Record Store Day 2026 is just around the corner, and the Soul Jazz Records compilation Power Pop! American Power Pop for the Now Generation 1977-1981 is among the standouts in this year’s crop. Leaning toward an assemblage of highly sought-after and in many instances very pricey gems that hover on the fringes of the coinciding punk shebang, the selections are raw and loaded with crafty, inspired riffs.
In the five-year stretch covered by this compilation, punk, power pop, and new wave were stylistic impulses that essentially intermingled as they presented an alternative to increasingly stale and often overwrought rock sensibilities. This is not to suggest that harmoniousness was constant or even the norm, but neither was divisiveness an overriding reality amid the competitiveness of regional musical scenes.
The bands collected here are catchy, often rough-edged, and guitar-focused. A few posthumous reputations loom large, but none of the bands included became a national phenomenon. Given a different set of circumstances, a few of these songs could’ve become chart hits, but the majority of the selections are just too punk-informed to have chalked up widespread popularity. Keyboards and synths are largely absent.
Some of these bands, if not these particular songs, have landed on punk compilations, including in the Killed by Death bootleg series and the associated Bloodstains volumes. So it is with West Lafayette, Indiana’s Dow Jones and The Industrials, whose “Let’s Go Steady” is a banquet of gnarled-riff tension and bursts of rocking release.
New Orleanians The Normals recorded one of the high points in US punk history with “Almost Ready.” That song’s not here, likely because Soul Jazz has compiled it elsewhere (specifically in the Punk 45 series), but its flipside, the raucous blitz of “Hardcore,” did make the cut here, and it’s a doozy.
Brooklynites Nastyfacts have landed on a few prior compilations and even had their 1981 EP reissued a few years back. The maniacally revved up “Drive My Car,” the title track to that EP, is the band’s finest moment and a standout on this set. Fellow New Yorkers Testors, featuring Sonny Vincent, stand as one of the bigger names on this album. “Together” has a melodic punk backbone but saunters with enough savvy in the songwriting department to potentially satisfy an XTC fan.
Another one from New York City (via Pittsburgh) is The Fingers. Their “Isolation” dates from 1978 and flaunts a punk aura that’s appropriate for a track of that vintage. It’s a fun one, but the best thing about The Fingers is that they became The Features, whose “Floozie of the Neighborhood” is a stone classic.
Vancouver’s Pointed Sticks also have a sizable rep. They cut an album for Stiff that the label decided not to release, and they also briefly appear in the Dennis Hopper-directed cult film Out of the Blue. Their “What Do You Want Me to Do?” is as catchy as the kissing disease, with a hint of a similarity to Sweet’s “Fox on the Run.”
Miami’s The Reactions are the sole band to get two songs on Power Pop! Both cuts, “It’s Our Turn Now” and “In Society,” which closes this album, are from side two of their first EP, “Official Release,” from 1980. “In Society” teeters toward pop punk with a touch of Buzzcocks, but “It’s Our Turn Now” is a bit more tangibly Californian in its velocity.
New Jersey’s “Ambulance” opens Power Pop! with the sharp and harmonious “It’s All Up to You.” It’s the a-side to a self-released 45 that reportedly and unsurprisingly received a lot of play on Jersey radio circa 1980. From Boston or thereabouts, Hot Dates also released one 45, with its A-side “I Can’t Stay” sounding a bit like Nervous Eaters with a smidge of early Damned thrown in. Also from Boston, Puppet Rulers dished a solitary 45. Its B-side, the chiming and quick “Outta My Mind,” could have been a contender for airplay.
Milwaukee’s The Wigs managed to cut a full album, File Under: Pop Vocal, in 1981, from which the ragged and succinct and almost Wipers-ish “You Say Ono” is taken. From neighboring Michigan, The Reruns’ “So So Alone” was the A-side of a 45 released in 1978 on Spider Records, the label that also released the first Romantics single. If infectious, The Reruns were a punkier affair, which explains why they didn’t break out.
From Memphis and very much in the Big Star mold, The Scruffs are survivors in this style, having recorded deep into the 2000s. “You’re No Fun” is from their 1977 album Wanna Meet the Scruffs? and it’s a guitar pop beauty. That descriptor also fits “Tomorrow Night” by Illinois’ Shoes, a cornerstone power pop act (landing a deal with Elektra) that was extensively compiled as they remained active into the 21st century.
Longtime fans of the genre will be gassed that Power Pop! American Power Pop for the Now Generation 1977-1981 rounds up so many killers onto one album.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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