Which brings me to Hawthorne California's other favorite sons of Summer Redd Kross.
"Super Sunny Christmas" is perhaps my favorite holiday single. It was recorded shortly after lead guitarist Robert Hecker left the band after the Third Eye tour in 1991. It was only released in Australia on Insipid Vinyl and came out on black, red and green vinyl. It features then-Redd Kross keyboardist Gere Fennelly on the picture sleeve. The song hasn't too many appearances anywhere. It's on Vital Juices - a compilation on Insipid Records and Rodney Bingenheimer's Santa's Got A GTO: Rodney on The ROQ's Fav X-Mas Songs. The B-Side is the non-holiday song "Huge Wonder" which was re-recorded for the bands' Phaseshifter album. This is the superior version of the two.
"Super Sunny Christmas" is a straight-forward power pop song with nice harmony vocals from the McDonald brothers. It's basically a Christmas-in-July song with lyrics such as "I'm so glad there ain't no snow/It's gonna be a Super-Sunny Christmas I know". The song features synthesized harpsichord (which is fairly unique for a Redd Kross song) and sleighbells in the bridge and coda. This isn't the only Christmas song that Redd Kross has written & recorded. The other being, "Mary Christmas" which appeared on the A Home For The Holidays: Phoenix House compilation in the late 90's. Also worth checking out if so inclined.
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album was released just in time for the Christmas holiday season, on November 9th 1964. The album was undoubtedly conceived as a result of Capitol's persistent pressure for product from the band for the Holiday season. But it was perhaps inspired by Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift To You, which Brian Wilson has stated is his all-time favorite recording. So how do the boys of Summer from Hawthorne California fare on a recording of Christmas music? Exceptionally well.
The record was split into two conceptual sides; side one is the pop side for the teens and features the band on all instruments while side two is the traditional side for the adults. Side two was arranged and orchestrated by Dick Reynolds, whose work with The Four Freshman Brian Wilson was a fan of. The band was backed on the Dick Reynolds tracks by a forty-one piece orchestra.
"Little Saint Nick" returns here as it had already been a hit from the prior holiday season of 1963 (reaching #3 on Billboard's Holiday Charts). And it has gone on to become something of a holiday classic. "The Man With All The Toys" was the single from the album and while not becoming the classic that "Little Saint Nick" has, it was successful, reaching #6 on Billboard's Holiday Charts.
"Merry Christmas Baby" was also eventually released as a single in 1966 in the German market.
"Christmas Day" (which was Al Jardine's first lead vocal performance with the band) and "Santa's Beard" round out the originals.
"White Christmas", "Blue Christmas" and "We Three Kings Of Orient Are" are Wintery-cold in the vocal performances and the arrangements mirror that. "Frosty The Snowman" and "Santa Claus Are Coming To Town" are playful and lighthearted and these are the two non-singles that still get airplay around the holidays. "Auld Lang Syne" closes things out and features a flubbed spoken-word thank you from Dennis Wilson over the band's accapella version of the song.
The album reached #6 on Billboard's Top 100 charts and has subsequently gone Gold. It has been released numerous times over the years in many different variations. The best of these is Ultimate Christmas, which was released in 1998 and also features the bands later holiday recordings from the the mid 70's. It's one of my favorite holiday recordings by default as it features the ultimate Summer band in Winter holiday mode.
Bob "Slim" Dunlap was the Replacements lead guitarist from 1987-1991, having replaced original guitarist Bob Stinson. He joined the band following the recording of Pleased To Meet Me and was the lead guitarist in-tow for the accompanying tour. He played on their Don't Tell A Soul and All Shook Down albums. In February of 2012, he suffered a massive, debilitating stroke. With Slim and his family facing considerable expenses for his rehabilitation and care, the surviving Replacements (Chris Mars, Tommy Stinson & Paul Westerberg) decided to set up a fundraiser. The result was the songsforslim.com website, collecting numerous auctions and merchandise for fans to purchase with the proceeds going to the Slim Dunlap Fund.
