Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care. Gene Champagne

Gene Champagne has found himself on this blog a few times. After his EP 'Let's Jet' followed some singles that are now on Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care. The Canadian rocker fits nicely in a row starting with U.S. garage rock in the 60s, into punkpop and powerpop bands in the later 70s, right up to modern day revivalists like Geoff Palmer, Brad Marino, etc. In short Gene Champagne presents short, fast, loud songs that have a pop feel that is just so sweet.

Of course, Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care is totally anachronistic. It has nothing to do with the mostly totally heartless songs released today with the aim to chart. Exceptions apart, I just do not discover a life form in them. Put on Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care and life, fun and the will to play simply jump into my ears. Each song starts to rock and roll and continues until the very last note fades out.

It will have been on here before, but Gene Champagne was the drummer in a band called Teenage Head. Usually, drummers sit in the back and play a part fitting the composition presented to them. On Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care Gene Champagne wrote and played everything you hear. Not only is he capable of writing perfect pop-rock-punk songs that in a different universe should all be big top 10 if not number 1 hits, he's a good player and singer as well. Each song is so free flowing. Everything fits perfectly in its place. If it is not perfection, this album comes very close.

Promo photo

Added are two covers, the already reviewed 'Yummy Yummy Yummy' by the Ohio Express and 'I Can't Pretend' by The Barracudas. The first one is a song that I would totally not have minded to have all but forgotten, the other is as new to me, just like the rest is.

With Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care Gene Champagne has made the world just this little bit nicer. At a time where so many dogs are wagged simultaneously by the same person that it's impossible to keep up, where with just a little more flooding the whole zone will be gone, an album like Too Pop For Punk…Too Punk To Care is not just an antidote, it's a reminder that there is a far better world within reach.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght 

2026, week 41. 10 singles (2)

Fall? Yes, it's here, finally. At least for today. Loads and loads of rain, wind and it's grey, greyer, greyest. That describes today alright. In my ears is the optimistically melancholic and dreamy sound of Railcard's album 'Two Steps At A Time', music that fits this day perfectly. In the meantime, here are ten recent singles for you to explore. Enjoy!

Bad Luck Hideaway. The Rolling Stones

With the digital release of 'Mr. Charm', a b-side is released called Bad Luck Hideaway. 'Mr. Charm' is one of the supercharged songs on the Stones' latest effort, 'Foreign Tongue'. A brooding video with Alexander Skarsgård in the lead role accompanies the release. Bad Luck Hideaway stems from the aborted 2015 studio sessions that in the end resulted in the alternative plan, the blues covers album 'Blue and Lonesome'. In other words, Charlie Watts is on drums. The song stands out for a different reason as well. It is a real duet between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. As far as I recall that may be a first. The song itself is a country song and let's be honest, a true b-side. The song just sort of drags itself forward, dragged around by the same riff played over and over. Everything around Bad Luck Hideaway has been done better by The Rolling Stones, but it remains The Rolling Stones and that makes the song more than just alright. A warm Hammond organ, clear piano, nice overdubbed guitar notes, Ronnie on pedal steel and finally a nice solo, probably played by Ronnie and the duet. I'm more than glad the band released the song from its vault. And 'Mr. Charm' remains a top song, also three months after the release. Can we make it a physical single as well, please?

Never Say Die EP. Tokyo Rose 

After a band that is around since 1962, today a band that makes its debut on this blog. Bands come and go and some return after the kids have gone through school. There are so many artists and bands returning to music, that this is the impression I'm getting and understandable at that. The other constant is, that nearly 100% of the bands that reach me, were all unknown by me in their round 1. Tokyo Rose formed in 2001 and called it quits in the later 00s. Today, there is a five song EP out called Never Say Die. The music is a mature sounding emo in the music and the lyrics. The result is songs that are still urgent in sound, played by musicians that master their instruments. Where with emo bands I usually drop out after two or three songs because of the high emotions, if I even get there, I don't here. Tokyo Rose simply strikes the right notes and sings the right kind of melodies. Never Say Die is the right kind of introduction to the band for me. Let me end with mentioning the drumming in 'Something Sweeter', It's really other worldly, just like the intro of 'Ugly Comes Out'. 

