by John M. Borack

David Bash’s International Pop Overthrow franchise celebrated its 13th year in 2010, which meant a 13th compilation of all-over-the-map tunes from acts who played one of the venerable pop festival’s many stops throughout the US and UK. Making my way through the behemoth-like three-disc sets of recent years has become somewhat of a daunting task, but after spending some time digging through volume 13, I unearthed many treasures deserving of pop fans’ attention.

IPO has branched out and broadened its sonic palette since the fest’s inception in 1998; rather than simply focusing on jangly, toe-tapping power pop sounds, the festival lineups (and the CD’s) also include everything from slammin’ punk and synth-flecked indie rock to garage pop and singer/songwriter missives (and from eight countries, yet). This is mostly a good thing, as it’s prevented IPO from being pigeonholed as a festival for cultists – plus there seems to be a little something for everyone. Of course not everything is top-shelf, but that’s certainly to be expected for a 66-track comp, right?

In any event, here are some short, random observations on some of the artists/songs that stood out on IPO 13:

The Royalties: Nice modern power pop tuneage with just enough quirkiness to make it memorable.

Susannah Blinkoff: Oh Susannah, I’d like to hear more of these cute vocals combined with those edgy-yet-catchy guitars.

The Mayflowers: If Jellyfish (the band, not the free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria) was Japanese and influenced by the Beatles’ “Getting Better,” it’d sound like this. Which is a good thing.

Deadbeat Poets: Hey, they borrowed the “You Really Got Me” guitar riff!  Or was it “All Day and All of the Night?”  No, wait….”Hello, I Love You?”

Chris Richards and the Subtractions: “I, Miss July” adds up to classic-sounding power pop. (Subtractions…adds up….get it?)

Ulysses: Gary Glitter, meet T. Rex.

Stephen Lawrenson: If Matthew Sweet ever needs an understudy, this could be the right man for the job.

The Dirty Royals: Speedy tempo, lots of harmonies. Very nice.

Nushu: One of the shining lights of the L.A. pop scene offers up one of their hookier, punchier numbers.  Lisa Mychols and Hillary Burton  – you rock!

The Romeo Flynns: Not unlike the E-Street Band meeting Michael Stanley in someone’s garage.  Whether that’s a positive or negative depends on what you think of the E-Street Band and Michael Stanley.

Matthew Pop: With a last name like Pop, it’s gotta be good, right?  The crunchy guitars and the “woo-hoo’s” help make it so.

The Roebucks!!: They have exclamation points!!  I don’t know why!!  They also have an undeniably catchy, mid-tempo swagger about them!!

The Beat Rats: Rough and tumble Merseybeat madness. Wonderful.

The Shamus Twins: I was reminded of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. For sham(us)…

Maxi Dunn: Beautifully atmospheric, perfectly sung.

Popfilter!: Imagine Queen if Queen was really, really mediocre.

The Stanleys: “What Are We Gonna Do?” might be the best thing here. It’s classic, powerful pop that is highly reminiscent of ’70s-era Midwest power popsters The Boys. Turn it up.

Rob Bonfiglio: A winning, soulful, piano-based tune.

Skick: Supercharged female-fronted punk rock.

Jeremy Morris: The Nicest Guy in Pop flies like a Byrd…

The Pondhawks: Imagine a peppy Gerry Rafferty listening to “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.”

Tiny Volcano: More Jellyfish (not the hydrozoan or hydromedusae) crowned with a Queen-like guitar solo.

Golden Bloom: Pretty, mid-tempo sunshine pop sounds.

The Secrets: Hypnotically catchy garage-pop.

Zoe Scott: Has an “Every Breath You Take”/”Missing You” (John Waite) vibe.

Agony Aunts: Bouncy, quirky and cool. A highlight of disc 3.

Cosmo Topper: Seriously weird sh*t here. Brown acid, anyone?

The Sunchymes: See Golden Bloom.

Blue Cartoon: A smooth little number from this veteran IPO combo.

The Kings: A potential radio smash in waiting, this one.

Hijinx: Snappy tune, great band name.

