International Pop Primer

By its very nature, there shouldn’t be much of a learning curve to underground pop music, but like anything with a fanatic cult following, it can be intimidating to the uninitiated. That’s where the International Pop Overthrow comes in: It rounds up 20 of Colorado’s most promising pop acts as a no-nonsense introduction to Denver’s pop underground. The festival, which popped up everywhere from Los Angeles and Seattle to Liverpool and New York, makes its first stop in Denver Dec. 2-4 at City Hall. To help pop neophytes cut their teeth before the festival, five of the bands playing spoke with The A.V. Club about their favorite overlooked pop albums. Tune in and bliss out.

And Don’t The Kids Just Love It by The Television Personalities

Nathan Brasil, Fingers Of The Sun: It’s the best, most personal essentially pop songwriting that I’ve ever heard. It’s just really personal—not all of them, I guess some of the songs are kind of silly. It’s really emotional about being a teenager and being in love with girls and having alcoholic siblings. It’s a pretty serious record in a lot of ways. It’s been probably one of my top five records since I was 17, maybe 18. I think anyone over 14 can get into the unrequited love songs. As I get older, some of the other ones mean a little more to me. I think that’s what it is, that it gives up more as you listen to it over the years.

Hey Babe by Juliana Hatfield

Suzi Allegra, Girls Walk By/Fingers Of The Sun: It’s a long-lasting favorite of mine since I was a teenager. It just captures a loneliness and a discontent that I can really relate to sometimes. I think a lot of people would hear it, and if they weren’t listening very closely, would judge it as kind of a sweet, girly indie chick, but I still like it. It goes deeper if you actually listen closely. I really love most of the stuff that Juliana Hatfield has done. I’ve been a fan since I’ve been about 14 or 15 years old. It definitely influenced me a lot. I used to sing along to it a lot. Whether it was intentional or not, the influence kind of seeped into my music.

Paper Television by The Blow

Brandi Shigley, B. Sous: What I like about it is its simplicity. The beats, the lyrics, and the keyboard are fun and catchy and bittersweet and happy. They have a lot of emotions just in the simplicity of the songs. I love lo-fi music. I definitely like the under-produced music. It feels more grounded to me and more real. A lot of the music I’ve done is super lo-fi. Growing up, I used to always sing on my tape recorder, and used to dub myself singing with myself with two tape recorders. The lo-fi sound really just feels like home.

Underneath The Radio by Goldenboy

Gregg Dolan, The Kissing Party: It’s kind of Elliott Smith-esque, but kind of Beatles-y, too. It’s really mellow. It’s one of those CDs you kind of forget that you have, but it’s pretty timeless. It’s really simple, but I’m sure it wasn’t easy for them to write. It’s not forced, and it’s a really mysterious album. I purposely tried not to learn any more about them. The front cover is just this guy. I don’t know if Goldenboy is just this guy or a band. It’s definitely a full band on the album. It seems like it’s just this one guy’s brainchild. He just seems really honest, like he’s exactly saying what’s going on in his life at the moment, which may or may not be true. That’s what the music seems like.

Realistes by Comet Gain

Jim McTurnan, Jim McTurnan And The Kids That Killed The Man: I think the songwriting is just stellar on it. It has everything pop should have. It’s got short little two-, three-minute nuggets, just tightly structured. Great lyrics, real simple chord changes. It does what a pop record should. It makes you happy. It makes you want to turn it up really loud. It makes you want to sing along.  It’s so wonderfully trashy and cool sounding. There’s a song on there called “Don’t Fall In Love If You Want To Die In Peace.” Classic! “Why I Try To Look So Bad” is one I really love. All the lyrics are very intellectual but still really cool. They’re the songs I’d love to write if I was much cooler.