Caleb Nichols: a new album and a fab Christmas mashup

By Henry Lipput

Let’s Look Back

Let’s Look Back (Kill Rock Stars), the new album from poet, singer, and songwriter Caleb Nichols, continues the backwards looking journey he began with last year’s Ramon (one of my favorite albums of 2022).

Ramon is a queer love story (he used #queerthebeatles on the tweeter to promote the album) about a young gay boy growing up in a small town in the 1990s and finding the music of The Beatles as an escape. There’s also a rocky love story about Mean Mr. Mustard and Captain Custard although the names may have been changed to protect the innocent. The album also contained “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day” my new favorite Christmas song.

Following Ramon, Nichols released Chan Says & Other Songs which consisted of both an EP and a book of poems. He described the songs and story being at “the intersection of land/sea, sexuality/gender, and fairy tale/reality” as they tell the story of a young boy born to parents who wanted a girl.

So Let’s Look Back is more like Let’s Look Back Some More. In stark contrast to the warmth of “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day,” the new album starts off with “Christmas, California” and it’s clear the trip back home is not one that's looked forward to. The opening guitar riff recalls the music from a Sergio Leone western (or an overture to a shoot-out at the holiday dinner table).

“Demon Twink” and “Absolute Boy” are the album's pop highlights. The latter is a jangle-pop treasure with a sad message at its core: "The time you clipped my wings." “Albatross” rocks out and offers advice to those who have been hurt in love and not ready to move on yet: “Everything you lost/Wear it like an albatross.”

“The Wires,” the penultimate song on Let’s Look Back, is my favorite and the best song on the album. The song starts slow with a strummed electric guitar and an entreaty to a potential lover: “Hold me tonight/Show me.” The song slowly builds, an acoustic guitar dominates the bridge, and it ends with a majestic orchestral conclusion.

So This Is Crimble

It’s hard to deny Nichols’ Beatles credentials. In addition to the very Beatles-influenced Ramon, he also released the single Double Mantasy with covers of McCartney’s “Waterfalls” and Lennon’s “Watching The Wheels”(and he's made them his own).

The main attraction and centerpiece of the So This Is Crimble  EP (Kill Rock Stars) is “Crimble Medley” in which Nichols creates a wonderful mashup of a song from a Beatles Christmas fanclub disc as well as holiday offerings from three solo Beatles along with Ringo's "Photograph" which fits very nicely in the mix (what's Christmas without photographs?). The EP also includes his two most recent Christmas songs, “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day” from Ramon and “Christmas, California” from Let’s Look Back.

Here’s the video for “Crimble Medley:”

More life-affirming jaunty pop from BMX Bandits

By Henry Lipput

It seems like right now, with everything happening in the world, it’s more important than ever to have music that just makes us feel better when we hear it.

Well, Duglas T Stewart, and the family of musicians that make up BMX Bandits, have come to the rescue with just what we need. These kings of jaunty pop have returned with “Setting Sun” (Tapete Records) the first taster for an album to be released next year.

And it’s also perfect time for this song for other reasons. As we end the year and it’s cold and gray the thing you need and want the most is some time in the sun. And “Setting Sun” sets the scene for that as well. So, pull up the beach chair in the garage and pour a pina colada and turn up the volume.

16 Again: 16 songs from 11 years now on vinyl

By Henry Lipput

The wonderful Dot Dash collection, 16 Again (Country Mile Records), is the first time these songs have been on vinyl and it’s a great way to hear them (but you really need to visit, or revisit as the case may be, the original CDs to get the whole sonic picture). It’s also a terrific way to introduce new fans to the band and a way to remind current fans why they liked Dot Dash so much in the first place. 

You can think of these songs, hand-picked by the band, as "a greatest hits album by a band with no hits" as the Bandcamp page says. But there's a difference between songs not being hits and songs loved by fans that should have been hits ("Unfair Weather" is one). The title 16 Again refers to the fact that these songs (all but one but more on that later) have been previously available on all seven of their albums released by Wally Salem’s The Beautiful Music label between 2011 and 2022.

Seven of the eight songs on Side One of 16 Again focus on the band’s two most recent albums Madman in The Rain and Proto Retro. Both of these albums were recorded with the current Dot Dash lineup of Terry Banks (guitar), Hunter Bennett (bass), and Danny Ingram (drums) and a have crisper, poppier sound thanks to producer Geoff Sanoff and both albums are full of bangers. The last track on Side One, “Holly Garland,” is from 2016’s Searchlights but although it has a slightly different lineup it fits right in.

Banks, Bennett, and Ingram have been with the band since 2011’s Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash but between that album and 2016’s Searchlights there were other lead guitarists. But since they left, Banks has expertly handled both all guitar duties and continues to contribute lead vocals. Banks has the perfect power pop voice and his guitar work is clean and drives the songs as do the brilliant rhythm section of Bennett and Ingram.

Side Two continues this musical journey with songs from the other four albums beginning with “Tatters” from 2015’s Earthquakes & Tidal Waves and ending with “There and Back Again” from their debut release in 2011. But they’re not done yet: 16 Again ends with Dot Dash’s cover of Television Personalities’ “Jackanory Stories” which was included on Volume 4 of The Beautiful Music’s series of tributes to Television Personalities.

Thinking of The Bablers

By Henry Lipput

We may never get all of Like The First Time, the album The Bablers only released in Japan and Finland (their home country), although there have been mentions of an eventual release at a future date. But as of now we’ve been treated to four singles from the album which put together give one the impression that when it is released to the rest of the world it will surely be a very, very big hit.

“Thinking Of You” (Big Stir Records), the new single from The Bablers, is just the latest knock-out track following “Holding Me Tight Tonight,” “You Are the One for Me” (my personal favorite), and “Mr. King” which was released as the commutation (as a certain Mr. Lennon might have said) of Prince Charles was taking place.

Usually, bands make singles available to generate interest in a forthcoming album that has yet to see the light of day but The Bablers seem to be doing it in reverse. And I have no problem with this when what we’re getting bit by bit is this good. Keep babbling gents!