The Replacements in 1987 with Slim (on far right).
One of these releases, Songs For Slim was a five-song EP that was initially was pressed on 10" vinyl with a limited pressing of 250 and were auctioned online with all proceeds going toward Slim and his medical expenses. Later pressings were sold on 12" on magenta-colored vinyl (with a download card). Tommy Stinson & Paul Westerberg reunited to record four songs - one of which "Busted Up" was written by Slim the others being covers. "Radio Hook Word Hit" (also written by Slim) was recorded entirely by former Replacements drummer Chris Mars. The project was produced by former Replacements mentor/manager Peter Jesperson. The cover art was also done by Chris Mars (who's had a lucrative career as a visual artist since the demise of the Replacements).
There's also been a series of eight 7" singles on colored-vinyl released of Slim's
songs as performed by such artists such as The Young Fresh Fellows, Peter Buck of R.E.M., John Doe of X and Frank Black of The Pixies. These songs (as well as several others) were also collected on the benefit double-album Songs For Slim: Rockin' Here Tonight - A Benefit For Slim Dunlap. All this activity spawned an unlikely Replacements reunion with the band performing at Coachella, Riotfest and on the Tonight Show. I personally saw them at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in September of 2014 and it was an exceptional performance.
This is recommended for The Replacements fan (if you haven't already picked up a copy). But it's not a great starting point for the non-replacements. That would be Tim, Let It Be or Pleased To Meet Me.
Here's the video review:
Special thanks: New West Records, Chris Mars Publishing.
Wow. Where to begin with this kitschy doozy of a collection. This was released in 1965 on the budget sound-alike label Design Records which was a subsidiary of Pickwick International based out of Long Island City, Queens, New York. The Surfsiders were a studio outfit which featured a pre-Velvet Underground Lou Reed as a vocalist on a few tracks.
I'd like to think that a flurry of illegal substances and adult beverages were at play here when it comes to explaining the goofy, punkoid arrangements. But somehow I know that's not the case.
There are multiple laugh-out-loud moments on this release. Imagine the T-Birds clowning around singing together in Grease (or even better Grease 2) but, if they were Beach Boys fanatics.
"Little Honda", "When I Grow Up To Be A Man", "Help Me Rhonda" and "Little Deuce Coupe" are all mangled in unimaginative doo-wop - and unlike Brian Wilson's beautiful vocal arrangements - are basically all sung in the same octave.
The back-cover "artwork" features virtually no information about what was inside, as was par for the course with this and many other budget labels of the time. The front cover features a couple of laughing blonde teenagers yucking it up while running into the ocean with a surf board.
It's pretty safe to say that I struck kitsch gold with this purchase. Only recommended for masochistic Beach Boy fans or Lou Reed completeists. Maybe?
San Francisco California's Jellyfish had some minor initial commercial success. Their brand of Badfinger meets The Partridge Family and XTC pop was popular enough critically circa 1990/1991 but never really received the widespread attention it really deserved. Their debut album Bellybutton spawned five singles, one of which ("Baby's Coming Back") even reached number 62 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart. One single was released as part an EP.
That song was "Now She Knows She's Wrong". It's a power pop meets bubblegum confection with Steve McDonald of Redd Kross guesting on bass. It starts with a minor-key Partridge Family synthesized harpsichord part. It isn't long before sleigh bells ala Brian Wilson and glockenspiel join-in. And after two-minutes and thirty-five seconds the song is over. "Bedspring Kiss" is a five-minute long groovy piece of nuevo cocktail-lounge and exotica noir that references cocaine and heroin use with a bridge that sounds like a missing link from Pet Sounds. It is one of several highlights from the Bellybutton album.