Radio Station. Ex:Re

Radio Station, do youths today even know what radio is, let alone a radio station? I hope they do, but there are so many other ways to discover new music today that radio has become unnecessary for that. And, if I'm honest, I for myself prefer to hear what I want to hear and not what I'm presented, selected by a station manager or AI. Let's focus on the song Radio Station instead. Ex:Re may be a new name for me but the singer is not. Elena Tonra is a member of Daughter, e.g.of the album 'Not To Disappear' reviewed by yours truly here in 2016. She released an album under the name Ex:Re in 2018, that passed me by. On 30 October a second album will be released, called 'Save As'. Radio Station is a dreamy song with long drawn out notes and vocals, that sort of come in and fade out, without disrupting the whole. It's just the impression the music gives me as a listener. At heart it is an acoustic guitar and Elena Tonra's voice(s) that carry the song. From there more and more instruments and atmospherics come in. Radio Station is mesmerising, like 'Radio Veronica' mesmerised me when I was a kid with all the new music coming out of the (small) speaker, accompanied by the atmospherics, statics and morse signs coming from fishing boats on the North Sea.

Bang Bang Bang. Lambrini Girls

In January it's two years ago since Lambrini Girls released its debut album ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’ and on 15 January 'No Refunds' will be released. Bang Bang Bang is the second single drawn from the album and presents Lambrini Girls as I remember them, loud, in your face and totally relentless. No refunds is the statement made here. Once in there is no way back. "It's an eye for an eye, bitch". Can a female singer sound more like Amy Taylor than she does herself? Yes, Phoebe Lunny does manage to sound more angry and indignant. Bang Bang Bang is a few minutes of full on punk attack. Nothing more but certainly nothing less.

All In My Mind. The Spyrals

The Spyrals is a band from Los Angeles making its debut on this blog. Once again, a band making music like it is 1965/66. Think a band like The Troggs from the U.K. and then even more elementary and stripped down, sounding just as dated as an obscure garagerock band from the Midwest from 60 years ago. And yet, this is so much fun. Guitarist/vocalist Jeff Lewis, Georgia Feroce, keys/vocals and Dash Borinstein, drums sound just as it is written here. A guitar drenched in reverb, a thin Farfisa sounding organ and the drums pushing the boundaries and keeping things together. In the years since this blog started, dozens and dozens of bands like this have come by from multiple countries. The Spyrals is more than welcome on these pages. Album 'Heavy Smoke' comes out on 27 November.

Doin' alright. Brijitte West and the Greenowskis

There are song titles and song titles. Doin' Alright? The title fits Doin' Alright like the perfect glove. Just like Herman Brood and His Wild Romance's 'Doin' It', it rocks up and down, back and forth, sideways and back again. Brijitte West, ex- NY Loose, teams up with Italians Wilko Zanni, Lorenzo Vacondio, and Lester Greenowski. The music is pure American powerpop with a little punk. Think 'One Way Or Another' or 'Hangin' On The Telephone', two rocking songs from Blondie's best album 'Parallel Lines'. Everything sounds deliciously dirty from the singing to the stinging guitar solo played by Wilko Zanni. It just sounds so good.

Want It Bad (the pep talks and playing fields of old England) EP. Colin Moulding

Listening to the title song of the three song EP for the first time, I gave up after about thirty seconds. Is this song ever going to start?, I asked myself. Giving it a second chance with the release of the EP, I changed my mind. Want It Bad (etc.) is so subtle. There is far more going on than I expected. Colin Moulding taps into his Beatles fandom before he joined post punkers XTC and wrote that great single 'Making Plans For Nigel'. The sound of the synth at the heart of Want It Bad comes from another song from long ago, the title of which escapes me. The layered harmonies makes the song stand out in all its modesty. The subtle changes in the accompaniment do the rest. 'Something About The Boy (James Bond Theme For Female Voice)', does the same thing. An electronic drum, synths and many voices (and this time The Beatles are mentioned, I notice) that hurtle over one another in an ever so decent way. The EP ends with a demo version of Want It Bad. The difference are too subtle for me to hear at first listening, so I leave that to you. 

