The Distillers - Coral Fang (2003)

Distillers - Beat Your Heart Out ...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

A Great US rock group of the early millennia with their energetic garage-punk and
with the very fine rock voice of the talented guitarist and songwriter Brody Dalle
(born Melbourne, Australia). She founded Distillers in 1998 and they made 3 albums
The 3rd and last album the much praised "Coral Fang" released in 2003 was hailed
as a great rock album with lots of gorgeous guitar hooks that could kill.

After the break-up of the band Dalle played with others and made solo albums.
OK, Distillers were hailed by critics and had a huge fanbase, Brody Dalle is a rock
icon and I feature them here just because they were so good.
"Drain the Blood" is another popular song from the Coral Fang album

 

Elefant Records - Spain's most beautiful indie record label is based in Madrid and
has released great alternative rock and pop for many decades now. Not just Spanish
bands but also bands from all over the world.
In the cesspool of mainstream music played in MSM today no indie rock or power
pop is heard or talked about, and not even metal is played - only crappy R&B and
Hip Hop, Hip Hop and R&B ....
A shimmering piece of pop that guaranteed never ever will be played on the radio is :

Marine Life - The US-Philippine indie based band led by fine singer & songwriter
Des De Leon Nicolas

Fool of a Kind

2014 Elefant released an EP in their "New Adventures in Pop" series with a band
called Marine Life. EP released in a Vinyl limited edition of 500 copies with 4 songs
including "Fool of a Kind" and "Boy from B-612".
Pics from "Fool of a Kind" can be seen above. It's a beautiful piece of Pop and
with some nice brass added, and almost as a law of nature a song like this will be
ignored, unplayed and doomed for obscurity. In a better world this song would've
been played everywhere. Listen to the cute music video on Youtube -

This San Francisco based band has been playing as Julie Plug since the 1990's
and have or had, as members the singer and songwriter Mercedes Des De Leon
Nicolas, Terry Nicolas on guitar, Marvin Santos on bass, Rob Uytingco on
drums and Rex Padayhag on keyboards and background vocals

Above: The EP

 

1. Urge Overkill - Sister Havana

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

"I'm Watching You and Fidel Castro in the Sand"

An underrated, if today not almost unknown, group that released this
their Saturation album in 1993 and was featured on the soundtrack to
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction with a great Neil Diamond cover.
I remember hearing this masterpiece of delightful guitar riffs being
played on the normally very shitty Swedish radio, but that was the
1990's, a great decade in time. Those guitars.
This is a truly great video to an almost ORGASMIC song .... and
that girl ! Is it a young Thandie Newton ?

Urge Overkill - Rock and Roll Submarine

And, finally they're back. After 16 years of silence they released their
new album - Rock and Roll Submarine - in 2011, and they continue in
the same vein as when they left us back in 1995. With heavy riffs,
gorgeous guitars and plenty of hooks that makes you smile big like an i
diot. Sure, an obscurity nowadays that surely will pass completely
unnoticed in the Sea of Crap that make the music scene nowadays with
wailing idiot Idols screaming their ugly lungs out.
Effigy is their 1st single from the album which have some great songs
on it, like Mason Dixon and Rock'n Roll Submarine

 

2. Frank Black - Los Angeles

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

Genius Frank Black, the Pixies frontman or the Bach, Mozart,
Beethoven of alternative rock music made his first self titled
solo album in 1993 and produced it with ex-Captain
Beefheart, Pere Ubu and Pixies member Eric Drew Feldman.

The first song on the album is the beautiful Los Angeles.
Only Frank Black could make something as heavenly beautiful
out of these seemingly simple parts, at first it rocks and then,
then comes the break, the melodic hook that gives you goose
bumps. Los Angeles in Patagonia, Frank Black, You Genius You.
But, Frank Black, Pixies and Kim Deal's Breeders, i love them all

3. Pixies - No. 13 Baby

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

I have a Pixies page elsewhere on this site and i'm a huge fan.
I could've chosen "Where is My Mind" from their 1st album
or just about any tune from their 2nd classic, the 1989 Doolittle
album. The latter one with songs as "Monkey Goes to Heaven"
and "Debaser" (a Stockholm Rock club was named after this,
but also a tribute to the great Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel
film classic. Yes, an epic song, but i choose No. 13 Baby as
my ultimate favourite from the Dolittle album. Just like Alec
Eiffel from Trompe Le Monde it has got that mindblowing
outro to it