The B-Sides of the Scary-Go-Round EP are nice live obscurities. There are variations between the 12" EP, CD EP & 7" EP. Each come with two live tracks per-B-Side. The CD contains "Let Em In/That Is Why" & "The King Is Half-Undressed". The former is a medley of the intro and chorus of the
Wings hit single for the Summer of 1976 and segues into the
Supertrampesque "That Is Why". This medley was recorded live at Bogart's
and was finally issued (along with the rest of that complete 2/21/91
performance) on Omnivore Records' Live At Bogart's. The latter is a great performance of their debut single (also on Bellybutton) and was recorded at LA's The Roxy and subsequently was released (along with several other tracks from that show) on the now-ultra-rare box-set Fan Club.
The Vinyl 12" & 7"'s tracks all come from their 2012 release of Live At Bogart's. Those tracks are the stately monster of a track "The Man I Used To Be" and "Calling Sarah" which musically sounds like the lovechild of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney. It is perhaps Jellyfish's greatest single sleeper/dark horse of a song. "She Still Loves Him" tells of an abusive relationship whilst sounding like the Badfinger backing The Beach Boys. "Baby's Coming Back" (the band's lone minor-hit) which is a tale of promises of giving up the fast life for one particular girlfriend and actively references The Partridge Family's "C'mon Get Happy" in the song's coda.
If you're a fan of the band, who've since acquired something of a
substantial cult-following since their break-up in 1994, I'd recommend
picking up the EP. It's a nice little slice of what made Bellybutton so
great. It also shows the band in a live-context, which for a band renowned for their studio wizardry (especially on Spilt Milk) they probably doesn't get too much notice for. This is a small slice of Jellyfish's Power Pop Heaven.
For the first-half of the decade The Police were the biggest, most-popular & most commercially successful new wave band of the 1980's. Basically, they were The Beatles of the new wave/punk movement. They had as many female admirers as they did male fans and they were respected by the critical community and fellow musicians alike. They began their career with faux-punk songs and reggae-infused pop songs and over the course of eight years, twenty-singles and five albums became a more worldly and experimental pop band. Then at the peak of their career they called it a day.
Then in January of 2007, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers and Gordon Sumner (known more colloquially as "Sting") announced they would be reuniting for a world tour to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary. The tour - sponsored by Best Buy - commenced in May of 2007 and ended in August of 2008. To say it was successful would be putting it mildly; the tour earned upwards of 350 million dollars and became the third highest-grossing tour of all-time. The Police were the world's most top-earning musicians for both 2007 & 2008. The band even reunited with original Police guitarist Henry Padovani (who hadn't played with the band since 1977) joined the band for an encore when they played Paris. Thankfully, the tour was also well-documented/recorded and the band released the Best Buy exclusive Certifiable: Live In Buenos Aires (recorded live at River Plate Stadium in December of that 2007) in November of 2008. There was a home video of the performance released as well on both DVD & Blu Ray. The DVD was packaged with the CD release of the show.
A rare four-man band shot (with Henry Padovani on the far right) at the Mont de Marsan Punk Festival, Paris, France, August 5, 1977.
There was also a nice triple-vinyl release as well. The gatefold packaging itself that houses the three vinyl discs is on the thin-side and leaves a bit to be desired. It's difficult getting the records comfortably in and out of the sleeve. You'd think that considering the amount of money generated from the tour, A&M - or whoever was ultimately responsible for packaging - would have made sure that the packaging was of a higher-quality. But surprise, surprise they did not.
But beyond the shoddy packaging, the records and the recording itself is excellent and a must-have for any Police fan. The performances are great as well; the band has always taken liberties when it came to performing the songs live. For example the band has rarely, if ever, performed "Roxanne" the same exact way live as they did when they first recorded the "hit" studio version from Outlandos d'Amour. With age Sting's voice has slightly deepened and so, occasionally a hit version from 1980 that was in a one key is now in another or sung in a lower octave. A few songs ("Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "Voices Inside My Head") have appeared to live lives of their own and now have fairly different arrangements altogether.
Andy Summers is finally given plenty of room to stretch out and solo as much as he wants (in their heyday he was previously given a four-eight bar maximum) and the band sounds completely confident and relaxed. You'd never know this was a band that had not played together (regularly) since 1984. Sting is still a strong vocalist and is an incredibly nuanced and nimble bassist. And Stewart Copeland still sounds as vital a drummer as ever. The band has streamlined their sound but they basically still sound like The Police, and not like Sting and a pick-up backing band as some might have feared.
