So the other day I slapped on an old 45 of "A Must To Avoid" by Herman's Hermits, and was amazed all over again at what a great guitar pop record it was. Then I spent some time listening to the Rhino LP of Emitt Rhodes's Merry-Go Round. It kind of started me thinking about how many obscure fuzzy punk singles are compiled by the hundreds, for which I'm grateful. But what of the flop major label 45s by purely pop bands who were more influenced by the Searchers or the Hollies than the Stones or Kinks. Surely there must be hundreds of those as well? It seems an under-explored angle from which to attack the garage band phenomenon. Surely for every Left Banke and Turtles there must have been many failures, and I'm sure I've heard plenty of them but it seems like there must be many more out there.

I guess this is only tangentially related to the song in question here. This track by New Zealand's Avengers, while lovely and inspirational enough to have been covered by David Kilgour and Martin Phillipps's Pop Art Toasters, is just the sort of thing that tends not to appear on compilations of "trans-world punk" or "freakbeat" because it isn't deemed "wild" enough. Nevertheless, it's a great pop record, and one worth hearing again and again.

A quick perusal of the three Pencils singles in the Drawer had us flummoxed as to which one is the best. "Pictures of Paris" is very nice indeed, but this one gets the slight nod. For now, anyway. The Pencils' output, while undeniably well-crafted, caught the end of the UK power pop trend, and perhaps this might explain the fact that they remain fairly obscure even to people who love this kind of thing.

Charlie Fawn's debut 45 is a pretty tasty bit of UK power pop; sources who should know report that the self-titled LP from which it comes is quite solid indeed. All of Mr. Fawn's records that we've heard are worth a listen, especially his second single "Hothead Handshake Tremble."

This is exactly what I think of when I hear the words "power pop." Not so much power chords and punky tempos, but actual emotional power, y'know. "Wednesday Week" was always my favorite Undertones song. I've heard exactly two songs written by Carl Rusk, but that's enough to know that this guy pushes all the right buttons.

This gem, put together with some of the San Diego revo-garage scenesters (Crawdaddys, Tell-Tale hearts, etc.) may be my favorite power pop song of all time. Rusk's vocal makes his longing sound positively apocalyptic. Everything about this song is perfect, from the Who chord-voicings of the opening to that wonderful Beatle chord that snaps your bent heart in half at the end. Great lyrics, brilliant production, get out the checklist, yep, it's all there.

Dennis Pash of the Leopards loaned me a video of this being performed live on some local LA(?) TV show hosted by Dominic Priore(?). It was pretty cool, and also featured Dennis and the lads running through "Psychedelic Boy." Anybody know what I'm talking about?

I've heard rumors of other Nashville Ramblers stuff existing, and that the band was also called the Black Diamonds at one point. I do know that with some of the Tell-Tale Hearts Rusk had a band called the Mystery Machine, whose great "She Is Not Mine" is on Voxx Records' Battle of the Garages CD, as well as the Roots of Powerpop! CD. I also would swear that I saw a 7" version of this listed on eBay once. Was I high?

This was at one point scheduled to be on Rhino's forthcoming Nuggets III: Children of Nuggets box set, which it now appears will be released on August 30. I've not been able to find a current tracklisting online, so I don't know exactly what's going to be on it, but we'll try to keep you updated. I'm sure Mr. Cat will have a few comments about his favorite Vipers song they didn't use, as well as a host of other gripes.

This might be the coolest thing Matthew Sweet has ever done; not an insignificant accomplishment considering the fact that he continues to turn out fine albums like clockwork. "I've Got Gold," is a really good example of what can happen when a pop composer explores the ideas suggested by Pet Sounds, rather than just copying the sound of that record. It illustrates nicely Sweet's ability to step into scientist mode (see also: Stamey, Eno, Scott Miller, Martin Phillipps). It is strange, huge, and glorious.

This track only appeared on the CD issue of the DB records compilation Squares Blot Out the Sun. I've heard rumors that it was taken from a second Buzz of Delight record which while never released, did reach the test pressing stage. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

To paraphrase Byron Coley, they very idea of adults playing songs on toy instruments is nausea-inducing. Why then, was this Peter Holsapple-produced LP one of the most charming of the 80s? Songs, m'boy, songs. Really good songs. Songs that are so good that you sort of forget that they're being played on toy drumkits and pianos and ukeleles. As Great Plain/Gibson Brother Don Howland says in his excellent liner notes, "It's a music filled with weird little plips and plunks, like music heard through a wall from a parallel universe. A parallel universe where everybody is nice." The end result is far less cloying than the average Of Montreal album.

Unfortunately, the creator of these wonderful tunes, Alex Garvin, seems to have gone 'round the bend after the band made a second LP, which consequently was never released. Anyone ever get to hear it?

Four Letter Words was a wonderful budget 45 label run by Maz of the Mummies. Recording, as evidenced here, was done in primitive circumstances. The records were one-sided to save on mastering costs, and the sleeves were those prefabricated die cut thingies which were subsequently silk-screened. They're really beautiful little objects. This track by the gloriously hooky Tiger Trap is one of the best things the label issued, although first prize would almost certainly go to Allan Clapp's "Change In the Weather."

