Bill Popp
New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Longtime New York musician Popp and company's latest work, Blind Love Sees Tears, is a fine '60s Brit-invasion inspired collection of powerpop that even includes a revved-up version of the Bee Gees' New York Mining Disaster (1941). They can be very proud of a long, fun ride.
-Village Voice
Andrew Aber
March 23, 2005 - Andrew Aber
...from Good Times Magazine, February 12-25, 2002:
There's something about pop music that gets into Bill Popp's blood, because his newest release, "Blind Love Sees Tears," is an amalgamation of everything Beatles, Byrds, Split Enz and the like. And the result is something you'll like. Popp, who is lead vocalist and plays keyboards, wrote all but one of the songs that are on the disc. The one cover, the Bee Gees classic "New York Mining Disaster (1941)," is harder edged than the original, but comes across great, not bastardized. Of Popp's original material, with one exception, it all follows the pop theme. Beatles influences abound in nearly every track, and if not straight Beatles, then other Brit Pop influences of old. You can hear the essence of Split Enz in the opener, "Speaks Little English." The best of the Beatles-influenced tracks include "Cecelia Elizabeth," "Just Like in the Movies" and "My Only Child." The best cut of all is the only straight-ahead original rocker, the bitingly snarky "Better Than Nothing," which describes one night in a bar. Popp and his capable band of Gerry Barnas (guitar), Alex Craven (bass) and Rob Holm (drums) have made an intelligent, catchy-as-all-hell album. Beatle fans and Brit-pop fans, seek out "Blind Love Sees Tears." It's a winner.
-- Lou Friedman Good Times Magazine February 12-25, 2002 - Lou Friedman
...from Newsday, July 5, 2001:
The Artist: Bill Popp and the Tapes
Hometown: College Point
The Disc: "Blind Love Sees Tears"
Performance: A
Songwriting: A
Sound Quality: A
"Blind Love Sees Tears" will drive lovers of power pop to tears of joy. It's only Bill Popp and the Tapes' third long-player since 1981, but Popp is clearly a believer in the "quality vs. quantity" adage. (You won't hear any cliches like that on the album.)
Maybe this is what early GBV would've sounded like if Bob Pollard had access to more than four-track equipment (and liked keyboards and wrote songs about girls).
Popp's '60s influences aren't buried at the bottom of a well. Take, for example, the exuberance with which the band plays "Speaks Little English"; it's pure pop pleasure complete with Beatles-Beach Boys-Byrds holy trinity harmonies. And who would dare cover the Bee Gees? But Popp and the boys deliver a revved-up version of "New York Mining Disaster 1941."
"Better Than Nothing" takes a turn for low-down blues with the story of an almost encounter with the "queen of lonely love" -- a woman who, we presume, would have to be asked, "Who's walking whom?" if we saw her taking her dog for a stroll. Needless to say, there aren't any dogs on this one.
-- Kevin Amorim Newsday July 5, 2001 - Kevin Amorim
...from New York Press, August 1-7, 2001:
Finally, from another old-time New York rocker comes an album called Blind Love Sees Tears. That CD, on 121st Street Records, is by none other than Mr. Bill Popp and his band, the Tapes. Bill has been playing around CBGB and other places for about as long as I can remember. One Christmas he even dressed as Santa Claus (a drunk Santa Claus) and gave out presents from the Bleecker and Bowery Stage. Anyway, Bill is a master songwriter, and his tunes are both catchy and haunting. Just listen to "Closest Friend" and "Better Than Nothing" to hear what I mean. This guy rules. And of course, he's from New York and likes to hang around CBGB, so we all know what that means. He's got a huge penis! Yay!