The nineteen-song release is a virtual greatest hits collection plus a few fan-favorites (i.e. "Hole In My Life", "When The World Is Running Down...", and "Next To You"). If you're a Police fan of any kind this will make for an interesting and very entertaining - and for the out and out Police fan - an historic listen.
Jerry Cole was an in-demand session musician from the 1960's Los Angeles, California scene. He was a member of what was subsequently dubbed The Wrecking Crew, who played on Phil Spector's hit records and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and SMiLE albums. He was the band-leader on the 60's variety shows Shindig! & Hullabaloo. He's been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame & the Capitol Records Legendary Performer Hall Of Fame. He also worked with Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Paul Revere & The Raiders and Frank Sinatra to name just a few. He also had a band of his own: The Spacemen, who performed regularly on the Sunset Strip and released a trio of albums on Capitol Records in 1963 & 1964.
The final release of these albums, Hot Rod Dance Party is produced by Jim Economides (Dick Dale & His Del-Tones) and was originally released in 1964 by Capitol Records. At the time, Capitol was producing surf-rock albums by the dozens, either by actual surf-rock bands, or studio-created "bands" such as The Super Stocks, The Kickstands & The Ghouls.
"MUSIC WITH A DRIVIN' BEAT THAT PUT ANY PARTY ON WHEELS"
Hot Rod Dance Party is a horn-driven, classic reverb-drenched guitar instrumental album and is very danceable (in an swinging, twisting, old-school, guitar-based way). It's Hot-Rod Music/Surf-Pop (although "Hot Rod Music" is really just surf rock with lyrics about cars and racing as opposed to waves and surfing). There aren't any particular standout tracks, truth-be-told. The material is sometimes bachelor-pad infused with hints of tiki exotica and lounge with great guitar lines courtesy Mr. Cole. At times the material falls into a sort of generic surf-pop realm, that really isn't made anymore. This being said, the recording itself is very nice (and so unmistakably Americana of the mid 60's as well). And if you're a fan of surf rock guitar playing, you'll probably love this record. One can only imagine how the surf pop vocals of The Beach Boys or Jan & Dean on top of these instrumental tracks would have potentially elevated it commercially, but I digress.
It was reissued In a limited pressing of only 1,000 copies in 2010 by the fantastic reissue label Sundazed Music based out of the Catskills in New York. Sundazed has long-since taken the mantle from Rhino Records as being the greatest vinyl reissue/authentically vintage label currently in existence. The vinyl is beautiful clear-black-marble and is a nice piece for anyone who is a fan of this sort of thing (i.e. instrumental surf pop on vinyl, auxiliary Beach Boys session musicians, etc).
The Fleshtones - originally from Queens, now of Brooklyn - and Nashville's luchador-masked Los Straitjackets (featuring Deke Dickerson) were the bands performing this year at Brooklyn's The Bell House Halloween show. And there were many costumed-patrons there to celebrate the festive holiday as well. I've been a fan of both Los Straitjackets and The Fleshtones for many years and the thing that these bands share: their blends of surf and garage rock stylings with various other elements unique to the individual bands. Neither bands ever fails to deliver an entertaining performance and both make it look all too easy.
I'd seen these two bands (along with Southern Culture on The Skids) perform last Halloween-season at Brooklyn Bowl, so I'd come to know what to expect. The Fleshtones deliver solid, dependable 60's styled R&B-infused garage rock: "Super Rock", as they've long dubbed it. And the fully-formed fourteen-song set they delivered was excellent, and I believe, took more than a few audience-members by surprise. The band casually strolled onto the stage from the side of bar, while playing one of their Halloween standards, "Dance With The Goulman" via wireless bass & guitar. Lead singer Peter Zaremba walked around with a bucket of candy and distributed it to the crowd. The band then launched into their big should-have-been hit from the original motion picture soundtrack (and title-track) I Was A Teenage Zombie.