The Afternoons: “I Want it Anyway” is what it’s called, and it’s probably the second-best track here. Love that sweet guitar jangle.

Susan Hedges: A grating, ’80s-influenced dance number. Ugh.

The Romeros: Sloppy punk with sax = no bueno.

The Ringles: You gotta give these guys credit for shamelessly appropriating the opening guitar figure from “Stairway to Heaven” for their own wannabe epic – but I guess a bit of turnabout is fair play, since the Zep dudes certainly “borrowed” many a riff back in the day…

Overall, IPO 13 is a damned fine collection, with the many high points making it a more-than-welcome addition to any pop fans’ music library. Great way to discover many heretofore unknown acts, too.  Visit www.internationalpopoverthrow.com for more info on both the CD’s and the festival.

By  John Borack

Lovers of melodic pop, power pop, soft pop, mod pop and/or psych pop (whew!) have been digging David Bash’s International Pop Overthrow music festival — and the various-artists CD compilation that bears the same name — for the past 11 years. The latest installment, International Pop Overthrow, Volume 11 (Not Lame Recordings) is a triple-CD, 66-track extravaganza that contains some sublimely sweet slices of melodic yumminess just waiting to be discovered.

“Go!” by the Finnish band Daisy snags the coveted leadoff spot on Disc 1, and it’s a well-deserved honor. The track is a pure delight, blanketing some modern electronic sheen over a melody that sounds like classic Cars with some Beatle-style vocalizing. Another Disc 1 winner — and perhaps the best thing on IPO 11 — is The Backroom’s “Lost Without You,” which mines the sweet, summery sounds of the ’60s (think prime New Colony Six) without sounding dated or tired. The Private Jets and Jellyfish’s Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. also score big on the first disc.

Disc 2 is highlighted by Wiretree’s pretty “Big Coat,” The Dirty Royals’ Plimsouls-like “Josephine,” Preoccupied Pipers’ endearingly quirky “Little Jimmy the Giant” and Phamous Phaces’ acoustic charmer “Back to Liverpool.” The final disc finds the flawless mid-tempo guitar pop of The Tomorrows, The Afternoons and the Generous Days taking center stage.

While there are certainly some less than stellar moments to be found (Steve Caraway’s cornball “Gone, Gone, Gone” is retro in the most frightening sense of the word, and Philip Vandermost’s overwrought “Since Mountains Have Risen” falls all over itself trying to be earnest), all in all IPO 11 is a collection — like the 10 that came before it — that belongs in any self-respecting pop fan’s library.

Kyle Vincent
Kyle Vincent’s Where You Are (Songtree Records) is another in a long string of high-quality, exquisitely sung and impeccably performed releases by the crown prince of soft pop. Far removed from his glammy mid-’80s days in Candy and even from his 1997 power-poppin’ solo debut, this is the sound of an artist maturing in all the right ways. Warm, inviting melodies mingle with nostalgic, hopeful lyrics (the leadoff cut, “It’s Gonna Be a Great Day,” being a prime example) to create a calm and serene sonic palette that’s easy to like. If this was the ’70s, you’d no doubt be hearing these songs all over your AM radio.

The Spring Collection
The Spring Collection’s new one, titled In Between (Blindspot Records), is another low-key, below the radar treat, with leader Joe Mendoza (brother of Bart Mendoza from longtime mod-pop stalwarts The Shambles) offering up 13 swell examples of his hyper-melodic style, all sung in a winning, everyman voice with plenty of Rickenbacker jangle.  Covers of the Everly Brothers, UK mod gurus Squire and The Jetset, and The Byrds (an unplugged take of “Mr. Spaceman”) fit in nicely.

The Yum Yums
“It’s time to kick ass and chew bubblegum,” intones a voice at the beginning of the Yum Yums’ delicious long-player Whatever Rhymes With Baby (Pop Detective Records).

The Norwegian quintet has been following this credo since 1993, churning out album after album of high-energy, bubblegum-flavored punk pop. “I Wanna Be the One” kicks the new one off, and it’s a warp-speed popfest hooked by an irresistible chorus of “I wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna wanna be the one” — genius! A batch of guitar riffs the Ramones would have killed for, unforgettable melodies and energy to burn makes for an unbeatable combination. Cue up “Sugar Rush,” “I Lied,” “Let’s Rock and Roll” — hell, anything here, actually — for an authentic dose of in-your-face pop goodness. Essential.

