Founded by keyboard player Eric Denton and bass player Bob "Monroe" Davis, the San Diego quintet The Monroes mildly flirted with success as the result of the infectious single "What Do All the People Know." With a lineup that was rounded out by singer Jesus Ortiz, guitarist Rusty Jones, and drummer Jonnie Gilstrap, The Monroes record, a five-song EP, was released in 1982 through Japanese label Alfa. When Alfa folded, "What Do All the People Know," which had been gaining momentum, stalled at number 59 on the pop charts. Little more would be heard from the band, although Denton and Davis soldiered on for the remainder of the decade and "What Do All the People Know" began appearing on new wave compilations during the '90s. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Not to be confused with Minnie Ripperton's Gems who also recorded during the 70's, these Gems were a powerpop trio from Kansas City and had a pub rock sound that somehow crosses Elvis Costello with Steve Miller. 'Save Your Money' (Titan!, 1978) would be this band's only single, produced by C.M. Allen and featuring Gary Charlson on the guitar solo. Under the name J.P. McClain & The Intruders they contributed 3 tracks to Titan's 'Just Another Pop Album' 1980 compilation.
Richard X. Heyman is one of the sadly overlooked pop craftsmen of the '90s, but his albums are widely regarded in power pop circles as instant classics. Heyman began recording in the late '80s in the tradition of the studio nerd/one-man band, playing all instruments himself in his upper west side Manhattan apartment living room, named Brontasaurus, presumably after the classic song by The Move. He released the independent 'Actual Size' EP in 1987 and followed with the full-length 'Living Room!!' in 1988. Considerable word-of-mouth exposure led to the album being reissued by Cypress Records in 1990 in slightly modified form. He signed to Sire in 1990 and released one album for the label, the Andy Paley-produced 'Hey Man!' in 1991. Poor sales led to him being dropped by the label, but he has continued recording (several albums' worth by his estimations) while shopping for the elusive new deal. 'Cornerstone' was completed by 1996, but it wasn't released nationally until early 1998 by Permanent Press Records. In late 2000 Heyman issued 'Heyman, Hoosier & Herman', an EP featuring former Herman's Hermit Peter Noone on vocals for the title track and six outtakes from the 'Cornerstone' sessions. 'Basic Glee' arrived in 2002, followed by the 'Rightovers' compilation a year later. Heyman reissued the 'Actual Size' EP in 2007 with 14 previously unreleased tracks. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Raised by his adoptive parents in southern New Jersey, D.L. Byron (born David Leigh Byron) became enamored with The Beatles, The Byrds, and Bob Dylan at an early age. When he wasn't busy getting thrown out of a string of exclusive prep schools, Byron formed several teenage garage bands and won a number of poetry competitions. Deciding to pursue his music career in earnest, Byron moved to New York City in February of 1971. After working briefly at the Colony Record shop (located on the ground floor of the Brill Building) and living in a $45 per week fleabag hotel, Byron managed to catch the tail-end of Tin pan alley, procuring a $75-a-week job as a staff writer for E.H. Morris. While there, he met and was influenced by greats like Harold Arlen, and began to perform at open mike nights around New York. In 1979, Clive Davis and Arista discovered Byron and signed him, hoping to find success with an American version of Elvis Costello or Graham Parker. In 1980, Byron released 'This Day and Age', which became an instant power pop classic. [SOURCE: DL BYRON]
From Buffalo, New York, The Jumpers released two 7" singles, adding a sixties garage feel to its pop punk core. Another band ripe for rediscovery. The band featured Terry Sullivan (vocals), Scott Michaels (guitar), Craig Meylan (bass), Roger Nicol (drums) and Bob Kozak (guitar). They also contributed a song, "Hello Girl", to BOMP's 'Waves - An Anthology Of New Music Vol. 2 - Spring 1980' compilation.
