Power Pop from the 1990s

What are some of the better examples?

You can't go wrong with Redd Kross Lady In The Front Row

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea37UX-EQZY

Flop, Whenever You're Ready
Posies, Frosting on the Beater
Sloan, Twice Removed
lots of ppl consider Sugar, Copper Blue as powerpop...it's great as well...

Urge Overkill, Saturation...?

Another really excellent album is Myracle Brah, Life On Planet Eartsnop. That record is criminally underrated.

Brendan Benson - One Mississippi
Sloan - One Chord To Another
The Posies - Amazing Disgrace
Jellyfish - Bellybutton

(xpost)

i always want to get more into power pop, especially 90s era stuff, but so much of it doesn't have enough crunch or personality to really draw me in

Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend, Altered Beast, 100% Fun)

i should really get some of those, every time i hear a Sweet single on the radio i still rock the fuck out

Supergrass - I Should Coco

Also, Guided By Voices was basically power pop at times

early/mid 90s Supergrass was pretty great imo

Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy, Til I Hear It From You

were any of the Material Issue albums any good?

"Little Whirl," "Gold Star for Robot Boy," "Motor Away," definitely.

xp (was totally gonna list New Miserable Experiences next?)

also search a multitude of Teenage Fanclub albums...

yeah, International Pop Overthrow is solid xxp

it's so tempting to start rattling off all the alt/indie bands that "actually" might as well have been power pop but i feel like that inevitable line of discussion should be held off as long as possible

I think we're still comfortably within the powerpop parameters

Some dude you shld definitely get at least girlfriend. I need some sloan

Also, that Flop album, which I really love...

really the Posies stuff where they're doing really pretty harmonies but the guitars are just ROARING and the drums are Keith Moon insanity, that's some of my favorite shit ever, i wish i knew of 10 bands just like that.

i always want to get more into power pop, especially 90s era stuff, but so much of it doesn't have enough crunch or personality to really draw me in

As I've gotten older I have less patience with the verse-chorus-verse rigidity of lots of power pop, even Cheap Trick's; I rebel against the Well-Constructed Pop Song when I hear too many of'em at a time.

Orange Humble Band's "Spindizzy," Paranoid Lovesick's "Molly," Small Factory's "Hopefully," Yuji Oniki's "Cover," Ammonites' "Missing You," Beekeepers' "That Girl," Blur's "You're So Great," Carl Rusk's "Everyone," Dentists' "Chainsaw the Horse," Fudge's "Girlwish," Fuzzy's "Flashlight," Jellystone Park's "Consider Me Gone," Rocketship's "The Love We Could've Had," Seaside's "Completely," Sneetches' "She Does Everything for Me," Tiger Trap's "My Broken Heart," Urge Overkill's "Back on Me," Fat Tulips' "Nothing Less Than You Deserve"...I love this stuff.

(I didn't realize till now that the Sneetches song was a Zombies cover.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acsnrKbY6pQ

Matthew Sweet's Altered beast; also how much Teenage Fanclub have you been exposed to, sd?

A while ago, on a different power-pop thread, we got into the whole crunch-vs.-jangle thing. I said jangle, xhuxk said crunch, we called the whole thing off.

Velvet Crush - Teenage Symphonies to God
Cotton Mather - Kontiki

I really should buy Twice Removed some day, One Chord To Another is the only Sloan album I have.

i have maybe heard one Teenage Fanclub song a decade ago. i am vaguely opposed to non-American power pop but i probably should give them a fair shot.

A bunch of albums on here I need to get already...you think Liz Phhair counts (I've beem walking round thinking about how she's the Prince of power-pop for the last couple of weeks now...)

Another really excellent album is Myracle Brah, Life On Planet Eartsnop. That record is criminally underrated.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 19 May 2011 21:28 (38 minutes ago) Permalink

The wtf band and album names made me check them out on youtube. I like.

In my ltd exposure to TFC I find them to be right in between Posies & Dino Jr.

Google Star Sign & Sparky's Dream for starters, s dude

Does Wilco "Box Full Of Letters" count?

i am vaguely opposed to non-American power pop

!? That's so weird. I always think of power pop as either being British bands, or American bands who really really want to sound like they're British.

