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There is another world out there, young pop bands shunning the traditional channels and using the internet to sell their exquisitely crafted, gloriously melodic pop.  Twenty-ten was another banner year in which it was difficult to limit the top ten to only ten.  Nevertheless, here goes.

1. Oranjuly formed in 2009 joining lead singer and writer Brian E. King who had already been working on these songs for years.  Every year it seems a one-man band emerges to stun us.  In years past it’s been Roger Klug and Josh Fix.  This year it’s Oranjuly’s Brian E. King who says, “I played everything but drums and cello. I did play drums on South Carolina though!”  Now the band is a five piece so they can reproduce these astounding sounds in public.  This time the Jellyfish comparisons are apt.  King also has a knack for sunny Beach Boys-style harmonies which permeate the record.  If architecture is frozen music this is the Taj Mahal.

2. Sunrise Highway Instant classic.  Seamless collection of sunset (not sunrise, as the title suggests) dreamy surf-tinged pop that effortlessly evokes the world as it might appear in a Thomas Kinkade painting with swooningly gorgeous stacked harmonies.  Yes Brian Wilson is a cornerstone but there’s so much more going on here, and in songs like “Magic” and “Roundabout,” Sunshine Highway establishes their own sound firmly.  Instrumentally challenging—note guitarist Marc Silvert’s bent note solo on “Endless Summer.”  Silvert wrote most of this material which makes him a major American songwriter in my book.

3. Timmy Sean: Songs From & Inspired by Noisewater. Another one-man band.  Timmy Sean started recording in ’06 and finished in ’10 as the cover art amusingly illustrates.  Much like Bryan Scary’s first record, Sean puts together a keyboard-based minor mode masterpiece in “Noisewater Overture,” theme music to epic noir science fiction.  The melody works you over like a Rolfing specialist but it only feels good.  Every song is a polished gem of great pop dynamics.  Brian Mahoney plays sax on the Billy Joel-esque “If Your Mother Has Her Way.”  I would be remiss for not mentioning the exquisitely Beatle-inspired “Wait” with a bridge to die for.

4. Buva: Not Scary!  Friendly! Opening with lazy day acoustic guitar, Buva spins a beguiling web on “Smoke Into the Sky,” sounding more like Badfinger than Badfinger itself.  Again the key is endless melodic invention with well-thought-out hooks and choruses that will have you singing along.  Buva (Tom Wolfe) shuns Brill Bdlg song conventions on “You Say It Too” which consists of three movements—the Byrds-like tonic, fantastic bridge and a chorus that is both surprising and logical.  “Hide Away” has a McCartney feel.  So if you love the Three Bees; Beach Boys, Byrds and Beatles, add a fourth.

5. The High Dials: Anthems for Doomed Youth.  This is the second year in a row the High Dials have landed on my top ten list.  This Canadian quartet absorbed the principles of early Brit rock: the Zombies, the Beau Brummels, Pink Floyd, and melds it with a modern psychedelic edge that makes their music seem both familiar and experimental.  “Teenage Love” charges out of the gate with chiming guitars and a massive hook.  More than a touch of Byrds here.  “Uruguay” combines chamber pop with an anthemic chorus and stadium guitars.  “The Rich Die Too” doesn’t sound too much like the Zombies.  Ceaseless melodic invention.

6. Paul Collins: King of Power Pop! Paul Collins was in the Nerves which split giving birth to Paul Collins’ Beat and the Plimsouls.  The Beat is a great American rock band in the tradition of The Replacements.  King of Power Pop! Is a straight-ahead blast of no-frills power pop with rockabilly undertones thanks to Collins’ unique voice.  He’s still got that duck’s ass glissando at the end of each vocal.  Songs like “C’mon Let’s Go!” “Do You Wanna Love Me” and “Doin’ It for the Ladies” speak for themselves.  “Don’t Blame Your Troubles on Me” is an appropriately snotty expression of middle-aged punk fury.  Paul throws in a two minute version of “The Letter” as homage to his spiritual predecessor Alex Chilton.  “The Kings of Power Pop” has surprising emotional heft.

7. The Like: Release Me. Okay, this one’s on Geffen.  Score one for the dinosaur media.  Cheeky all girl quartet with a designer bag full of great girl songs.  Sounds a lot like the Shangri-Las.  Grabs you with “Wishing He Was Dead” and carries all the way through.  Standouts include “Walk of Shame,” “Narcissus in a Red Dress,” and the insanely catchy “Catch Me If You Can.”  Do you crave cheesy Farfisa organ?  It’s all here.  (Not played by regular organist Annie Monroe, but by studio honcho Victor Axelrod.)  Lead singer Z Berg has that classic Maryanne Faithful sound.

