Wednesday, April 20, 2005

First Listen - Ian Broudie

The long-awaited return of Ian Broudie is here. My copy arrived from Amazon.com yesterday (sadly not available on iTunes).

If you're a Lightning Seeds fan, there are no sugary sweet, highly produced pop tracks here. Instead, there is a collection of simple, sparse, yet elegant songs. Many of the songs are almost acoustic. There are even two instrumentals.

A definite recommend. A solid 3.75 stars out of 5.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Lyla is Boring

I didn't want it to be. I'm probably the last person to still admit he's an Oasis fan, but Lyla is just a boring tune. And the video sucks, but most of them do anyway. I'll still hope for the best on the rest of the album. The last one was underappreciated.

You Say France & I Whistle

Finally! News about the new Guster album.

Solid State Warrior Review

A cool review of the latest from Roger Manning, courtesy of High Bias.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Every Word I Say Has a Way of Turning Evil In You

Check out a recent Matthew Sweet interview. It's a couple months old, but the info is still worth it, particularly if you're like many fans who never seem to know what's going on with the guy. Kimi Ga Suki * Raifu, if you don't have it, is his best since, hell, probably since Girlfriend.

Friday, April 08, 2005

When the Pretty Blue Lights Come On

International Pop Overthrow is heading back to Chicago in a week. And yet, I'm stuck here in Des Moines. Go figure.

Don't forget about Lollapalooza in Chicago this summer too. Damn, those 2,000 special tickets sold out FAST.

At least there are some things going well in my hometown, unlike a non-music problem.
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Related

Thursday, April 07, 2005

The Return of The Lightning Seeds ... sorta

How I missed that Ian was back is beyond me. Oh yeah, it's not available in the US. Typical.

The Return of Jellyfish ... sorta

Roger and Andy get back to making their own music. Hallelujah.

Welcome

Welcome to the too poppy blog. This is my first experience blogging so I thought I'd create one about something I truly enjoy every day, music. My music taste has been branded as "too poppy" by friends, hence the name. I don't believe it was intended to be complimentary, but I took it that way.

I'll try to avoid the elitist judgments other blogs (which I respect and read, by the way) tend to make when discussing music. Anything is fair game here. The only criterion is that the music can somehow be called pop music. So, for instance, a discussion about the Beatles, the quintessential pop band, would be quite appropriate. Tangents on free-form jazz or world music might not fit so well.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this little blog will be just that, a little blog; a distraction for me from the realities of life. Hopefully, your experience with it will be the same.

I consider the Too Poppy core artists to include Matthew Sweet, Guster, Jellyfish, Beatles, Posies, Ben Folds Five, Crowded House, Beatles, Fountains of Wayne, U2, World Party...hmm, others will come to me. You get the idea. Like their sound and you might like this blog.

Cheers.