The Greatest Power Pop Compilation Ever!? or...What happens when an obsessive professional mix tape maker from the 70's and 80's get's his melody hungry hands on the monolith that is the 20 International Pop Overthrow Pop compilations and whittles them down to a stupendous three CD set for his own personal satisfaction? (now there's a run-on sentence). How many diamonds in the rough could continue to languish in relative obscurity? And the bigger question remains....Who cares? Well I'm here to tell you that all of the above questions can be answered with one statement: Somebody had to do it. 20 years of compilations, 56 actual CD's of music and over 1150 songs...Yea...I had to do it.
But it all started in my pre-Brian Wilson Band summer rituals that began in the year 2000: Playing the IPO festival with a dozen bands, going to several IPO shows as a fan, getting the free IPO CD, digging in and digging it. My sense of wonder and adventure always got the best of me when the shows ended and the bands went home. Here was this years batch of songs to sift through and...yea...you guessed it...discover great pop buy the bands music. It always ends with me spending money. I've probably bought 4 or 5 titles a year that I discovered from IPO discs...sometimes more, sometimes less. Add to that, the CD's I bought from bands after seeing their scorching sets. It...was... a...blast.
So after 10 years I made the first IPO compilation and dug that intense melody/hook-laiden grail of a mix. At 20 years I did it again but this time, took a couple of years to finish. I was really busy in 2017 so it was an on again off again hobby. But as I started to get into it...the songs started to really hang together and I kept them in order by year of release: 1998 - 2017. I finished this extreme vanity project in 2018 and decided to actually create art for it and press up 20 copies for fun.
It ended up being 3 CD's. Disc 1 & 2 are 1998-2007 and disc 3 is 2008-2017, 55 songs, a mind melting compilation. I was driven by the need to hear the incredible tracks on the IPO CD's that were mixed in with tracks I wasn't crazy about...all together as one. I'm kind of a music snob so I found about 5 to 7 tracks per year that I thought would be an exceptional listen together. I did a first pass (105 songs) then a second pass (55 songs). To be fair, I wanted this compilation to be the first pass but felt the impact would be diminished by it's volume. So the 2nd pass won the day...55 tracks from 20 International Pop Overthrow CD Compilations over 20 years...wow. Mind blown.
The bigger picture message from all of this is simple: look for, seek out and discover great bands, artists and their music for yourself. Go to live shows, listen to youtube and bandcamp or whatever you do and then buy the music you have found not what's told to you by TV. Be an active music listener and pop fan. It's good for your ears, your soul and us musicians and artists. Now I know your reading this so...I might be preaching to the choir. But if I reach 1 person and elevate them to "active music listener" status...I've done my job. Hooray.
Now....Dig this Track List and remember: "POWER POP HITS ALL NIGHT LONG!" - NB
CD 1 Vol. 1 - 5 1998 - 2002
1. Jason Falkner - She's Not The Enemy
2. THE Grip Weeds - Strange Bird
3. Cloud Eleven - Take Control
4. The Bobbies - Look Into The Face Of Love
5. Igmo - Zen Gazzara
6. Cloud Eleven - Serendipic Wheel
7. Ray Paul - How Do You Know
8. Linus Of Hollywood - Say Hello To Another Goodbye
9. The Dons - Till We Meet Again
10. Cosmo Topper - For... The Time Being
11. The Nines - Doesn't Matter What I Do
12. Beagle - Well, It's Only Pain
13. The Grip Weeds - Rainy Day #3
14. Myracle Brah - I'd Rather Be
15. The Churchills - Close My Eyes
16. Starbelly - Baby's Eyes
17. Anthony & Tony Rivers - Don't Make Me Wait
18. Fools Face - Fortunate Flowers
19. The Now People - Town Without Pity
CD 2 Vol. 6 - 10 2003 - 2007
20. John Wicks and The Records - Edges Of A Dream
21. Adventures Of Jet - Emily Mazurinsky
22. Marc Carroll - Crashpad Number
23. Hawks - Only Love Is Real
24. Epiicycle - Sunday Girl
25. Owsley - Matriarch
26. Jason Falkner - Hello Mr. Future
27. Trend - She's High-Fi (live)
28. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. - What You Don't Know About The Girl
29. The Innocents - Your Precious Touch
30. Squiddo - I'm Not Alone
31. Chris Brown - All My Rivals
32. Vanilla - Black Saturday
33. The Vinyl Skyway - Hanging On
34. The Dirty Royals - Cover Up The Sun
35. Nelson Bragg - Turn The Darkness Into Gold
CD 3 Vol. 11 - 20 2008 - 2017
36. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. - American Affluenza
37. Twenty Cent Crush - Summer (You Know My Name)
38. Chris Brown - Ordinary Day
39. The Ken Kase Group - Shiner
40. The Ravines - Dark Clouds
41. John McMullan - Double Monday
42. Bastards Of Melody - Dream Jeannine
43. SPYGENIUS - - The Girl Who's Everywhere
44. Longplayer - Silicone Sue
45. Shoes - Head Vs. Heart
46. Private Jets - Speed Of Sound
47. The Cherry Bluestorms - As Above So Below
48. Kontiki Suite - See You In The Morning
49. Jeremy - Not Of This World
50. Lisa Mychols 3 - Bruce Foxton
51. Bobblehead - Turn The Radio On (The perfect song)
52. American Suitcase - Think Of It
53. Magic Bus - Seven Wonders
54. The Jeremy Band - Angels In The Air
55. The Top Boost - What If She Loves You