One of my favorite underrated power pop joints:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8kwPdsZ1Cg

"really the Posies stuff where they're doing really pretty harmonies but the guitars are just ROARING and the drums are Keith Moon insanity, that's some of my favorite shit ever, i wish i knew of 10 bands just like that."

^^^^^^^^^ this. That's why seeing them live is imperative.

I think these might be power pop but they're def all 90s and I love em..

Sloan - Pen Pals / Underwhelmed / Good In Everyone
Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday / Everything Flows
G.Bloss - Hey Jealousy / Found Out About You
Posies - Dream All Day
Ash - Girl From Mars
Supergrass - Lose It
The Pursuit Of Happiness - She's So Young
Weezer - Suzanne

Was thinking maybe the whole 1st Weezer album...

Others to check out: Negro Problem, Loud Family, Lemonheads, Veruca Salt, Darling Buds, Jellyfish's 2nd album, Spilt Milk

First La's album
Maybe the Chills?

Oh, and Dramarama. A must-hear for power pop fans.

i am vaguely opposed to non-American power pop

!? That's so weird. I always think of power pop as either being British bands, or American bands who really really want to sound like they're British.

― unmetalled world (wk), Thursday, May 19, 2011 6:49 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

well, i love the 60s/70s british bands than power pop bands all are generally aping, but as far as contemporary bands go, there's not a lot from the UK i really enjoy, power pop included (although i did really like Supergrass's 2nd album).

I don't know if I'd consider this power pop but there's a lot of questionable stuff here already imo. I loved this whole album at one time. LOL mid-late 90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2S6OfhYWmI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaMrivLS8bU

Letters to Cleo?

lol pre vitamin c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHGhYqAgwh4

wow that song/video/entire thing is a hell of a lot worse but funnier than I remembered

maybe throw The Muffs in the mix?

no, I might sb myself for that. Power pop is a yearning thing.

I was going to suggest them but I wasn't sure?

Hell yes Letters to Cleo, especially their last album "Go!" which avoided the grunge-isms ofnthe first two records and was straight ahead power pop, including some keyboard contributions from Greg Hawkes of The Cars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCwvQDos_sg

Just listened to it again, and yeah.

Baby Lemonade, Exploring Music
that dog, Retreat from the Sun
William Pears s/t

These three were the pinnacle of '90s powerpop from what I've heard.

Second the recommendation of the Loud Family from upthread a bit, though someone looking for "power pop" in the strict hooky, jangly sense might find them a bit erratic and noisy at times. Brilliant, though.

Best straight power pop band of the decade, not yet mentioned: Too Much Joy. All four of their 90s albums are fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvbZ3lsT5nw

The Connells!

Polara!

http://clipvideohd.com/polara-source-of-light-26276

^ This song is incredible to me.

7" versions of the following:
Hula Hoop - "Midget Love" (you'll love this, kornrulez)
Triple Fast Action - "Revved Up"

Dambuilders, "Shrine"? I can't decide.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

An old band of mine opened up for them at the Grog Shop in Cleveland back in 1996. Nice folks.

from 1990, one of the greatest power-pop albums of the decade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNrWZBzP6_I&feature=related
(Material Issue's Jim Ellison was in a very early lineup of Green in the 80s)

<3 <3 <3 <3 that first Polara album! thx for the vid! Evan; "source of light" is great (as is "taupe" & "letter bomb" & "squelch")

wonder if this counts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcU7kz8nVhU

An even better Gigolo Aunts cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=387u-Q7XBx4

Man, Boston really was ground zero for 90's power pop, wasn't it? Almost forgot about Fuzzy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTmIiYcd3Ow

yall remember For Squirrels? their grungy '85-REM/skatepunk hybrid album Example got a lot of exposure after their lead singer died in a car accident. This was the big single from the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBbl3RpgNN4&feature=fvwrel

<3 <3 <3 <3 that first Polara album! thx for the vid! Evan; "source of light" is great (as is "taupe" & "letter bomb" & "squelch")

― excitebikable boy (Drugs A. Money), Friday, May 20, 2011 9:16 AM (45 minutes ago)

Yes! Though that album has some cheesy moments from what I remember. Like some shameless synthetic horn use.

made it all that much greater imo

my introduction to power pop was probably from The Adventures of Pete & Pete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY_3uxzkoV4&feature=related

I miss the 90s obsession with sunny suburbs.
Every music video took place on someone's lawn.
Happy times for me.

i could hang out in this thread all day :)

bad timing with work crunch and a 90s power pop thread! Shite!

