Manic Pop Thrill

03/06/2026

Happy Bandcamp Friday - go there to pick up music from The No Good Crowd, Saint Small, The People Between, Cordalene, and all your favorite Manic Pop Thrill-ing artists! We don't have a 'web page' on BC, but here's a link to The No Good Crowd, and easy to navigate to zillions more indie artists -

Formed in 2023, guitarists Jamie Olson and Jim McGuinn have history going back to Philly’s beloved indie rockers Cordalene (2000-2005), with Jamie forming the rootsier Midnight Singers not long after, where he was joined by drummer Neil Simpkins. Later Jamie formed the even more rootsy Atlantic Co...

02/06/2026

Happy Bandcamp Friday from all our artists to you! The No Good Crowd The People Between Cordalene The Midnight Singers

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas from Manic Pop Thrill! If you need some more jams today, here’s the two hughy recommended holiday tunes we’ve released - Saint Small covering Slade’s classic Merry Xmas Everybody, and The People Between and their own future standard - “Macauley Culkin and Bruce Willis (Merry Christmas)” - hear them here or add them to your own holiday mix!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3r2bvCdmD9rXXDbng2dMUd?si=iiDdBEwIQOOpeLf4fBEVNw&pi=D88NjPPeTrGeF

Playlist · Jim McGuinn Slusarek · 2 items

07/11/2025

Our label's first vinyl LP is out and available via Saint Small's Bandcamp page, and the songs are now streaming too. We're shedding a little tear of pride over here...

Saint Small · Album · 2025 · 12 songs

03/04/2025

Greetings friends of The People Between! I have a song to share with you tonight: I cut this version of the Badfinger classic a few years ago, part of a project reimagining my favorite songs and recording them in different styles. With the recent passing of the last surviving member of Badfinger, I thought it might be nice to post my version of this power pop classic.

Back around 2010 I had the pleasure of interviewing Joey at his house in Minnesota - he was a sweet, kind, generous soul with a twinkle in his eye, and it was one of my favorite musical conversations. He told me that the guitar solo was spontaneous - he picked up John Lennon's lapsteel while recording the tune at Abbey Road, and it just fell into place. We're going a different direction, with a stiff and square synth solo!

I've been mostly releasing music with No Good Crowd the past two years, but will still occasionally post solo/collective music as The People Between - Jim McGuinn

https://thepeoplebetween.bandcamp.com/track/no-matter-what

01/31/2025

10/08/2024

I've had two obsessions this week - The Philadelphia Phillies playoff run, and finishing a couple work-in-progress songs in time for: WXPN Welcomes: Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate) at MilkBoy 10.9.24 - two things that CONVERGE on Wednesday evening - as the Phillies Game 4 has a 5:08 start time in NY, and Milkboy has agreed to push back my opening set from 8:00 to 8:30pm, hopefully right AFTER a Phillies win. So come on down to Milkboy, watch the game at the bar, with music to follow, including a couple brand-new-never-before performed songs from me - along with a guest appearance by Jamie Olson from The No Good Crowd, followed by Steve Wynn's solo show, and maybe some baseball analysis (one of his other bands is The Baseball Project after all).

Below - photos of my last solo show - opening for Nigel Bennett's Vi*****rs at Milkboy in February. Thx to Cheryl Squadrito and Tina Markoe Photography. See ya Wed night - Go Phils!

10/04/2024

Another Bandcamp Friday is here - and a gentle reminder to avail yourselves to some of the fine MPT releases on the site by The No Good Crowd Saint Small The People Between The Midnight Singers - plus today (especially if you are in Philly) you might enjoy this banger of a dare I say it - Sports Anthem - just in time for Red October!

track by The People Between

09/10/2024

New snaps for TNGC- check em out

06/28/2024

While I was cheering for the Edmonton Oilers to pull off a miraculous comeback in the finals, I gotta give a shoutout to the Florida Panthers for their crucial game 7 win this week. A great series, and the next day the mighty returned to action in the Penn Rink summer league. Perhaps we're not quite the same level as these NHL's best, but like the Panthers next year, we're defending our own title run from the winter season. All hockey players need to keep their skates sharpened - so it's never a bad time to remind us with this Saint Small jam about the Ultimate Hockey Dad. We call him Steve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfj5S4q5Zgg

My favorite part of making the video was trying to play guitar and lip sync while skating around wearing hockey gloves.

Saint Small's loving tribute to the ultimate hockey dad, the unsung hero, The Skate Sharpener (aka Steve). SUBSCRIBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKF...

01/05/2024

TODAY The No Good Crowd RELEASED OUR FIRST SONG ON SPOTIFY AND THE DSPs! SO PSYCHED! And I have a favor to ask of everyone here: Please...

1) GO TO The No Good Crowd on Spotify (or Apple, etc)
2) LISTEN to Some Kinda Gold (and hopefully dig it!)
3) LIKE / HEART / LOVE the song (and the band too)
4) If you make playlists, PUT IT ON A PLAYLIST
5) and if you do #4, TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT YOUR PLAYLIST on Social Media. Create and Share - it's fun!

Many that know me know that besides my family and friends and my day job of programming and DJing at WXPN, I have a lot of interests: hockey, pets, record collecting, and especially making and playing music with good people. Or in this case, No Good people! Jamie Olson and I go back to Cordalene circa 2000, and along with Brendan Skwire and Cornelius Simpkins we've been having a blast playing and recording together the past few months. In fact, we're doing it again live NEXT Friday at Dawson Street Pub if you are in the area (Speeding Arrow, The No Good Crowd and Emm Gryner).

There's no feeling like creating and completing a new song. Jamie and I wrote this tune, I recorded it at home, and at least the early reaction from people we care about that have heard it is really encouraging - comparisons to our heroes like Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, Dandy Warhols, with no less an expert than Peter Jesperson saying "It's a cool R&R record, great sound, I like both sides" of the 7-inch single we gave him a few weeks back.

It's the first time in years any of us have been part of a completely new band that has ZERO listeners and history. We're not gonna get rich or famous. I mean, even if 1000 of us do all these steps, it only amounts to about $3. So other than earning a cup of fancy coffee for one band member, why? I'm curious to see if we can generate enough momentum for the Algorithm Switch to flick - whether we'd start showing up in more listeners' feeds, or god forbid, even make an Editorial playlist? And if 100 of our friends Like us, what will the "Artists Your Fans Also Like" list for the band contain? Is this a new model for artists and friends to help each other out - to get thru the noise in 2024 on a tiny scale?

When I listen to or buy music and art of my friends, I know I'm making an impact on that local/friend artist's art. There's no time like the launch of a new song/band to ask for support. I'll keep everyone here updated with the progress and we'll see where it goes. And what's the worst that can happen - you spend 4 min 21 sec listening to a cool song your friends made?

Thx in advance - here's the link to our Spotify page below - give that listen/like... and if you don't use Spotify (I'm looking at you Neil Young), the song is also on Apple, Amazon, etc., and both the 45 and downloads are for sale on our Bandcamp page.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2XyZ4Ak22CQBimeIvsxRzl?si=aQ7_EEytQOqZwIbyr4CmCQ