Dixie Dregs totally fucking rock! Steve Morse is a fantastic player and a cool guy too. That performance is fantastic, made better by the fact that everyone looks like they’re having a good time on stage; I always like to see that.
Actually, there’s a thing about that. Eric Moore is the “2nd” drummer, and the band frequently pokes fun at his “place” in the band, but the truth is he does add quite a bit to the rhythm subtly and he’s deadly important for another reason: he does all the management and non-fun stuff that it takes to make a band a business.
I loved this, but I’m a big fan of grindcore in virtually all it’s forms, especially goregrind. This was just classic grind tho, and very well done. One of the best endings to a 7" I’ve heard in years. I’ve already added this to my search at Discogs; thanks.
I’m not a big power pop fan, but I really liked this. Not perfect but good enough to listen to more; thumbs up from me!
I liked the way this started out, but when the intro collapsed into the song, it lost me. A little too much melody and not enough variation for my taste. I loved the video all the way thru tho. 
Okay, I gotta thank betterlifethroughchemistry for steering the thread away from power pop.
I say that because my pick this time is not power pop, but this pick is gonna come with a small story and an extra link at the end of my post.
I watch a lot of TED talks. The other day I stumbled on one about record diggers (vinyl record collectors). The guy giving the talk, Alexis Charpentier, makes a lot of good points about the immense value that these crazy nerds bring to our society by unearthing and/or preserving old records.
He illustrated this with a specific tale about a guy in Montreal who one day found a record from 1979 that he had never heard of, on a label he had never hard of. This intrigued him, so he took it home, cleaned it up and put it on his turntable. He was instantly blown away. He did what diggers do and started researching the label and artist. The artist is a piano player from Haiti who had recorded the album in Quebec; that was a huge WTF that I could see making me want to know more too.
Anyway, he managed to track down a guy in Belgium who knew the artist personally and from there he found the artist. The artist asked the digger to help get the record (and a subsequent recording) re-released, and thru his contacts got a label called WahWah 45 interested and they re-issued both albums.
I’m leaving out a lot of detail, but the end result is that this artist was planning his retirement, having long ago left the music world behind, his self-released albums a failed project from his past. When they were re-released, they recieved critical acclaim and interest from the public, and he soon found himself playing concerts for the BBC, for audiences in France, Canada, the UK, Haiti, etc.
I was equally blown away (ordered a copy immediately; got it today) and hope that y’all enjoy Henri-Pierre Noël - Diskette.
So in a departure from our usual format, I offer a link to the TED talk: Alexis Charpentier: How record collectors find lost music and preserve our cultural heritage.
And I will also offer a link to Mr. Charpentier’s site, Music Is My Sanctuary, where we can all find hundreds of hours of interesting music and information.