Dambuilders! Polara!

I love this thread!

This is the grey area, I know, but I think some of the riot girl stuff made for great power-pop: Bratmobile's "Richard," Mary Lou Lord's "Some Jingle Jangle Morning," Bikini Kill's "False Start," a few Scrawl songs. Some wouldn't call it power-pop; for me, it's the quiet, yearning side alluded to above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgNdIdMqEcY&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=activeactive

Velvet Crush - In The Presence Of Greatness
Sneetches - 1985-1991

Holsapple and Stamey's Mavericks was alright.

Whale's Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe!

Minor 90s single that kind of sounds like Oasis but it still gets in my head:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ8VhWN2oD8

Three O'clock's Michael Quercio's 90s band Permanent Greenlight definitely belongs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ac-M5GSGIU&feature=related

just to explain a couple of the iffier names suggested in this thread so far

The Best 50 Powerpop Albums according to RYM

x-posts Yeah I love Bikini Kill a hell of a lot but I definitely wouldn't include them here.

x-post - Some off that list are so good like - Brendan Benson: Lapalco - amazing <3 <3 but not 90s

Whale's Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe!

― wabi sabi, Friday, May 20, 2011 5:04 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

ah thread's over isn't it

i figured you'd gotten fed up way before that lol!!!

yeah I just heard that Hobo Slobo song; this is what Chumbawumba is like without the snooty politics, huh?

Just to clarify: Bikini Kill in general, no, not even close. But that one song, "False Start," to me you can make a case for that. It's got all the rudiments of power-pop.

if the thread is over, is it okay if I just post Lil Markie youtubes until I leave work

Weird. "False Start" sounds really familiar. Must be something I taped off the Carleton station when I was in high school.

That Permanent Greenlight song is fantastic!

how can fountains of wayne not be here?

never heard a FoW song I really liked tbh...def belong here though

is Ivy powerpop?

no just pop

red dragon tattoo is pretty ace powerpop imo

mavericks referenced above is more chamberpop

Try "Amity Gardens" or "Troubled Times" from Utopia Parkway. Never quite fell in love with FOW the way others did,.but most of that album is top notch.

If I had to choose one favorite FOW song from the 90s it would be Red Dragon Tattoo but Utopia Parkway has a bunch of great tracks, especially Troubled Times, The Valley of Malls, Go Hippie, and Amity Gardens. Then again they are one of my favorite bands...

Cotton Mather's Kontiki is a very up-and-down listen but its up moments are just about perfect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsE1AM5-KHI
Album's easily available for download/preview with a Google search.

Surprised not to see the Grays mentioned here - a short-lived band that involved both Jason Falkner and Jon Brion. And of course every Jason Falkner album is worth getting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvGXlgokjs4

I've never heard anything by the Grays, but I came across their name once or twice in The War Against Silence; I'll bet they're really good aren't they?

YouTube code (to reduce embeds): EE-znePV0UQ

Weird that they have their own Vevo channel. RS links are active here: http://powerpopoverdose.blogspot.com/2008/04/grays-ram-sham-bo-1994.html

The Grays one and only album is fantastic, if you can still find it. I think I got it around 97-98 and it was a struggle to get ahold of a copy even then. But, you know, this is the internet, so...

I thought that Cotton Mather record was pretty fantastic too, even if it's been a good decade since I've spun it.

Kontiki has a sense of pacing and restraint that's rare in a lot of power pop albums, which often plow away with one head bopper after another, perhaps sprinkling in a a slowish country track here and there. Or maybe the band just enjoys the sound of slow tracks. Either way, it really heightens the impact of a song like Password or My Before and After, which is not on YouTube for some reason.

i really like powerpop and falkner, but i didn't like the grays. it seemed kind of flaccid and rembrandts-y iirc.

^reminded me of this Christian rock CD my mom got me when I was in high school; band was called 'pfr'

thanks to this thread i was reminded i have sloans 'pretty together' in the archive.

not heard this in years.

sounds wonderful.

other additions of worth : superdrag

fucking loved'em, and one of my first experiences of using the web to track down releases that never reached the UK.