-- George Tabb New York Press August 1-7, 2001, Volume 14, Number 31
[bold added] - George Tabb
Discography
25x30 (2011)
My Lonely Mind (2008)
Blind Love Sees Tears (2001)
Insides (1996)
Popp This (1990)
Photos
Bio
Feature article from the Whitestone Times Ledger:
Boro Popp Sensation By Brian M. Rafferty 10/30/2003
College Point's Bill Popp
Bill Popp and the Tapes have been an institution on the NYC music scence for over 25 years and counting... They have released a numerous albums, including the most recent, "Blind Love Sees Tears," in 2001. The band has toured extensively throughout Europe, and solo Popp has appeared in China, India, Thailand & Vietnam. The band is currently working on their 4th album, with the working title, "My Lonely Mind." They appear all over nyc and the tri-state area. A veteran of the early CBGB's era their current venues include, The Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways, The Cutting Room, Joe's Pub, and The Back Fence.
For nearly 30 years a plumber from College Point has been recording Rock 'n' Roll music his own way. Just don't call it pop, that could be a bit confusing...
Bill Popp was raised in a blue collar Queens family, and had been interested in music as a child. When he was a kid, the Beatles came to New York and played on the Ed Sullivan Show.
"I wanted to be the next Ringo," Popp said as he sat sipping coffee in a Bayside cafe last week. By the time I was 13 I bought a blue Ludwig drum kit, which I still have."
"The Beatles were such a huge influence on me", Popp said. My mother had a piano that we bought for her in 1966, and I would tinker, but I didn't start playing until a friend of mine showed me how to play "Hey Jude" on his Epstein organ.
By this time Popp was in ninth grade and had his heart broken for the first time by a girl with whom he was smitten. "That inspired the first song that I wrote, though I'll tell you ... any song I ever wrote for a girl has never gotten me anywhere with her.
With a couple of songs written, a desire to learn piano and his own drum kit, Popp joined a band in 10th grade that was looking for a drummer.
"At that point I was still only listening to Ringo, and the other guys in the band were listening to the big new band, Led Zeppelin", Popp said. "When I started playing drums they looked at me like I had three heads. I was quickly kicked out of the band, so I started to realize that perhaps I should bury myself in piano a bit more and not focus on the drums.
Popp started recording some of his music, and was under the misguided notion that anybody with a demo tape and a catchy tune would soon find themselves featured on American Bandstand. This was not the case.
"I had no reality of what the business was like," he said. "I thought I'd make a demo and get a recording contract."
So the budding musician and songwriter had to focus on just what life would be like after high school.
Popp had never been a good student in school, and had ended up in a plumbing course at Thomas Edison High School. By the time he graduated in 1972, he had already sent his demo off to Warner Brothers, who gave him a cold rejection letter.
"I was very half-assed about the music for a few years after that, but in 1978, when my mother died, I realized that the music had to be the center of what I was doing and that the plumbing had to be just a way to make ends meet", he said.
Between the demo and his mother dying, Popp played in a string of low-paying gigs at such Manhattan clubs as the Dugout, Folk City and CBGB�s. But his mother's death spurred him on to make a serious commitment. Popp's new band, the Tapes, played their first show on March 3, 1981, at Folk City. Their first record came out in 1982.
After the murder of a band member and some other shake-ups, the band reformed in 1986 as Bill Popp and the Tapes. A few months later, Popp's father died.
"That was it," Popp said. "I was going to sell the friggin' house and move to Florida. I didn't know what I was going to do. Up until that point I lived with my dad and paid room and board. He paid all the bills."
"With my father alive, I was still a kid," Popp added. "I didn't even have a checking account until a year earlier. What did I need to write checks for?"
Popp suddenly grew up overnight.
"My dad was my best friend, and when he died he left me the house and about $20 after everything was all said and done. I figured I needed to do something for him."
"I came up with the idea of doing a benefit concert for the American Heart Association in his name," Popp said. "We had the first one on March 10, 1987 at CBGB's, and did one there every year until we moved it to Kenny's Castaway's in 1993. This last year was the 21st annual, and we have raised more than $13,000 in that time."
Like many actors who spend their lives waiting tables, Popp has spent most of his adult life as a plumber. He is currently employed by the city and works doing plumbing for the Department of Parks and Recreation.
"It's good because I go to work in the morning and I have all night to work on the music," Popp said. "I haven't been off the stage for more than three months at a time, and
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