1. Tam Vantage
Pop Singles’ 2012 album All Gone was an understated jangle-pop pleasure. Though it’s too bad it looks like that band has called it a day, it is exciting to see that Tam Vantage the singer and guitarist in the band returning with a solo album that is scheduled to get a release early next year. The perfect pop of the first single the Boy Who Always Wins picks up right where Pop Singles left off.
2. Day Ravies
Australian shoegazers Day Ravies aren’t so shoegazy on their new 7″ for French label Beko, but that really isn’t a problem here. This scuzzy pop side is fine with me!
3. Kyle Orton is the new Lee Hazlewood
I bet you didn’t know that Lee Hazlewood had been reincarnated as Buffalo Bills quarterback Kyle Orton. When I saw this photo tweeted by Light in the Attic I assumed it had been doctored. It’s uncanny. I thought that mustache could only exist in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Orton’s new nickname if he needs one should be a Cowboy in Buffalo.
4. Paperhead
Nashville’s Paperhead release their third album this week and it’s full of late 60’s influenced psychedelic pop. It has a definite Kinks glow to it and of course you can’t talk about a record like this and not reference the Beatles. These paperback writers know how to write page-turners.
5. The Rainyard
I’m sorry I didn’t write about this while it was still in print. The Spanish label Pretty Olivia put out A Thousand Days on a short run of vinyl earlier this year. It collected all of the Australian band’s 80’s output and it is a wonderful record of paisley psych jangle. As a consolation, you can still purchase a download of the record.
6. Perry Mason
I’ve got a stack of Mojo CD’s ten feet high that I’ve never listened to, but every once in a while there is one that piques my interest. The November one compiled by Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin is full of soundtrack music and TV themes from the 50’s and 60’s. I had forgotten about the Perry Mason theme and how much it sounds like Peter Thomas playing the James Bond theme.
7. Vic Godard
1979 was a very good year. It’s hard to believe that it took 25 years to properly record this batch of northern soul inspired songs and get them released. Perseverance pays off for Godard.
8. Primtime
Primetime’s single came out in the summer but I had’t heard it until Still Single reviewed it. If you dig Oakland’s Pang then this London quartet’s debut single will be your thing.
9. Gwenno
Gwenno joins Rose Elinor Dougall as a former Pippette with a solo career. Gwenno’s debut album Y Dydd Olaf is sung in Welsh but that shouldn’t matter to non-welsh speakers. The title comes from a sci-fi novel by Welsh scientist Owain Owain, and the music sounds like it was inspired by the likes of Broadcast and Stereolab.
10. Ex Hex
Mary Timony’s latest band is inspired by Cheap Trick and the Buzzcocks and chock full of adrenaline fueled songs. Ex Hex’s debut album was produced by Mitch Easter who knows his way around power pop hooks and this record has got ’em to spare.
the finest kiss 