8. The Contrast: God of Malfunction. “We are strange and getting stranger/We won’t change we’ll screw the danger,” the Contrast sing on “Coming Back to Life.”  Insistent beat, exquisite harmonies, offbeat chords, and pumping roller rink organ permeate every song.  “I Am an Alien” sounds like Ziggy Stardust era Bowie.   “Better than They Seem,” an ironic paean to positive thinking combines Beatlesque chords and harmonies with a dissonant bridge.  “She’s a Disaster” evokes Jefferson Airplane but these guys are just off-kilter enough to create their own sound.

9. Zombies of the Stratosphere: Ordinary People.   These lovers of classic Brit pop (including the Zombies) and American psychedelia incorporate a vast panoply of influences to create a highly melodic and very personal statement.  The opener, “Our Life in Shadow Falls,” is almost pure Kinks save for Arthur Smith’s very un-Davies-like vocal.  “Love Song 99” borrows Marshall Crenshaw’s chords with a classic Brit-rock bridge and chorus.  “Flyboy” might have come off the Dukes of Stratospheare record.

“The Other Side of the World” is sui generis, a bittersweet rocker with a doo wop chorus.

“All Those Pretty Lies” ends the record on a sigh.

10. Smash Palace. Don’t play this in the car.  “Win It All” is Raspberries-strength power pop that instantly adds 30 mph to your speed.  Hard-edged but sweet Replacements-like band effortlessly bangs out one hook after another.  “Win” and the follow-up “How Can You Say” pack an almost Stones-like one-two-punch before the band breaths deep with the pleasingly off-kilter “Holding Out For You.”  “All in Love is Fair” sounds like the theme song to a Peter Gunn-type show.  Stephen Butler has a matinee idol’s voice—a young Peter Cetera.  Plays excellent guitar too.  “Somebody Up There Likes Me” is a rockin’ expression of gratitude.

I would love to see Adam Lambert join Queen.  I already know all the songs.  And that’s a problem.  Singer/songwriters have been moving off-grid since the nineties.  With the demise of the major music conglomerates, innovative talent understands it’s up to them to record and release their own material.  The internet makes this possible.  No one knows the extent of the effect downloading has had on the music industry, but if we are to judge from the reaction, it has been devastating.  The Recording Institute Association of America has brought suits against parents whose children illegally download songs.

The music press that used to serve a vast range of interests is dying.  No Depression and Blender bit the dust last year.  Paste is asking its readers for financial contributions.  Rolling Stone and Spin long ago gave up covering innovative grass-roots rock in favor of the ever-dwindling supply of “mainstream” acts.  Rolling Stone now resembles an uncomfortable cross between The Nation and Vanity Fair.

The remaining music rags seem to be involved in a conspiracy to cover the same artists.  How else to explain the simultaneous cover appearances of such bands as Vampire Weekend, Connor Oberst, and Bat for Lashes?  These are the “official,” industry sanctioned “edgy artists.”  Trouble is, all these music venues are waiting for someone else to sanction an artist before they’re interested.  They are missing the forest for the trees.

The internet and home recording obviate the need for Big Music.  Yes, having some edgy TV show choose a song off your record can be a career-maker (The Fray, anyone?), but somebody has to hear that song first and have the power to use it.  So let me tell you what’s been going on in the pop underground this year.  Like last year and the year before it, 2009 is shaping up as one of the most exciting pop music years ever.  It’s early June and I’ve been stunned with the breadth and quality of releases thus far.

Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder: Makes Your Ears Smile.  Andy Morten, formerly of The Nerve and Bronco Bullfrog has recorded a masterpiece of summer pop that is simultaneously simple and liltingly complex.  Andy Morten made all the sounds himself.  The closest precedent might by the Dukes of Stratosphere (XTC) who donned the mantle of psychedelic warriors to record songs that echoed their inspirations.  Morten is an excellent singer and an inspired composer.

Roger Klug: More Help For Your Nerves. Two years ago power pop aficionados were gob-smacked by Bryan Scary’s debut which displayed superb musicianship, terrific dynamics and strong songwriting.  Last year it was Josh Fix.  This year it’s Roger Klug whose More Help For Your Nerves opens with “Tinnitus,” an ear blast comparable to Greg Pope’s “Sky Burn Down.”  This disc is an embarrassment of riches clocking in at just under an hour with 17 tracks.  None of them are throwaways.  Klug’s mostly a one-man band with inspiration up to his ears and a voice that hints at hidden cabaret chops.

