Some
of my alternative rock favourites from the 80's to now - garage, pop,
punk, indie or whatever
What
sort of music makes one happy and functional in this cesspool of ours?
It depends on which decade you're born in. To generalize:
1960's = pop, soul, 1970's = glamrock, progressive rock, heavy metal,
punk, disco, 1980's = new wave, euro disco, synthpop, funk-rap, all sorts
of metal genres, 1990's = grunge-indie, rap, the idiotic wailing torture
type of R&B that has got nothing to do with the classic beautiful
50's R&B
My sis gave me my first records, thanks for your taste, and i started
listening to The Kinks and The Who when i was 6 years old. So it's classic
pop that makes me truly happy. After the 70's punk, the 80-90's new wave-indie-grunge
eras maybe called alt. pop ? This garage, pop, punk, indie music something,
let's just call it Power Pop, and then in that genres
widest sense naturally. Great bands ? 60:s - The Kinks, Who, Beach Boys,
Left Banke, 70:s - Ramones, Roxy Music, Blondie, Rezillos and New York
Dolls. Yes, i may be an old geezer but there's many like me, even young
folks, maybe contemptuosly called indie-kids by the ultra-hip asshole
music reviewers and this page is for You. I hope there's
something that you like here
2011 alt. indie rock Album of the Year: Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
The Joy Formidable - A
Powerful Welsh trio who plays really loud melodic indierock with lots
and lots of gorgeous hooks
Destined for Super Stardom - The
Pixies of this Decade
Rhydian Dafydd
, Ritzy Brien and Matt Thomas
A HEAVY and delightfully spiky but still fruitily sweet
indie-rockband formed in Mold, Wales 2007, a trio fronted by dynamic
lead singer/guitarist Ritzy Brien with her childhood
buddy Rhydian Dafydd on bass and Matt Thomas, drums. They released 2
great singles Austere and Cradle in 2008 and their mini album/EP debut
in 2009. The Big Roar was released in january 2011 to world wide critical
acclaim from leading rock magazines.
The Joy Formidable quickly gained a reputation as UK's No. 1 Live performance
band and they've also toured the USA a lot. They're destined for super-hugeness.
Soon the world will have to take notice. When writing this 2011-12-31
the band's still virtually unknown in Sweden though
WOW! My first meeting with The Joy Formidable
made me levitate. I'm not kidding - they're that good, really
Date: October 7th 2011 Place: New York,
Ed Sullivan Theatre, Late Show with David Letterman
- i saw it one week later on swedish TV
Dave and his house band lead by Paul Shaffer have always
had über great bands playing Live. I first saw The Pixies on this
show. The Pixies. Paul once named UO's Sister Havana the greatest rocksong
ever. The mighty Warren Zevon always played there, also just before
his death in cancer.
So - i LOVE Dave and Paul. Well, so Dave introduced the band as a trio
from Wales and i watched them, a bit blasé honestly, start their
Whirring.
30 seconds later ...... i was levitating
half a metre over my TV sofa. Then the computer On and Youtube clips
on repeat.
Next day, shopping time. Good idea, wasn't it. Made a visit to 2 of
Stockholm, Sweden's most renown indie record stores, and....... Guess
What?
No one had heard about the group, NO ONE. At the third place (Pet Sounds)
a guy liked them (not in stock though) and ordered it for me
Power Pop :
10 Ultimate Favourites of Mine 1980-2010 (punk, pop, garage-indie
something)
Note: 9 out of these 10 were/are american
artists so this great type of music seems to be something of an american
thing. Thanks America! And buy these songs from iTunes or buy the albums,
if they're still available somewhere
An underrated (if today, not almost unknown) group
that released this their Saturation album in 1993 and
was featured on the soundtrack of hipster Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction
with a great Neil Diamond cover.
I remember hearing this masterpiece of delightful guitar riffs driving
my car listening to the normally very shitty swedish radio. I almost
crashed my car, screaming and jumping in a state of total bliss. Those
guitars, those guitars... This is a TRULY GREAT video to an ORGASMIC
song
One of the most beautiful pop songs ever made, and this
whether it's about drugs or not. Liverpool band
The La's released this miracle of a songin
1988, nothing happened, and then again in 1990. It was written by Lee
Mavers and the group disbanded in 1992 after releasing only one single
album in 1990. I first heard it on the soundtrack to the 1997 film Fever
Pitch, a film after the 1992 Nick Hornby novel and i have since heard
it
in some commercial too
The genius Frank Black, the ex-Pixies frontman, the
Bach, Mozart, Beethoven of alternative rock made his
first self-titled solo album in 1993 produced together with Eric Drew
Feldman.
