Tag: Power Pop
Turnaround
This Sydney power-pop band were a pop group with a fresh and squeaky-clean image. With an added touch of respectability - the necktie.
23-year-old drummer Brent Jeffrey and 20-year-old guitarist/vocalist Tony Voglino formed the band in...
dB’s, The
This talented quartet from North Carolina moved to Manhattan and began gigging around the city to almost universal praise. Unfortunately, they were unable to attract the interest of any American record companies and so off...
Stems, The
The Stems were one of the finest 1960s-inspired garage bands Australia produced in the '80s, during a time when paisley-clad, mop-topped psychedelic revival bands were prevalent down under. Hailing from Perth in Western Australia, they...
Starjets
Originally formed in Belfast in 1976, The Starjets played a mixture of their own songs and cover versions such as The Archies' Sugar Sugar and The Beatles' Please Please Me.
The group even supported The Bay City Rollers and The...
Squire
Though they never received the recognition they deserved, Squire was one of the earliest and finest mod revival bands of the late 70's.
Squire were able to transcend the limits of the genre with their high-quality pop which...
Spongetones, The
One of the most underrated power pop bands of the 1980s, The Spongetones - from Charlotte, North Carolina - released several albums of effortlessly melodic, catchy guitar pop that captured perfectly the feel of 60s British Invasion...
Sinceros, The
Starting out as a trio called The Strutters, singer/songwriter Mark Kjeldsen along with rhythm section Bobby Irwin and Ron François re-branded themselves as The Sinceros, trading in New Wave and melodic power pop.
Epic Records took...
Shoes
Shoes (from Zion, Illinois) recorded and pressed their first album, One In Versailles (Un Dans Versaille), in 1974. The title referred to the fact that guitarist Gary Klebe was in France studying architecture at the time.
Three hundred...
Rubinoos, The
"What we have here is a vital serving of classic pop songs . . . few other records this year have felt so good" said Rolling Stone. "The best pop album of the decade" exclaimed the...
Romantics, The
As one of the first generation of American bands to emerge from the revival of local music scenes brought about by New Wave, The Romantics avoided the arty excesses of New York and the punky...
Rembrandts, The
Danny Wilde had been pursuing a solo career for five years and Phil Solem had been trying to get his own band off the ground. So when the two former members of LA pop band...
Pezband
Despite forming in 1971, Chicago-based Pezband were crowned 'Most Promising New Act of the Year' in 1978, primarily because of the resurging interest in power pop music thanks to the skinny tie power pop scene of the...
Nerves, The
Singer/songwriter Jack Lee formed The Nerves with fellow San Francisco street musicians Peter Case and Paul Collins. He had moved to LA but the Sunset Strip was now a shadow of its former self, and...
Loaded Dice
Loaded Dice were a hard-working power pop band that were touted as being the next big thing from Western Australia.
Formed in 1974, they started out as covers band primarily playing 60's beat but specialising in Beatles...
Jags, The
The Jags are a fondly remembered part of the late-70s/early 80s UK power pop explosion.
The quartet was formed in 1978 by the Yorkshire-based songwriting team of Nick Watkinson and John Alder with Steve Prudence on bass and...
Raspberries, The
The Raspberries, a Cleveland-based band, summed up everything classic power pop was about (before the term was even being used); simplicity, Beach Boys-esque harmonies, and delightfully skilled melodies - all underpinned by an instrumentation that paid homage to many British...
Knack, The
The Knack exemplified American New Wave - a short haired, 60s-influenced band playing straight-ahead pop-rock while sporting skinny ties and modish suits.
Charting worldwide in 1979 with the catchy, syncopated My Sharona, The Knack were briefly a bona fide pop...
Innocents, The
When Tasmanian group Beathoven, relocated to Melbourne in 1977 they were "discovered" by American rock svengali Kim Fowley, who was so impressed with the group that he produced some tracks and made them change their name...
Bram Tchaikovsky
Bram Tchaikovsky (born Peter Bramall) began playing in local pub bands in Lincolnshire in the late 60s.
He joined The Motors in 1977 and was relegated to mere sideman status by the nucleus of the band, songwriters Andy...
Affections, The
The story of Australian power pop band The Affections began in Sydney in the mid 70's when school friends Rob Smith, Rob Risio and George Ellis discovered each other's passion for 60's pop and bubblegum and decided...
