A song from each of the bands playing the second night of Fortuna POP!'s birthday shows at the Scala, London on Nov 3rd. Includes Allo Darlin's super limited last single on their own label "Darren"; the new single from the man that single makes reference to, Sir Darren Hayman, "I Taught You How To Dance" from his "The Ship's Piano" album; an exclusive new song from Tender Trap recorded in session for the wonderful Dandelion Radio; and the stand out track from The Ladybug Transistor's latest album "Clutching Stems", entitled "Breaking Up On the Beat".

Tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/131297

15 Years Of Fortuna POP! - Nov 3rd, Scala, London

rucas

Soda Pop Rock

2014_3

BLA - Me Gustaría Que Te Llamaras Oliver

The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

Night Still Comes

Neko Case- Night Still Comes

Classic pop. Such a loaded term, conjuring visions of jangling 12-string guitars, angelic harmonies and timeless arrangements. Ask ten people to name a classic tune and you'll get ten different answers, all of them equally valid. And yet there are standards that all can agree on: The Beach Boys, The Byrds, early REM, The Zombies, The Kinks. The list could go on...
DC's The Saturday People know, understand and revere classic pop. And, of course, they also make it. Featuring an impeccable pedigree with members of Velocity Girl, The Ropers, Tree Fort Angst and The Castaway Stones, the People effortlessly combine 60s folk-pop and soft-rock with power-pop and 80s jangle-pop. That's a lot of references right there, but fans of such groups as Biff Bang Pow, Orange Juice, The Grass Roots and The Weather Prophets should feel right at home with the People's sweet sounds. The guitars clang and strum, the drums pop along and the stellar tunes put you in orbit. The song-writing is a particular high-point, fuelled by the complementary styles of co-front men Greg and Terry. The arrangements are full and effective, supplementing the standard band line-up with added percussion and piano. Bassist Archie's production talents are in full evidence - this record sounds magnificent. And, wrapped in a snazzy sleeve designed by Daisuke from Beigoku Ongaku, it looks pretty sharp too.
It's an all around triumph, really, and further proof that quality tunes are always in style and bands need not kow-tow to the latest trends to make relevant music. Eventually it all comes down to classic tunes, great playing and infectious enthusiasm, and The Saturday People have all of that in spades.

The Saturday People - Slipping Through Your Fingertips

"Vancouver, Detroit, and Bears!" from the October 5, 2009 Eugene Mirman album 'God Is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Asperger’s' 
  

God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger壽猻

Vancouver|Detroit And Bears!

Eugene Mirman - Vancouver, Detroit, and Bears!

Catch The How at SF Popfest 2014!
More info: http://www.popfestsf.com/p/line-up.html

Ripping a page from the Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy songbook, The How might not be The Who but you'd be forgiven for getting them mixed up. The mod-rocking brainchild of Matt (Henry's Dress, The Coachwhips, Sic Alps) and Stewie Anderson (Boyracer, 555 Records), The How pays cheeky tribute to the Spirit of '66: slashing guitars, pop-art graphics, sharp threads and even sharper tunes. Upbeat A-side "Happy Matt" will have you frugging in no time, throwing more shapes on the dancefloor than the Ace Face himself. On the flip, "I Was A Boy" Matt sings oh-so-sweetly while Stew pummels his drum kit into submission; midway through the song bursts into a complete feedback frenzy, going all red with purple flashes.


The How - I Was A Boy

Summer is the perfect season for pure, catchy indie pop, and while it's just turning to winter for Australia's Summer Cats, Slumberland is excited to ring in North America's warmest months with their debut full-length, "Songs for Tuesdays!" Building on their single releases, including 7"s on Cloudberry, Slumberland and Knock Yr. Socks Off, two 3" CDRs on Cloudberry and WeePOP! and their Scratching Post EP on Popboomerang, Summer Cats' debut album is all set to deliver on the promise of their already impressive discography, not to mention the 3 1/2-star review they garnered from indie bible Pitchfork, after only their second live performance.

