Jerry's Pick: "Suburban Wonderland"

"Suburban Wonderland"-The Heirs

If it's possible to get high by just listening to a song, I think found that song.

The aural substance in question is "Suburban Wonderland" and comes from a relatively new LA quintet known as The Heirs. After a couple of spins you'll find its ethereal aesthetic will eventually find its way into your limbic system slowly inducing you into a dreamlike state.

Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but "Suburban Wonderland" does radiate a hypnagogic vibe that flows effortlessly from the needle-on-a-spinning-piece-of-vinyl beginning through its easy but steady guitar/synth groove to a gentle reverbical but somnolent ending.

According to siblings Savannah and Brandon Hudson of The Heirs, "Suburban Wonderland" was a demo they were sitting on for nearly two-years before someone from their label enthusiastically encouraged the band to record and release it as a single. Good call. Brandon explained to Satori Radio, "It's a song we had written basically about just growing up in suburbia and trying to find your way out but essentially finding beauty in the madness that is normality."

"Are you looking for drugs?/Just for a little thrill?/Are you looking for love?/My body can be your pill..."

"We just wanted to make it about youth culture," adding, "We just wanted a song that kind of summed that up and felt like a good first debut track."

For me, "Suburban Wonderland" was The xx meets Polarheart -- a couple of inspiring and inventive alternative bands that live far on the left side of mainstream pop. Although "Wonderland" has been out since July there have only been a small group of enlightened programmers smart enough to have already added The Heirs' creation to their on-air rotations. And with Sony Music finally beginning a promotional push to radio, hopefully the number of stations will grow exponentially lending to greater and much deserved exposure. That's where you come in. Go ahead, give it a shot! No prescription required.

Warning: Listening to "Suburban Wonderland" may cause drowsiness and quite possibly mild euphoria, and while under its influence it is recommended that you do not operate heavy machinery. Actually, forget about moderation and liberally enjoy this track on repeat with the volume up and headsets or ear-buds firmly in place while seated in a relaxed position with eyes firmly closed and ears wide open.

You are now ready, and I'll take you there.

Welcome to your Wonderland!

Jerry's Pick: "Adore"

"Adore"-Amy Shark

I'm gonna shine my little spotlight on a song I feel deserves attention, but -- like the protagonist in this confessional -- will probably just be ignored by radio here in the U.S.

Australian singer-songwriter Amy Shark's "Adore" just ain't your typical Top-40 fare; no catchy hook... no bouncy chorus. Instead, Amy offers up an introspective poem that seems to be pulled straight out of a young teen's diary. 

It's a slow, sweet, sincere, sad, brooding, coming-of-age ballad of being stuck somewhere between the hope and heartbreak of young love. Uneasy feelings of longing-from-afar which are accentuated by the wavering notes Amy carefully picks on her guitar.

"Get me a drink, I get drunk off one sip just so I can adore you/I want the entire street out of town just so I can be alone with you"

"Adore" represents those bittersweet emotions of how it feels to fall totally head-over-heels back-asswards in love with someone who barely knows you exist. Just wanting to be close. Needing to be noticed.

"All of my money is spent on these nights just so we can hang out/Squeezing in and out of these dresses/I wanna be found by you/Found by you"

The first three lines are achingly meloncholic. You can just picture this quiet, lonely, shy shoegazer in the vacinity of her secret crush relishing in any form of attention that may come her way.

"I'm just gonna walk home kicking stones at parked cars/But I had a great night 'cause you kept rubbing against my arm"

Shark explained to 13th Floor journalist Marty Duda, "'Adore' was a really, really easy song for me to write. I kind of heard exactly how I wanted it to sound the second I demoed it. It was such a beautiful song for me, and a special song to me... I just had no idea so many people would relate to it." She added, "It's kind of like a play-by-play of a night that I had... but it sounds like a lot of people had those nights."

There's even a bit of quiet possessiveness to "Adore." And although she warns others to stay clear of her man, they're just fantasies played out in her mind.

"Watch me, watch him talk to girls/I'm known as a right-hand slugger/Anybody else wanna touch my lover?"