4. The LA's - There She Goes

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

One of the most beautiful pop songs ever made, whether
it's about drugs or not. Liverpool group The La's released this
fine song in 1988 and then for the 2nd time in 1990. It is written
by Lee Mavers and the group disbanded in 1992 after releasing
an album in 1990. I remember hearing this song for the first time
on the soundtrack to the 1997 film Fever Pitch, a film after the
Nick Hornby novel and i've heard There She Goes in some
damned commercial too

5. Lemonheads - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

The Lemonheads fronted by the talented Evan Dando
made some great albums, It's a Shame about Ray in 1992
and Car Button Cloth a couple of years later. On the latter
bass player Bill Gibson had joined Dando, he was once
a member of great Aussie bands as The Lime Spiders
and Legendary The Eastern Dark (Walkin/Johnny and
Dee Dee/Julie is a Junkie).
The beautiful "If I could talk i'd tell you" is my favourite
Lemonheads song and it's from Car Button Cloth album

6. Gun Club - She's Like Heroin to Me

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

The Most influental unknown album ? 1981 Fire of Love
by The Gun Club gave us a mix of garage style punk
bluesy psychobilly with a touch of southern Gris Gris.
Fronted by troubled soul Jeffrey Lee Pierce they
performed some sort of silence-noice-silence-noice
type of rock and their style must've inspired Frank
Black and The Pixies.

This album both looks and sounds dangerous.
There's the mighty Fire Spirit, there's is the manic
Sex Beat and then there's the intense "She's Like
Heroin to Me"

7. The Eastern Dark - Walking

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

Legendary Australian group that existed for a
short time 1984-1986 before death ended it in a
traffic accident, and before they could've had
developed into something as great as The Pixies.
James Darroch ex-Celibate Rifles guitar/song,
Bill Gibson ex-Lime Spiders pre-Lemonheads bass
and Geoff Milne drums made only one single and
a mindblowing great mini album before the 1986
car crash R.I.P. James Darroch.

This mini album was released by Waterfront and
by another label in Europe. Those were the days
when aussie alt rock had listeners and record
buyers in Europe and i remember that the record
was recommended to me by one of the members
of the great Swedish garage band The Pushtwangers.
The album starts with a BANG, the powerful Walking

8. Splatterheads - Fish Bisquit

...... Listen to their Fish Bisquit on Youtube

Another powerful rock group from Down Under,
Sydney, New South Wales, and active between
1986 - 1996 and today (when i'm adding this song to
my favourites list it's the end of April 2021) there
seems to be something of a Retro indie rock wave
going on, and it's wonderful.

Splatterheads was a hardrock indie group that released
Fish Bisquit on their 1992 Bot The Album, and they did
like splatter horror movies. Read in an interview that
they spent too much money on splatter special effects
for their concerts. So, what to do ? They had to cut
themselves to get blood for their stage performances.
Great singer too. Fish Bisquit is an obscure gem

9. Matthew Sweet - Sick of Myself

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

Matthew Sweet made almost perfect pop songs and
was a bit unknown, him too. This lovely tune "Sick of
Myself" has got some beautiful fake endings and very
fine guitarwork, and it was released in 1995 as a CD
single on the Zoo Entertainment label. I remember
playing it over and over again. Those were the days,
the happy 90's indie rock days and long before todays
attack of the wailing Idol crapping Creepozoids

10. Breeders - Cannonball

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

The Surreal words of Kim Deal combined with some
outstanding guitar riffs makes Cannonball one of
the iconic indie rock songs of the 1990's. Kim Deal the
Pixies legend and minimalistic bass player

11. Amyl and the Sniffers - Some Mutts can't be Muzzled

Listen to this energetic Neo-Punk tune on Youtube

Another band from Down Under who knows of how
to rock. This Melbourne band is fronted by the hyper
energetic aussie Poly Styrene - Amy Taylor, and they
play dirty Neo-Punk.
The great Some Mutts can't be muzzled comes from their 2019
album (but the single version differs from the album))