La Alusión, feat. Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. The Oscillation

There are so many forms of psychedelic music that makes it in a way impossible to speak of one genre. Take La Alusión, the collaboration between The Oscillation and Lorelle Quintanilla. If anything, it is The Beatles' 'Rain' kind of psychedelia and then imagine turning left field. Everything becomes wobbly, impossible to keep your bearings, with no firm ground left under your feet left. The music becomes something resembling a psychedelic trip, where nothing is what it is in the real, unaffected world. There is the drums that keep time, but around it nothing is in place, like the bar scene in 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'. Lorelle Quintanilla's vocals are just as wobbly, presented as if they move in and out of my conscious. This is the kind of song I have to be in the mood for, but when I am, I'm grooving to the rhythm alright.

My Life's Alright. Dirt Buyer

Dirt Buyer (Joe Sutkowski) returns to the blog with a cover of a Shira Small song, My Life's Alright. He tells us that he always loved her album 'The Line Of Time And The Plane Of Now' from 1974, ever since discovering it. Dirt Buyer has made it a song with two different faces. It starts out as small as possible with just Sutlowski's soft voice followed by one chord played at a time on a guitar. When the band comes in, the song at first turns instrumental, softly playing together. Mind, the volume goes up slowly but surely, while the band expands its sound as well. When the singing resumes, things go quieter again. And then comes the outro. Dirt Buyer makes the song explode in your face, everything is taken to the max, while keeping the original melody within sight. Not being familiar with the original, I found it on Bandcamp. Jazz and soul, more jazz than soul actually, bringing to mind Nina Simone, 'Lovin' You' by Minnie Riperton and Carly Simon's voice. Quite a surprise, to be honest.

I Owe You. Claud

Of course, Erwin Zijleman beat me to reviewing a female voice in 2021, although I reviewed a previous single, 'Every Fucking Time' in 2023. Come 2026 Claud is about to release a new album on 23 October, 'Me and the Music'. In 2023 I wrote that I had the impression "... Claud is not in a happy mood". In I Owe You the mood is different, part dreamy and part melancholy. It makes for a very pleasant listening experience. In the background, a fast strummed acoustic guitar plays an important part supporting the rhythm. It makes it possible for a slow-played lead guitar to play a loosely fitting melody. The same goes for the bass that is in support and yet is just this little bit more. And then open your ears. You will find so much more going on. On top of it all Claud name drops 'A Horse With No Name', making me realise that the song charted 54 years ago and that it still comes by somewhere regularly. For I Owe You to achieve this, makes 2080.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

i will be dead. sura sol

De Belgische muzikante Rachel Solomon bracht begin dit jaar onder de naam sura sol het helaas nauwelijks opgemerkte album i will be dead uit, maar gelukkig krijgt het prachtige album nog een tweede kans.

Luister naar i will be dead van sura sol en de wereld draait opeens een stuk minder snel. Het alter ego van de Brusselse wereldburger Rachel Solomon maakt sobere en zich langzaam voortslepende muziek, maar de klanken op i will be dead zijn ook loom en dromerig. Het past prachtig bij de bijzondere stem van de Belgische muzikante en de eigenzinnige manier van zingen. Ik moest zelf even wennen aan i will be dead van sura sol, maar toen ik het album wat vaker hoorde drongen de bijzondere songs van Rachel Solomon zich steeds nadrukkelijker op. Het album krijgt vooralsnog niet heel veel aandacht, maar dit is een album dat je al snel gaat koesteren.

Onlangs wees iemand me op het album i will be dead van sura sol (geen hoofdletters). Het begin dit jaar verschenen album zou volgens de tipgever perfect aansluiten op mijn muzieksmaak, wat me uiteraard nieuwsgierig maakte. Ik had de naam sura sol nog niet eerder gehoord, maar het blijkt het alter ego van de Belgische muzikante Rachel Solomon, die eerder deel uitmaakte van de band Las Lloronas, die ik overigens ook niet ken. 

Het debuutalbum van sura sol, het eind 2022 verschenen roar, werd in België goed ontvangen, maar ik kan me niet herinneren dat ik het album heb beluisterd. Helaas sneeuwde het tweede album van sura sol, mede door de geboorte van het zoontje van Rachel Solomon, eerder dit jaar compleet onder, maar gelukkig krijgt het album nu een tweede kans en dat is volkomen terecht. 

Het tweede album van de muzikante uit Brussel kreeg in eigen land al een aantal uitstekende recensies en ik hoop dat het album ook in Nederland nu snel wordt opgepikt. In een aantal van deze recensies wordt benoemd dat de muziek van sura sol lastig te beschrijven is en tijd vraagt van de luisteraar en dat zijn twee observaties die ik volledig onderschrijf. 