Summer Cats play upbeat pop songs in a Stereolab-meets-Go-Betweens style, replete with distorted keyboards, feedback guitars and hook-laden basslines and all accompanied by Scott Stevens' distinctive vocals. They are best played loud, in your bedroom, while your parents are out. The Melbourne five-piece not only know how to write addictive pop songs with just a hint of '60s garage edge--catchy numbers like "Super" and "Lonely Planet"--they also know their indie pop history. Nowhere is this more evident than on stand-out mid-album tracks like the boy-girl duet "In June", which could easily be the best Velocity Girl or Earthmen song of 2009, and the jangle-pop of "Wild Rice", which recalls the folky early-'90s Rhode Island indie scene of Slumberland faves Small Factory and Honeybunch. This side of "Songs for Tuesdays" brings back the feeling of the our classic collaboration with another Australian indie powerhouse, Summershine Records, the Just a Taste compilation.

None of which, of course, is to suggest that Summer Cats are looking backwards. They have already shared sides of wax with similar modern day pop groups like Eux Autres and labelmates The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and are set to keep the momentum going with the upbeat, danceable 33 minutes of fun that is "Songs for Tuesdays".


Summer Cats - Super

'Storms' from Wolf Alice's 'Creature Songs' EP.

Available now on iTunes: http://po.st/CreatureSongs

My Love Is Cool (Deluxe Edition)

Storms

Download on iTunes

Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most talked about pop bands in years. Their distinctive brand of noisy pop is a tidy distillation of all the great noise-pop precedents - early MBV, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship - but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song. They have released a handful of singles on classy labels like Slumberland, Fortuna Pop!, Atomic Beat and Cloudberry, each one issued to greater anticipation and even wilder reception. Critical acclaim has come from such varied quarters as Stereogum, Fader, Big Takeover, Indie Pages, Skatterbrain, Drowned In Sound, Indie-MP3, Clash Magazine and uncountable others.

Following up the band's ace "Everything With You" single and whirlwind Swedish tour, we are delighted to bring you their self-titled debut album. "The Pains of Being Pure At Heart" is an instant classic, packed with brilliantly-executed pop gems that blend the rush of youthful enthusiasm with crafty arrangements, well-honed tunes and buckets of guitar racket. Drawing on the sparkling legacy of the best of 80s and 90s pop, POBPAH update the timeless noisy pop template with a thoroughly modern viewpoint and a very distinctive, playful personality. There is something instantly identifiable about a Pains tune, and it is the essential "rightness" of their records that has captured the attention of pop fans around the world and raised anticipation levels for this album to a near-fever pitch.

"The Pains of Being Pure At Heart" delivers on this promise with perfect assurance. Smashing tunes like "Come Saturday" and "Young Adult Friction" are classic three minute masterpieces that simply beg the be played on repeat. "Stay Alive" and "Gentle Sons" show the band can slow it down and still rock it, and "Hey Paul" is as brash a slice of noise-blast guitar pop as you'll hear all year. Weighing in at a flawlessly-conceived ten songs, this is all the album that Pains fans had hoped for. Handily transcending easy pigeonholes like "indie pop" and "indie rock," it is just a great album that shows a smart young band fulfilling their potential and crafting a very convincing statement of purpose.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Come Saturday

Taken from "The Last Match." Reissued on LP and CD September 23, 2014 on Slumberland Records.

pre-order: http://smarturl.it/aislers-set

The Aislers Set occupy an enviable place in the pop pantheon. Brimming with drunken romanticism, sharp pop sensibilities and timeless melodies, The Aislers reveled in the history of great POP, spiking their classicist 60s-tinged tunes with pure post-punk energy and originality of bands like the Fire Engines and The June Brides. Every song is a meticulously constructed sound world, where the arrangement and instrumentation sublimely, uncannily bring each tune to completeness.

