New Well Wishers on the way.

Jeff Shelton's at it again. Perennial site favorite The Well Wishers are due for another new album. It's called Dreaming of the West Coast (where else?), and should be out by year's end.



As a sneak peek, here's "Escape the Light", which I'm sure you'll agree is vintage Well Wishers:

Well Wishers do ABBA!

Had a very busy week and plan to get back to normal posting this week, but for now I give you Jeff Shelton and The Well Wishers covering ABBA's "Knowing Me, Knowing You":



And Jeff has offered up an mp3 of this track (which was also covered by Marshall Crenshaw on his live album My Truck is My Home) as well.

Two for Tuesday, 6/15/10

The Well Wishers-Post Modern Romantic. When it comes to certainties in life, there's death, taxes and Jeff Shelton. For over a decade now you can count on a quality new Jeff Shelton record, be it the Spinning Jennies or his current band, The Well Wishers. But if for some reason you need an introduction, the easiest way to sum up the Wishers would be say that they're the Posies of the 21st century. Post Modern Romantic continues the string of excellence, as it cranks up the amps a bit. The opening triumvirate of "Run Away", "Hanging On" and "All or Nothing" are crunchy guitar pop as good as you'll hear this year. It's not until "Someone Else" that we hear the "classic" midtempo, slightly jangly Shelton sound, and "Consequence of Love" also fits this bill. But it's the slightly heavier edge that dominates here, and tracks like "Grammareater", "Sorry About Your Politics" and "Flatlined" manage to capture that edge without sacrificing melody.

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Snakehips-Month of Sundays. It seems that lately I've been stumbling upon more and more bands out of Memphis. After finding The Bulletproof Vests a few months back, I've now come across Snakehips. They've been around since 1993, and Month of Sundays marks their fifth disc. This is straight-up melodic rock'n'roll, and while there is an Alex Chilton/Replacements element to their sound, I also hear a lot of Willie Nile and Ike Reilly as well. Frontman Mark Harrison does sound vocally a lot like Nile, and the infectious opener "Walk Away" sets the tone for some enjoyable classic rock. "Time to Cry" and "Sheena" are a couple of more assured rockers, "Wonderland" is vintage power pop, and the spare, lovely "When I'm Blue" shows that Harrison & Co. can pull off the slower numbers. Rock 'n' Roll (and power pop) needs the true believers who stay faithful to the sound while keeping it fresh, and Snakehips fight the good fight.

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CD of the Day, 12/1/08: The Well Wishers-Jigsaw Days

If power pop were like a sports league, Jeff Shelton might be the frontrunner for MVP. From his work in the The Spinning Jennies to his current role as frontman for The Well Wishers to his work in keeping the power pop flame alive through active participation in Audities and his podcast (The Power Pop Show), Shelton does it all in our neck of the woods. Although it seems like yesterday when Shelton formed The Well Wishers, the newly released Jigsaw Days marks the band's fourth full-length release and as usual, he delivers the goods.

The dominant sound for the Wishers is a midtempo jangly pop that finds its closest match in The Posies, especially as Shelton sounds like a cross between Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer. "Heroes" jumps off the disc in much this manner, and if you have their previous releases, it's like putting on your favorite comfortable sweater. "All The Suckers" rocks harder than the average Well Wishers track, but that's a good thing here; "Conscience Breaking Down" throws a few melodic curves, with a light 80s britpop influence, and Shelton goes largely acoustic in "Florida", his ode to my home state, which is greatly appreciated if for no other reason than it's not the 48927898099th song about California. Elsewhere, the one-man-and-his-disorted-guitar sound of "Drunk on the Tilt-O-Wheel" recalls The Replacements' "Answering Machine", and Shelton really lets loose on his axe in "Moving Mountains" and "Love Lies" is pure jangly bliss. By the end, I really couldn't help but starting chanting "M-V-P", "M-V-P". I got some funny looks, but you had to be there.

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