12. The Pop! - Down on the Boulevard

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

The Pop! US 1970's Power Pop band playing this type of
American music "called Power Pop" in the 1970's and
early 80's. This California group released 2 forgotten albums,
The Pop in 1977 and Go! in 1979. Almost unknown then,
with few genre fans, and still unknown today.
This is extinct and forgotten but beautiful late 1970's pop
music. I remember buying their 1st lp and the single Down
on the Boulevard.
This shimmering gem of a song has only got a few hits on
Youtube - Shame on Us - it's a rotten world

13. Nada Surf - Popular

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

I saw the "Popular" video on MTV in 1996, bought it, and
played it the whole summer, over and over again.
The video depicts Highschool life á la Hollywood style with
all it's given clichés and may be a bit annoying.

BUT, when the chorus hits it really hits BIG. Another genius
production from Ric Ocasek from The Cars, who also produced
Weezer's Blue Album. Listen to the teacher kids, don't forget
the Teenage Guide to Popularity.

Pom Pom Squad made a pretty good cover of Popular 25 years
later with Mia Berrin playing all the roles, and with the same
setting at Bayonne School, New Jersey

14. Weezer - My name is Jonas

...... Listen - follow Youtube link here

The 1994 Blue album by Weezer, their debut produced by
Ric Ocazek became an instant world wide Smash.
Fronted by talented Rivers Cuomo the album's full of
teenage power pop and Buddy Holly, helped by an amazing
music video, was a HUGE hit everywhere (and very much
so also in my Sweden, as we just loved it).
But, my favourite song is the opening number, the somewhat
mysterious "My Name is Jonas"

 

 

BUT ...... from 1976 and still The Best "POP" Song Ever

Blietzkrieg Bop by the Ramones, Punk or Perfect Pop?

Listen - Follow the link) to the Youtube Video

 

The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar - Rock Album of the Year ?

The Joy Formidable - Powerful Welsh trio who plays really
loud melodic indie rock with lots and lots of gorgeous hooks
and they could be destined for Super Stardom.
But probably not.

Heavy and delightfully melodic indie rockband trio formed
in Mold, Wales in 2007 fronted by the dynamic lead singer and
guitarist Ritzy Brien, with her childhood buddy Rhydian Dafydd
on bass and Matt Thomas, drums.

They've released 2 singles, Austere and Cradle in 2008 and a
mini album EP in 2009. The Big Roar was released in january
2011 to world wide critical acclaim. Very soon they gained a
reputation as UK's No.1 Live performance attraction with their
intensity and Ritzy's charisma. They've toured a lot in the US
in the US and could be destined for Super Hugeness ?
But probably Not.

For many their favourite song of 2011 surely is Whirring
When i first wrote this in 2011 the band was unknown in Sweden

Follow the link - Listen to Whirring on Youtube

The Great Musician/Songwriter Ritzy Brien

 

 

 

And, then we've a cool Norwegian artist. Is that really possible?
Yes, it is. Her name is Ida Maria Sivertsen, that girl with the gravelly
voice. Listen to the really great Music Video of ......


Ida Maria-Oh My God! - Follow link to Youtube

Ida Maria - A great Live Power

Her 1st album Fortress Round My Heart 2008 had some great songs
and some less great, but was a promising debut.
But she's the real thing Live (a rarity today) and exploded on stage
with furious energy. Therefore Ida was a highly in demand Live artist
and she toured for 2 years in a row in the UK and US getting rave
reviews, before having a Meltdown in Boston september 2009.
Then she took a Time-Out. Get well Ida Maria, The Cool Norwegian

 

There were some great Post-Punk New Wave bands in UK as Cure,
Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus etc.
but mostly synth bands or minimalistic art student type of groups
and i know many of these bands are indie cult bands today as Marine
Girls, The Slits or Young Marble Giants. But I was missing the energy
from the 1970's, so where was it ?
The Missing link between 70's punk and the re-animated indie alt.rock
music scene ignited by The Pixies in 1987 ?

This raw power could be found in the US with post-punk hardcore new
wave bands as Hüsker Du, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Flipper, Violent
Femmes, Cramps, X, Agent Orange, TSOL, Wall of Voodoo and the
mighty Gun Club.

