Wyatt Blair :: Banana Cream Dream

The time I devote to Everybody Taste these days is negatively impacting the forthcoming brick 'n' mortar retail food market I plan to open in the Fall. So if I'm writing here—instead of working on something far more important to my future well-being—it's because I can't fucking control myself: I've been moved by the power of rock 'n' roll, and my music nerd instincts are compelling me to immediately share it with you. The power-pop currently racing out of the brain of Los Angeles-based and Orange Country-bred musician Wyatt Blair is that inspiring force and it's all sugary excitement, throaty Marc Bolan swagger, and thunderous hip-twisting foot-stomping power-chord fun. Blair, who's toured alongside the likes of The Lovely Bad Things and Peach Kelli Pop and released an EP called Peach Colored Pussy, works equal parts humor and melody into each of his charmingly simple and infectiously malted pop confections. Blair's newest release, Banana Cream Dream, is out now on cassette from (who else) Burger Records with a forthcoming vinyl release due out on Resurrection Records. From the uproarious muted-guitar hum of "Girls!" to the swinging blues and stutter on "Sweet Operator (Talkin' On The Telephone)", the songs on Banana Cream Dream are so instantaneously uplifting and savagely simple that it's nearly impossible to escape the fun. This summer, whether you're cruising a dark highway, swatting away mosquitoes and crushing beer cans on a back porch somewhere, or simply doing the dishes alone in the kitchen, please pop in this record and proceed to shimmy, head bang, and pogo forth all that is wonderful, sweet, and forever satisfying about a fresh new slab of boogie-friendly rock 'n' roll.

Buy Banana Cream Dream digitally from the band. Get the tape from Burger. 

White Wires :: WWIII

Ottawa trio White Wires quietly released their third full-length, WWIII, on Dirtnap Records this past summer. Though I have long been a fan of Peach Kelli Pop—the solo project of White Wires' drummer Allie Hanlon—I've only recently caught on to the classic power-chord-littered and power-pop-laced punk of the White Wires themselves, thanks in part to a promo CD in my car that features "Did You Forget My Name?"—a brash and simple two-minute number I can't seem to shake. Fans of Gentleman Jesse, The Equals, The Exploding Hearts, and The Nerves: if you're not already in the know, take delight and dig in: you may have just found your new favorite band. New tracks like "Down On My Own" and "All Night Long" fly out of the gate with richly addictive melodies, snappy foot-racing rhthtms, and humming guitars that climb from muted tension-builders to open fuzzy celebratory crescendos. According to the band, WWIII was conceived as more of a pop album. "We wanted to make a record that had some dynamics, with lots of ups and downs," explains White Wires on their Bandcamp. "At the same time, we wanted to still have a lot of variety on the album from one song to the next. I think these are some of our best songs yet." Not a single one of WWIII's 14 cuts miss a beat or opportunity to stick some bubblegum onto your brain (see: the bass line and harmonies on "Please Write"; the call and response vocals on "The Magic"; the lyric "one of these days someone's gonna gossip on you" from "Let's Start Over Again"). WWIII may just be the best punk record of the year, and perhaps rivals only The Tough Shits for the most fun listen.

Buy the digital from Bandcamp and the vinyl from Green Noise.

White Wires - "Down On My Own" (from WWIII)
White Wires - "Did You Forget My Name?" (from WWII)