The album’s mixed and done! Now we’re sending it off to the mastering-guru to give it that magic finishing touch. A May release is what we’re aiming for. Prior to the album release we’re going to put out a single. More news on that soon.
You can listen to one of the tracks off the album on the Metro On Stage site. Please rate the song! Who knows, maybe your vote will get us a deal with Universal?
We would also like to extend our thoughts out to Alex Chilton of Big Star fame who has just passed away in an apparent heart attack at age 59. He made such a huge impact on music history. We wouldn’t be here fakin’ it had he not inspired bands like The Posies to make such great music. Joey previously blogged about Big Star’s #1 Record as a part of his “Essential Powerpop Albums” list. You can read that post here.
By many considered to be the very first album of the genre, this next essential powerpop album is a true gem that everyone should be aware of. The importance of Big Star’s debut album “#1 Record” from 1972 can hardly be ignored, influenced, as it has, bands like The Posies (whom I focused the last issue on), Teenage Fanclub and Matthew Sweet to mention a few. Big Star is a band that didn’t get its deserved recognition back when they started out in the early 70’s, but has gained some interest in later years - much like Nick Drake.
This is yet another of those albums that, in my opinion, doesn’t have a single weakness. Not a bad track. It’s got the real rocker tracks like “Don’t Lie To Me”, “In the Street” and “Feel”, as well as beautiful ballads such as “Thirteen” and “The Ballad of El Goodo”, which might be one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Big Star disbanded in the mid-70’s but reformed in 1993, adding Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow from The Posies to the lineup. They also contributed to the 2005 album “In Space” which is a fine piece of work, although it doesn’t even come close to the debut.
Here’s a YouTube clip from The Tonight Show with the new lineup performing “In the Street” (which you might recognize from That 70’s Show, for which Cheap Trick recorded their own version)
The Songbox Fan Crusade compilation will be released through iTunes Music Store on Tuesday 31 March!
The Genuine Fakes contribute two songs - “The Promise” and “I Don’t Want It” and those two tracks make up the second official release from the band. The first was the Posies cover “Somehow Everything” on “Beautiful Escape: The Songs of The Posies Revisited”.
The price of the album will be 90 SEK (ca 9€) and it will be released exclusively through iTunes on March 31, and a couple of weeks it will also be available through other online stores such as CDON.com, Sony Ericsson Play Now Arena and Nokia Music Store.
Title: Songbox Fan Crusade
Artist: Various Artists
Release date: 2009-03-31
Price (SEK): 90
The second album I want you to check out may very well be the one album that has influenced me the most. It’s the phenomenal third album from The Posies entitled “Frosting on the Beater”, released in 1993. I’d say that this is the very album that got me hooked on powerpop in the first place, and in many ways “Frosting” defines the genre for me. It’s impossible to find a weakness on the album, since all of the songs are true gems in their own right.
My favorite song on the album and one of my favorite songs of all time is “Solar Sister”. To this day I cannot seem to tire of it. Actually, it’s hard to tire of any of the songs, but other “must-listens” are “Definite Door”, “Dream All Day”, “Flavor of the Month”, and the hauntingly beautiful closer “Coming Right Along” with the eerie C-tuning on the guitar that I spent a whole afternoon in High School trying to figure out.
These past couple of years I’ve had the pleasure to get to know the frontmen of the band - Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer - and the two still produce the most amazing music, both as The Posies and separately. If you start to delve into their back catalogue you’ll find some of the greatest music written during the past fifteen years or so.
Here’s a YouTube clip of “Solar Sister” that I just found. The harmonies on this song are absolutely killer!
The Genuine Fakes is the new hope of powerpop in Sweden. Their songs are fueled by rock and catchy singalong melodies.
The band was formed in late 2005 in a basement in Södermalm in Stockholm. The guys; that shared a love for melodic pop and moustaches joined up and beautiful music came to be instantaneously. Influences from bands such as 90’s indie legends Popsicle from Sweden, The Posies, The Wildhearts, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, Jellyfish, Cheap Trick and Pearl Jam, to name a few, were forged in a way that creates a unique sound in this day and age. You’ve got beautiful harmonies on a thick, powerful foundation of distorted guitars, Hammond organ, McCartney-esque bass lines and noisy drums. The instrumentation is raw and the vocals are as slick as The Beatles’ were in their prime. The band delivers three and four part harmonies that you haven’t seen or heard the likeness of live since the last Jellyfish tour in 1993. A concertgoer perhaps described it best: “It’s Popsicle-rock with Beach Boys harmonies!”
The creativity flourished and a whole album’s worth of songs were written over a couple of short months before it was time for the first gig in January of 2006. Since then the band has played most of the Stockholm rock clubs, such as Alcazar, Klubben and Stampen to name a few. The year was topped off with a critically acclaimed performance at the Rookie Festival in Hultsfred, handpicked as one of 30 bands amongst thousands of applicants.
In conjunction with the Rookie Festival the band released its first single, entitled “Star”. It quickly sold out and has been downloaded persistently on MySpace since then. The first full length album is currently in the making, and the band is shopping around for labels to release it at this moment.
The band has also recorded a couple of interesting covers. One is a Posies song called “Somehow Everything” which was released in the US on “Beautiful Escape: The Ultimate Tribute to The Posies” (Burning Sky Records). The other one is an original interpretation of Beyoncé’s smash hit “Irreplaceable”. It has become an instant live favorite, winning over even the most skeptical listener. Thestar.com describes it: “Proud members of the power-pop fraternity populated by Dwight Twilley, Big Star, Teenage Fanclub and the like, this Swedish band convincingly transforms the steely Beyoncé ballad into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fountains of Wayne album.”
As a live act they’re a true force to be reckoned with. There’s a brand new band in town!
The song “Somehow Everything” (which The Genuine Fakes contributed to ‘Beautiful Escape - The Songs of The Posies Revisited’) is now available on iTunes. So now you won’t have to buy the whole 3CD box set to get a hold of it - even though we strongly recommend you do get the box set. You’ll definitely get you’re money’s worth.
The 35 song, triple disc Posies tribute album “Beautiful Escape - The Songs of The Posies Revisited” will be released on May 20. There will be a release party at Nuemo’s in Seattle at a Posies concert on May 17th. It’s bound to be a great show! Plans are also in the works for a release party in Stockholm since so many Swedish acts have contributed tracks to the album. Nothing official yet though.
The Genuine Fakes’ contribution, “Somehow Everything”, was aired on WMEL Radio last night. It’s being added to a bunch of different radio shows in the US and Australia at the moment. It’s also posted on the Beautiful Escape MySpace again, so if you haven’t heard it yet just head on over there and have a listen.
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