| POPPY AND THE USUAL SUSPECTS |
PRESS
Gotta love your style!
- Gary Schmaltz, WHYS 96.3FM
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We love your music!
- Psychadelic Velveeta Internet Radio
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Enjoy your awesome talent!!
- Paddy Noonan, Founder and Musician, IMRadio
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Love the music!!
- Jerry Independent Indie Radio Show
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Great! We love it!
- Nantucket Music Productions
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I like the music I've heard here.
- Fearless Radio
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Wow! i’m really very impressed! loved to death your awesome powerful rock stuff, mate!! wonderful songs, great energy, you're very talented indeed!
- Radio Basile
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Good stuff.
- Blues Road Radio
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Ya'll sound great!
- James Stone, GM, X RADIO on live365.com
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The group is now the official Arizona Department of Transportation event band. They have performed at numerous A.D.O.T. events.
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The boys have been heard on the battlefield! Yes, U.S. troops have been sent copies of their latest work. "Packages From Home" is a non-profit organization that sends care packages to servicemen and women throughout the Middle East. Poppy heard of their efforts and ran down to help, providing CDs for the shipment.
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The band is pleased to announce that the Security Secretary U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano has a copy of their work. Chief has a copy their work.
TUNES
"ORIGINALS IN QUOTATION MARKS"
HOLD ON I'M COMING "PERRO CIEGO STOMP" TORE DOWN BAD LITTLE DOGGIE MATCHBOX "CELESTIAL LOVE JONES" TELEPHONE SONG CALL ME THE BREEZE THE SKY IS CRYING BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME WOMAN ACROSS THE RIVER SWEET HOME CHICAGO THE RED ROOSTER "DEALER'S CHOICE" MEMPHIS IN THE MEANTIME "BABY'S COMIN' HOME" WALKIN' THE DOG FURTHER ON UP THE ROAD BALINESE ROCK ME BABY "MR. BOSS MAN""COMFORTABLE SHOES" I DON'T NEED NO DOCTOR "MONEY SHOT" 30 DAYS IN THE HOLE MAYDELL LA GRANGE HOW DOES IT FEEL OPEN INVITATION SLOW RIDE STATESBORO BLUES WHEN THE BLUES COMES KNOCKING WHIPPING POST BOOM BOOM OUT GO THE LIGHTS
CREDENTIALS
The boys performed at ROCKFEST and had the great honor of opening for Cheap Trick and the Doobie Brothers, Friday, October 6, 2006 and Blues Traveler and the The Black Crowes, Saturday, October 7, 2006.
When they got back in town at 2 a.m., there was a message blinking on their machine. The call happened to be from a venue owner asking if the group could perform a last minute gig. The band accepted and opened for Bad Company on October 15, 2006.
Poppy was also blessed to have opened for The Derek Trucks Band when they passed through in '04 while fronting the group Malpractice.
CD REVIEW
Poppy and the Usual Suspects have a great, hard-rockin' CD entitled "Celestial Love Jones". The music is honest, tough and inspired. Old school, heart-felt Rock 'N Roll. I highly recommend it. Check it out!
- Nils Lofgren (E Street guitarist)!
Need they say more? Nils Lofgren!
Okay, they will say more:
Poppy and the Usual Suspects – bringin’ back that old school rock vibe
Poppy and the Usual Suspects are something of a badass rock band from the southwest American badlands of Arizona. The band has caught the imagination of rock luminaries Stateside and are now starting to get noticed on the other side of the Atlantic also. I for one am thrilled to have discovered their music.
Their latest CD ‘Celestial Love Jones’ is a gritty, uncompromising and resonant songscape that pulls no punches but rather pulls you in by the scruff of the neck and won’t let you go. ‘Can’t Find That Thing’ is a barnstorming opening track which sets the emphatically Rock ’N’ Roll tone for the rest of the album. Song comes across as a hard–edged version of the Doobie Brothers ‘Long Train Runnin’. The sentiment of that great song “Without love, where would you be now?” is echoed here in the elusiveness of love to one who “Woke up this mornin’, sky was grey” and “just the start of another day” and “go to my job, cant’t seem to find/That something that should be mine/Can’t find that thing called love.” The opening track bears more than just a passing resemblance to that Doobie Brothers rock classic, both lyrically and acoustically. The titular track ‘Celestial Love Jones’ features some deadly guitar riffs and showcases Poppy’s incendiary harmonica playing, which is as good as I’ve heard in a long while. This is one imperious rock track. You wanna know how rock rolls? Listen to this track and see how it’s done. This song deserves all the radio play it gets, for it is a great song for the road. There is some unforgettable air guitar going on here. ‘Baby’s Comin’ Home’ also grabbed me and has some great lyrics that evoke nostalgia for bygone days of a Rock’N’ Roll lifestyle in the lines: “I put on yesterday’s jeans and ran to the bus in the rain/I met her in the morning…..Baby’s comin home tonight/It’s driving me insane.” This is a song that smacks in the face of the Stones ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’. As this peach of a song ends, Poppy unleashes a primal, pent–up “Uhhhhhhhhh” grunt of the manliest vintage. It’s a sound so primordial that it could have come from the dawn of civilization; or it’s like something you would only expect to hear in the ring with Rocky Balboa. It’s just another proof that Poppy sure is a true rock heavyweight…. The profanities in the song ‘Mr Boss Man’ underscore the festering malaise caused by living in a postmodern existence where little else seems to matter but work and money. I think all of us can recognize at least one tyrannical boss we’ve worked for in this song (“Doesn’t matter how I work/My boss is always a jerk...”) There are similar themes explored in ‘Comfortable Shoes’ which has one of the best lines in the entire album: “This blue–collar life gives me the chills…” Poppy’s unputdownable attitude, unquenchable determination and relentless persistence in the face of life’s adversity are all there in ‘Be My Girl’, another song I really like.. “Mark my words, you’re gonna be my girl…” Guys, if there’s anyone out there in need of convincing themselves that they can get their girl, listen to this uplifting, inspiring rock track and you will be ready for the challenge. ‘Lie After Lie’, yet another uncompromising, hard–hitting track, reminds me of Feargal Sharkey’s ‘You Little Thief’ and not least in the lyrics: “You’re a liar, you’re a cheater, you’re a stealer/You lowdown dirty dealer…” This song is an expertly written dissection of lies and the ramifications of telling lies: “You lie so much, I dunno when you’re telling the truth/Telling lie after lie after life from a telephone booth…” I saw a film years ago called Mother Night, starring Nick Nolte, a fascinating perspective on the distribution of lies in the context of the Nazis. The proffered wisdom in the film is that when you tell a lie enough times, you eventually become that lie. I don’t know whether Poppy and his Usual Suspects have seen Mother Night but I find something of that film’s wisdom in their song.
