Mod-A-Day: The Naomi Star

Power pop bands that smartly blend sixties pop with indie rock and infuse it with folk rock don't come along too often. The Naomi Star do (maybe did?)exactly that, and they do it exceedingly well. The band has lots of influences from The Monkees and The Beatles to Badfinger to The Posies. Seeing that list you might think you know what to expect, but you'll get more than you bargained for. They take those influences and mix them together in an intoxicating blend of kinder, gentler power pop, maybe more akin to the seventies than any other era. The first of their releases I became familiar with was Sunshine Girl, with its fabulous power pop title track that has the seventies bubblegum and rock mixture that Sweet made famous, sans the glam. Their latest release Through The Eyes, is a smooth record styled after late sixties, early seventies pop groups like The Bee Gees, and Badfinger and popsters like Dwight Twilley and Marshall Crenshaw. Surprises abound as the songs flow effortlessly from one to another, even when you go from the seventiesesque S"he Told Me" to the more modern indie rock of "Moneyman" and "Powerpop Nugget". And then another slick shift sideways to the Mike Nesmith-like "Anjoulie". From what I've read online it looks like perhaps they've gone on hiatus or broken up, if anyone knows for sure let me know.

The Naomi Star -- She Told Me

The Naomi Star -- Powerpop Nugget

Mod-A-Day: The Parties

The best $.95 I ever spent got me the new EP from San Francisco mod combo The Parties. The EP, Cryin Shame, wasn't supposed to be out until next week, but you can get it right now at Amie Street. This new release picks up right where their 2008 record Can't Come Down left off. The title track is a great bit of sixties sounding pop music blending jangling, at times twanging, guitar hooks with bluesy harmonica and some great vocal harmonies. While all five tracks are great, I was particularly entranced by "Kensington Avenue" which with it's psychadelic overtones sets it a bit apart from the soft sixties feel of the rest of the EP. Overall it's a tightly produced release with nice, tight musicianship. The whole thing gave me a nice warm, beach like feeling, which is nice when you're listening to it in Seattle at the bus stop during a typical November downpour.

The Parties -- Kensington Avenue

Mod-A-Day: Quantic

If you like jazz and soul, then you will definitely dig DJ Will Holland's work as Quantic. In the past decade he has produced a fistfull albums that blend jazz, soul, and modern latin, hip-hop and electronic sounds into some very beautiful music. Besides recording his own original music -- on which he plays guitar, bass, drum, or sometimes all three -- he has also recorded a number of releases of deep funk and soul with the Quantic Soul Orchestra. His sound is most obviously soul and jazz, but clearly owes a debt to trip-hoppers like Portishead, acid-jazzsters like Corduroy, and latin-soul maestros Pizzicato Five (no, really). Giving them a nod is fine, but Quantic's music whether solo or in groups is clearly his own. He mixes old and new together in a beguiling, and at times eclectic, way. His 2004 release, Mishaps Happening, is probably his best solo release with some nice light bossa flavored songs like the title track, but also some serious acid jazz like the album closer "So Long". In his role as leader of the Quantic Soul Orchestra his collaborations with soul singers Alice Russel and Spanky Wilson have produced some of the finest deep funk/nu-soul around -- such as "When You're Through" and "Feeling Good". Of late he's removed himself to Colombia where he's put together a latin jazz group Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, producing a marimba based batch of soul jazz songs. If Quantic is heading up the project, from funk to jazz to marimba, you can be sure it's going to be good.

Quantic feat. Alice Russell -- So Long

Quantic Soul Orchestra - End of The Road (Live)

Mod-A-Day: Ella Fitzgerald

The First Lady of Song, that's Ella Fitzgerald. She is the greatest female jazz singer and carried a voice that could hardly be rivaled. It was like a sunbeam bursting through a cloudbank, it came shooting at you only to bathe you in the sweetest, silkiest sounds. If you're not greatly familiar with Ella the best thing to do is familiarize yourself with her early work with Dizzy Gillespie. While she started out at places like the Savoy Ballroom doing big band swing and jazz, it was the bebop sound of the mid to late 40s that fit her freewheeling style. Her work with Gillespie kicked off her scat singing, where she "tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing." And it was amazing. From the 1940s on Fitzgerald established herself as one of the greats, if not the greatest, scat singer in jazz alongside of Scatman Crothers and Mel Torme. Over the years she knew how to tap into the current music scene zeitgeist and was able to do some great cross-over work during the sixties -- as she did with her 1968 cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love". In the seventies she returned to a more pure jazz sound that solidified her as the genre's leading lady. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" was recorded with the Tommy Flanagan Trio in 1974 in Paris. The song's sound amazingly winds it way right through her own life history from belting boldness, to spunk scatting, to that deap and throaty greatness that epitomized her later years. It's an amazing retrospective of her signature sounds, complete with zound-zound-zounds and bah-bah-bawawadoozooya-yeahs at the end.