Cliff Hillis
Cliff Hillis should be a major star. There, I said it … and his latest release, The Long Now (Tallboy Records), proves it. It’s a stylish, thoughtful, consistently excellent collection of catchy pop tunes that never fails to engage. A few tunes written with the Rembrandts’ Danny Wilde (“She Sees” and “Northern Lights”) are top-shelf, but there’s really nothing here less than very good, as Hillis is a supremely talented craftsman whose way with a hook is undeniable throughout. Not flashy, not life-changing — just great.

Chris Richards And The Subtractions
One of the joys of this pop writing gig is running across discs that come flying out of left field and lodge themselves in the ‘ol CD player for quite a while.  One such recent goodie is Sad Sounds of the Summer by Chris Richards and the Subtractions (Gangplank Records).  The Michigan-based Richards has been on the fringes of the pop scene for quite a while, with bands such as The Pantookas, Hippodrome and the Phenomenal Cats, but he comes a cropper on this record, with track after track (there’s 10 of ‘em) of propulsive power pop with sticky melodies.  Richards’ voice recalls a smoother version of the Undertones’ Feargal Sharkey, and is bolstered by honey-sweet backing vox.  Picks to click: “Consolation,” “Take it From Me” and “I Do Declare” (with drummer Larry Grodsky doing his best Keith Moon).

The Summer Suns
“The Summer Suns music was inspired by the joyous melodic beauty of 1960s pop, beautiful girls, and love.” So says the liner notes to the band’s Greatest compilation (House of Wax Records), which includes 22 of the Aussie combo’s finest moments. 

Led by Kim Williams’ slightly dusky vocals and for a time featuring Australian power-pop titan Dom Mariani (The Stems, Someloves, DM3), the Summer Suns’ material is sweet, jangly, chiming and often quite speedy (in tempo and in length; 15 of the tunes here run 3:00 or less). “Girl in a Mexican Restaurant” is a bona-fide classic (1:43 of Byrdsy splendor played at a breakneck pace), while “Waiting For My Love” is a blissful slower one. Obscure, but fine stuff.

Splitsville
Out a while now, Splitsville’s Let’s Go! The Best of Splitsville (Popboomerang/Zip) is worthy of mention. It’s a fine compilation, hand-picked by the band, that collects most of the East Coast combo’s best cuts, from their initial days as a somewhat jokey punk-pop act (remember “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Larry Storch, Larry Storch?”), through their mid-’60s mimicry phase, up to their most recent release, 2003’s diverse triumph Incorporated.

Greatness abounds: the jaunty, piano-based “Ponce de Leon”; the perky Fountains Of Wayne-like “Big Red Sun”; the snotty blast of “The Kids Who Kill for Sugar”; the lost power-pop classic “Why It Can’t Be”; the amazing ’60s pastiche “Forever”; the winking Left Banke cop “Tuesday Through Saturday”; and the pounding “Headache,” with its amazing bridge. The 25 tracks leave you hoping for more from Splitsville.

The Shambles
An entertaining all-covers record by The Shambles. 20 Explosive Hits (Black Cherry Group) is a ball from start to finish, cobbling together 22 tracks dating from 1992-2007 that were released as singles or recorded for various comps and tributes.

It’s certainly a varied record, with nifty versions of tunes by everyone from The Birds (Ron Wood’s first group), The Zombies, Oasis and the Monkees to Connie Francis (a storming, yet sweet, version of “Warm This Winter”), Sam Phillips, Neil Diamond and the Cardigans. Any band that can pull off a version of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme (dolled up here as a warm, jangly treat) as well as Ringo Starr’s “Snookeroo” and even “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” — in a medley with “Rhythm of the Rain,” for corn’s sake — is worthy of attention. Genius move: taking the Raspberries’ countrified “Might as Well” and turning it into a nice little power-pop number.