know Los Angeles?  There isn't a bad song on this record, and it gets my dick rather hard.  It's like if the Beatles and the Byrds started freebasing crystal meth and hanging out with the Circle Jerks, yeah I know it's that good.  This is precisely why they make my nether-organs swell, pop songwriting sensibility and serious punk attitude.  Not to mention one Greg Ginn of a small band called Black Flag decided to put out their record Awakening on a pretty cool label called SST.

I highly suggest you seek out these records by any means necessary, I mean if you like power-pop.  They're actually not too difficult to find on vinyl.

Also shameless plug time!  Brandon Intelligator and the Sheriffs, LA's favorite wayward sons are playing at Echo Curio tomorrow night at 8:30 with good buddies Cassorla and Cooperation.  Come out if you're feeling saucy, lord knows I am after all that power-pop talk.

Skids

This band I feel is criminally underrated, and I was pretty sore at my pops for not showing them to me when he most certainly must have known how into them I would be.  Skids are a Scottish punk band from the late 70's, early 80's that shirk the requisite "oi" responsibilities of other Scotch scum fucks.  Rather they reach for Pere Ubu-like art rock and hard hitting 70's rock & roll with a distinctly Scottish flavor.  You can listen to their finest song, "The Saints Are Coming," off their debut record Scared to Dance here.  Mind you, this record has a dash of new wave pop that some may find irritating, not I, but some.  Either way, dare I blaspheme, this song may just be cooler than anything the Clash wrote--catalog-wise however, I'm not so sure...

Also a little extra credit, welcome to Los Angeles...

ATP Film Recap + Ongoing SXSW Coverage + Grooms

Another band worth checking out...

The 88, LA dudes, quite a bit poppier than my normal leanings but they have a Sparks thing going on, and the songs are just incredible, plus they're opening for Black Francis at the Echoplex next week.

The Yellow Dogs, they're from Iran where music is basically illegal.  I don't know how these guys walk with those boulders dangling between their legs.  Listen to the live tracks, sounds like they would probably slay live.

Also in the long line bands like the Burning Brides, Wives and The Husbands (it's purely a name joke, these bands don't particularly sound anything alike so don't crucify me, get a sense of humor, god!), I finally got around the hearing Grooms. They're playing an Aquarium Drunkard show at the Silverlake Lounge next week.  They've got the great de-tuned Sonic Youth guitar sensibilities and an energy that really explodes off the recording.

As a side note, I checked out the ATP Movie last night at Cinefamily.  It's a really well done rock documentary, and the incredible line-up of performers didn't hurt either...small guys like Grinderman, Dirty Three, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Daniel Johnston, The Stooges, Shellac, Sonic Youth, Portishead, Slint...well you get the idea.  They sort of took a Monterey Pop-like stand in the sense that they presented an extremely accurate and candid expose of a moderately confusing generation of young people.  See it if you get the chance.