【LP】V. A. - Let's Bubblegum The Punk! Volume 1 [2021 USA/FRA]

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20年以上前に "Bubblegum The Punk​!" という名のアメリカン・パワーポップ究極のディスクガイドを作った偉大すぎるフランス人、ピエールさん監修のコンピレーション・アルバム。内容は今となっては他でも聴ける曲もあるが、初レコード収録のシングルや未発表曲も多く、何より一連の流れが素晴らしい。ジャケットのアートワークやインサートの詳細な解説も流石のセンスでまとまった米国パワーポップ・ファン必須の一枚に仕上がっております。限定300(330)枚のため定価29ユーロ(3800~3900円)と高額ですが既にレーベル残少、日本で卸売予定無しとのことでしたので、熱心なファンの方は是非ともこの機会にゲットしてくださいませ。送料は通常500円(定形外郵便)、5000円以上お買い上げで送料無料になります。レコード＆ジャケット新品 unplayed 元々シールドではなくテープ付き外袋です。

"Let's Bubblegum The Punk​!​" Volume 1
V. A. North America Underground Powerpop Combos

Various - Let's Bubblegum The Punk! Volume 1
Label:
Pop Supérette - POPS12LP005
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Limited Edition
Country:
France
Released:
26 Apr 2021

A1 The Rockin' Bricks - That Ain't Right
A2 The Rockin' Bricks - Conditional Romance
A3 The Trend - Lucky Day
A4 The Singles - Lookin' Round For You
A5 The Rockin' Bricks - Tears Cried Over You
A6 Glenn Miller & The Impossibles - Walk Right Over You
A7 The Quick - Angel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DlIB9DrVHk


B1 The Laughing Dogs - Natural Living
B2 The Laughing Dogs - Reason For Love
B3 The Heaters - Plane Crash
B4 The Trend - She's Hi-Fi
B5 The Rockin' Bricks - Just Because
B6 The Singles - Sheena's Got A New Hero
B7 The Jacks - In My Time
B8 The Laughing Dogs - Sweet As Candy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhOszn276uU


Well, to tell you the truth, apart from the circle of a few insiders, I'm not sure you can guess what's behind the title “Let's Bubblegum The Punk!” It’s about exploring that informal and confidential neo-pop trend, now called “power pop”, which emerged in North America during the `70s, by trying to go back to the time where Top 40 radio was ruled by pop singles. Started in the decade’s early years, a resistance movement then referred to as the “mod-pop revival” —we’d call it now “proto-power pop”— was regularly relayed by the US fanzines of the time, such as of BOMP!, CREEM, and TROUSER PRESS, among others. The bands doing this music who had LP releases on record labels with a certain visibility, included RASPBERRIES (Cleveland, OH) on Capitol, BIG STAR (Memphis, TN) on Ardent, BLUE ASH (Youngstown, OH) on Mercury and to a lesser extent, Todd RUNDGREN (Philadelphia, PA) and the most English of American popsters, SPARKS (originally from Los Angeles, CA), both on Bearsville. A little aside for different reasons, were the “one-man Beatles” Emitt RHODES (Los Angeles, CA) and the post-“Teenage Head” era FLAMIN’ GROOVIES (San Francisco, CA). Power pop was somewhat of an American response —even anachronistic up to a point— to the first British Invasion, made by Anglophiles too young to be a piece of the action in the mid-`60s. It wasn’t mere nostalgia though, and even if it contained built-in self-obsolescence, it was like an invitation to take a few steps backwards in order to choose the right new direction again.

Eventually the genre became labeled; Greg SHAW was the first, in November `77, to mention “power pop”, in his BOMP! Magazine, a term he’d chosen “to indicate what will be the logical extension (...) of the punk trend”. So, in the following issue, in March `78, SHAW put forward the idea that the contemporary side of this pop revival could be the future of pop music by playing the same role that pub rock had played in the blossoming of punk in England. A whole burgeoning scene of US bands was finally going to reach an identity, which had been terribly lacking until then. The power pop label was then applied to the Dwight TWILLEY Band (Tulsa, OK), The NERVES (San Francisco, CA), Paul COLLINS’ BEAT (San Francisco, CA), The PLIMSOULS (Los Angeles, CA), Chris STAMEY & The dB’s (New York, NY), The RUBINOOS (Berkeley, CA), SHOES (Zion, IL) and The SCRUFFS (Memphis, TN) to cite a few.

We’re not going to keep the reader in suspense for too long: power pop suffered a premature death. Indeed, nothing happened that was expected or hoped for; the record industry soon turned it into something insipid, playing (at best) the nostalgia card with a return of Merseybeat and (at worst) associating it with all the new-wave bands, recognizable by the “sound of cash drawers” that their songs irremediably evoked. It was like throwing pearls to the swines and the expected explosion turned into an implosion. By the `80s, the term power pop was then considered as the kiss of death, and the story ended.

Those in the know all say much the same thing, that vintage North-American power pop is still one of the best-kept secrets on this side of the Atlantic. We add “Volume 1” to the title of this album because we hope that it inaugurates a series of compilations, which is, above all, a posthumous attempt to give all these bands, active between 1975 and 1985, some a posteriori exposure to the general public (hey, it's a figure of speech, right?) and maybe even a small place in the rock & roll pantheon. Our rallying call “Let's Bubblegum The Punk” must evoke that generation of musicians who tried to inject into punk-rock the eternal ingredients of rock’n’roll basics with equal doses of optimism, fun, romanticism, innocence, and, above all, hooks and melody. So, let us take this opportunity to introduce to you some other, in some cases lesser known, bands of the family: The HEATERS/HEATS (Seattle, WA), The JACKS (Tulsa, OK), The LAUGHING DOGS (New York, NY), Glenn MILLER & The IMPOSSIBLES (New York, NY), The QUICK (Los Angeles, CA), The ROCKIN’ BRICKS (New Brunswick, NJ), The SINGLES (San Jose, CA) and The TREND (Columbia, MO). These bands encountered varying degrees of fortune, particularly in their home cities.
For a moment, to those who loved that power pop sound, these bands seemed to be the best in the world. Even if it's not true, it's this illusion that inspired this first volume: the illusion that everything was still possible, the dream of eternal youth revisited by exuberant American teenagers and would-be teenagers, who had languished in the shadows for many decades.

Pierre @ Pop Supérette -- “With A Little Help From My Friend” David Bash.

https://popsuperette.bandcamp.com/album/lets-bubblegum-the-punk-volume-1