Top Ten Power Pop Albums of ‘09

The world may have entered a gigantic metaphorical sphincter but there is progress in at least one field.  Power pop has never been better.  We are living in one of the great musical flowerings of history and it shows no sign of abating.  I had a real problem picking just ten records for my top ten, so I kept on going.  Just a little bit.  We’ve still got a ways to go so I might have to update this list. 

The qualitative differences among the top five are nugatory.  One could easily choose any of them as the record of the year. 

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#1: The Shazam – Meteor

These big-hearted stadium rockers have been building toward this titanic yawp of iconic anthems for years.

“So Awesome” opens the record with a twenty-one guitar salute to the joy of living, lead guitar as hard and elegant as the Golden Gate Bridge.  “Don’t Look Down” is a power ballad with every lick carved in stone.  You could climb the notes like a staircase.  Hans Rotenberry’s vocals are winsome and masterful, going from cooed aside to anthemic bellow in a heartbeat.  “Disco at the Fairground” is the best Move song the Move never recorded.  Alternating sinister, earth-chewing minor chords with drunken sailor music hall choruses it crunches euphorically.  Zappa would approve. (more…)

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Tags: Broken Promise Keeper, Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder, Curtains for You, Fun, Jeff Litman
Posted Nov 15th 2009 at 6:26 am in Featured Story, Music | 26201058 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/11/15/top-ten-power-pop-albums-of-09/Top+Ten+Power+Pop+Albums+of+%27092009-11-15+14%3A26%3A47Mike+Baron

Music Review: The Shazam’s ‘Meteor’

Nashville’s The Shazam have been around since 1993, delighting audiences with anthemic, hook-laden rock in the spirit of their two poles, The Who and The Move.  They moved beyond those obvious influences on ‘03’s stunning Tomorrow the World, a blast of rawk big enough to fill the Grand Canyon. 

The Shazam are part of the underground independent pop scene, the guys who gather for the Charlottesville Power Pop Festival, International Pop Overthrow, or SXSW.  Shazam have been with Not Lame since 1999’s masterful Godspeed the Shazam.  Meteor is the first disc Not Lame has produced in three years, not counting their annual International Pop Overthrow compilations. Meteor is a titanic yawp of hard rock anthems alternating with hooks so sweet they take your breath away.  Hans Rotenberry, who wrote and sings the songs, has carved a unique and immediately identifiable style from hard rock dynamics crossed with his sweet, supple voice.  (more…)

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Tags: "Don't Look Down", "Meteor", "So Awesome", Godspeed the Shazam, International Pop Overthrow
Posted Aug 22nd 2009 at 5:55 pm in Featured Story, Music, Reviews | 20927811 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/08/22/review-the-shazam-meteor-not-lame/Music+Review%3A+The+Shazam%27s+%27Meteor%272009-08-23+00%3A55%3A02Mike+Baron

The Pop Underground Strikes Back

Few shows illustrate how low the state of popular music has fallen than “American Idol.”  While AI regularly finds singers of talent, the songs they feature are mostly chestnuts.  The show also encourages the type of singing that is more at home on Broadway than in small smoky clubs.  The judges put an inordinate amount of focus on vocal pyrotechnics encouraging contestants to test the outer limits of their ranges.  The most exciting news to come out of the most recent season is the possibility that Adam Lambert might join Queen, replacing the ill-considered Paul Rogers.

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. (more…)

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Tags: "American People", Adam Lambert, Andy Morten, Bat for Lashes, Big Music
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 at 6:40 am in Music | 1479662 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/06/02/the-pop-underground-strikes-back/The+Pop+Underground+Strikes+Back2009-06-02+13%3A40%3A04Mike+Baron

Ugly Pop World Drives Beauty Underground

The disconnect between beauty and popularity in music has never been greater.  Where once America sang the Beatles or Motown (”The Sound of Young America”), today the music industry is severely fragmented.  Gangsta rap.  Speed metal.  Trip-hop.  The major recording companies whine about declining profits even as they pay Mariah Carey $18 million not to record.

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. (more…)

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Tags: "American People", "Burden", "Evil White Men", "I Got a Life", "McLife"
Posted Feb 27th 2009 at 2:05 pm in Entertainment, Reviews, Video | 6857889 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/02/27/68578/Ugly+Pop+World+Drives+Beauty+Underground2009-02-27+22%3A05%3A03Mike+Baron