The second song, “Dump Me Hard,” announces that this is an artist who’s got it going on in every department.  Every song is a standout although I would single out “For the Kids” for its bittersweet poignancy.  And it’s not just verse/verse/chorus/verse.  Klug breaks it up as in “About Time” which segues from upbeat pop to exuberant bluegrass before falling back into a hard rock groove.  Mental Giant, his music label, is just Klug.

Broken Promise Keeper: Ice Cold Pop.  Another one man band.  Seldom have I heard such a strong debut of songs.  As powerful and memorable as Marshall Crenshaw.  Rob Stuart possesses an effortless musicality that affords his songs good bones-the changes, choruses and bridges are both surprising and inevitable.  Stuart has a radio friendly voice and the songs segue from one to the next.  Superb dynamics-one listen and you’re hooked.

The opener “Directions” with its insanely catchy hook contains the lyrics: “Change – new scenery sure would be nice/Change – but before we turn, let’s think twice/‘Cause when you take that fork in the road/ It helps to know where you’re trying to go.” Hmmm….

Greg Pope: Pete.  Pete’s an extended play-seven songs-but they hit with the impact of last year’s triumphant Popmonster, which perched at the top of most Ten Best last year.  And here’s something the music dinosaurs can only dream about: Greg recorded these songs in March and April and the CD, with beautiful cover art, came out in May.  This type of inspiration to market in two months occurs because the lone singer/songwriter doesn’t have to wait for the suits’ approval.

Valley Lodge: Semester at Sea Second release from New York-based rock quartet jangles and buzzes its way from start to finish with delicious hooks, unique vocal choruses and great dynamics.  Highly reminiscent of Plimsouls, if slightly more sophisticated.

There is more.  Much more.  These independent releases are coming at the rate of about four or five a day.  That’s over a thousand records a year.  The music is infinitely better than what Big Music seeks to cram down our throats, yet one will search in vain for any mention of the above bands-or the hundreds of others of similar vein-in the traditional music press.  So what’s a pop fan to do?

There are numerous websites devoted to power pop.  My favorites are Absolute Powerpop, popaholic.com, and of course notlame.com, which in addition to being a label (The Toms, The Well Wishers, The Shazam) acts as a clearinghouse for all these great new bands….

Two notes: A lot of these bands are releasing their CDs in simple cardboard sleeves.  You can get all the info you want on the back of one of these, and if the band chooses to print lyrics, such as Fastball, cardboard sleeves come in fold-outs like miniature versions of deluxe LP sleeves, which allow for more art.  This is a big step up from the odious plastic jewel box.  It’s also a big step back.  This is the way 45’s and LPs used to come.

The second note is that if you contact these artists via their websites, most of them will talk to you.  Try e-mailing Gwen Stefani.

Unanimity of public opinion over popular song has passed.  Music, which used to unite, now divides.  Eminem and Ludacris would have been unthinkable thirty years ago.  We live in an antinomian age where it’s hip to defy conventional wisdom long after every vestige of conventional wisdom lies in tatters.  Where Keats’ Grecian Urn once proclaimed, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” today’s antinomian consumer proclaims, “Whatever,” in a voice oozing ennui.

Cultural arbiters such as The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and People regularly cover hip-hop as serious art, generally in the music section.  But if music is a combination of rhythm, harmony, and melody, where does hip-hop, with its chanting and choruses “sampled” from better songs fit in?  Is it music?  Not by definition.  It’s a perpetuation of “the dozens,” the tradition of black cultural put-downs and sports-style cheerleading set to a beat.

The Billboard Top 100 is depressing.  The artists are either rappers or American Idol survivors.  It’s great that Stevie Wonder sings a song with the Jonas Brothers, but where is the new Stevie Wonder?

Thank God for the divas.  Thirty years ago, the divas were Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, Patti LaBelle and their ilk–real women with real songs.  Today’s divas are Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Whitney Houston, and Ashlee Simpson.  Can anybody hum anything by Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera?  How about the Back Street Boys, ‘N’ Sync, or Justin Timberlake?  Today’s divas, exemplified by the vocal acrobats on American Idol, prove their divaness by avoiding the melody.

