Those who have followed us for a while know that we like Ryan Allen a lot. From his Michigan solo and sideman days up to the excellence of Extra Arms that we have here, a band that generally frequents the noisier side of Guitar Pop.
The quartet link perfectly through a locked rhythm section, a riff driven way of gripping you through dual guitars and Allen's rock out vocal. But Radar feels slightly different than what has gone before. It feels more polished, less in your face and this should bring an even wider audience that the band certainly deserve.
This is no way a criticism, quite the reverse. The songs are great as ever and there is still the ability to blast off. The guitar solo on Inflatable Boys is as wonderful and aggressive as the band have ever been. But there is also new directions that can be taken which show off the talent that is around.
Space And Time for instance is splendid anthemic Pop Rock that adds some great Pedal Steel Mad Dog Blue for instance nods towards the likes of Fountains Of Wayne and Your Highness kicks of with a big guitar intro that edges towards 80s Rock.
Sit Back Up even treads into 70s Classic Rock territory with its Thin Lizzy like Guitar sound. Then there is the Replacements like scuzz of Shut 'Em Down which also nods to past. But is the instrumental additions to the album that really work.
Brass on All Good Things Take Time and Sax on Sit Back Up confirm the slightly new direction. Radar is a really accessible album that deserves big attention. It certainly points to bigger times which Extra Arms deserve more than most. It also shows them to be a proper band.
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.
I've been dying to tell you about this album for quite a while. The Shop Window are from Maidstone, but the five piece have made their name as Jangle Poppers rather than the usual Medway scene's dalliance with Psych Pop.
Their third album is a double and quite a herculean affair that is divided into two, Days And Dream. Days covers the Jangle Pop that you know, love and sort of expect and boy does it Jangle. However, decades are crossed magnificently.
Days covers everything from Merseybeat to the Jangle explosion of the UK 80s. From the US rocked up 90s version to the modern version dominated by the likes of Eyelids and of course pointers to Byrds. It does at times feel a bit Marr and Squire, even Ride, but is so beautifully done.
However, it is never set in its ways. It's A High adds a wonderful Twang and uses Brass well as Northern Uproar used to do. Beyond The Stars gets close to Brit Pop. Live To Love & Love Your Life is a gentle anthem that adds more tasteful Brass.
Dream is very different, magnificently so, almost experimental. Blues is a song that I've become very familiar, it chimes, but is more Pop Rock in which the vocal compliments the instrumentally so well. Loneliness sounds very Camp Fire.
A World Where We Remain is much moodier, melancholic and brooding.Happy Now continues that feel. Then there is the closer, Made In Heaven, all 7 minutes of it. More electronic, a song that grips you and builds into a massive soundscape that is almost hypnotic. A splendid listen.
So two very different halves make up Daysdream. One is the jaunty joy that Jangle should and does bring. The other has more of a darker shoegaze vibe in which the Jangle is still around, but more in the background. This is an album that is ambitious and yet so easy to like. Top Notch!
You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.
The For Closure EP has already appeared on Add To Want List, which is cool. If there was a Venn Diagram of our similarity, the middle section has become bigger and bigger over recent years and this offering is something that you would definitely expect us both to review.
Here we don't go for written reviews of three track EPs but Hazy Mourning is so good that it has to be mentioned. The Los Angeles five piece also surprise as you would think that the background of their veteran backgrounds would produce an EP that was much noisier and in your face.
This is pacy Pop Rock of the highest order, a little 90s College Rock in places, yet also reminiscent of stalwarts like Husker Du. It is incredibly melodic, riff driven with massive choruses. For Closure sound like a new band, which they sort of are, that are fresh out of the blocks, new to the scene like.
It is hard to pick a favourite of the three, which is testimony to the quality. I only wish there were more and hopefully that will remedied with a full length in the future. Rather than underground, the EP sounds much more mainstream, wonderfully so.
We hit the 30 song limit this week with a fine selection of tunes. Feels like a slightly poppier vibe this time around. There is no song preference in track order, just what we think flows. I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have all week to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves.
All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here. Thank you for supporting the new music from Indie artists.
Paperface - I never wanted to be famous, but...
Shove! - I Need Somebody
4DOOR59 - 20 Ways to Rock
King Black Acid - There's A Spirit Moving In Your House
The Mike Stufflake Project - Another False Start (feat. Eric Troyer)
Crawpappy - Copy Girl
Jordan Allen Dean - Redemption Run
Bad Friends With Black Cats - OKAY, BYE
Repeat - Man On The Moon
Faded Shades - What I'm On About
Broken Gold - Sound It Out
Sparky's Magic Piano - Athletic
Nick Kizirnis - Through The Motions
Separable - You'll Be Fine
blorgpulkfplorksickle - Pawn Lemmon (Don't Imagine (Surrender To The Inevitable)
Welcome to the first Here Is The News, a new addition to the IDHAS jollity. It is intended to be a weekly affair that informs followers about upcoming releases, gigs, labels and much more. As with everything on I Don't Hear A Single, it contains no influence whatsoever from anyone but us. We get lots of releases, PR, label contact, but we have always decided what we like and want to tell you about.
We are only ever limited by time. We only review what we like. People mention from time to time that we don't seem to do negative reviews. It is actually much easier to do a negative review than a positive one, but why waste that energy? From the beginning, we were only ever going to write about what we like and there is more of that than we could ever cover.
