Wednesday, April 30

YELLOW PILLS ISSUE #8 + FREE E.P. 2 (1997)


















Jordan Oakes began publishing his seminal power pop 'zine, "Yellow Pills" in the summer of 1990 out of pure teenage puppy love for riffing, jangly guitars, fake British accents and harmonizing voices that ache with pimply adolescent yearning. As Yellow Pills began to notso-quietly circulate, Jordan quickly became the keeper of the keys (G and D, mostly) of all matters pop. So much so that he became something of a minor celebrity himself, greeted at Poptopia by Japanese teenage girls squealing "Yellow Pills! Yellow Pills!"

In 1993 Jordan curated his initial Yellow Pills release, the first of a series collecting power pop essentials from 20/20, Dwight Twilley, The Rubinoos, The Plimsouls, and five dozen others. The series rapidly became the sonic rosetta stone for a newer generation of poppers who, sans the skinny ties, held true to the power pop manifesto of harmony, melody and ringing, rocking 6 and 12 string guitars. The archaeological artifacts of power pop soon found a home in living museums of the genre from Teenage Fanclub to Green Day.

In the midst of this mini-renaissance, Yellow Pills seemed poised to be the banner under which this newer wave would plot its next invasion. But, like so many flags of the rock era, it flew only briefly, folded without ceremony and put away like the record collections of so many kids off to college. Twelve issues, four discs, and a nervous breakdown later, Jordan Oakes quietly disappeared into semi retirement and the ethnic, old-world landscape of South St. Louis. Read here.

Issue #8 : PDF (38 pages, full color 400dpi scans) complete with bookmarks + free 7" E.P.

Songs
Sullivan & Warren (Some Sunny Day) / The Melanies (The Last Time) / The Andersons (From The Get-Go)

Billy Sullivan (Paul Pope Band) played with Frank Secich (Blue Ash, Stiv Bators) in Club Wow, he is better known for the songs he wrote with ex-Action Brent Warren for the Scott McCarl's CD "Play On...".

4 comments:

angelo said...

pwd: password

Jessepop said...

Excellente idée de nous offrir un fanzine !
merci

David said...

Thanks for the mag! I find older power pop reading material more desireable these days then the music itself - almost. I especially love the personalized marks in the review section of interested items. But you skipped Brain Candy?!! Not sure about the soundtrack, but the movie is great!!!!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed reading the Yellow Pills zine. Any chance you could post more of these?