It's running through my head just now, even as I'm listening to another song, this catchy, heavenly falsetto that pines for some sort of idealized salad days it can't get back. I can't even remember the name of the band that played it without a quick glance at the tracklisting, but I can't get it out of my head.
That's not to say I'm trying to, though. I love a good power pop song, and I'm not opposed to carrying it around with me for a while. You're one of probably less than a hundred or so people who have. The Toms have three songs on Yellow Pills-- the latest offering from Numero Group, one of the smartest upstart reissue labels in this vast pop culture wasteland we call America-- and all three of them are amazing pop orgasms that could have and should have been hits.
Hell, what justice is there in the world if none of the songs on this two-disc run of uninterrupted power pop awesomeness ever graced more than a few awkward ears? Fact is, there are 33 non-hits on here, all by bands that never went anywhere in the culture industry, instead settling to the bottoms of dedicated collector hearts and into the backs of dust-lined milk crates full of musty, forgotten vinyl that smells like what I imagine God's own sweat must smell like.
The biggest name in Jordan Oakes' well-penned, self-effacing liners is Jon Brion, who was a member of the Bats, a different band from the great New Zealand indie rockers. Oakes lived and breathed the music you hear on these discs for years, publishing the Yellow Pills zine 10 issues and compiling the Yellow Pills power pop discs 4 volumes that lend their name to this new set, and the Numero guys dragged him out of "retirement" to have a crack at introducing the curious to some of the best, most overlooked stuff from his own collection.
That's part of what makes this work so well-- it's not a bunch of "essentials" or whatever. It's a guy sharing records that crawled out onto his sleeve along with his heart, digging through his music library and playing his favorites for you. The best-known band on here is definitely the Shoes, whose "Like I Told You" is awesome and singular. Sure, these guys listened to Big Star and Badfinger and all that, but they had a unique sound of their own, and it's a spangled, jangly sound with tense, dark rhythms and slinky vocal melodies.
From there, it's into the depths of power pop obscurity to a dozen or so bands All Music Guide has never even heard of, skinny tie-wearing assortments of talented boys with collective names like Treble Boys, Kids, Tweeds, and the Trend who seemed to have no luck whatsoever with women.
They also seemed to have pop confections dripping out of their noses-- Luxury's "Green Hearts" is catchy like Marburg, and dig the awesome guitar parts on "Hello Mr. Jenkins" by the Finns. They bounce from speaker to speaker with little melodic doodles in the right channel answered by big chords in the left while the band snottily yet humanely calls out some old Archie Bunker type who can't handle black people, women's lib, or homosexuals.
Streams Videos All Posts. My Profile. Advanced Search. Track Listing - Disc 1. Green Hearts. I Need That Record. All I Want. You Need Pop. Like I Told You. In and Out of Love. Not My Girl Anymore. She's the Girl Who Said No. Somebody Else's Girl. One in a Million. Tom Marolda. Rave It Up. Hey Little Girl. Track Listing - Disc 2. Not Easy for Me. Dream Rocker. Love I Can't Wait. Growing Up American. Hello Mr. Things I Am. One Kiss. She's Hi-Fi. Forever Through the Sun. Good Time Music. Jack Grochmal.
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