Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Doormat"

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

American purveyor or pulchritudinous power pop, Justin Kline, has released an EP of all-new (i.e., non-old) songs:

Justin Kline – Doormat EP (2013)

I like it.

Listening notes:

1. “Doormat” – A combination of “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and “Teenage Dirtbag“.

2. “I Wanna Be Normal” – This is probably the bounciest song you’ll hear all day. It practically has springs.

3. “Mr. Victor” – Superbly constructed pop song. My favourite on the EP.

4. “Drop The Ball” – Another splendid pop song, one that prods me to change my mind about “Mr. Victor” being my favourite track on the EP. Update: Nope. I think “Drop The Ball”‘s guitar solo starts off dreadfully (it does improves as it goes on) – so because of that I’m inclined to prefer “Mr. Victor”. But as a song, I do like “Drop The Ball” very much.

Official website
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
NoiseTrade
MySpace

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Baby, You’re A Mess" (2009 demo)

Writer of immoderately irresistible ditties, Justin Kline, recently found a demo of a song of his on his computer and posted it on The Internets.

I’m glad he did.

Justin Kline – “Baby, You’re A Mess“ (2009 demo) (2009)

And here’s how it ended up:

Justin Kline – “Baby, You’re a Mess“ (2010)

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Turn On Your Radio"

Here’s something low-key from Justin Kline to gently ease you into the day…

Justin Kline – “Turn On Your Radio” (2012)

And here’s the just-as-pleasant original:

Harry Nilsson – “Turn On Your Radio“ (1972)

Link

Small observation: In the original especially, some of the melodic countours and chord changes remind me of The Beatles’ “Blackbird”.

Official website
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
MySpace
Bandcamp
SoundCloud
WordPress
iTunes
Amazon

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Once A Year"

Today’s song holds the distinction of not only being the first Christmas song for this blog, but for being an incredibly catchy Christmas song.

The song is called “Once A Year”, and it comes to you courtesy of American popster Justin Kline (hi, Justin!) who contacted me (and everyone else on his mailing list) to say he’s recorded a Yuletide ditty. (He didn’t actually use the words “Yuletide ditty”.) I’m glad he did, because it’s by far the catchiest new Christmas song I’ve heard so far this year.

Justin Kline – “Once a Year – Single by Justin Kline“ (2012)

By the way, all the money received from people buying “Once A Year” (for one dollar) goes to a charity called Toys For Tots.

Trivia Time: I’d only ever heard the name “Toys For Tots” once before. It’s an ad from 1956 that appears on a fabulous Christmas compilation album called Christmas Cocktails. The album is part of the Ultra-Lounge series of ultra-hip easy-listening music from the 1950s.

Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee and Vic Damone – “Toys For Tots“ (1956)

Link

Mighty good.

And here’s Mr. Cole singing it on his own:

Nat King Cole – “Toys For Tots“ (1956)

Link

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "I’m Not What You Need"

I’m fully aware that I played you a song by power poppin’ poppy popper Justin Kline only a couple of weeks ago, but Justin let me know that he has another new song available, y’all.

(He didn’t actually use the word “y’all”. As far as I know, Justin’s never uttered the word “y’all”.)

Justin’s a very nice young man, so I’m happy to play you this newer song as well.

Take it away, Justin:

Justin Kline – “I’m Not What You Need“ (2012)

As with the other song from all those (two) weeks ago, “I’m Not What You Need” will appear on Justin’s forthcoming album Cabin Fever Songs.

Official website
Facebook
YouTube
WordPress
Twitter
MySpace
SoundCloud
iTunes
Amazon

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Carol Lynn"

Justin Kline, a popster from the land of Americans who I may have mentioned on this blog once or twice (here, here, here, here, and, er, here), is about to release an album entitled Cabin Fever Songs.

Justin has allowed one of the album’s songs to escape before its official release. Here ’tis:

Justin Kline – “Carol Lynn“ (2012)

Justin has a habit of writing songs I like listening to, so I’m rather looking forward to that album. Can you release it soon please, Justin?