The first song on his first album is the amazing Los Angeles. Only Frank
Black could make something as heavenly beautiful out of this seemingly
simple parts, first it rocks..... then comes the break, the melodic
hook that gives you goosebumps. Los Angeles in Patagonia - Frank Black,
You Genious You.
Pixies, Frank Black and Kim Deal's Breeders, i love them all, so third
place on this my favourite indie power pop list will be a tie between
them
I already have a special page about Pixieselsewhere on this site, and i could've chosen Where is my Mind,
or just about every tune from Pixies classic Doolittle album, but the
first song Debaser is a masterpiece of
raw fresh energy and a tribut to the Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel
film classic.
The indie rock club (famous in Sweden) in my hometown Stockholm is named
after this epic song
The surreal words of Kim Deal combined with some outstanding
guitar riffs makes Cannonball one of the
coolest songs of the 1990's (more about The Breeders; see my Pixies
page)
One of the most influental albums of all time?
Fire of Love by The Gun Club from 1981 gave us something
new, a mix of garage style power pop rock-punk psychobilly with a touch
of southern Gris Gris magic feeling about it. Fronted by troubled soul
Jeffrey Lee Pierce and his silence-noice silence-noice style of music
most clearly must have influenced Frank Black. This album looks and
sounds dangerous. There's the mighty Fire
Spirit and there's the manic Sex Beat, and there's the intense and scary
She's Like Heroin to Me
Matthew Sweet, the maker of almost
perfect pop songs and virtually unknown i guess, him too. This lovely
tune Sick of Myself got some adorable fake endings
and amazing guitar work, and was relesed in 1995 as a CD-single on Zoo
Entertainment. I remember playing it over and over and over again.
Aah, those were the happy days
The Pop! Finally... a band that
played the "real" genre typical power pop. This california
group released 2 forgotten albums in the second half of the 1970's,
The Pop! (1977) and Go! (1979).
They were unknown then (with the exception of some genre hardcore fans)
and they are still TOTALLY and painfully unknown today. This is extinct
and forgotten but beautiful late 70's music. I remember buying their
1st LP and the single Down on the Boulevard.
This shimmering gem only got a few hits on Youtube - Shame on Us - it's
a rotten world
Remember seeing the music video to Popular
by Nada Surf in 1996, and i played the song the whole
summer, over and over and over again. The video depicting highschool
life the Hollywood style with all it's given clichés may be a
bit annoying to some today. But, when the chorus hits in, it really
hits BIG. A genius
production from The Cars Ric Ocasek, who also gave us Weezer's Blue
Album. Listen to the teacher kids, don't forget the the teenage guide
to popularity!
LEGENDARY australian group that only
existed for a very short time 1984-1986 before death ended it,
before the group could've evolved into something of the Pixies greatness
level. James Darroch, ex-Celibate Rifles, guitar/song, Bill Gibson,
ex-Lime Spiders and later Lemonhedas on bass, Geoff Milne on drums made
only one single and an amazing mini-album (see pic) before the fatal
car crash in 1986 - James Darroch R.I.P.
This great mini-album was released on Waterfront Records and also in
Europe on different labels. I remember
a guy in the swedish group Pushtwangers (another fine forgotten group)
recommended it to me (he worked
in a record shop) and aussie alternative rock was quite popular in Sweden/Europe
too.
The album starts with a Bang, the impressive Walking
The Lemonheads fronted by oh
so talented, if destructive, songwriter Evan Dando made some great albums.
The mighty It's a Shame About Ray in 1992 and the somewhat less mighty
but still great Car Button Cloth a couple of years later. Then, cult
bass player Bill Gibson had joined Dando. Gibson once was a member of
great aussie bands Lime Spiders and the fuckin' über great legendary
trio The Eastern Dark (Johnny and Dee Dee/Walkin'/Julie is a Junkie).
