"Pop Does Not Mean Popular: A Polite Introduction to Hussalonia (2004-2014)" (Hussalonia)

[$9 to Download // $12 for CD // https://hussalonia.bandcamp.com/album/pop-does-not-mean-popular-a-polite-introduction-to-hussalonia-2004-2014]

I'm not really sure what I was thinking going into this album.   It's a collection of songs that span ten years and I'm still not really sure whether the term "Hussalonia" refers to the artist name or the label that these songs appear on or perhaps in some weird way both.   None of that matters though, and neither does my preconceived notions going into this.    The fact is it threw me for a curve because it isn't pop in the traditional sense of the radio sound (Ummm... Let's say One Direction for right now) but yet it does have elements of pop to it.

There are many kinds of music that can be tagged as "pop".    This has pieces of them with it being a cross between pop rock and bedroom pop, but as it likes to point out- and something that I really never think about- is that in these instances "pop" is never in reference to "popular", which is how it is traditionally used in music.    When was the last time you actually heard a bedroom pop album that was popular?    Even, for all of his many wonders and delights (and as he comes out in these songs also), Elliott Fucking Smith himself isn't really all that popular still.

I suppose I thought that this album might take sounds of a different variety and mix them around to sound like what is considered to be popular music.  (see: hiyohiyoipseniyo)  These are beautifully crafted songs that remind me of an acoustic Weezer, Buddy Holly, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed or something from Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.   The fact that these songs can stay so off the radar for all of these years (and I'm just hearing about them now) does prove the title correct.

It's strange to think that your music can be catchy and all of the things you think of when you consider what the term "pop" represents musically, and yet they can just seemingly go by unnoticed.   And it's not just this-- there is so much more.    It's everything, man.    Should we be renaming bedroom pop to something else?   I'm not sure who to contact about that, but these songs are magnificent and I think we should spread them around so as to try and prove the title wrong: let's make them popular.

Hannah Epperson "BURN"

[$5 CAD to Download // $15 CAD for 7" Vinyl // https://hannahepperson.bandcamp.com/album/burn]

I've been trying as much as I can in recent months- and really it was most of my mantra for the end of 2014 going into 2015- to not compare artists with other artists in a negative way.   This is simply to say that I no longer wish to say: "This sounds like <fill in the blank> only better!" because it's kind of that belief of putting someone else down to pick yourself up.    (Though I'm technically not picking *myself* up, just the other artist who sounds how I would like the first, not as good artist to sound)

These two songs from Hannah Epperson begin with beats, strings and an overall mix of electronic pop rock that musically has the makings of something like Gotye.     As strings are delicately plucked in the second song you can hear this as well.    It's very easy to please the ears with these intricate wonders of music on both of these songs.   I've listened to this through at least once trying to focus only on the music and pretend that the vocals do not exist (I sometimes wish I had the technology to pull the vocals out in some sort of music program way) and it is just fascinating to hear the many layers at work here.

On one hand, you have earth-shattering beats that make you believe this could be some sort of hip hop, and yet the style and grace of something classical in the string sense.   Now just imagine the stereotypical person who you would think of as liking classical music (snooty) meeting the stereotypical person who you would think of as liking hip hop (gangsta)   They seem so different, but when these two sounds clash on "BURN" it creates an all new form of beauty.

As you stop picking apart the music, listening for the various levels on which it operates, you do realize that, yes, this does indeed have some beautiful female vocals singing over it as well.    It reminds me of the first time that I heard Polly Scattergood or Kimbra, but back to what I was saying in the first paragraph-- one song particularly stuck out to me when listening to this and that was the theme song to the Netflix original series "Orange Is The New Black".    Of course that song, easily searchable for the artist behind it, is a song that I do enjoy because it gets stuck in my head when I binge watch OITNB but I am not a fan otherwise of her music.

Now I'll say something tired and cliche about how if that other artist sounded more like Hannah Epperson then I would certainly be listening to her as well.    But it doesn't really get much better than these two songs right here and regardless of what other artists you happen to like or dislike or maybe have just not heard of yet, "BURN" should be in your playlist if not your vinyl collection.

Boom! Bap! Pow! "So Heavy"

[https://soundcloud.com/boombappow/sets/so-heavy]

Somewhere between the dreamy rock of something out of the 1940's or 1950's (Think Buddy Holly era, but not) and the more recent ska revival of a band such as Save Ferris comes the music of Boom! Bap! Pow!.   The multi-instrumental songs with vocals that would make Gwen Stefani herself blush could be the soundtrack to a great spy film or simply contest with Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas.

How do you describe something that borrows from genres but doesn't have one of its own?   You can only say what it isn't, rather than what it is.   This isn't Shannon and the Clams.   It's not Save Ferris or No Doubt.    It's not quite doo-wop and it's not any of the pop acts from when songs like "Teen Angel" were first tearing up the radio waves.  (Though sometimes, yes, this does sound like the soundtrack to "Cry Baby")

As strange as it may sound, a song like "My World" can also pull out those hints of The Jackson 5 and, wow, the fact that a band can stay true to their own sound and yet cross these various genres just shows you how incredibly talented they are musically.    This is just overly addicting.   I don't want to write about it.   I just want to listen to it.   You should be listening to it too.   Hear her belting that line out?   If that doesn't convince you then nothing will and you're not worth my time.