Los Angeles’ Code Blue may be best remembered for the fact that its first album was released encased in a blue plastic bag; the group, which actually had talent, fell victim to the post-Knack backlash against Angelino power pop. The brainchild of original Motels guitarist Dean Chamberlain, Code Blue came together after the first version of the Motels disbanded in 1977, with drummer Randall Marsh and bassist Gary Tibbs (Vibrators, Roxy Music) completing the lineup. Despite three good musicians, some decent material and lofty artistic aspirations, the combination of the Knack-lash and the lack of any really killer tracks doomed their LPs to prompt oblivion. [SOURCE: TROUSER PRESS]
Pop / soul is the mix from Boston's David Finnerty And The Jackals. The "Hold On" 7'' single (Deli Platters, DP-2, 1980), their only record, comes across well, with a nice Rascals flavor to the title track. The band featured the aforementioned Mr. Finnerty on guitar and vocals, as well as Tony Gilroy (guitar), Wally Jay (keyboards), Michael Walsh (bass) and Jean-Do Sifantus (drums). Produced by Michael Golub at Triton Studios, Boston, although the Deli Platters label is from New York. David later placed songs on Peter Frampton's 'Breaking All The Rules' album amongst others.
The Speedies were a late 1970's New York Based Power Pop band. Four of the members hailed from Brooklyn, the bass player John Carlucci was from Queens.
They were a favorite band at the legendary NY Punk Club, Max's Kansas City, where they were so popular they broke the house attendance records.
The Speedies were local media darlings, appearing in features in the SoHo Weekly News, Village Voice, NY Post, Life Magazine, The New Yorker, Hit Parader, New York Rocker and Crazy magazine. They won the NY Rocker's readers poll as the best unsigned band in America in 1979.
The often supported international touring acts, having appeared with The Jam, The Undertones, The Gang Of Four, Ultravox, The Members or The David Johanson Group, among others.
In 2005 The Speedies song "Let Me Take Your Photo" was featured in a nationwide TV commercial for Hewlett Packard. Jay Leno also uses the song as part of a re-curring skit called "The Photo Booth"
. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Four Eyes was a power pop/new wave quartet from San Diego, California, which was led by vocalist, bassist and songwriter Mark Decerbo. Active from 1977 to 1988, the group garnered some local success-even appearing on NBC’s ‘The Gong Show’ to cover Little Richard- but never managed to parley major label attention into a full album.
The Rattlers were an American rock band formed in the New York City in 1979. It was formed by guitarist / vocalist Mickey Leigh, who is the brother of Joey Ramone. The group released two singles on small independent labels and one album on PVC Records. Their 1979 debut single "On the Beach" featured Joey Ramone on vocals. The album 'Rattled!' has been widely ignored, although it got good reception. American music journalist Robert Christgau named it as one of his "Top 50 albums of 1985." [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
This trio was said to be of American descent, but were apparently stationed in the UK. Indistinctive, but largely effective power pop/AOR in the mold of contemporaries The A's and Tommy Tutone. One of the few entries in the short-lived CBS NuDisk experiment of four- to five-song 10" EPs -Cheap Trick, New Musik, and The Nina Hagen Band were some of the other guinea pigs- "Fizz Pop (Modern Rock)" is the Continentals' one and only major label release. Their brand of gutsy power pop is on The Plimsouls / Last side of the equation, with noisier guitars and rougher vocals than you'd find on a Rubinoos or Raspberries album, but while ex-RamoneTommy Erdelyi's production sounds great, Thomas Doherty and William John Holliday's songwriting is frustratingly inconsistent. The two songs on side one, the anthemic title track and the similarly passionate "Walking Tall," are terrific. On the flip, the anti-radio rant "Housewives' Delight" and the puerile "Two Lips From Amsterdam" (note the seventh-grade-level pun) sound like second-rate Knack rejects, complete with obnoxious Doug Fieger-style smug vocals. Perhaps this is why CBS NuDisk failed (although the 12" mini-album stayed popular throughout vinyl's commercial lifetime). [SOURCE: POWERPOP OVERDOSE]
Untamed Youth was a Mod band from Dagenham, formed in early 1979 by Jamie O'Keefe (vocals), Pete Chamberlain (guitar), Jim Loveday (bass) and Tony Morris (drums). A single, self-financed single was recorded in September 1979 and released on their Hard Core label. The band disappeared the following year. A pleasant power pop single, but not essential. [SOURCE: OLD, WEAK, BUT ALWAYS A WANKER]
The Look, from Ely, Cambridgeshire and originally named The Kreed, changed their name to The Look when they moved to London. Their lead singer and frontman was Jonny Whetstone (born c. 1955). The band's 1980 debut single, "I Am the Beat" was a top 10 hit, peaking at No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. After the less successful follow-up "Feeding Time" (No. 50, 1981), their third single "Tonight" failed to reach the charts. The singles, and self-titled album, were released on the MCA label. Further singles including "Three Steps Away" also missed the top 75. The group moved to Towerbell Records, an indie label. The Look disbanded in 1983. They returned after a long absence in April 2005 with a new album, entitled 'Pop Yowlin', on Angel Air Records. It received a warm critical reception. Bassist Gus Goad toured with Ian Hunter's Rant Band from 2000 to 2004.
