my power pop addiction, no. 99 (171)

It’s true that the Lemonheads were, in essence, a Husker Du/Soul Asylum/Squirrel Bait cover band, and it’s true that they were annoying pretty boys from Beantown, one of my least favorite places on the planet, but they had something goin’ on for a few years in the late 80s. Their sound – the sound shared by all those bands I mentioned – was a power pop variant that’s hard to categorize. It’s not hard pop because it’s too punky, and it’s not hard rock because it’s too poppy, and it’s not straight hardcore because they’re too pretty and the music is too tuneful, and it’s not power pop in the usual sense of the term because it’s a bit too dissonant. So what do you call tuneful, melodic, romantic, poppy hardcore punk? …How about popcore? I like it. One of the unfortunate things about popcore is that so much of it was recorded so badly. I can’t listen to Husker Du much anymore because I feel like I’m listening to a transistor radio that’s been smothered under a pillow. It seemed cool at the time, that muffled DIY lo-fi thing that gave the music an underground, non-corporate feel, but 25 years later I’d have to say that a lot of records recorded in the 60s and 70s have stood the test of time better. I don’t like feeling like I have to trudge through poor recording techniques in order to get to the tunes and melodies. But if the popcore sound hasn’t aged as well as some of the other stuff I’ve posted here, it still takes me back to the subjective experience of being 20 years old, and that’s an ok head space to get into for short bursts of time here and there…