Het zorgt vooralsnog ook voor wat cryptische en ook wat wollige recensies en dat is jammer, want de muziek van sura sol kan ook worden omschreven als fantasierijk en wonderschoon. De songs van de Belgische muzikante zijn over het algemeen sober ingekleurd, waardoor de stem van Rachel Solomon centraal staat. Het is een mooie stem die makkelijk verleidt, maar de zang op i will be dead is ook veelkleurig en het is zang die af en toe kiest voor bijzondere wendingen. 

Dat doet sura sol ook met de muziek op het album, wat ervoor zorgt dat i will be dead, in ieder geval voor mij, geen album is dat zich onmiddellijk genadeloos opdringt. Toen ik het album voor het eerst beluisterde, zocht ik vooral naar houvast en die had ik niet direct gevonden. 

De muziek van sura sol klinkt soms als de psychedelische folkalbums van vele decennia geleden, maar op andere momenten ook weer helemaal niet. Invloeden uit de folk spelen een belangrijke rol op het tweede album van sura sol, maar ook invloeden uit de jazz en wereldmuziek zijn hoorbaar. De laatste invloeden zijn deels het gevolg van de wortels van Rachel Solomon, die op meerdere continenten liggen. 

De meeste songs op i will be dead zijn zoals gezegd behoorlijk sober, hebben een intiem karakter en gebruiken stilte als instrument, maar desondanks gebeurt er van alles in de songs en zijn er steeds weer opvallende wendingen die je op het puntje van de stoel houden en die ervoor zorgen dat het album steeds mooier en interessanter wordt. Die opvallende wendingen in de zang en in de muziek zijn meestal uiterst subtiel, maar dit komt het bijzondere karakter van de muziek van sura sol alleen maar ten goede. 

Zeker de songs met vooral akoestische gitaar, een vleugje bossa nova en de stem van Rachel Solomon, die haar teksten soms (bijna) uitspreekt, hebben een loom en dromerig karakter en zijn gemaakt voor het huidige seizoen en dan vooral voor de vroege en late uurtjes, maar i will be dead is ook een album dat het verdient om met volledige aandacht beluisterd en uitgeplozen te worden. Het duurde bij mij even voor ik om was, maar sindsdien komt i will be dead van sura sol met grote regelmaat voorbij en wordt het album wat mij betreft steeds mooier en interessanter.

Erwin Zijleman

 

Je kunt i will be dead hier luisteren en bestellen:

https://surasolmusic.bandcamp.com/album/i-will-be-dead 

Blister. Tramhaus

It is getting close to five years when Tramhaus made its entry on this blog with its first single 'I Don't Sweat'. Many singles followed, an EP, album number one 'The First Exit', live shows, two singles announcing a new album and today is the release of album number 2, Blister.

Where 'The First Exit' was already a statement of quite some proportions, Blister is a veni, vidi, vici affair, without having to cross the Rubicon. With Blister Tramhaus shows to not only be at the top if its own game but also en passant throws some Fontaines DC and early Simple Minds into its mix, while not losing itself for a single second. Listen how Lukas Jansen sings in 'Cluster' and how a synth pops up here and there on the album and you'll know what I mean. In other words, Tramhaus has made itself even more interesting in the most positive kind of ways.

That line is supposed to be a conclusion to a review and in a way it is. What more can I add to it? Well, not that much if I'm honest. From the first single and opener 'Plovdiv' I am grooving and rocking and rolling with Tramhaus. As an aside, both the band and myself visited Plovdiv in the south east of Bulgaria in 2025. Hopefully the members got to see a little of the Roman archeia in the town and that it wasn't 43 degrees like it was when we were there.

Photo: Marc Elisabeth

With 'Plovdiv' the band opens in a smart way. The link to 'The First Exit' is obvious in the raucous and wild playing. From there the games begin. Tramhaus broadens and widens itself from that moment onwards. Not just the two guitars interplay but also a synth like in 'Sly (Like Ever)'. Someone will have to switch instruments during the show. It works however as the use of keys make the sound more varied. The sudden switch to dark, distorted chords on a guitar does the rest.

