The Popravinas, Southern California – hitting their stride on their third album

The Popravinas – Southern California

After 10 years of slugging it out in the bars and halls of Southern California, The Popravinas are hitting their stride on their third album, Willy Nilly (2019, Zesty Smile Records).

New tricks aren’t necessary for these older dogs who continue to produce twangy, power-pop perfection with nine new offerings drawing welcomed comparisons and nods to The Replacements and early Wilco with a flourish of The Beach Boys to hold this complete package in a SoCal shrink-wrap almost as tight as the plentiful guitar hooks and vocal melodies contained within.

Bassist, lead singer and band songwriter, Eddy Sill, formed the outfit after a comet like tenure with the infamous LA party band, The Mutts, whose sales to talent ratio were shamefully off-kilter. Shifting the focus to a more rootsy, alt-country feel along with a fateful run-in with multi-instrumentalist and guitar ace John Adair at ‘the world’s smallest honky-tonk”, The Cinema Bar in Culver City, The Popravinas began recording and performing memorable, catchy and eventually acclaimed songs for the everyman and woman.

While remaining to hold court at their regular Westside hometown haunts, the band grew their popularity up and down the California Coast with intermittent runs to surrounding states. After their first album, Everybody’s Fault But Ours, gained favourable reviews and satellite airplay, the band was finding fans in Spain and Brazil, who unbeknownst to the band were among some of the countries that are very supportive and fond of theirs and others’ American alt-country and roots rock.

Our second album opened up a ton of doors for us,” recalls John, mentioning 2017’s highly reviewed California Sonic. “By then online radio shows and podcasts really blew up and they were playing the hell out of the record. We’re really looking forward to continuing that momentum with Willy Nilly.

The new album has already garnered some great praise from trusted outlets such as Powerpopaholic and Radio Free Americana and has been added to the playlists of dozens of shows and stations around the world, bolstered by its unlikely lead single, Sofia (CMU).

This semi-sentimental, jangly jem was originally commissioned as a reward to a past crowdfunding campaign. “We were trying to finance a small European tour. We didn’t meet our goal but one of the rewards was a custom Popravinas composition,” says John with a chuckle.

The contributor has a college age family member at Carnegie Mellon University. The rest can be left to songwriting interpretation and lore..

Parlaying that interpretation, the song has proven wildly successful on US college radio and areas ranging far and wide from Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, and particularly the United Kingdom.

“It has really taken off in the UK, as there is a Central Manchester University,” remarks John. “that was pleasantly unexpected!”

The band is looking forward to promoting the album live with stateside travel and shows on the books in CA, NY and PA with more markets and countries sure to follow.