But i couldn't find the music video to If I Could Talk I'd Tell
You anywhere on Youtube anymore though
Amazing album this Weezer's blue album, their
debut from 1994. Produced by ex-Cars Ric Ocasek it was an instant world
wide superhit. Fronted by the talented Rivers Cuomo the album's full
of smart teenage power pop and Buddy Holly, helped by an amazing music
video, was a HUGE hit everywhere.
However my favourite is the opening number the somewhat mysterious and
unique My Name is Jonas
...........................................
Alert! Power Pop Alert. Alert! Power Pop Alert
Juniper Moon - Beautiful
Crystal Clear Power Punk Pop in spanish from a totally unknown group
of youngsters
El Resto De Mi Vida - Their Lost
and/or Classic 2002 Album (re-released in 2010 by Barcelona based
Elefant Records)
These talented youngsters came from the small town of
Ponferrada, Léon near the portuguese border and the group existed
between 1997 - 2004.
Unique in their style among spanish indie rockgroups with their energetic,
fast, loud and gorgeous power pop punk pop. A
lot of fast guitars, a hammond organ and FINE red haired girl singer
guitarist Sandra. The band recorded on the Elefant label
This spanish indie rock band won all the critics heart,
but not the record buyers, popular and with a cult following in Japan,
Peru and Mexico and
also somewhat in the UK (after being included on a indie collection
album and radio play). How could they not be popular in Spain - they
are almost completely unknown in their homeland? Well, besides The Killer
Barbies and old galician pop act Aerolineas Federales spanish indierock
seems to
be, sadly, mostly about Twee, hip cutie-cute bands with art or architect
students singing in baby voices...... yuck!
The groups core members were Sandra on guitar and vocals,
Ivan on drums, Eva on keyboards, Dado on guitar and Jaime on bass and
vocals. Eva and Ivan has started the new duo-group Linda Guilala
(sadly, also obscure) with melodic pop somewhat in the Twee
style.
Juniper Moon made a couple of great singles, among them the great Volverás
in 99 and Sólo una sunrisa with a music video
made in january 2003.
What's the mighty Sandra doing? Rumours says she's working in a grocery
market. I'm waiting for your return talented girl....
...........................................
......................... and
then we got the coolest norwegian alive, the lovely Ida Maria
Sivertsen with that nice gravelly voice
Listen to the really great Music Video of.... Ida
Maria-Oh My God! - Follow link to Youtube
Ida Maria This
Girl's a Great Live Power
Her first album Fortress Round My Heart
(2008) got some great songs and some less great, but was a promising
debut. However, this girl she's the real thing Live (something of a
rarity today) and she explodes on stage with furious energy. Therefore
Ida was a highly in demand live artist and
after touring for 2 years in a row in the UK/US and getting rave reviews
she had a meltdown in Boston september 2009. She's on a Time-Out now.
Get well Ida Maria, your many fans love you and wish you the best. The
coolest norwegian alive for sure
...........................................
Raw 1980's US New Wave:
Wild, Experimental, Scary and Influental. The Missing Link
Ok, there were some great Post-Punk New Wave bands in
UK as Cure, Joy Division, Monochrome Set etc. but mostly lame synth
bands or
minimalistic art student groups full of pretension. So, where's the
energy then, the missing link between the 70's punk bands and the re-animated
music scene the with indie-alt. rock movement and Pixies in 1987? This
raw power and energy could be found in the US with post-punk hardcore
new wave bands as Hüsker Du, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Flipper,
Violent Femmes, Cramps, Agent Orange, Sonic Youth, TSOL, Wall of
Voodoo and the mighty Gun Club. Here's some favourites of mine...
Wall
of Voodoo
A great enigmatic band led by charismatic Stan Ridgway.
Debuted 1980 with an amazing experimental garage synth-rock EP incl.
Longarm and a killer version of the Johnny Cash classic Ring of Fire.
Factory is another great song of theirs and their only almost hit were
the unique and funny Mexican Radio. Listen to them Live from the fun
1981 music film Urgh! A Music War on Youtube
Follow the Youtube Link Here
Flipper
(pic at right; the 1980-81 Live DVD from US Target Video)
An influential (yes, Kurt Cobain loved them, them too)
avantgarde slow-fi hardcore band that takes us on a scary journey into
rock chaos. Fondly remembered for hardcore classics as Ha Ha Ha, Love
Canal and Sex Bomb. This is pure energy and far, far from lame brittish
80's farts as Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran etc. Buy their
records and listen to their powerfully minimalistic Ha Ha Ha
on Youtube -
Follow the Youtube Link here
The Cramps
An even more influential rock group that melted 50's
rockabilly and 60's garage into a new music genre - Psychobilly.