A new album, 'Tunes and Stories' was released in 2012, featuring Alex Baird from The Jags on drums.
They had their first live show in seven years at The Water Rats in London on 26 March 2013, organised by GM Records Presents. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
The Monitors were four lads from Roan School in Blackheath, London -Lee Wellbrook (guitar, vocals), Chris Kitschin (vocals, guitar), Nick Bidgood (bass) and Gary Porter (drums). They rehearsed at Greenwich Baths. In 1979 they released the Power Pop 7" single "Telegram". After The Monitors split Wellbrook and Kitschin were together to form the skiffle band Big Table, releasing one single in 1981, "Patrick".
New Hearts were a British new wave band from London, England, active in 1977-78. They evolved out of the college band Splitz Kidz, who met in Loughton and consisted of Ian Page (vocals), David Cairns (guitar), John Harty (bass guitar) and drummer Rob Milne (who later drummed with The Clash on the "Anarchy in The UK" tour). Renaming themselves New Hearts, they were signed by CBS Records at the height of punk rock just two months after their debut gig and with an average age of just 17, directly by CBS' managing director, Maurice Oberstein, who had taken a personal interest in the band and attended eight gigs in a row. They appeared on the opening day of the 1978 Reading Rock Festival alongside The Jam, Ultravox and Sham 69.
New Hearts recorded two singles for CBS, "(Just Another) Teenage Anthem" and the Martin Gordon-produced "Plain Jane", inspired by acts like Dr. Feelgood and Eddie & the Hot Rods. They also supported The Jam during their lengthy UK Modern World tour, and accompanied them at the 1978 Reading Festival, where they were joined on stage by Hawkwind's guitarist, Huw Lloyd Langton.
Disillusioned, Page and Cairns ended New Hearts and set about creating a new band inspired by the dress code and musical stylings of the 1960s mod movement, changing their name to Secret Affair and leading the whole mod revival movement. In October 2009, a new CD containing 23 songs (20 for CBS and three pre-CBS demos) was issued by Cherry Red Records. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
The Negatives were from Sheffield England. They were around from the late 70's through the early 80's. "Electric Waltz / Mon£y Talk" was their only single. They made it onto the compilations 'New Wave From The Heart', and 'Bouquet Of Steel'. Band members were: Pete Eason (Vocals), Fraser "Snapper" Charles (Guitar, Piano), Brad Martini (Bass, Vocals) and Steve Wilmot (Drums, Vocals). [SOURCE: SHOTGUN SOLUTIONS]
We've all seen the TV show, so no points for this tune origin, but The Spys', "The Young Ones" is a great version. A rocked up, almost glam version (dig the Brian May guitar flourishes). This was this London band's only single. For years it was suggested by many that The Spys were actually the ever-struggling Swindon-based pop group XTC. Actually, the producer of this single was XTC producer John Leckie.
