Leg Sweeeeeeper

Josh of The Sleepies first told me about Leg Sweeper from Texas about a year ago, seriously, he wouldn't shut up about how good they were... and then I listened and was not disappointed. They're punky and party and fun.

Well, they're finally coming to New York and they're playing tomorrow at Dead Herring with a really great lineup- Byrds of Paradise, Sleepies and Sweet Bulbs. I'm excited. It's going to be a crazy time, a sexy weekend. Don't miss it.
Leg Sweeper -- Sexy Weekend

Suzie Who -- Sexy Weekend

Playin' Games

Can I level with you guys for a minute? I love power pop. I don't care if you wanna make fun of me or you think power pop is gay or whatever, cuz I love it. Dudes just had it right in the 70s.

Well, I also love Games, the relatively new band out of Brooklyn made up of members of Busy Signals and Gentleman Jesse, and they have a killer new single out on Rob's House Records.
Now Rob's House says that this record is not power pop, and is instead influenced by pre-power pop stuff. If you're smarter than me, maybe you can figure that out... but if you're dumb like me, you'll just love the songs and not really think about it too much.
Games -- Funny Things

Games -- Don'Look For Her

Spectra-rific!

When I was in Milwaukee I had the great pleasure of seeing The Spectras, a kind of super group of Wisconsin ladies, at an awesome dive bar. They were looking fine and sounding sweet and were one of the best bands I saw on my road trip.

They sound like classic girl group, if that girl group was made out of pure rock 'n roll. Warning: these songs will get stuck in your head.
I e-mailed Wendy a few days ago to ask for some mp3s to post, and she informed me that they have broken up. TOTAL BUMMER. Oh well. Suxxxxx that you never got to see them, and that they never even fully finished mastering these tracks, but hopefully the infectious pop will cheer you up.

The Spectras -- You Can't Break My Heart

The Spectras -- Gospel Song

Denton, Denton USA

So Denton, TX. One of those small college towns that has a tendency to produce all kinds of awesome bands.
By now everyone knows about Fergus & Geronimo, a band that has recently relocated to Brooklyn from Denton, that has their debut LP coming out Hardly Art next week. I had the pleasure of listening to the test press of the LP and it's very good, though much of it is a pretty big departure from their previous singles, it's very catchy and varied and everyone should buy it.
They have three record release shows coming up this weekend...

All three shows should be good, I'm especially excited for Saturday's show at the Ding Dong Lounge, just because I don't think I've been to a show north of 14th street in a very long time, and they're playing with another Denton gem, Final Club, who play fun pop twinged punk. Final Club also plays Death By Audio on Thursday.
Final Club -- Tragic World

Final Club -- Bad Habits

Come out, party texas style!

NEED NEW RECORDS

I recently experienced a personal tragedy... I spilled a beer on my MacBook and it has been wiped out... As a result, I lost all my mp3s.
Now of course I always prefer vinyl to digital, as I think we all do, but I have been known to fall into the habit of being too lazy to walk all the way over to my record player and usually would end up just turning to ye olde iTunes and putting whatever was whatever on shuffle or whatever.
Ever since my compy died I've been spending a lot of time alone with my record collection. It's been great, I've been discovering a lot of stuff I had that I had never really listened to, including some records my mom gave to me from her old collection. It's been great, but after two weeks without my full mp3 collection I started really jonesing for some new LPs to listen to. To remedy this, I went to Academy yesterday and picked up the following 4 LPs:

-Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
This has always been one of my favorite albums of all time, but for some reason I'd never owned it on vinyl. I'm super excited to own this now. This re-press from Matador is this super heavy vinyl that just feels awesome to hold. I think this would be a really perfect record to throw on before making out with some cool dude who lovvvvves indie.
-The Ergs - Dork Rock Cork Rod
This record was recently re-issued by Don Giovanni Records and I thought I should get it. It's kind of a "seminal pop punk record," if such a thing exists and it's catchy and fun to listen to.
-Timmy's Organism - Rise of the Green Gorilla
This was the one newish record I got of the bunch. I actually hadn't gotten around to hearing Timmy's Organism yet, but I had heard only good things about them and am a huge fan of Human Eye (as is any sane person) and I kind of don't think Sacred Bones really puts out crappy records, so I figured it was worth a shot. This record did not disappoint... it's gritty and spooky and catchy in all the best ways. Very good listen.
-Yipes! - Yipes!
This record was my one total impulse buy. I was leafing through the used new arrivals and my eye was caught by a record that had "power pop!" scrawled on the upper left-hand corner of the plastic sleeve. I laughed at this, but the dudes on the cover looked super cute (everyone did in '79, am I right ladies?) and I decided to throw it on and give it a listen. Side one, track one was pretty good so I decided it was worth the purchase. When I got it home, I was not wrong... just way catchy power pop, the way all bands in 1979 should have sounded.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchases. Now pour me some whiskey and let me watch the snow while listening to some punnnnnnnnnnnk.

Lustin' in Boulder

Prior to my road trip, I had been to Boulder, Co millions and millions of time to see the family I have there. Boulder is cool and I liked bumming around Pearl Street when I was a kid and flirting with the homeless street performers, but as I got older and started having better taste in everything I got tired of the non-stop hippies and jam bands and never really saw any trace of punk or indie.

Well, when I was there in November to stay with my brother, I had the great pleasure of finding out that Circle Pit was playing at Astro Land, a hole-in-the-wall new DIY venue run by one of the dudes from School Knights.
The show was good in general, but I especially want to talk about Lust-Cats of the Gutters, an awesome punk two piece of awesome chicks.
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I tend to not be too into two-pieces (though there are some notable exceptions), but I was super excited by Lust-Cats.
They were hot. They were punk. They were loud. They were angry. They were funny. All girl groups should be like that.
I hope they get their act together and tour through NY, but until then, check them out...

Oh Oh Oh Omaha

So on my road trip across the country I decided I wanted to stop in Omaha, Nebraska. I didn't know anyone there and my friend Kevin Failure of Pink Reason was nice enough to set me up with The Yuppies. I hadn't looked into them before I got to Omaha, but since Kevin set me up with them I had assumed they'd be around his age (late 20s). When I arrived I found out they were all around 21. At first I was kind of bummed, until I realized they were some of the coolest dudes I had ever met.

Anyway, I got to see The Yuppies play at a cool DIY space in Omaha and they really delivered. I think fans of Desperate Bicycles and Country Teasers would really like them...
Motivation -- Yuppies

Getting Out -- Yuppies

Thanks Numerators!

So not to brag but today I was at the gym, killing some serious cardio, wearing my Hozac Records shirt, listening to some power pop, and just generally being awesome. It later occurred to me that I really don't own any band shirts, and if I don't wear a band shirt at the gym how will the other people there know that my taste in music is superior to theirs? HOW WILL THEY KNOW?
I tweeted about this dilemma, and a band I've been meaning to write about for a while came to my aid. Yes, The Numerators tweeted at me to offer me t-shirt that will help me look cool at the gym.

I should probably also listen to The Numerators at the gym cuz they're pretty punk and their songs are good. I saw them at Secret Project Robot a long time ago with Useless Eaters and they really impressed me. They don't fuck around with any lame shit, they just rock out.
Listen to these songs by them if you don't believe me:
The Numerators -- Green

The Numerators -- Rip It

Hey Numerators, let's get drunk and yell about things, okay?