I Have Something to Say

Steve Bertrand is releasing a solo album on May 8 called Pain is a Megaphone.

Naturally, "solo" means he was in a band prior to this, right? He started his too poppy-worthy career in The Tories, a straight-forward power pop band that reminded many of Jellyfish. I too was reminded of Jellyfish, but a more commercially accessible Jellyfish, if that makes sense. Yes, it does. Anyway, the highlight of The Tories two-album career was the five-star Flying Solo, a perfect few minutes of too poppy glory. If you want to know what this blog is about, download Flying Solo now.

Following The Tories' lack of commercial success despite sounding more commercially accessible than Jellyfish (stay with me) and despite one of their tunes being chosen as the theme song to a Christina Applegate sitcom (not especially a cool thing, but he got closer to Applegate than I ever will), Bertrand moved on to Avion. I have nothing to say about Avion. I have never heard Avion. I'll rectify that problem at a future time. My guess would be that they sound a lot like The Tories.

Now that Avion has "taken a little holiday for the time being," Bertrand is keeping up his impressively prolific output by releasing the new album. You can stream a few tracks here. I would characterize his music not unlike Gin Blossoms; nothing out of the ordinary with, at times, extraordinary hooks and melody. And, oh yeah, he sounds more commercially accessible than Jellyfish.

Pre-order from Amazon.

Is it just me, or does he look like Fred Durst on the cover of his new album? Just color that hat red and turn it around -- you'll see it. Bad yikes.