As IDHAS approaches 8, the Blogging world is very different than when we started. The influence that Blogs have has decreased at a rapid rate. It is hard to keep interest and even grow as streaming playlists seem to be the in thing.
There is no doubt that we have evolved and compare to different Blogs than when we first started. But we are still here and hope that we help artists on the way. We are never going to make mega stars, not that we would really ever want to. Adding things like this keeps interest and hopefully informs.
This is a cut down version of what this section is intended to be. A sort of test the water to gauge reaction.
King Black Acid - There's A Spirit Moving In Your House
I think you know how much we like King Black Acid. Portland Oregon must be so proud of this lot. Our review of the new album, Victory For Mad Love, has been really popular. You can read that here. There is now a video for you to enjoy of the new single, There's A Spirit Moving In Your House. You can buy and listen to the album here.
The Supernaturals
It is frightening to think that I have been listening to The Supernaturals for half my life. Initially, through their jaunty wit filled Pop Rock, but I've sort of matured with them as they have experimented and shown completely different sides to the band. Many will know of the big singles and albums, but the early cassette releases were like Rocking Horse shit.
So the archive releases from the pre It Doesn't Matter Anymore days are a godsend to both established and the new fans that the band has been gaining at a rapid rate. Both Big 7 and Sitting In The Sun join Let It Bleat as CD and Download releases. Both will be reviewed on here in the coming week.
It is less than a fortnight away from Local Drags' fourth album. We've covered them well on here and the last album, Mess Of Everything, appeared in our Best 100 Albums Of Last Year. You can read that review here. The new one sounds less noisy than what has gone before, more reflective, but is every bit as good as you might expect.
The CD and Vinyl are available from Stardumb Records. There are alternate covers depending on the format you choose. The album will also be on the Bandcamp site. A review will be on here, just after the release date. City In A Room should certainly gain many appreciative ears.
It has been too long since we covered Winston-Salem's Michael Slawter. Ashamedly, he hasn't appeared here since 2017's An Assassination Of Someone You New. There's an ethical theme to his new mini album and it is a cracker. Great Pop Rock that edges towards Power Pop.
There will be obvious connections to The dBs and Mitch Easter, but Slawter is very much his own man. You can pre-order the CD or Digital album now. It is a great listen. A review will appear on here shortly after the release date.
Canadian Guitar Pop has had an exceptional couple of years and Motorists are another example. Their second album is on Madrid's excellent Bobo Integral label. Touched By The Stuff revels in its 90s Power Pop vibe with heaps of Jangle Pop.
The band are not afraid to spread further afield though and this is an album that underlines the slow but sure return of Classic Power Pop. It knows its influences, but also adds its own take bringing the genre to a new generation.The album is available on Vinyl and digitally and will be reviewed here shortly after release.
Something a little rockier from the excellent Subjangle label. But worry ye not, there is plenty of Jangle here, it is just louder with a faster pace. Berlin duo, Joe Armstrong and Guido Kreutzmuller. Working with a base od Pop Rock, Brit Pop even, this is a glorious melodic affair.
All In The Mind crosses genres at will. There is what you might expect with the likes of Under The Sun and the Byrds Jangling. But there is also the wonderful Psychedelic Folk of Surveillance Town. The Dropkick Twang of Recognize is different to the Classic 70s Pop Rock of An Hour Or A Day.
Twenty Sixteen edges towards Country Rock, yet The Boy In The Mirror is prime time Brit Pop. Thinkin' Drinkin's could be early Diesel Park West, whilst A Smile For Everyone is piano led and much more atmospheric and melancholic.
There are two songs though that reveal the sheer breadth of what the band are capable of. They Keep Walking On By mixes Psych Pop and UK Beat with a beatnik style vocal and a killer chorus. It is such a mix of styles that works so well.
The opener, Don't Hold Back though is what reveals The Strange Encounters' intent. It is a melodic joy, laid back, part Del Amitri, part Hoodoo Gurus with a driving killer riff and splendid dashes of Organ with a twanging jangling solo.
Sometimes, when you mention Pop Rock, people think of bland boring fairy as it is such an all encompassing genre. This album proves how wrong people can be. It is bursting with harmony, melody and underlines the sheer joy that you can provide.
You can listen to and buy the album here. There are also links there to buy the album on Vinyl or CD.
Really inventive Indie from London quartet, Bad Wives with a cross genre selection of four songs. Everything from Post Punk to Angular Pop, Fuzz to Melodic Pop, at times in the same song. Throughout the experimental riffs, there is never a neglect of the catchiness.
The vocal helps this and allows the instrumentals to go off on a tangent. The riffs on Lost And Found are dual and come from two completely different angles, yet blend together wonderfully to provide a crackerjack of a song that even hints at Psych Pop.
Don't Get Excited is Shoegaze, but Indie Pop is bursting to get out. Sympathy is Slacker Fuzz, yet the riff is almost Prog with a Pop song chorus. Greg's Song edges close to the US Indie 80s, again the riff is everything, wonderfully dominant and much darker than the other three songs.
I can't enthuse about the arrangements enough. To me, this is what Indie should be about. Indie is a description that describes too much now. It should be a vibe, a feel, not a genre that allows everything that isn't easily genre categorised. This is the real thing.