Yeah, unrequited love is a bitch.

Jerry's Pick: "Do You Remember"

"DO YOU REMEMBER"-JARRYD JAMES

Jarryd James has already found an audience in his native Australia where "Do You Remember" has topped the charts and he's now hoping for similar success in the States where this track was recorded.

James says he wrote this bleak post-breakup song in Los Angeles with his producer Joel Little, the New Zealander who had already racked up success working with Lorde, Elliphant and Broods.

It's not your typical break-up song.  This one comes across extremely personal and a little bit dark.

Jarryd explained to journalist Grant Smithies, "It's a kind of romantic, nostalgic song, about things in your life that you can't get back... and a lot of people know that feeling."

The steady, driving beat of Jarryd's music plays a perfect match with his emotionally-tinged, at times distressed, falsetto vocals.  "Do You Remember" is a perfect example of the less-is-more songwriting formula.

According to James, the basic track was recorded in a house his producer rented in Los Angeles.  He told freelance journalist Kasimiira Kontio, “When we recorded ‘Do You Remember,’ we had to do it in a spare room because we could not access a studio. When I was putting the track together, I had to use whatever stuff we could use as instruments. We used stuff like a nutcracker and a ukulele but we didn’t really want to come up with some weird shit so we disguised some of the instruments that we used."

The lyrics are powerful, especially coming out of the middle-eight ("When you find out that there ain't no other love, no other love for you") when the song's heart briefly skips a beat... then immediately revived with its pleading chorus ("Oh, don't be scared about it/Don't forget it was real").

James told Chris Danks of hillydilly.com, "I’ve always wanted to make moving music, and all these experiences that I’ve been through just add to all the emotions that I feel when I play and write music."

"Do You Remember" is part of a just-released five-song, eponymously-titled EP.

Jerry's Pick: "Sea Creatures"

“SEA CREATURES”-SOAK

Every so often your ears are treated to a sound that stands apart from the vast majority of the crap cranked-out by the star making machinery of the recording industry.

“Sea Creatures” is a song that conjures up images of a tortured, vulnerable and alienated soul dealing with unrequited love in a world that makes little sense featuring lyrics that seem to be taken straight from the pages of someone’s personal diary.  (“You don’t deserve this, and I won’t put up with their ignorance when they tell you they love you.  Well… they don’t mean it.”)

The words and music come from Bridie Monds-Watson, an 18-year old singer-songwriter-guitarist from Northern Ireland who performs under the moniker SOAK (apparently because her music falls somewhere between “soul” and “folk”).  Although the song will be part of her very first album (Before We Forgot How to Dream) due out next month, she actually wrote “Sea Creatures” at 14, an age when most of us were dealing with feelings we didn’t understand and thoughts we didn’t know how to convey.  (“I don’t know what to say… it might make you worse.”)

The wonderfully orchestrated “Sea Creatures” — most likely a metaphor for all of those people outside our bubble looking in — is painfully honest and whole-heartedly melancholy and seems to be a message of concern to someone important to her.  And that’s what good music does… conveys emotion.  But as she pointed out to The Guardian, “I am really not a dark or depressed person — I’m from a very happy family…” explaining, “I happen to write easier when I'm angry or sad, but I know from watching other musicians that you want more than that.”

Bridie is extremely charming as she doesn’t attempt to hide her Irish accent or who she really is,  and her voice is still adorably adolescent (especially while singing “…I think she’s just a fish”) which for some may seem out of sorts when dealing with observations most often considered adult.  And I give her additional bonus-points for growing-up a fan of Joni Mitchell and especially for blowing all of her first gig’s paycheck on vinyl records!

I feel this will be the start of a long musical career for BMW.  Although this teen-poet prefers to go by SOAK, I still think Bridie is much more pretty.

Jerry's Pick: "Black Soap"

"BLACK SOAP"-EX COPS

Broods and Chvrches.  They were a couple of bands that got me excited about the alternative-pop music scene during the last year or so.