The Moss Poles were a UK indie pop outfit that had at least one other 45, but the important thing is that in researching the band on the Internet, I found this really great resource for info regarding the UK Indie Charts courtesy of the good folks at Cherry Red.

I don't know much about this Australian band except that they later became the Cruel Sea, but what a odd, delightful little record this is.

I thought Material Issue's post-International Pop Overthrow material was mostly pretty thin, with the exception of a few great tracks ("Goin' Through Your Purse" leaps immediately to mind), and that Jim Ellison was a bit of a jackass on stage most of the times I saw them. However, it's the good things about the band that really stand out in my memory: Putting off buying the "Renee Remains the Same" 45 for months because I thought it looked like a generic hardcore record (and the band name didn't help any), seeing them at SXSW on the verge of their signing with Mercury and remembering their songs for months afterward, a show at noon in front of the Kansas Union on a chilly early spring day where Ellison and company were having a great time and played a fantastic set to bemused passersby, and wishing International Pop Overthrow would come out so we could own all of those songs we'd only heard live a couple of times.

Almost nine years after the sad suicide of Jim Ellison, it seems that Material Issue's accomplishments, by Little Hits standards, are fairly significant. They were an excellent, tight live rock 'n' roll band, Ellison wrote more great songs than AC/DC or the Raspberries, he and his mates made one excellent LP, and a handful of tracks that were up to the level of the best material from that record. Here are a couple: "Echo Beach" was, I believe, their first effort, issued on a four-song various artists 7". "The Girl Who never Ever Falls In Love" was the B-side of "Renee...". I don't think either of these ever turned up on any of their albums, although re-recordings of some of the choice early material did ("Chance Of A Lifetime" and "A Very Good Thing" among others).

The Jasmine Minks were just about as good as any of the early Creation bands; so good in fact that it was difficult to choose which song to put up here. I thought maybe "What's Happening" or the LP track "Forces Network," or even the jangly "Cut Me Deep" but the boys voted for this, their first Creation 45. It's interesting to note how their interpretation of the Mod sound differs from the Jam-inspired bands like the Chords, The Jolt, etc.

There is a narcotic warmth to the fuzzy guitar and organ maelstrom of Snapper; while the rhythms may be fairly stomping and the melodies sinister, the overall effect is one of being cocooned in your very comfortable Velvet zone. Snapper (on this record) consists of mainstay Peter Gutteridge (very early clean member who turned up again in the Great Unwashed, as well as a contributor to many other FN discs) as well as David Kilgour (Clean, Stephen, etc.), Mike Dooley (Toy Love) and Christine Voice. Their entire output is mesmerizing, and there are times when nothing else will do.

By the way, Flying Nun Records has just released a Toy Love retrospective. Also, Tall Dwarfs are playing a few US dates this summer.

A recent flurry of CD-R comp trading with Brian Kirk reminded us how good this track is. This is from what we believe to be the only release from Kings of Wyoming, masterminded by former 10,000 Maniacs producer Albert Garzon. Cathy Crane's charming vocal recalls good stuff like the Revolving Paint Dream or the Hangman's Beautiful Daughters.

More modpsychfreakbeat in an attempt to catch up. Plasticland's entire career may have been based on the Geranium Pond track. Sweden's The Acts present one of our favorite English as Second Language cuts. Then we have great folkish pop from Germany's Improved Sound Ltd. and a great 45 from the Ways and Means, a UK outfit that reminds us of the Easybeats.

I'm sorry I haven't posted for awhile. We had an electrical storm over the holiday weekend that put my computer in the hospital, so I'm going to attempt to catch up over the next few days. Here are a few tracks that we would have placed on Rhino's Nuggets II box set. First, New Zealand's Cresendos (sic) with a lovely proto-Chills fuzzpop nugget. Then an unreleased popsong from Tropical Fish, typical of the gems to be found on the Syde Tryps series. We follow this with a great mod dancer from Holland's Zen, and brutal freakbeat from The Boys Blue, which comes to us from the very highly recommended Searching In the Wilderness comp. Next post: probably more of the same.

Amelia Fletcher has contributed as a writer and/or singer to a pile of great pop tunes over the years with Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap among others, but it would be hard to argue that she has ever clearly topped the final, eponymous 45 by Talulah Gosh (actually written by Amelia's brother, TG/Heavenly drummer Matthew Fletcher, who tragically committed suicide in 1996.) The 12" version might actually be the way to go on this, it adds a second B-side, "Escalator Over the Hill," another big fave with some great guitar sounds. There are several compilations available which contain all of the TG singles.

The quest for this 45 by Boston's Tweeds was a formative collector story similar to that of "Mary's Got Her Eye On Me." After hearing it on a ROIR cassette called Trouser Press Presents the Best Of America Underground (CD re-issue please!) in high school, I became obsessed with tracking it down, a task that was much, much more difficult in the days before the internet. I did manage to find a couple of copies of the re-recorded version on Eat Records; it is more common but decidedly inferior. I finally managed to secure a copy from an editor of The Bob in the mid-nineties. It set me back $35, which was far more than I'd ever paid for a 45 at that point. (Boy, the things I couldn't have forseen.) You can probably score one for about half that now on eBay. Not that I've ever regretted buying it for a second.