The Leftovers

Kurt Baker: Rockin’ For a Living

October 23, 2011 No Comments

Kurt Baker’s new album Rockin’ For a Living is out on 25th of october on Oglio Records. Kurt Baker was previously in a band called The Leftovers who released some marvelous powerpop/punk/rock’n’roll songs a few years ago (at least Eager to Please was a really good record, that’s the only one I have). I’m not sure has the band completely broken up, but recently Kurt Baker has taken the solo route. He released a covers EP a while back that was produced by pop guru Linus Of Hollywood and contained songs from The Nerves, Nick Lowe, The Knack, Elvis Costello, The Vapors and that artist list certainly shows that this is my kind of guy. The new Kurt Baker originals seem to come from the same place and damn I love people who are heavily influenced by late 70’s power pop / punk / rock’n’roll bands and are keeping that music alive by writing new excellent power pop tunes. A couple of samples from Rockin’ For a Living below. This is a whole lot of fun.

<a href="http://kurtbaker.bandcamp.com/track/why-you-gotta-lie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why You Gotta Lie by KURT BAKER</a>

<a href="http://kurtbaker.bandcamp.com/track/dont-steal-my-heart-away" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Don’t Steal My Heart Away by KURT BAKER</a>

Kurt Baker Website
Kurt Baker at Facebook

Reviews

The Leftovers: Eager To Please

September 16, 2009 No Comments

Leftovers

The Leftovers: Eager To Please (Crappy Records, 2009)

I found The Leftovers this summer when I saw this album on Not lame’s front page. The sound clips sounded really good and noticing that it was produced by Linus Of Hollywood made it even more interesting. I ordered it the same day and I haven’t regretted that decision. Eager To Please is already the fourth The Leftovers album and it’s a whole lot of fun. It’s full of short, energic and catchy pop-punk and power pop songs with singalong choruses. Maybe they are occasionally getting dangerously close to becoming one of those lame punk-pop bands, but their melodic sense and 70’s power pop influences drive them back to more comfortable zones. 14 songs is a bit too big one time doze of this highly energic pop blast for me, because there isn’t much variation. However, it’s all very enjoyable and there’s not a bad song on the album. Maybe not that real killer song either, but Eager To Please is a very fine punky pop album.

The Leftovers at myspace
The Leftovers Website

General, International music

June 28, 2009 No Comments

Leftovers

A while ago I promised that I will buy at least one album from Notlame.com every month. Since then I’ve been waiting for Bruce to add June’s new releases to the website, so I can start living up to my promise. Now the new bunch of records in online and the first thing that caught my eye was this punky power pop group The Leftovers and their new album Eager To Please. It’s been produced by Linus Of Hollywood and it seems like a great summer soundtrack. Especially the songs Get To Know You, Dance With Me and Girlfriend sound pretty damn great on their myspace. Oh and please listen to Dance With Me and tell me what song comes to your mind, because the verse of it reminds me of something and it drives me insane that I can’t figure out what it is eventhough it feels like it something that I’ve heard million times. Maybe some 70’s power pop classic or something even more obvious. Anyway, The Leftovers sound great and I already ordered the album. More about this when the album arrives.

The Leftovers Website
The Leftovers at myspace

I’m pretty excited about this new plan to support Not Lame due to selfish reasons. I think I’ve missed plenty of great power pop discs along the years (and obviously will still miss a lot, because one can’t buy them all), but now this new project forces me to go through the new releases and therefore I might find a few jewels that I might have otherwise missed. Of course there’s a risk that instead of buying 1-3 albums a month, I start buying 10 albums a month and that might be a bad hit to the bank account for an unemployed person.

Not Lame Website

Oh and last evening /night was quite perfect. First a great football game and then Flavour of The Month club at Pikku-Torre, Turku. College Fall, Nopat and Jaakko Söderström were all great. Yours truly played some records in between the concerts and because I haven’t made these playlists for a while, here’s what I played. It’s not in any order:

Super Deluxe: Farrah Fawcett
The Seeds: Can’t Seem To Make You Mine
The Lemonheads: I Just Can’t Take It Anymore
Cheap Star: Make You Cry
Jason Lytle: Brand New Sun
Popsicle: Hey Princess
Great Lake Swimmers: Palmistry
Richmond Fontaine: Post To Wire
Loudon Wainwright III: The Swimming Song
Luna: Sideshow By The Seashore
Gentleman Jesse & His Men: All I Need Tonight (Is You)
Chatham County Line: The Carolinian
The Zombies: Leave Me Be
The Munsons: Rough Boy
The Lucksmiths: T-Shirt Weather
The Brogues: I Ain’t No Miracle Worker
Neil Young: Tell Me Why
The Bishops: City Lights
Tinted Windows: Nothing To Me
The Posies: Flavor Of The Month
The La’s: There She Goes
Kiss: Strutter
Dinosaur Jr: Over it
The Minus 5: You Don’t Mean It
The Mooney Suzuki: Ashes
The Corvettes: Beware Of Time
Teenage Kicks: Restless
Sunnyboys: Happy Man
The Raspberries: Go All The Way
The Byrds: I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better
The Nerves: When You Find Out
The Sonics: Strychnine
Stiv Bators: Not That Way Anymore