Tag Archives: beatles

Our friend David Myhr presents new single

8 Jun

David Myhr really needs no further introduction, but in case you didn’t know he was one half of the brilliant Merrymakers once upon a time. In any case, he’s a buddy of ours, and since we like him and what he does we thought we’d help him promote his brand new single. It’s called “Looking for a Life”, and if you want want it, just head on over to his Facebook page and click “Like” to grab the free download! It’s also out on iTunes of course, if you feel inclined to spend some money. :) The lyrics were contributed by no other than our hero Andreas Mattsson from Popsicle. It’s the second single from David’s upcoming solo debut Soundshine, due out in the fall – an album guaranteed to blow all you powerpoppers’ minds! (Yeah, we’ve already heard most of it. Are you jealous?! ;) ) The first single can be found on David’s Bandcamp page.

Naturally, there’s a video accompanying the summery tune. Check it out below. More info about David’s activities, like mastering the album at Abbey Road with the guy who supervised the mastering of the entire Beatles catalogue for instance (we’re not jealous at all…) can be found at davidmyhr.com.

Glad to have you back David! Best of luck.

Essential powerpop albums #4

29 Mar

The next album on the list is another one that changed my life and the way I perceived music. Will Owsley is the founder of a legendary powerpop trio called The Semantics, which featured Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey on drums. Their sole album Powerbill was only released in Japan and the band never got the break they sought for. You might think that this is the album I’m going to talk about – which I could have gone on about at length – but I’m going to focus on Owsley’s first solo album Owsley released in 1999.

The story as I’ve heard it is that he recorded this album in his home studio, which he financed by touring with Amy Grant. When he started shopping around for a deal a lot of labels liked what they heard but wanted him to re-record the album to make it sound “cooler” or something like that. Owsley refused and waited until he found the label that wanted to put it out as it was, and he was rewarded for his persistence with a grammy nomination for “best engineering”. Ain’t that great?

Anyhow, the album in itself is a masterpiece. Packed with powerpop gems, full of energy and beatle-esque songwriting, it had a great impact on me when I first heard it a year after it came out and inspired me in so many ways, changing the way I write music. “Oh No The Radio” might be one of the coolest opening tracks of all time, and “Coming Up Roses” is a song every songwriter would wish they’d written!

Unfortunately, only one track is available for listening on Owsley’s MySpace. But it’s the beautiful ballad “Sentimental Favorite” so there’s really no reason to complain. I’ve been searching YouTube for any kind of Owsley or Semantics clip withouth luck. If you readers happen to stumble upon a clip, let me know.

Owsley 1999

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