Justin Kline – “Carol Lynn (demo)“ (2012)

Official website
Facebook
YouTube
WordPress
Twitter
MySpace
SoundCloud
iTunes
Amazon

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "Happiness, Come Back To Me"

I don’t know if you know about it, but there’s a charity album in aid of Japanese disaster relief called Together We Are Not Alone.

Although I’d mentioned it before (on a couple of occasions), the reason I’m mentioning it again is that Justin Kline*, a chap known for writing charming ditties – and someone I’ve posted about, um, a few times (see previous posts here, here, here, here, and here) – sent me a message spilling the beans on the album’s hitherto hidden track:

“Powerpop Academy / Thistime Records has put together a compilation album called “Together We Are Not Alone”, featuring an unreleased song of mine “Happiness, Come Back to Me” as a bonus track.

Here’s a video of the song: http://youtu.be/ocOZmJpzqnU

Here’s a link to purchase the album: http://www.thistimerecords.com/japan/
BandCamp – http://thistimerecords.bandcamp.com/album/together-we-are-not-alone-japan-relief-comp

All proceeds go to the Japan Relief fund. Thanks for your support!!”

And here it is:

Now this is a rhetorical question, and I don’t expect Justin (or anyone else) to answer it, but:

Is Justin Kline capable of writing a tune that isn’t catchy?

Justin Kline official website
Justin Kline on Facebook
Justin Kline on MySpace

(*I’ve been trying to think of a pun using Justin’s initials, and the only thing I could come up with is something along the lines of “I’d like to see JK rolling along for a few more years…”. That’s a poor, poor pun, and nowhere near good enough to mention to anyone, so I don’t think I’ll be using it anytime soon.)

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "How I Became The Wind"

I’ve already played you a few songs by today’s artist, but I’m in the mood to play you another one.

Here’s American multi-instrumentalist / writer-of-horrendously-catchy-songs Justin Kline with a track from his latest album, Triangle / Six Songs*:

Justin Kline – “How I Became The Wind” (2010)

Link

Justin Kline official website
Justin Kline on Facebook
Justin Kline on MySpace
Justin Kline on Twitter

(*Have you bought your copy of Justin’s album yet? What do you mean “No, I haven’t.”? It’s only $10. What’s stopping you? Oh, I see. Well, maybe you can save up for it. Or maybe someone can buy it for your birthday. What’s that? You haven’t even heard of Justin Kline? Well, he’s an American musician who writes horrendously catchy songs…)

Musical coincidences # 66

My friend Stonefish (Hi, Stonefish!) recently posted a song on his blog. The song was “Military Madness” by Graham Nash. I like that song a lot but hadn’t heard it in years. Because I had only remembered the chorus, I was looking forward to hearing the while thing again. As soon as it started, though, I thought “Hey, the way that starts reminds me of the way another song starts…”

So, here are two songs with fairly similar introductions:

Graham Nash – “Military Madness” (1971)

Link

Justin Kline – “Singing In The Air” (2008)

Link

I guess that’s all they have in common, really. But it gave me an excuse to play you a song by Justin Kline. (I like Justin’s songs.)

Graham Nash official website

Justin Kline official website
Justin Kline on Facebook
Justin Kline on MySpace
Justin Kline on Bandcamp

Song of the day: Justin Kline – "All I Need"

I don’t know if you remember, but some time back I pestered you with a couple of songs by Justin Kline (here and here). Up until now, Justin had released a couple of EPs – Six Songs (2008) and Triangle (2010) – in the totally unacceptable* format of digital downloads. But they are eminently affordable. ($6 for Six Songs and $4 for Triangle. Bargain!)

Well, I’m extremely pleased to let you know that Justin has collected all the songs from those EPs and released them as a CD. (A CD! Yay! None of that download nonsense.) You can buy it here for ten bucks. (Still a bargain.)

So, in honour of knowing that an actual CD of Justin’s fiendishly catchy songs is now available, here’s one of them:

Justin Kline – “All I Need” (2008 – and now 2010)

Link

Justin Kline official website
Justin Kline on Facebook
Justin Kline on MySpace
Justin Kline on Twitter

(*I’m a fan of CDs.)