Peach Kelli Pop, “Peach Kelli Pop” (Burger, 2014)More airy but resonant sparse garage-guitar-pop in the increasingly signature-like Burger style. Like all the bands on this excellent label, though, they do differentiate themselves, in this case with a direct unaffected beach-party propulsion that harks back to the sunnier side of early punk (Undertones, Dickies) and back […]
Pebbles, “Pebbles” (MCA, 1987)‘90s r&b auteur Babyface’s first protegée, she bounces in clipped yet dulcet voice over a nice assortment of pastel-pulsing post-new-wave synths ‘n’ beats, just starting to attain that harder New-Jack edge. Try 1/1, 2/110/2/18
Pebbles, “Pebbles” (MCA, 1978)‘90s r & b auteur Babyface’s first protegée, she bounces in clipped yet dulcet voice over a nice assortment of pastel-pulsing post-new-wave synths’n’beats just starting to attain that harder New-Jack edge.Try 1/1, 2/110/2/18
Peeps, “Talk of the Neighborhood” (Sympathy, 1990-something)Really bitchen girl-garage-punk, lean, rockin’, great hook and a local-color story worthy of late-‘50s/early-‘60s radio hits.Try A/11/23/14
Penetration, “Race Against Time” (Clifdayn, 1979; originally recorded 1977079(Demos/live retrospective from one of the very greatest first-wave UK punk bands, and one of the very purest representatives of the movement’s idealism. The roaring, anthemic songs and Pauline Murray’s soaring, possessed voice can still make you feel as if this music might have changed the world, […]
Period Pains, “Spice Girls” (Damaged Goods, 1997)Wild-eyed, pop-culture-obsessed Brit girl-punk band, so sped-up and full of innocent bile that they sound like they’re about to fly apart at the seams any minute, but their instinctive rock’n’roll song sense holds them together.A/1 is best/funniest, but all are terrific fun.1/11/11
Persuasions, “Chirpin’” (Elektra, 1977)Incredible acapella doo-wop LP, four voices creating a near cathedral-chorus-like intensity that could light up any streetcorner late at night all by itself.Try 2/ 2, 2/ 58/16/15
Phil ‘N’ The Blanks, “Multiple” (Pink, 1981)Chicago club fixture of the new-wave era, they had that classic flat, minimalist mid-tempo rock ‘n’ roll twitch, halfway between power-pop and postpunk, and a wry, cartoonish take on how alienation can be fun and vice-versa in this cold but shiny modern world.Try 1/ 4, 1/74/7/19
Pill, “Convenience” (Mexican Summer, 2016)Taut, wiry no-wave/postpunk attack here, but they do something distinctive with it. For one, there’s a lot of textural/spatial variation; barbed-wire guitar storms alternate with drumless, almost à capella hauntings. And the gender-identity-as-barroom-brawl turmoil of their very contemporary feminist militancy finds a tight-fitting musical echo in the volatile fluidity of their […]
Pink Playground, “Destination Ecstacy” (Mexican Summer, 2011)Almost absurdly stylized shoegaze music, a purification of the genre to its extreme essence – a kind of “hardcore shoegaze,” if such a thing isn’t a contradiction in terms. Vast caverns of electrified cotton-candy murk, with male and female vocals floating somewhere in the storm. Sweet melodies and driving […]