“Big Cinnamon” Agony Aunts
This is fun, local power pop and guitar rock. Agony Aunts is a side project of Redwood City-based sunshine-pop band, The Corner Laughers. Band members assume alternative personas from another universe, one in which it’s always the 1960s or 1970s. Joining The Corner Laughers are some of their friends on the Mystery Lawn label, as well as other great artists such as Bradley Skaught of Oakland’s Bye Bye Blackbirds and multi-instrumentalist Anton Barbeau, who splits his time between Sacramento and Berlin. The songs are largely guitar-driven power pop, with intricately layered arrangements, rich harmonies, and clever rhyming lyrics.
— Francis

Recommended: 1, 12, 4, 10, 9. No FCCs detected.

1. (3:14) Twenty-Four Mergansers – Melodic power pop with lead vocals by Karla Kane (or Heirloom Kate, her alt persona) set to a march-like rhythm. Edgy guitar in break. ****
2. (3:00) Family Drugs – Strummy guitar with synth swirls. Vocals by KC Bowman, supported by lush harmonies with lots of “ba-ba-bottle-it-ups.”
3. (2:48) Big Cinnamon – Bouncy with honky-tonk piano, guitar, synths, and rich harmonies. ***
4. (3:40) Back to Back Bill – Bright, happy pop with Kane again on lead vocals singing about “back-to-back William Tells.” Old-time, honky-tonk piano. Clapping at end. ***
5. (3:39) Undecimber – Ballad with swelling harmonies and lots of strings and woodwinds. Clarinet solo in lead break.
6. (4:12) We Got the Jekyll — Power pop with twin lead guitars, clever “We got the Jekyll in your Hyde” lyrics, and lots of layered harmonies.
7. (3:19) Mother Make Sleep – ‘70s guitar pop standard with deliberate pace, stop-and-go rhythm, and a big guitar solo in the lead break.
8. (3:20) Uranium My Love – Another growling guitar standard and powerful male vocal harmonies, singing a love song to Uranium that includes rhyming “isotope” with “microscope.”
9. (2:54) You’re So Vague – Tongue-in-cheek pop love song with glistening synths, synth strings, and piano. It’s even more clever if you’re aware of the pop song, “You’re So Vain,” from the 1970s. ***
10. (3:25) Laughing at the World – Chamber pop with male lead vocals. Appropriate reference to Poppy Seeds, the title of The Corner Laughers’ most recent album. Guitar and synthesizer take turns in the lead break. Segues directly into Track 11. ***
11. (4:14) Cool Fresh Nights – Takeoff on the stadium rock of the 1970s. Big guitars and drums. Solid male vocals, but could have used Roger Daltrey or Pete Townshend singing the lead. Of course!
12. (3:16) Trouble Was Born – Really fun closer concludes this Magical Mystery Tour with a Beatles-tinged throwback. Tune has a Ringo-like folk-rock edge from his mid ‘60s Beatles tunes. Lots of ‘60s rock references. ****