{"id":8751,"date":"2015-11-13T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=8751"},"modified":"2026-08-26T07:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:45:04","slug":"november-100-word-reviews-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/13\/november-100-word-reviews-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"November 100-word Reviews, Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My current crop of hundred-word reviews wraps up with some odds and ends, all worth a listen. I generally don&#8217;t review from MP3 files, but in a few cases I make exceptions. Three of those are here.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/fischers_flicker2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fischer&#8217;s Flicker \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Fornever and Never<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Scott Fischer<\/strong> operates under this <em>nom de pop<\/em> to make his uptempo, fun music that bears the influence of classic pop as well as modern keyboard-centric acts such as <strong>Ben Folds<\/strong>. \u201cBlack Mariah\u201d (not the similarly-titled <strong>Todd Rundgren<\/strong> song) is representative of the music here: chiming, memorable melodies and strong choruses. I hear faint hints of <strong>Harry Nilsson<\/strong>, too. \u201cDead to Me\u201d is catchy retro-rock, shades of <strong>Ringo Starr<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cYou&#8217;re Sixteen\u201d cover. An unexpected cover of <strong>Alice Cooper<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cHalo of Flies\u201d feels a bit out of place, but it&#8217;s executed well, full of drama. One might label this \u201caccessible underground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/night_dials.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" \/><\/center><strong>Night Dials \u2013 &#8220;I&#8217;ve Done More Things&#8221; b\/w &#8220;I&#8217;ll Sleep When I Die&#8221; <\/strong><br \/>\nThe a-side of this 45rpm disc (recorded in merry London town) sounds a bit like <strong>Tame Impala<\/strong> crossed with \u201cWaiting for My Man\u201d era <strong>Velvet Underground<\/strong>. A deliberately noisy aesthetic \u2013 especially the splashy drums \u2013 gives a scuzzy feel while the lead singer tells us about his girl&#8217;s new boyfriend.\u201d Catchy stuff. The brief flip is woozy, dreamy stuff that shows a slightly different side of the band; it&#8217;s purposely as lo-fi sounding as the anti-classic \u201cGreen Fuz,\u201d and has a decidedly 60s retro garage vibe. It will be interesting to what this outfit does with a full-length album.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/nadasurf_live.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nada Surf \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Live at the Neptune Theatre<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nSomehow I missed this band for years; I eventually discovered them via power pop playlist I created on Pandora. This album isn&#8217;t even mentioned on their Wiki page, suggesting their fan base is small or lazy (or both). It&#8217;s good stuff, documenting a live set recorded around the time of the release of their most recent studio disc, <em>The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy<\/em>. The sound is high-energy, catchy rock with solid harmonies. It&#8217;s not miles away from the sound of <strong>Fountains of Wayne<\/strong>, albeit with less cleverness and humor. \u201cWhose Authority\u201d is a catchy highlight, as is \u201cAlways Love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/secret_friend2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Secret Friend \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Sleeper<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nSecret Friend is American expatriate <strong>Steven Fox<\/strong>, now living in Thailand. Shimmering pop is the order of the day here; and Fox is more of a behind-the-scenes auteur who crafts his works and them (mostly) puts other vocalists out front to deliver them. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5028\"><em>Time Machine<\/em><\/a> was one of my favorite albums of 2013, and while <em>Sleeper<\/em> goes in a markedly different direction, it&#8217;s a contender to make my 2015 list. There&#8217;s nothing about this album that suggests southeast Asia. Fox has a knowing way around melody. <em>Sleeper<\/em> is totally out of context in 2015 pop, but it&#8217;s a delight nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/shark_tape.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" vspace=\"10\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shark Tape \u2013 <\/strong><em><strong>Marathon<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nThis is the third release from this Philadelphia trio. There&#8217;s always room in my collection for straight-ahead indie rock, so long as the melodies are strong. They are here, and the group makes effective use of their limited musical arsenal \u2013 one guitar means you&#8217;d better be good and have some versatility about you. I hear as much <strong>Redd Kross<\/strong> in their songs as I do <strong>Nirvana<\/strong>; put another way, they write memorable tunes and then bash &#8217;em out. I&#8217;d wager they sound exactly the same live as they do on this album. And that&#8217;s a very, very good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My current crop of hundred-word reviews wraps up with some odds and ends, all worth a listen. I generally don&#8217;t review from MP3 files, but in a few cases I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,49,51,55,57,62,65,73],"tags":[831,1555,1592,1928,1937],"class_list":["post-8751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-psych","category-rawk","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-fischers-flicker","tag-nada-surf","tag-night-dials","tag-secret-friend","tag-shark-tape","cat-33-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8751"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32285,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8751\/revisions\/32285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}