So, here are some favourites of mine ... (note: as this is Youtube the
videos can disappear at any time)

Wall of Voodoo

Listen to them - Follow link to Youtube here

Great enigmatic band led by charismatic Stan Ridgway. 1980 debut
with an amazing unusual garage synth-rock EP that included songs
as Longarm and a Killer synthetic version of Ring of Fire. Factory is
another great song of theirs and their only almost a Hit song was the
uniquely quirky and funny Mexican Radio.
The above Youtube Live clip is from the crazy wild 1981 music film
Urgh! A Music War. A very recommended film

Flipper

Above:1980-1981 Live DVD US Target Video

The Flipper DVD has two Live concerts:

1. Live at Bereley Square San Francisco juli 1980 - an early chaotic
concert, 35 min with i.a. Ha, Ha, Ha, Love Canal and The Wheel

2. Live at Kezar Stadium San Francisco may 1981 -now heavier and
hypnotically grindinge, 36 minutes, and
3. Sex Bomb - Live at Cable Channel TV 1983
4. About Flipper and Target Video, textsheet av Will York

An influental (and Yes, Kurt Cobain loved them, too) avantgarde
slow-fi hardcore US band that took 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 1980's Energy and far, far
from lame british farts as Depeche Mode, Spandau Ballet or Duran
Duran etc. Listen to their powerful minimalistic "Ha Ha Ha" on Youtube

Listen to the great Ha Ha Ha - Follow link to Youtube here

One of the legendary US rock bands The Hardcore Experimental Slow
Fi Punk ... something Flipper. One of the links between the 1970's Punk
- Power Pop scene and the late 1980's Indie Rock explosion with The
Pixies, Nirvana, Sonics and Smashing Pumpkins.
Chaotic, heavy and disturbing and always on the brink of total collapse.
Flipper is said to have been one of Kurt Cobains favourite groups, Not Bad.

Once I had these hardcore classics, Ha, Ha, Ha, Love Canal and Sex
Bomb on vinyl singles from some underground record companies
(Alyernative tentacles or something like that)

The Cramps

Listen to their fantastic version of Rockabilly desperado Hasil Adkins

She Said - Follow the Youtube link here

The Cramps was an even more influential rock group that melted 1950's
rockabilly and 1960's garage into a new music genre - Psychobilly.
They may be the first rock band to make tribute to The Big American
Treasure of Trash Culture, to great obscure forgotten music (as She
Said by Hasil Adkins) and to the today much beloved US Grindhouse
film genre (as Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!) and this
looong before younger psychotronic film fans as i.a. Quentin Tarantino
did. Lux Interior and Poison Ivy - The Greatest Couple in Rock.

R.I.P. LUX feb. 2009

I bought everything by them since their 2nd single and 8 years
onwards. Finally i saw them Live in 1986 at Göta Lejon, Stockholm.

 

Los Abandoned - Great, but unknown and disbanded spanglish power
pop band from Van Nuys, Los Angeles

El Grupo

I discovered this fine group in 2009 and i've listened a lot to their only
album, the 2006 "Mix Tape" a lot since then.
A lot of joyful and smart power rock - pop in a mix of latino influences
pop and punky garage rock, and there are not one bad song on this album.
But many good one's as Van Nuys, Stalk U, A La Mode and State of
Affairs.
This LA group is fronted by the talented singer and songwriter,
american-Chilean Lady P or Pilar Diaz.

Pilar's charming and maybe slightly ironic declaration of love to the
scruffy Van Nuys in northern LA is performed in a Highschool Movie
skatepunk style (and maybe in a homage to the 1990's classic "Popular"
by Nada Surf) ?

It's a lovely tune and an adorable music video and the young girls
playing or being the somewhat clumsy cheerleaders are cute too.
So youthful and filled with joyful energy .... and maybe not even
conscious yet of the fact that they come from the wrong part of town,
the poor one, and something that life will surely teach them soon,
to soon.
So, let's enjoy life and being alive together with the band kids


Lyssna på Van Nuys (Es Very Nice) - Följ YouTube länken här

The Group disbanded already in 2007 but released one single,
two EP records and this album "Mix Tape" that was met by rave
reviews by the music press. The frontwoman of the group, and
the songwriter, singer and ukulele, guitar and keyboard player
was Pilar Diaz or Lady P. and she moved from Chile to the US
when she was 10 years old. The other band members were
Don Verde (Dave Green) bass, Moses B. and Dulce