Ella Fitzgerald -- Sunshine of Your Love

Ella Fitzgerald -- I Can't Give You Anything But Love


Ella Fitzgerald -- One Note Samba

Mod-A-Day: The Pillbugs

If you like your sixties rock tinged with freaked out guitars, spacey reverb, and healthy dose of psychadelia than The Pillbugs are for you. The band has been making music for more than a decade and have several releases to their credit. The sound is pretty typical sixties stuff, very much in the vien of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and The Who's Sell Out and Tommy. Other psychadelic bands like Plasticland have gone head over heels into the exoticness of psychadelia and end up being way overproduced at times. Not The Pillbugs, they maintain a firm grasp on the pop song framework. Their songs benefit from the band's grasp of The Monkees and The Beatles, as well as their love for the more trippy late sixties psychadelic sounds of Syd Barret, The Move, and Cream. This makes all the difference in the world, keeping their songs tight and listenable, while at the same time giving you a taste of more experimental sounds from the fringe. Their 2007 album Monclovia is the one to pick-up, a sort of "best of" compilation of the band's work. "Life As It Happens" is a very Who-like tour de force of guitars, drums and keyboards, while "All In Good Time" is more power poppish with it's bouncy melody and catchy hooks. Sadly, one of the members died from cancer last year, so I'm not clear on whether the band will continue on or if there are any new recordings in their future.

The Pillbugs -- LIfe As It Happens

The Pillbugs -- All In Good Time

Modcast #147: The Big Power Pop Show Part Deux

This is the second of my big power pop shows, because as I pointed out last week, one modcast alone couldn't contain it all (go for part 1). So I've put together another near dozen perfect power pop songs. Some you'll be familiar with, and a few you might not. What are you doing reading this? Get to downloading the show, pure musical enjoyment is on the way.

Listen Now

Gary Valentine -- The First One (1978)
Raspberries -- Go All The Way (1972)
The Secrets -- I Can Dance Better (1982)
Shoes -- Your Very Eyes (1979)
The Last Ones -- Bit of You (1982)
The Shirts -- Time (Has Seen Me Lonely) (1980)
The Peasants -- Here She Comes (1980)
The Headboys -- Schoolgirls (1979)
The Scooters -- Big Brother (1980)
The Now -- I Wanna Go Steady With You (1980)
The Zippers -- It Hurts (1981)


The Headboys -- The Shape of Things To Come


Shoes -- Tomorrow Night

Mod-A-Day: The Mojo Men

The Mojo Men were one of the lesser known San Francisco garage psychadelia bands of the sixties. Maybe that's because they liked a woman who "talks like my sister, walks like my brother, looks like my father and cooks like my mother." Doesn't exactly sound like a winner does she? Never the less, the song really cooks with a great mix of bluesy harmonica and fuzzy guitars. The band was most notable for being produced by Sly Stone, and really only had one other hit that isn't nearly as good as this track here, "She's My Baby."

The Moje Men -- She's My Baby

Mod-A-Day: The Libertines

If someone wants to make a modern rock movie filled with drama, tension and love/hate relationships then they need look no further than The Libertines. The band's history is classic rock and roll, one of sex, drugs and ... well, libertinism.

The sound is also classic -- classic Britpop with mod and punk overtones throughout. Both frontmen -- Pete Doherty and Carl Barat -- cite their biggest influences as The Jam and The Kinks, but also have pointed out that they were enamored of the '79 sound of The Buzzcocks and The Clash (indeed Mick Jones was their on again off again producer for both their albums). Clearly, the classic mod sounds of London were right at home with The Libertines. Theirs was a brasher, garagier, and often more swaggering sort of mod sound. It hearkened to days gone by, but pushed forward by modernizing the power pop guitarishness of 90s Britpop. The song here, "Time for Heroes" is quintessential Libertines -- a polished and professional sloppiness that only comes from great talent and great arrogance (and and most certianly some great drugs -- at least for Mr. Doherty). A couple of things that The Libertines never lacked.

The Libertines -- Time For Heroes


The Libertines -- Don't Look Back Into The Sun