You're Correct. There's Nobody There

Vinyl? Cassette? CD? MP3? Hell no. Ringtones are the future. Enter The Beatles. All the #1s. Yoko needs some new shoes.

via iTunes

My Heart Beats Responding

Brandon Schott has released the second (!) music video from his newest album 13 Satellites. Beware. There be monsters.



Inspiration?

Chasing The Dream

It's no surprise that I adore new music that respectfully owes plenty to the old greats. There is a fine line (that takes a giant leap to cross) between banging out sound-alike tunes and creating something entirely fresh yet familiar, comfortable, and friendly. Very few cross that line as well as Jeff Litman.

Jeff smacked us hard over the head a few years back with his phenomenal debut Postscript. I heaped praise on it but remarked on the album's not-so-subtle backward nods. I've revisited Postscript countless times since and an interesting thing has happened. No longer do I hear the obvious influences first and Jeff later. Jeff's voice is deliberate and clear. I should have given him more credit.

The first great Too Poppy album of 2012 is Jeff Litman's Outside ... officially released today! Outside embodies balance in many ways. It's a bridge between the sounds of the past and present, thoughtful lyrics and catchy tunes, ballads and rockers, reverence and fresh blood. In an era of party tunes and singing competitions, we deserve a talent like Jeff Litman.

In every good way Outside takes me back to the renaissance of rock/pop in the 90s. First single Over and Over would fit it snugly with Michael Penn's oeurve. The title track is deliciously Jellyfishy and even features Jellyfisher Roger Joseph Manning Jr. on keyboards and backing vocals. Girl Down I-95 evokes sunny roadtrips soundtracked by Gin Blossoms and The Smithereens. Runaway irresistably sounds like Crowded House filtered through Soul Asylum.

What makes Outside break out from the pack though is its diversity that sounds like a carefully crafted and beloved mix-tape. Not content with mere hooks, Jeff fires up our emotions with throwbacks like Back To You that I'm convinced I've either heard on 70s AM radio when I was a kid or recently on a great Mike Viola album. Of course it's all Jeff, which is his genius. I don't name-drop flippantly. Jeff has earned these comparisons and frankly it's the fairest way to describe the album. Jon Brion. Elvis Costello. Wisely. Paul Westerberg. Jeff Litman. It works.

One great album is rare and fleeting. Two great albums are the works of a master.

Jeff Litman - Outside (official site (cheap!) / iTunes / Amazon MP3)

Download first single Over and Over here

Class Divide

Joseph Arthur is one of our generation's lesser-heard voices that most-deservedly needs a wider audience. Joe must agree. He's offering his new double album Redemption City as a FREE download. Free. As in ... free.

Here.
 

Against Strong Odds

Remember Counting Crows? Revisit August and Everything After for one of the best albums of the 90s. Seriously. It holds up beautifully.

Now ... they're back, they're independent, and they're embracing the web. Their new album Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) is a typical mid-career jaunt into the world of covers. Call it lazy. Call it reverent. But check out the tracklist and keep an open mind. Teenage Fanclub, Travis, and Big Star? Too Poppy is paying attention.

Underwater Sunshine is out April 10 but will be readily available across the web until then for your streaming pleasure.

Official site

Nothing To Prove

Natalie Portman promised me The Shins would change my life. They haven't. After that adorable overstatement in Garden State, very few tunes would have the power to live up to that hype. Nonetheless The Shins caught on in a big way for a few years in the aughts but never really wowed me.

Fast forward to 2012 and bang, Simple Song achieves what no Shins' song has achieved before ... it wows me. I suppose it's no great departure from their previous tunage and maybe I was turned off from the hype in the first place. Maybe I respected James Mercer's Broken Bells tangent enough to perk up. I should go back and spend quality time with what has come before. In the meantime, Simple Song will be in heavy rotation while I anxiously await their fourth album Port of Morrow out next month.

Pre-order the album and get Simple Song instantly - the magic of the Interwebs.