Ruth's Hat - Nostalgic For Right Now (Name Your Price)

Something fast, exciting, loud for the weekend, some real kick arse Rock 'n' Roll in the form of "Ruth's Hat!"

"We play rock n' roll music - no scenester politics, no sneering-faux attitude, no wimpy emo laments, no bullshit gimmicks. Now semi-retired, it's still unlikely that the Hat will ever just disappear."

This is rock n' roll music played by regular dudes who don't give a fuck about looking the part. "Nostalgic for Right Now" finds the Hat (now a 3-piece) tearing through eleven cuts of hard-hitting rock n' roll, punk-infused rockabilly, and explosive harmony-laden power pop. With plenty of guitar grit, Ruth's Hat adds an aggressive punk rock edge to their far-reaching rock n' roll roots, sounding like a blended party of Chuck Berry, The Ramones, Green Day, Hank Williams, and The Who. Don't expect scenester politics, whimpy emo laments, hipster posturing, sneering faux-attitude or shameless rock star excesses, just catchy-as-hell songs anchored by timeless rock n' roll themes: long roads, broken relationships, and alcoholic beverages. This is the definitive Ruth's Hat, indispensable for fans and newbies alike. (Fastmusic)

Stream and download the album here: Bandcamp

Check out more on Myspace

Official Page: Ruth's Hat

The Moving Sounds

It is really wonderful to find exciting and energetic bands from my host country and whilst they come from the other side of the country, I sincerely hope they will bring their live show over to the other side (Gothenburg) sometime in the future, maybe when they come home from their current tour of Germany, they will?

The Moving Sounds from Stockholm, Sweden, have been playing together since 2000 and to date have released 3 albums of brilliant music with the latest having been recorded on vintage equipment in the "Estudios Circo Perotti."  The band is known for delivering a blizzard of hammond fueled fuzz-o-rama on stage. Although there's no outspoken goal for the band, they seem to want to pay their hommage to their musical heros whoever they might be from Booker T to Lord Sitar to The Velvet Underground.

Ground Shaker from the Ground Shaker album.

The Moving Sounds powering up Germany, on tour now!

All three albums can be purchased here:CopaseDisques

Contact, follow, befriend, like and love The Moving Sounds here: Facebook

Listen to tracks from the latest album and more here: Myspace

Shy Nobelman - Beautiful Life & How To be Be Shy

I ashamedly missed out on featuring Shy Nobleman in the past, even though I had listened to him many times and enjoyed it every time, but a reminder from friend and blog reader, Yael in Israel, prompted me to finally bring the works of Shy Nobleman to the blog.

The man is not only a great Power Pop artist but is also an actor, Sports TV presenter and for the last 20 years has been the voice of Donald Duck on Israeli TV, fortunately, he doesn't let that work drift into these two very fine albums which are filled with hooks, humour, melodies and riffs by the dozen.

"Baby in the rain" from Beautiful Life

"Sad Song, Happy Song" from How to be Shy

Nobleman's wild and spontaneous live shows, which often featured surprise guest appearances from old time rockers and a number of drag queens attracted a cult following and in 2002 Nobleman launched an extensive solo U.S. tour, and supported the indie pop band Of Montreal, playing in such venues as New York's famed CBGBs.

In 2005 he recorded his second album "Beautiful Life" which became a top-10 album in Israel. The musicians on the album included some of Israel's leading indie rock names :Yotam Ben-Horin, Geva Alon and members of Rockfour and The Monotonix. "Beautiful Life" was more power pop and had a harder sound than Nobleman's debut album. It included the top- 10 radio singles "Girlfriend" and "Baby In The Rain," and made history as they were the first English songs recorded by an Israeli to play on Israel's state radio station, which until then had refused to play non-Hebrew material recorded by local artists.

In 2006 Nobleman played support shows for the English band, Echo & The Bunnymen, and was invited to Germany by the band "Tomte", to open their Buchstaben über der Stadt tour. (Wiki)

Stream and buy the albums: Bandcamp itunes cdbaby

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love Shy Nobleman here: Facebook

For more information, pictures, news, downloads etc, visit the Official Website here: http://www.shynobleman.com/

Ice Cream Man Power Pop and More is ONE!

Wow!  How time flies. Yes, today we celebrate a year of blogging on "Ice Cream Man Power Pop and More!"

I am not going to make a big deal about it, but I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the visitors to the blog and also all the artists and bands that have appeared on the blog without whom, there would be no blog, so to all of you.....................

The Joy Of Painting - Lighten Up EP OUT TODAY

Back in March I found The Joy Of Paintings "Asterix" album and raved about it like mad, played it to death and sat patiently waiting for news of more from the band, then in August the band released the sublime "Charades" single which is the title track for this EP (Available for free download on their bandcamp page) and now we have the complete package, 3 tracks sure to lift your spirit, this band deserve to be massive, they go from strength to strength and I thought the "Asterix" album would be hard to top, but no, they have topped it, go out and get this EP today and see what I mean.

The guys have put a "name your price" on the EP, but remember a donation of any size will help to ensure that we see another long player from these guys sometime in the future, sooner, rather than later would be great.

For those who like to have a physical copy, there is a limited edition multi coloured 7" up for grabs too, which you can order on the bandcamp page.

Stream and buy the EP here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, follow, like and love The Joy Of Painting here: Facebook

Zombie Valentines - Mejor Ahora

If you like your freakbeat garage delivered at pace and right in your face, then you couldn't make a better choice than to listen to and buy the amazing Zombie Valentines - Mejor Ahora album! The band hail from Madrid in Spain, where they clearly add something to the water to breed bands of this calibre. Half of the album is sung in Spanish and the other half in English, but then a scream is universal right?  This is an amazing album from another amazing band based at the Sunny Day record label camp.

Highly acclaimed by Spanish music press, god only knows where these four guys will get in the future, their talent to write unbeatable pop songs has no limit.

Stream and buy Zombie Valentines here: Bandcamp

Contact, befriend, like and love Zombie Valentines here: Facebook

Retroman meets the Ice Cream Man. Podcast.

Last week I met up with Steve from the Retroman Blog who was over from the UK to see The Soundtrack Of Our Lives play at Slussens Pensionat.  We had decided that I would sit in on a podcast with him and it turned out to be a Power Pop special he was putting together featuring the Ice Cream Man blog and artists that have been featured on it.  You can have a listen or download it here.  Enjoy!

Check out all the other Retroman podcast as well.................

L-R Steve (Retroman) Ebbot Lundberg and Wayne (Ice Cream Man) 2003?

Power Pop Wayne Lundqvist-Ford Ice Cream Man Blog The Jetsonics Beyond Veronica Monkeeman Seasongs Surf School Dropouts The Sensibles Mr Day Trolley Phenomenal Cat Budokan Wayne James & The Harry Evlar Experience Hans Selander Marty Graveyard Mod Soul