With the change in singing, Tramhaus also makes its fans ready for changes in the future. Listen to 'Solace' and you'll find that the postpunk idiom is left by the wayside completely. Lukas Jansen does not need to shout and is finding his singing voice. Perhaps still slightly wobbly but more than good enough. He will lead Tramhaus wherever it choses to go next. With Blister the curtain showing that future is lifted somewhat. There's more than enough postpunk to keep early fans like me happy but also a level of development I had not expected for album number 2. The band may be ahead of expectations, while able to take its fans along on the basis of the quality of songs.

There's often talk of that difficult second album. You will not find anything resembling this challenge on Blister. Tramhaus is The Netherland's top band of the 2020s, okay with Personal Trainer. With Blister it confirms its position with ease. Just listen to that riff of 'I Was Never Alone'. There's no more to write, read nor to understand. As long as you understand that things just don't get much better than Blister.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can order Blister here:

https://subroutine.nl/product/tramhaus-blister-sr136-cd-lp/ 

Another Sun. The Machine

Ok, fasten your seat belts. We are about to take off and do not open the belt until we have safely arrived. I imagine a steward speaking these words during the intro of 'Drop/See', the opening song on The Machine's eighth album Another Sun. After this intro the band tucks in with a loud riff, huge drums, a solid bass and an underwater effect on an overdubbed guitar part (a flanger?). The Machine takes off in a huge fashion.

No matter how loud 'Drop/See' is, the band does not forget a song is important as well. Besides, the band starts exploring the innards and outers of the composition in a long instrumental interlude. Guitarist David Eering plays all the styles he has mastered and took a dive into his pedal collection to find ever more sounds. The interlude explodes and comes back to the main riff, in a grand Motorpsycho way. Yes, The Machine feels comfortable in the identical stoner, psychedelic (hard)rock place where the Norwegians like to dwell as well.

The Machine is from Dordrecht the most southern and oldest (1220) of the cities in Holland, which is the western part of The Netherlands. The band is around for twenty years, but Drop/See earlier this year was my introduction and one that called for more. The band consists in 2026 of David Eering (guitars, vocals, sitar, synthesizers, theremin, percussion), Chris Both (bass guitar) and Klaas Dijkstra (drums, percussion). Together they are able to create a huge wall of sound that Phil Spector would have been proud of.

That more is now here in the form of the four additional songs that together make Another Sun. In 'Evolver' the band really lets it rip. Who could have thought on listening for the first time to 'Evolver' what lies in wait? The song starts relaxed and slow. It slowly builds up tension and after a long intro the band kicks in, but in a way that this could still be a part of a suite, so a part of 'Drop/See'. What happens next, is beyond imagination. The tempo goes up, the intensity is off the grid. 'Evolver' becomes an orgy of music, while the band remains in full control of the song. Live this most likely is even more impressive.

Photo: David Eering

What I'd noticed, having made myself familiar with Another Sun, is what goes for what I wrote in my single review goes for the whole album. Singer David Eering is more a part of the whole and not the frontman singing over the band. It is as if singing is purely functional and not defining for a track. Listening to 'Evolver' it is totally clear why. The vocals are only a part of a song and the members of this band are so good on their instruments. They steal the show anyway. Personally, I'm glad there is singing because in general it adds to a song. For The Machine singing works as far as I'm concerned.

The music on Another Sun is far louder than the symphonic rock bands of old like Yes and Marillion. Still, there are similarities in the way the band approaches compositions. They are changed along the way, to return to a central theme and longer instrumental parts are fitted in.

There is also a link to grunge, listen to how Eering sings in 'Swallow The Sun' and to the early Smashing Pumpkins (grunge or not?) form of deep sounding guitars. The final name that needs to be dropped is Queens of the Stone Age. The Machine has listened to the desert rock/stoner band for certain, as there are also references to the way Josh Homme sings. That is where things stop, as The Machine is more adventurous in exploring its songs. The band combines over fifty years of rock music within its music and comes out with a storming and raging album called Another Sun.

In the final song, 'Echo Through' it seems we will make a long smooth landing before we can unfasten our seat belts. That is counting without The Machine that does its trick once again, full force, before it sets us on the ground in one smooth, soft go. Another Sun is an impressive album. The doors are are openend.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Another Sun here for Europe:

https://the-machine.bandcamp.com/album/another-sun-european-version

and here for U.K. and U.S.:

https://the-machine.bandcamp.com/album/another-sun-uk-north-american-version