Power Pop Here & From Across The Pond: New Tracks from Art Brut and Something Fierce

It’s been a good week for power-pop, at least ’round SCR HQ. First off we got word that bizarrely catchy British power-popsters Art Brut have released five sneak-a-peek tracks from their soon-to-be-released next album on Downtown Recs. And thankfully, they’re damn good, albeit somewhat of a love-or-hate proposition — if frontman Eddie Argos’s Jonathan Richman-esque talk-singing bugged you on Bang Bang Rock & Roll, well, it’ll probably bug you here, too.

For my part, though, I’m over the moon. I love the heck out of BBR&R and was a wee bit concerned that any followup could easily jump the shark into a bad joke; the good news is that that ain’t happening. The five tracks the band’s let slip are the best kind of loud, bitterly sarcastic, guitar-heavy, record-obsessed pop around, all the way from the breakup-in-slow-motion track “Pump Up The Volume” to the disbelieving Cure/Smiths sound of “Nag Nag Nag Nag”. Now, I’m fairly certain this’ll get me in trouble, but what the hey — download the songs for yourself here (they’re all together in a .zip file).

Now, this week also saw even better news on the H-town front, seeing as local punkish popsters Something Fierce have put up two new tracks on their MySpace page that up the ante impressively even from their excellent debut, Come For The Bastards. “Teenage Ruins” comes off like the band was mainlining The Undertones for the past year or so and then ran the whole thing through a Ramones filter, and then “On Your Own” rips and shreds its way through pretty much any punk band since the late ’70s, all while ringing with a hooky-as-hell melody. Can’t wait for the next album for either band.

Ah, the midget’s awake. Hopefully more soon…