KURT BAKER - ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2011 (click on pix to enlarge)

The 10 Songs limited edition of "Rockin' For A Living" was voted Album of The Year by David Bash.

On the back cover, we can see some of Kurt's influences. Here are the ones i have found (see pix above). Finally, the record on the turntable is a Motown label, could be the Supremes A Go.Go album playing.

“Rockin For A Living” was released as a limited-edition vinyl by Stardumb Records (Holland) and Torreznetes Entertainment (Spain).

Top of 2011 - First

THE UNOFFICIAL DAVID BASH'S TOP 100 - Vol 1 (2012)

 

David Bash is the founder and CEO of The International Pop Overthrow Music Festival, which is currently held annually in 16 cities around the world, including Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Dallas, Austin, Boston, New York, Toronto, Vancouver BC, London, and Liverpool UK (at The Cavern Club). Every year, David Bash makes his Top 100. Here’s the first part of this selection.

His best-of lists are a great guide to the most wonderful music, in the powerpop vein. To see the full list, go to Absolute Powerpop.
Special note: According to the David Bash's list, i've compiled the fisrt 25 albums, grabbing one song from each album. I made a special PPC artwork for this feature. I hope i'll be able to complete this series with the other three volumes (actually i'm short of five or six albums 38-49-65-78-90). Click on pix below to see the songs picked 

ZS (183 mb)

TOMMY KEENE - DRIVING INTO THE SUN (1994)

Alias put out a 1994 UK-only release called “Driving Into the Sun“, which combined the five songs from “Sleeping on a Roller Coaster” with nine of the ten new songs from “The Real Underground” and one otherwise unavailable one, and thus ended up looking like a genuine new album, with the ruefully appropriate exception that its material was, by then, two years old.

Lossy: 320 lame 3.98
Songs
Hey Man / Love Is A Dangerous Thing / Driving Into The Sun / Down Down Down / Sleeping On A Roller Coaster / Love Is The Only Thing That Matters / Dull Afternoon / Alive / Something To Rave About / Tattoo / Don’t Sleep In The Daytime / Tell Me Something / Andrea / Waiting To Fly

RESEARCH TURTLES - POOL PARTY (Lake Charles, Louisiana) (2009)

In 2009, the Research Turtles released their debut album which raised rave reviews, and Bob Segarini wrote this about the album:

Could this actually be The Next Big Thing? Is this the band, and the album, that rock fans, especially that rabid branch of musos that call their music "Power Pop" have been waiting for, for decades? Is this the combination of influences, talent, sophisticated simplicity, and personality that launched the last two great explosions in contemporary music, first from Memphis, and later from Liverpool? I don't want to jinx these kids out of the gate by saying yes, but fuck, does this ever sound like it. Not because it sounds retro or "familiar", on the contrary, this record sounds NEW, and FRESH, even in the midst of the Indie explosion we are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, most people don't get to hear all the great new stuff out there. There is no focus, no physical place, like radio and record stores where people were exposed to new music and selected what they liked from the same pile of releases and there was no artist that drove them to radio and record stores to experience new acts until one that was SO undeniable came along and kids started requesting the songs on the radio, and jamming the listening booths in record stores. This release sounds like a watermark. Something that may encourage people to seek out the material, find out more about the band, search the intertoobz, and spread the word both virally, and through the feeling that this music that makes you feel like you are part of something new, and exciting.

The Resarch Turtles released the first part of their second album "Mankiller" in 2011.

Special note: This catchy performance (soundboard source) was given to me some months ago by someone related to the band. I made a special artwork for the blog.

Songs
01 Intro / 02 Mission / 03 Baby, Please Don't Go / 04 Tomorrow / 05 925 / 06 A Feeling / 07 Maryjane's Last Dance / 08 Into A Hole / 09 Damn! / 10 Kiss Her Goodbye / 11 R U Gonna Go My Way / 12 Cement Floor / 13 The Riff Song

VARIOUS - WILL BIRCH'S C90 (1994)

Will Birch, writer and lyricist, drummer and songwriter with the Kursaal Flyers and The Records, author of "No Sleep Till Canvey Island - The Great Pub Rock Revolution" and a brand new biography of Ian Dury published in March 2011! Click here

In 1994 (June, Issue #7), Mojo Magazine asked Will Birch, a famous die hard power pop fan to compile his dream C90 of Power Pop tunes. It was a long long time ago before Mojo was giving away free cd's with every issue. It was a long long time ago when Mojo was really ....well... Mojo.

So, Will Birch picked 30 songs which try to encapsulate the best of the Power Pop genre. Of course, lack of space prohibited the inclusion of major names (dB's, Plimsouls, Redd Kross, Material Issue and some of the other fab bands we all love), but the challenge was to do the job with only 90 minutes of music. Will Birch made a terrific work, and i hope it helped to popularize the genre with some readers not always familiar with Power Pop.

All the original liner notes, written by Will Birch, have been included within the booklet. You'll read why some versions (e.g. the Philips single Version of "Shake Some Action", the Bomp single version of "Tomorrow Night", or the single version of "There She Goes"...) were chosen instead of the most familiar.

I made a custom set of artwork and added one bonus song "Starry Eyes" (single version) because Will Birch had the modesty of not including a track by The Records (even though The Records helped to popularize Blue Ash's Abracadabra). But i've considered that The Records had to be on a dream C90 of Power Pop. The Collection is available in lossy and lossless formats.

ZS1 + ZS2

(691 mb)

ZS (235 mb)

 

Click on pix for details of the Power Pop C90

MARK NOONE - SURF SINGLE (1988)

Slickee Boy's Mark Noone released his "Surf Single" in 1988 on NYC's Midnight Records. "East Coast Kicks" is a lost Slickee Boy classic coupled with "Surfin' In The Rain", a surf instrumental of the highest level.

Special note: This vinyl rip was made in 24 bit/96khz then dithered and resampled to 16bit/44.1khz with iZotope RX 2. It is now available in both lossy and lossless versions and comes with all the scans of the original 7".

lossless (flac)
lossy (320)

Songs
East Coast Kicks / Surfin' In The Rain

A BEST OF THE 2011 ADVENT WALL OF SOUND (2012)

Here's one "Best Of" of the ever popular "Advent Wall of Sound". It is time to post my own "best" of the Advent 2010. So, here's my subjective collection of the december harvest... Christmas Night and Christmas Day included. 26 songs, 26 bands posted between the 1st of december and christmas day...

I'd like to thank all the readers for their nice comments about this special feature. And remember, TRY SOME, BUY SOME...Long live Power Pop...

And a special thanks to The Oohs who open this Best Of 2011, the band split up just weeks ago after close to 15 years of activity. Their 3 discs are still available via CD Baby.

Click on pix below for details of the bands involved

Happy New Year

TRIBUTE TO THE FAB FOUR - 1 (2012)

As you may remember, during the past few years, i made some tributes to the original albums of The Fab Four. So, on this New Year's Day, here's another compilation covering "1".

"1" was a compilation album by The Fab Four, released in 2000. The album featured virtually every number-one single released in the United Kingdom and United States from 1962 to 1970. Issued on the 30th anniversary of the band's break-up, it was their first compilation available on one Compact Disc.

No bands featured here on this collection were on those previous PPC tributes.

ZS (184 mb)