I bought everything by them since their 2nd single and 8 years onwards.
Finally i saw them Live in 1986 at Göta Lejon, Stockholm.
They may well be the first genre band to make tribute to The Big American
Treasure of Trash Culture, to great obscure music and
to grindhouse films (as Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!)
looong before hipsters as Quentin Tarantino did.
Lux Interior and Poison Ivy, the greatest couple in rock? Lux died in
February 2009 - R.I.P.
Listen to their fantastic version of Rockabilly desperado Hasil Adkins
She Said
- Follow the Youtube link here
...........................................
Los Abandoned
- a great, almost unknown and disbanded
spanglish power pop band from Van Nuys, Los Angeles
Mix Tape
(2006, Vapor) A Great 2006 Album
Jag upptäckte denna finfina grupp först 2009,
och deras enda riktiga album Mix Tape från 2006 har gått
varm i min spelare sen dess. Massor av livsbejakande skön och smart
power pop-rock i en ovanligt lyckad blandning av latino influenser,
pop och punk i bästa garagestil. Inte en enda svag låt på
plattan av denna fina LA grupp ledda av begåvade sångerskan
låtskriverskan amerikansk-chilenskan Lady P (Pilar Díaz).
De sjunger på engelska, ibland på spanska och ibland både
och, Spanglish. Många bra låtar alltså, Van Nuys,
Pantalón, A la mode, Stalk U och inte minst den avslutande State
of Affairs är en favorit - en KANON platta helt enkelt!
Kollade med min favorit skivaffär i Stockholm (S:t Eriksgatan)
och ingen hade hört talas om gruppen. Sorgligt på en så
fin grupp
Pilar Díaz avväpnande charmigt ironiska
kärleksförklaring till sitt genomsunkiga Van Nuys
i norra LA är gjord med glimten i ögat i bästa highschool-movie-skatepunk
stil (kanske en homage till Nada Surf's fina 90-talsklassiker Popular?).
En bedårande kärleks-sång till en av de sjaskigaste
delarna av LA med dess människor, och de gulligt taffliga cheerleader
tjejerna i bakgrunden är söta också. Fulla av ungdom,
energi och livsglädje och kanske ännu inte ens medvetna om
att de kommer från fel del av stan, vilket livet väl snart
kommer att lära dem. Gläds med Pilar och bandet och njut av
livet så länge det går kids
Gruppen splittrades 2007 men hann släppa
2 EP, en 7" och så detta album som möttes av strålande
kritik från musikpressen i USA.
Sång, låtskrivare och gruppens ledargestalt var Lady P./Pilar
Díaz (ukulele och även klaviatur, gitarr etc.) som flyttade
från Chile till Van Nuys,
LA, när hon var 10 och hon kör vidare på egen hand (se
mer nedan.) Gitarr, låtar - Don Verde (Dave Green) , basgitarr
- Vira Lata ( Moises
Baquiero) och på trummor Dulce (Anthony Reyes)
Pilar Díaz
(Med sin ukulele - tycks vara något av ett modeinstrument
nu - i Quiksilver projektet)
Pilar har fortsatt med sin musikkarriär (efter
LA's splittring 2007) och övergett sin sköna power pop-rock
för mer Art-alternative music approach.
Bl a i Quiksilver site La projektet med ukulele-alternative-latino-Gameboy
remix experimenterande. Seriöst? Ganska. Trist? Nej, njaaee, tjaa....
Pilar Díaz nya riktning med art-alternative experimental latino
färgad (pop)musik (ev. lite påminnande om mexikanskan Julieta
Venegas tidiga stil)
kan då kanske intressera fler än de föredettingar som
jag som föredrar power pop garage. Hoppas att Pilar's musikaliska
framtid blir framgångsrik
Rhydian Dafydd
, Ritzy Brien and Matt Thomas
The Great Musician/Songwriter Ritzy Brien - I Love You
The Great Grupo 
Ida Maria 
This
Girl's a Great Live Power
Wall
of Voodoo
Flipper
The Cramps
Pilar Díaz
