July 27th, 2009
Utah native Lamar Holley emerges like a bolt out of the blue, and it's clear he has a love of Broadway, Brill Building era songwriting style and dramatic power pop (Beach Boys, Beatles, Jellyfish, Queen, XTC). Confessions.. is like the soundtrack to an uber-nerd musical, on par with Paul Steele's "April & I," only at a higher grade level.
Read More: http://www.powerpopaholic.com
July 18th, 2009
Lamar Holley's song "Forgotten Friends" just appeared on the iTunes iMix, Absolute Powerpop's Best of 2009 (2nd quarter).
July 17th, 2009
Absolute Powerpop, a popular power pop blog, recently published a review of Confessions of a College Student:
One of these days, I'm going to compile a "United States of Power Pop" that references power pop artists in each state of the country. Off the top of my head, I can think of several states that are unrepresented, but I can now cross Utah off the list thanks to SLC's Lamar Holley.
-http://absolutepowerpop.blogspot.com/2009/07/quirky-pop-tuesday.html
July 15th, 2009
Lamar was recently contacted by Bruce Brodeen of Not Lame Records, which specializes in power pop/melodic rock releases. Not Lame will soon feature and release Confessions of a College Student on its site: www.notlame.com
-Matthew Ames
June 30th, 2009
Confessions of a College Student: the autobiographical one-man pop-musical began as love songs dedicated to objects of the artist's unrequited affection.
Lines like, "What's this love I say I'm waiting for?" and "This is a love song, I think," underscore the songwriter's confusion--so common to college courtship--trying to figure out what love is. Lamar Holley's lyrics also savor "fleeting moments", such as flashbacks of "Forgotten Friends" or a "Slow Dance" with someone with whom he'll "never be together".
Best of all, Lamar's lyrics take us painfully and humorously into the psychology and "Biology" of rejection--where one has to "Pretend That She's Ugly" or suffer the pain of being "Lovesick".
Lamar Holley recorded Confessions of a College Student in the small spare bedroom of his duplex during holiday breaks and late nights. One big break came on January 1 of 2009, when he received an email from one of his idols, Grammy-winning producer Jack Joseph Puig (John Mayer, The Grays), who was interested in mixing the record. Lamar scrambled to finish the album and raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund the mix, but ultimately replaced Puig with Ryan Freeland (Colbie Caillat, Ingrid Michaelson). Lamar admits: "Jack thought the music needed to go in a more commercial direction, while I was interested in making it as original as possible. I lost a lot of money, but I had to follow my instincts. Ryan captured what I was going for."
Lamar took the project beyond downloads and singer-songwriter appearances by crafting a dramatic story line around the songs, now performed as a stage musical at college campuses.
"I'm just a college student. I'm like in limbo: somewhere between what I used to be and what I'm supposed to be. I'm supposed to be working on becoming what I want to be when I grow up. But I don't think I'm growing up."
So begins the musical's first monologue. And what's the obstacle to his anticipated adulthood? You'll have to see the musical to find out. But listening to the songs paints a pretty obvious picture. And, like all good songs, each "confession" on the album is a story all by itself.
-Matthew Ames
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