Friday Roundup.

Bryan Estepa-Vessels. Our favorite Aussie this side of Michael Carpenter is back with his third solo album, and Vessels is another mark of excellence for Bryan Estepa. Like his buddy and countryman Carpenter (who helped mix), Estepa has the knack of making pop songs sound easy, and he infuses them with a bit of a country-rock style. The beguiling, laid-back "Won't Let You Down" opens things nicely, and "Hard Habits" draws on The Band. But Estepa is not afraid to tackle purer pop as the bouncy beats and handclaps of "Tongue Tied" and "Alone" will attest. And the soulful ballad "Pull Ourselves Together" might be the prettiest song I've heard this year. Another first-rate effort.

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Frozen Relics-Uncovered. A nice EP debut from this Minnesota duo, who feature a straight-ahead power pop sound that's heavy on the hooks. Leadoff track "Beautiful Girl" mines the classic power pop subject matter with a Fountains of Wayne/Weezer flourish, while the peppy pop of "No Second Chances" has almost a Motown-like feel to it. The anthemic "Burnin'" tackles environmental concerns without being too preachy and while giving a nod to short-term concerns. "One Step Closer" is more pleasing power pop, and "Hymn for Our Children" is a quality instrumental number and is backed by their promise to donate $1 from each full album purchase to the Children’s Miracle Network – Gillette Children’s Hospital.

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Popboomerang on Bandcamp - Freebies Galore!

How does 44 free mp3s from one of the world's greatest power pop labels sound? That's what you can get by visiting Popboomerang's new Bandcamp page. They have two samplers up, one with 13 tracks and the other with 31, featuring artists many of you know and love, along with many others worth checking out. From Bryan Estepa to Russell Crawford to Adrian Whitehead to Grand Atlantic to The Wellingtons (and many more), you can't go wrong.

News from Down Under.

Lots of interesting power pop developments coming out of Australia lately, and here are the highlights:

* Michael Carpenter. If the group of artists we feature on this site who continually work together on different projects can be called the Australian Power Pop Mafia, then Michael Carpenter is The Godfather. And Don MC is back with a couple of projects.

First up is the O'Neders, a gathering of Carpenter and like-minded power poppers who came together to record a live album of power pop covers from contemporary artists such as Sloan, Fountains of Wayne, Teenage Fanclub, Jellyfish, Matthew Sweet as well as classics from The Beatles, Big Star, The Byrds and The Who among others. It's a real hoot and a real treat and you can listen and buy the whole shebang at Bandcamp. Titled That Thing We Done, it's a real wonder. (Unfortunately the CDR version is sold out, so you'll have to digital on this one).

MC is also hard at work on his ultimate Cuban Heels project. You may recall the pair of EPs he's put out in the last couple of years with this crew, and now it's all coming together with The Incomplete Cuban Heels, a collection of the 2 EPs plus a bunch of new tracks. Like other artists these days, he's offering a "buy-in" of sorts to help finance the project and has two levels of support you can give with plenty of goodies available for each. Get all the details at his site.

* The Sunshine Ponies. You probably haven't heard of the band name, but I'm sure you're familiar with the players. This is the aforementioned Aussie Power Pop Mafia in its full glory, as Popboomerang honchos Scott Thurling and Sarah Halligan have called in the gang to record an album set to their love poetry, and in addition to Mr. Carpenter, AbPow faves like Bryan Estepa, Adrian Whitehead, Tim Reid, Kelly's Heels and Danna & The Changes are on board to provide the music and voices for these song-poems. Like the O'Neders project above, you can hear and buy it all at Bandcamp.

CD of the Day, 7/9/08: Bryan Estepa-Sunday Best

I'm not sure what it is about Bryan Estepa's albums that leads me to initially underrate them. 2006's All The Bells & Whistles (which was released later in the year) came in at #28 in my top 100 that year, but as I've mentioned before, if I were doing the 2006 list from scratch today, it'd probably make the top ten. With that in mind, I eagerly anticipated his new one, Sunday Best, and figured I wouldn't underrate him this time. So I received it a little over a month ago, and immediately got distracted by another Popboomerang disc that came along with it, the Adrian Whitehead album. But now that a month has passed, I've gone from "yeah, that sounds nice" to "hey, that's really good" when I've hearing songs from the disc, so once again with the passage of time the quality of Bryan Estepa's work comes shining through.

As with the debut, Sunday Best finds Estepa with a sound that on one side recalls Michael Carpenter (who produced the debut) and Neil Finn, and the other leans into alt-country. Opener "Aches and Shakes" falls into the former category, with an easy-sounding, breezy melody that will bring a smile to your face. "Different With You" is more straight-ahead power pop, while "Stars" is straight-ahead folk/rock. Estepa has always counted the Beach Boys as an influence (i.e., the brilliant "Western Tale" from All The Bells & Whistles), and this time he pays an overt tribute in "Carl Wilson" that comes from the same place in the heart as, say, the Replacements' "Alex Chilton".

Elsewhere, Estepa rocks harder than ever on "Myself", channels Gram Parsons on "Skipping Days" and "Worry Me None", ventures into Elliott Smith territory on "Second Guess" and then closes it in perfect fashion with the slow-building title track that encapsulates all of his styles in the space of 5:01. A great talent, and a great album.

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