The Aislers Set began in 1998 as a vehicle for the songs of Linton, who had most recently co-led San Francisco's legendary Henry's Dress and drummed in Go Sailor with her pal Rose Melberg. With Henry's Dress she had helped guide the band from it's noise/drone beginnings to the explosive mod/punk fusion that made them such a force to be reckoned with. With The Aislers Set the original goal was just to write, record and document.

The result was the first Aislers Set album, 1998's seminal "Terrible Things Happen". During the course of recording "Terrible Things Happen", Linton was joined by some friends who became the full-band Aislers Set line-up: Alicia Vanden Heuvel on bass, Yoshi Nakamoto on drums, Wyatt Cusick on guitar and Jen Cohen on keyboards. It's this fantastic line-up that toured in 1999 and put together the second album, 2000's "The Last Match". Where "Terrible Things Happen"s synthesis of 60s mod-pop, 70s punk and 80s/90s indie flavors provided an end-of-the-century summation of where pop had been and where it was heading, "The Last Match" upped the ante even farther.

More ambitious in conception, "The Last Match" expanded the band's sound into more orchestral areas. While the songs are still driving and catchy as a fish hook, the arrangements are far more sophisticated. The instrumentation has been augmented by Jen's vintage keyboards/organs and various horns, giving the tunes the timeless feel of classic groups like the early Bee Gees, The Zombies and The Millennium. Still preferring to record in the garage where they are allowed unlimited time for experimentation, the band had no problem crafting an amazing sounding album that could have sprung fully-formed from the hallowed studios of Gold Star. This is no murky lo-fi production, but a fully-rounded and rich-sounding recording with a warm, analog sound.

"The Last Match" was a roaring success, garnering fantastic reviews and spurring the band to tour the US, Japan and UK multiple times, with bands (and fans) including Belle & Sebastian, Black Dice, The Gossip, Erase Errata, Comet Gain and Sleater-Kinney. The band even achieved the ultimate badge of indie honor, recording a session for the legendary John Peel. Even more, "The Last Match" established The Aislers Set as one of the most beloved indiepop bands of their generation. It was a must-listen album, one that fueled fond memories, sparked love affairs, set off spontaneous dance parties, and reminded us all of the power of songs and song-craft and POP. It's chiming guitars and indelible melodies were heard everywhere from London to Tokyo, from Glasgow to Malmo: The Aislers truly came into their own with "The Last Match."


The Aislers Set - The Way To Market Station

Pre-order Terrible Things Happen & The Last Match: http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/aislers-set

Pre-order How I Learned To Write Backwards: http://suicidesqueeze.scdstore.net/

The Aislers Set occupy an enviable place in the pop pantheon. Brimming with drunken romanticism, sharp pop sensibilities and timeless melodies, The Aislers reveled in the history of great POP, spiking their classicist 60s-tinged tunes with pure post-punk energy and originality of bands like the Fire Engines and The June Brides. Every song is a meticulously constructed sound world, where the arrangement and instrumentation sublimely, uncannily bring each tune to completeness.

The Aislers Set began in 1998 as a vehicle for the songs of Linton, who had most recently co-led San Francisco's legendary Henry's Dress and drummed in Go Sailor with her pal Rose Melberg. With Henry's Dress she had helped guide the band from it's noise/drone beginnings to the explosive mod/punk fusion that made them such a force to be reckoned with. With The Aislers Set the original goal was just to write, record and document.

The result was the first Aislers Set album, 1998's "Terrible Things Happen." Not content to merely (!) write some of the most sublime pop tunes this side of Ray Davies, Linton got busy in her garage studio and recorded and produced almost the whole record by herself. It's a remarkable feat, and a love for such producers as Phil Spector and Brian Wilson shines from each and every groove. This is no shameless 60's pastiche, though, with the echoes of classic pop past filtered through a totally 90's aesthetic. It's a beautiful,  multi-layered record and a genuinely great achievement of home recording.