Throughout ‘Celestial Love Jones’ there are resounding echoes of many rock greats from Dire Straits to Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, the Rolling Stones and the aforementioned Doobie Brothers. But Poppy and the Usual Suspects have carved their own name into the stone of rock music with their highly original sound and approach. Their music brings back that good ole stadium rock vibe of the 80s and while there are bands like this around there is still hope for good, old–fashioned Rock ’N’ Roll. Little wonder then that E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren has laid superlatives upon Poppy and the Usual Suspects, speaking of them as “great, hard–rockin’…honest, tough and inspired. Old school, heartfelt Rock ’N’ Roll” which he highly recommends. Hell, even blues legend Chico Chism sat up and took notice, summing up the vast feelings of a legion of fans in just seven words when he told Poppy and his band: “You got it, you got it, man.” You got it all, I say. A Rolling Stone gathers no moss and Poppy and the Usual Suspects certainly won’t gather any moss.
In Poppy, the band has a charismatic and forceful lead singer who rams home the band’s uncompromising messages. He is a larger–than–life presence on stage and CD alike. Tevis Maloney is a fine guitarist whose clean, crisp playing adds much to the band’s uniquely honed sound while Dave ‘Porkshop’ Powell on Bass and Bruce ‘Mighty Mouse’ Zieder on Drums leave their own distinctive mark on the listener.
The one thing I just can’t get past is Poppy’s berserk harmonica. It’s this harmonica that evokes for me, the badlands of the band’s origin. Remember that great TV series Renegade? I can even picture Reno Raines roaming the badlands after making yet another getaway, roaring along on his motorbike with ‘Celestial Love Jones’ on headset. To my way of thinking, Poppy and the Usual Suspects are renegades of rock.
(Marty McCool Music Reviews, Ireland, April 2009)
PREVIOUS GUESTBOOK ENTRIES
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Name:
bryan mcclain MY URL: VisiName:
crazy mona MY URL: Visit Me
Location: New River
Comments:
So
glad you are heading back to the boonies of New River! Thanks to Brooks
& Ginger
we're enjoying music waaaay out of our league!
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Name:
Deborah MY URL: Visit Me
Location:
Comments:
I
want to know where you are playing this month!!!! Happy New Year
!
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Name:
Brooks & Ginger Pugh MY URL: Visit Me
Location: New River
Comments:
Keep the Blues alive !
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Name:
tom MY URL: Visit Me
Location: Arizona
Comments:
you
guys were great on tv - the best and most entertainng band by far.
poppy's got
some style baby - tight threads, ice on the brim - very nice! - the
only
band on
there i go out of my way to go see definitely! great job!
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Name:
Brother G. Boogie MY
URL: Visit Me
Location: Phx Az..
Comments:
Nice
meeting you Poppy, Best wishes on your new project. Say High to Pork
Chop, We
did the Bo Diddley show together last year.. Good Giggin to you and
yours..
Keep the music LIVE!
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Name:
Tim Smude MY URL: Visit Me
Location: Phoenix...of course!
Comments:
Hey
guys!! It's Tim from Tattooed Soul. It was GREAT meeting you guys at
the
WB thang!
Here is the link I promised you!!! You might have to look around a bit,
but I am
sure you will find anything you need to build some more stuff...THAT
CASE TURNED
OUT TOP NOTCH! Tim
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Name:
Thom Scott MY URL: Visit Me
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Comments:
Saw
you at the WB61 TV shoot on 10/16/04. I do the website for the
HouseRockers (the
band that followed you) and I took a photo of Poppy that I thought you
might like.
What is your e-mail address so I can send it along? Good tunes. Good
luck.
T
PS: It's a gutsy move to sing without holding a mike. Most don't know what to do with their hands. It's cool.
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Name:
Cory B. Ellis MY URL: Visit Me
Location: Mesa, A.Z.
Comments:
Keep
on Keeping on!
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Name:
Sun Station MY URL: Visit Me
Location: The fringe of the universe
Comments:
I
think that's a great idea, let's have Blind Dog Cooley open for Poppy
and
the Usual Suspects
at an event at Sun Station. We're behind all you guys!!
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Name:
Lee MY
URL: Visit Me
Location: Arizona
Comments:
One
of the best bands in the Metro Phoenix area. Keep up the great work you
guys!
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Name:
Blind Dog Cooley MY URL: Visit Me
Location: TEXAS!
Comments:
THIS
ROCKS! THIS KICKS ASS! NOW THIS IS A BAND! When can I come open
for you
guys? Excellent move.......
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