Several weeks ago I discovered another track that fits that same style of ethereal rock groove.  Ex Cops (no, they’re not former officers of the law or even Sting fans… it’s just another dumb band name) — featuring the duo of Amalie Bruun (Denmark) and Brian Harding (North Carolina) — have created an arresting angsty power-popish single that deserves way more attention than it’s currently getting.

“Black Soap” — the first song written for Ex Cops’ second album Daggers — pulls you in immediately with a solid, twangy bass-line followed by flowing synths under Amalie’s dreamy vocals… aesthetics apparently inspired by executive producer Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.  Brian told Greg Mania of Creem, “That came from Billy telling us that we needed a baritone-y deep guitar-voice in our songs… a ‘third’ voice.  He told us to buy Duane Eddy’s Greatest Hits, and within two-songs we knew what he meant.”  He added, “‘Black Soap’ still has our love of fucked-up sounding synthesizers and over-driven guitars.”

The song’s lyrics are a bit cryptic but it only took a few listens before realizing “Black Soap” is an apropos title.  Brian (in an interview with RVA Magazine) called it “dark-pop,” where “you make a truly happy song and write really depressing ideas behind it.”  Bands like the Smiths made a career out of that recipe.

Underneath the shiny up-tempo hook at its surface, you may discover a feeling of something a lot less effervescent.  In fact, its lyrical imagery and musical multi-dimensionality makes the “Black Soap” vibe a bit mood-altering... that is, if you allow it to sink in.



“Take a sad song/You're making it worse/Your publicized tragic life/Can never be cursed…”

No matter how many times you let “Black Soap” wash over you, it’s scintillating tempo doesn't completely mask a small, lingering sense of melancholy.  But in the pop-music building business, moving people is a good thing.



“Stay so clean/You’re obscene/Black Soap/Black Soap.”

 You can sample a few bars of this refreshing piece of pop right here!

Jerry's Picks: The Top-10 Tracks of 2014

As some of you may know, I listen to all of the new single releases from record companies each and every week and pick-out the few that I feel are solid enough overall songs to withstand repeated plays.  It's like a durability test for the ears.

Today I reviewed all of my picks from the last 12-months and have selected ten of my favorite tracks that still sound just as amazing as the first time they caused my tympanic membrane to vibrate happily.

I've included each of the song's videos but the focus should remain solely on the music itself.  Check 'em all out.  I hope there's something here you can take with you into 2015!

"MOTHER + FATHER"-BROODS
This brother and sister outfit from New Zealand imported a winner with this sentimental yet optimistic ballad featuring an irresistible hook.



"TEMPLE"-KINGS OF LEON
Am I the only person in the world who still thinks this awesome rocker was inspired by the book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”?



"JACKIE KENNEDY"-INGRID OLAVA
I fell in love immediately with this Norwegian vocalist’s delicate handling of lyrics which are chock full of beautiful imagery.



"CAN'T BREAK ME DOWN"-BILLY IDOL
I was a doubter, but that 80s dude with the beached-hair, fist-pump and toothy-snarl has still got it!



"WAVES"-SLEEPER AGENT
A wonderful up-tempo song to close-out the year and say “Goodbye” to all of the assholes who held you back.



"EX'S & OH'S"-ELLE KING
I still think some NFL network should use Elle's (she’s comedian Rob Schneider’s daughter) sassy yet bluesy creation in one of their promos.



"GIRLS CHASE BOYS"-INGRID MICHAELSON
Cute and bouncy, this charming single gives hope to the broken-hearted and lots of poppy-joy to the rest of us.



"I'M WITH YOU"-GROUPLOVE
It may start out with a meandering keyboard but the chorus will have you “ah’ing” and “oh’ing” in a matter of no time!



"CRAZY"-KAT DAHLIA
I love this Cuban-American vocalist’s name almost as much as I love her rapid-fire delivery of the lyrics of this fun song.



"I'M CALLIN'"-TENNIS
It’s the light, carefree vocals of Alaina Moore (wife) and funky guitar-work of Patrick Riley (husband) that had me callin’ back for more.