
Many bands aim for Pet Sounds when they’re trying to make ambitious pop, but a lot of groups miss out on the pure, inventive, playful joy when they’re channelling Brian Wilson, Curt Boettcher & Co. There’s a shed pop, ramshackle feeling to when these things work best, like someone’s tripped over a box of classroom…

A Tory MP has attacked the whole of Drill music, because she thinks it is the reason that young people carry knives. Nickie Aiken says there’s a “direct link” and wants the government to look at record labels that release music that is found “celebrating gang culture.” At the House of Commons, the Cities of…

Never mind Tay Tay announcing a new LP – we can ignored that as everyone has already talked it to death already. We’re more interested in the imminent music from the mighty Kacey Musgraves. She’s been making a slow-melting psychedelic country music since her utterly fabulous ‘Golden Hour’ album (yes, that wasn’t her debut, but…

Look, we were all set to write and long love letter to Fonteyn’s utterly perfect LP ‘Trip The Light Fantastic’, even though it’s not a new release, because it really is one of the most wonderful records you’re likely to hear. The reason we were hesitating is purely selfish, and that was because we didn’t…

We’ve talked about our love for Dina Ögon at length before, and now there’s a new LP to talk about, and that’s the salve we needed to kick off 2024’s first new release review. Again, we find the band in groovy, sophisticated form, melting psychedelic soul, Balearic, dream pop, and something so uniquely their own,…

As the future of being a working musician looks increasingly bleak, collectively we need to work out a way of getting people paid. If we don’t, that means music will only be viable for people who have parents with blue links in their Wikipedia pages and the like. So, with micropayments and subscriptions becoming more…

There’s a new song from STRFKR (hey! That’s a naughty word hidden in there!) called ‘Under Water / In Air’ and it’s a very breezy, poppy bedroom indie song that sounds real nice on a Sunday morning. STRFKR’s Josh Hodges sez: “It was probably one of the most collaborative songs on the record. It started…

Once upon a time, music retreated away from the bombast of Britpop and US rap-rock, and all over the place, more introspective bedroom producers were making tricky electronic music and singer-songwriters gravitated toward the acid-folk of the ’70s, focusing more on cottage industries and community. Tunng managed to straddle both worlds, with critics dubbing their…

Look, most bands put a song out to let you know new things are coming, but not 2nd Grade. The power poppers from Philadelphia have chucked THREE whole songs at our ears and mercifully, they’re all really fun and filled with skuzzy pop hooks and jangly guitars. The revival of power pop is very welcome…

Today is John Lennon’s birthday – he would have been 84 – and to celebrate this, we’ve been treated to something rather surprising. While a lot of repackaged music from musicians can feel a little exploitative at times, churning out old stuff without much new going on, that’s not the case with this latest Lennon…

The excellent GULP are having a party for the 8th instalment of their broadsheet counter-culture magazine, which features all the wonderful words, tidbits, diatribes and cool design we’ve come to expect from them now. The issue drops on Friday 11th October and you can get down in person at The New Cross in Manchester’s Northern…
THERE’S NO MONEY IN THIS GAME ANYMORE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WRITE SOMETHING FOR THE POP CORPS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO GET IN TOUCH. HAPPY HUNTING.
POP CULTURE IS WORTH TALKING ABOUT.
CONTACT: HOWDYPOPCORPSATGMAILDOTCOM