Power Pop Day Today-Power Pop Day Today-Power Pop Day Today...

Hello folks,
after a long time without Power Pop suggestions i want to recommend three different kinds of Powerpop music today. We have the collection ''Buttons: From Champaign To Chicago'' with really great Power Pop bands and artists from the seventies and early eighties. Next one is the 2017 album by Matthew Meltons Garage Power Pop band Warm Soda and the last album is the new release by Chris Richards. Okay here we go...

VA- Buttons: From Champaign To Chicago (2012 Numero Group)

Maybe it's something in the water (or in Old Style beer), but Illinois has a rich history as the Midwest's Mecca for power pop; in the 1970s and early ‘80s, the Land of Lincoln was home to hundreds of bands that were serving up soaring melodies, guitar-powered hooks, earnest vocal harmonies, dancefloor-filling rhythms, and as much Beatles-like personality as they could muster.

Cheap Trick were the Illinois band who were able to sell updated pop to the masses that filled the arenas, and Shoes proved a band could rise from a basement studio and score a major-label deal and international attention, but the vast majority of Illinois power pop bands played the clubs for a few years, left behind some demo tapes or self-released singles, and then vanished without a trace. The archivists at the Numero Group pay loving homage to the glory days of Illinois power pop with Buttons: From Champaign to Chicago, a compilation that features 19 lost classics of Midwest pop, most of which are as hopelessly obscure as any record collector could wish.

Shoes are represented with one early track, "In My Arms Again," but for the rest of the acts, claims to fame are a bit dubious -- the Names were featured in the memorably clumsy low-budget horror flick Terror on Tour, the Vertebrats' "Left in the Dark" was later covered by the Replacements and Uncle Tupelo (Numero Group, of course, has chosen to feature their lesser-known "Diamonds in the Rough" instead), and the All Night Newsboys were the victims of a notorious practical joke in which their roadie was paid to vanish with their gear the night they were set to open for Heart and John Cougar Mellencamp, with several major-label scouts in attendance.

And while most of these bands came of age in the New Wave era, "Be for Me" by the Jets, recorded in 1973, makes it clear that the pop underground was lurking about in Illinois long before skinny ties made their comeback.

The pleasant surprise is how uniformly good these bands are -- while a few tunes mostly get by on their energy and charm, "It's a Miracle" by the Names is a brilliant Cheap Trick rip; "Holiday" by Nines is manna from Farfisa heaven; "So Lifelike" by the Jerks is a sly and catchy variation on the theme of the Who's "Pictures of Lily," and if Band of Jocks had the worst name ever, "At Practice" is pretty brilliant.

Anyone who ever had a taste for a cool hook in the pre-Reagan era will fall like a ton of bricks for Buttons: From Champaign to Chicago, and younger pop enthusiasts will be wowed by its strength and variety.(allmusic.com)

Garage Power Pop by Warm Soda-I don't Wanna Grow Up (2017)

When Warm Soda turned in their fourth album to their label Castle Face, they informed the powers that be that the album was their last. Main Soda jerk Matthew Melton was closing up shop and launching Dream Machine, a new band with his wife that was more psychedelic in nature. While it's definitely a bummer that Warm Soda is done, they go out on a high note with I Don't Wanna Grow Up. The songs are the tightest, toughest, and hookiest batch Melton has written, the band plays them with precision and energy, and the production straddles the line between lo-fi and AM radio-readiness perfectly.

In the past, the stripped-down production let the band down at times, but here it works perfectly thanks to the dynamic shifts and smart arrangements that layer the guitars, stack the vocals, and bring in the occasional keyboard. It's easily the group's best album, with almost every song sounding like a lost gem from the golden era of power pop. A few of them even could have been hits in an imagined past where the Rubinoos and the Plimsouls were in heavy rotation and the Real Kids sold millions of records. The three-song block "Tell Me in a Whisper," "To Be with Ramona," and "Don't Stop Now" is one any rock band, power pop or otherwise, would be proud to have on their résumé. So are the rest of the album's songs, whether sweet and romantic like "This Changes Everything," bubblegummy like "Gumdrop," or garage rock punchy like "Young in Your Heart."

The combination of guitar riffs, powerhouse drumming, snappy melodies, piquant lyrics, and Melton's tender croon of a vocal makes for something pretty great. Ironically, I Don't Wanna Grow Up is Warm Soda's most mature and fully formed record. Great for their fans and anyone who ever loved power pop that they were able to make their mini-masterpiece before they ghosted.(allmusic.com)

I was always a fan by Matthew Melton and the Warm Soda band and this album is definitely one of  their best. If you like driving guitars with fine melody work and a garage pop sound, give it a try.(Frank)

The last one today is the new album by Chris Richards & The Subtractions, it's called ''Peaks and Valleys''.

Chris Richards has been a hero to Midwest power pop fans for close to three decades, but thankfully he's not content to rest on his laurels. Released in 2018, Peaks and Valleys is his third album with his combo the Subtractions, and while it's full of fine tunes, plentiful pop hooks, and ringing guitars galore, just like 2009's Sad Songs of the Summer and 2012's Get Yer La La's Out, this effort adds some new elements to his formula. Since the last time Richards took the Subtractions into the studio, the group has expanded to a quartet, with Richards (vocals and guitar), Todd Holmes (bass), and Larry Grodsky (drums) joined by Andy Reed, who contributes guitar, keyboards, and vocals, as well as co-producing the album with Richards. (Reed is also Richards' bandmate in another project, the Legal Matters.) With Reed on board, the Subtractions sound fuller and richer, still efficient but with a greater sense of dynamics than before, and the speedy chug of Richards' guitar has evolved into something more evocative. The harmonies are better on this set, with Reed a splendid vocal match for the headliner. And as the title suggests, Peaks and Valleys boasts an emotional range that's broader than that of the first two Subtractions LPs. "Half Asleep," "The Coast Is Clear," and "The End of Me" are upbeat and full of energy, which has long been Richards' stock in trade, but there's a moody undertow to "Call Me Out" and "Just Another Season" that conveys a heartache Richards hasn't often explored with this band, and the final one-two punch of "Thirteen" (a cover of Big Star's classic tale of adolescent longing) and "Weekend" packs an emotional wallop that sets this album apart. With Peaks and Valleys, Chris Richards & the Subtractions conjure both sunshine and shadow, and find beauty and heart on both sides. It's a welcome step forward from an artist who has always had plenty to offer.(allmusic.com)

Like always Chris Richards and his band deliver a real strong album full of wonderful pop hooks and harmonies.(Frank)

All three albums are highly recommended and if you like some of them, go and buy it.

Enjoy
Frank