During the course of recording TTH, Linton was joined by some friends who became the full-band Aislers Set line-up: Alicia Vanden Heuvel on bass, Yoshi Nakamoto on drums, Wyatt Cusick on guitar and Jen Cohen on keyboards. It's this fantastic line-up that toured in 1999 and put together the second album, 2000's "The Last Match." Where "Terrible Things Happen"s synthesis of 60s mod-pop, 70s punk and 80s/90s indie flavors provided an end-of-the-century summation of where pop had been and where it was heading, "The Last Match" upped the ante even farther.

More ambitious in conception, "The Last Match" expanded the band's sound into more orchestral areas. While the songs are still driving and catchy as a fish hook, the arrangements are far more sophisticated. The instrumentation has been augmented by a Jen's vintage keyboards/organs and various horns, giving the tunes the timeless feel of classic groups like the early Bee Gees, The Zombies and The Millennium. Still preferring to record in the garage where they are allowed unlimited time for experimentation, the band had no problem crafting an amazing sounding album that could have sprung fully-formed from the hallowed studios of Gold Star. This is no murky lo-fi production, but a fully-rounded and rich-sounding recording with a warm, analog sound.

"The Last Match" was a roaring success, garnering fantastic reviews and spurring the band to tour the US, Japan and UK multiple times, with bands (and fans) including as Belle & Sebastian, Black Dice, The Gossip, Erase Errata, Comet Gain and Sleater-Kinney. The band even achieved the ultimate badge of indie honor, recording a session for the legendary John Peel. Even more, "The Last Match" established The Aislers Set as one of the most beloved indiepop bands of their generation. It was a must-listen album, one that fueled fond memories, sparked love affairs, set off spontaneous dance parties, and reminded us all of the power of songs and song-craft and POP. It's chiming guitars and indelible melodies were heard everywhere from London to Tokyo, from Glasgow to Malmo: The Aislers truly came into their own with "The Last Match."

2003 saw the release of the band's final album, "How I Learned To Write Backwards." At once more baroque and edgier than its predecessor, "How I Learned To Write Backwards" expertly wound together so many strands of pop history with such personality, atmosphere and style that there's never any doubt that you're listening to a band with vision. Far from being a "name the reference" game, The Aislers used the past as inspiration rather than a blueprint, so the echoes you might hear of, say, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound or Laura Nyro's soulful lyricism are so well-integrated into the Aislers' sound that they're more akin to the spice in the stew rather than the stock of the soup.

While the band had stopped playing and recording together by 2004 thanks to life commitments, their reputation has only grown and sporadic reunion shows and mini-tours have met with rapturous response. Now Slumberland and Suicide Squeeze are proud to join hands to re-release these fantastic, seminal albums in remastered form, and on vinyl LP again for the first time in over a decade. All three albums will feature new liner notes, updated art and sharp sound. Further, the band will play a select set of shows this Fall, and a new album of singles and rarities is being prepared for release in early 2015.


The Aislers Set - Been Hiding

Mighty Clouds - Skeletons Join Hands

a lovely song by the Softies, released on the album Holiday in Rhode Island c.2000 on K Records.

Write it Down (The Softies) *bedroom demo*

All Girl Summer Fun Band - look of love

OUT NOW, ON LOLIPOP RECORDS!!!
POLARTROPICA - "Astrodreams" (CASS)
spectacular indie synth-pop majesties from the debut tape!!! 
GET IT: www.lolipoprecords.com

POLARTROPICA - "The Past Could Be"

Darren Hayman - I Taught You How To Dance

A new song from Tender Trap, especially recorded for Rocker's show on Dandelion Radio.

http://www.dandelionradio.com

Tender Trap - Clockwork

The latest single from Allo Darlin'. It's about listening to records when you're embarking on a new romance. I think we know who the Darren in question is right?

You can buy it here:

http://allodarlin.bandcamp.com/album/darren

Allo Darlin' - Darren

The stand out track from The Ladybug Transistor's latest album "Clutching Stems", entitled "Breaking Up On the Beat".
