Sloan

Sloan, “Deeper Than Beauty”

Sloan are a rarity, a band who clearly should have been big in America, but instead settled for a long and celebrated career in Canada. This stuff, really smart power pop, absolutely could have broken through at basically any moment, and just kind of never did. If you like this sort of thing at all, this album and One Chord To Another are must-listens.

Yo-Yo Ma, “Suite no. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: III. Courante”

I feel too dumb to even type out that song title, much less listen to this.

Eugenius, “Breakfast”

The Vaselines’ leader, Eugene Kelly, formed a new band (called Eugenius) that got plenty of attention due to Kurt Cobain’s cheerleading for the band. Well, for the Vaselines, anyway. At any rate, that’s how I ended up with this album (Oomalama). And, well, it’s fine. It’s power pop, and plenty tuneful, but hard to get too excited about.

Sloan, “Before I Do”

Meanwhile, if you’re going to listen to power pop, you might as well just listen to Sloan instead. You can’t wave your hands without hitting a “they should have been big!” profile of Sloan, so I’ll save the space here. I’m not Canadian, so I’m not legally allowed to write that story anyway. Twice Removed is fantastic, anyway.

Fantastic one today!

J-Zone, “Zone For President”

More old shit from J-Zone! I mentioned his persona last time, but here you can really hear the cheapass side of things. Also, dig that circus beat! And the shots at internet losers. All good stuff!

Pond, “Forget”

Pond’s third and final record, Rock Collection, came out on a major label, which probably did it no favors. While Sub Pop would know what to do with a band like this, when Pond didn’t hit it big quickly with this record, Sony basically just forgot that it existed. It’s a shame, because it’s a an excellent album full of rock gems like this, all of them at least a little off-kilter. There’s also some really touching songs on here as well. Overall, a lost gem.