There are Top Forty artists who still value craft.  Occasionally, a real song makes it on the play list.  Maroon 5 and Leona Lewis suggest song craft is not entirely dead.  It has merely been driven underground.

What an underground.

If you’ve never hummed a Beatles song, have no love for The Who, Cheap Trick, the Raspberries, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Stone Roses, Tom Petty, Linda Rondstadt, the Bangles, the Beach Boys, the Beckies, Badfinger or the Byrds, stop here.  Go back to your X-Box.

Like Australian convicts, eucalyptus trees and the nutria, pop music has flourished in exile.  Thousands of bands have taken advantage of new technology to record themselves, and offer their product over the Internet.  Thanks to downloadable programs like GarageBand.com, you don’t even need to produce CDs.

Most self-released records go for twelve to thirteen dollars.  Not cheap, but they offer things no major label can match: unalloyed joy and soaring pop song craft.  Peter Townshend, lead singer and guitarist for The Who, coined the term “power pop” to indicate the type of complex, joyful, upbeat music pioneered by the Beatles.  Power pop songs use harmonies and have at least three chords.

PowerPop keeps track of many of these bands.  Most have their own websites.  All pursue song craft with skill and passion: The Offbeat, The Churchills, The Davenports, The Wigs, The Wellingtons, Scott Miller, Sloan, L’Avventura, Superdrag, The Shazam, Heavy Blinkers, Bryan Scary, Hindu Rodeo, Michael Carpenter and Ness, to name a handful of the more important bands.

Independent popsters are more politically savvy than their gargantuan Top 40 Counterparts.  (Did you ever imagine that Bruce Springsteen, who started so well, would end up spouting socialist crap?)  Hindu Rodeo in particular gets it.  On their first, self-titled album, “Evil White Man” gleams with pop smarts and a great hook.  “I wish I was a woman/ So I’d think with my head/Not just the one ‘tween my legs/So I’d live twice as Long/Dance on my grave when I’m gone/But I’m an evil white man.”

Their second album, Nalladaloobr, is even better with brilliant, incisive, and danceable songs such as “McLife,” “American People” and “Somebody’s Eyes.”

Greg Pope’s Popmonster which dominated ‘08’s Top Ten Lists, proves the power of the lone artist working by himself.  Unbelievably, Greg Pope recorded every sound: drums, guitar, keys, you name it, and provided all the vocals.  The results are one of the most dynamic shout-it-out rock records since Born to Run.

The songs are way beyond my baby don’t love me, dealing with family responsibility in “I Got a Life” and individual responsibility in “Burden.”

Other power poppers who do it all themselves include Bryan Scary on his first record, Ed James, Josh Fix whose Free at Last came out of nowhere to land on everybody’s Top Ten, Jason Falkner, Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Michael Behm, and the Well Wishers to name a few.

Bill Majoros of The Foreign Films released a two disc debut set in 2007 that compares favorably to The White Album for sheer breadth and scope.  The Foreign Films play with an overwhelming emotional power that most modern bands can’t grasp.

Some power poppers achieve major label success but they are the exception and not the rule.  Barenaked Ladies and Fort Collins, Colorado’s Color Me Pink are two such bands.

Seattle-based Sub Pop has offered haven to The Shins, Fleet Foxes, and Flight of the Conchords.

Not Lame Records is foremost among the tiny independent labels carrying the power pop torch.  Not Lame’s premier act is the Nashville-based Shazam, a trio with soaring, anthemic songs and enormous guitar.  Not Lame’s owner, Bruce Brodeen, is a devout Christian who trained to be a Lutheran minister.  One day he had an epiphany: he was to start his own label.  Not Lame has rescued stunning power pop from the past such as the two Toms records, another one man band in the person of Tommy Marolda.

New York-based Rainbow Quartz Records is another outstanding power pop label, specializing in finding acts from all over the world.  Especially Sweden.  During this season of ABBA revival it comes as no surprise that the dark Scandinavian countries produce some of the sunniest music ever recorded.  In particular, Rainbow Quartz’ Marmalade Souls is a haunting evocation of Mommas and Poppas era rock with a spark of fresh genius.

Rainbow Quarts is also home to Andy Bopp (Myracle Brah) and RockFour, the tightest rockin’ psychedelic band to ever emerge from Tel Aviv.

You can find most of these bands on fan sites such as Powerpopaholic and Absolute Powerpop.  Every year going as far back as I can remember has been notable, but 2008 was one of the very best.  You can find my Top Ten list and numerous others at:  Not Lame Blog.