The band performed songs from their newest album - their twentieth in all - Wheel Of Talent ("What You're Talking About", " Remember The Ramones" & "Veo La Luz"), as well as songs from their last few Yep Roc releases - the band's label since 2002 - from 2008's Take A Good Look ("Feels Good To Feel"), 2005's Beachead ("Pretty Pretty Pretty") and from 2003's Do You Swing? (a cover of the Coastliners' "Alright"). Despite a fan gripe that The Fleshtones rarely venture into their wonderful and woefully-overlooked I.R.S. Records catalog of material, the band's choice of material was satisfying.
I've yet to see a band more forthcoming in their performance without grossly overstating things than The Fleshtones. Bands half their age (their average mean-age for the band members is 50) have much to learn from these guys. Bassist Ken Fox, Drummer Bill Milhizer and Guitarist Keith Streng are still as vital as ever. They've been preaching the word since 1976 and show no signs of slowing down. If these guys are in your town, by all means check them out!
The Fleshtones, above, in mock-heroic pose. And the band in human-pyramid mode.
Before exiting the stage Fleshtones lead singer Peter Zaremba reliably informed the audience that "only the Fleshtones know how handsome Los Straitjackets are".
Los Straitjackets performing above, in perfectly-synced surf guitar pose.
Instrumental surf rock masters Los Straitjackets are currently on tour supporting their newest album Sings The Great Instrumental Hits!!! with special guest vocalist Deke Dickerson. The album tackles instrumental hits such as "Pipeline", "Miserlou", "Popcorn" & "Theme From A Summer Place". However these songs had lyrics all along and Dickerson is here to reinstate them back to the public consciousness. Deke Dickerson is an excellent surf rock guitarist, but he is a just an okay vocalist.
So, to have one of the great modern-day surf rock bands perform with a just-okay vocalist is anti-climatic to say the least. I overheard someone behind me mumble "uh-oh, it's the show killer" when Deke, dressed like a Dracula Elvis, gamely sauntered out for his first song.
The band performed only three instrumental songs, the last being a spooky version of "Theme For Halloween", before being joined by Deke (who overall put on a pretty good performance). If you've ever seen Los Straitjackets perform and are a fan of their instrumental greatness, you can only imagine their set being tainted by a vocalist, let alone an average one. If the band are on tour without a guest vocalist, they must be seen to be believed.
A very special Halloween edition of Talk About Pop Music: Vinyl Views. I'll be reviewing four Halloween-themed vinyl. recordings
Mondo Zombie Boogaloo: 100 Years of Roc is a Yep Roc Records Halloween-themed various artists compilation. It contains four tracks by The Fleshtones, five by Los Straitjackets, five by Southern Culture On The Skids and one track ("Que Monstrous Son" - "Monster Mash" en Espanol) featuring all three bands. All three bands are also signed to Yep Roc records as well. The album holds-up surprisingly well with tracks by The Fleshtones ("Dracula A Go Go" & "Ghoulman Confidential) and Los Straitjackets ("Ghostbusters" & "Theme From Halloween") as the big winners here.
There's satisfying flow of consistency in surf, garage and rockabilly that has always suited Halloween or Horror-themed rock. It's a nice modern addition to this tradition. The double-vinyl is colored green and purple. The vinyl also comes with an enclosed CD copy of the album too!
Halloween Horrors: The Sounds Of Halloween (A&M 1977) is a nostalgia-placeholder for many a thirty-something. It's not a terribly good release, however it could also be a lot worse, I suppose. Side one is an ostensibly would-be scary story that doesn't add up to too much (I guess it can't be too scary). And side two is a collection of seemingly-synthesized sound-effects. Some of these are quite nice; the "Pipe Organ" track is excellent. Most of them are run-of the mill sound-effect tracks.
Recommended if it's very cheap or very free.
Monster Rap - Bobby (Boris) Pickett Featuring Bobby Paine (Easy Street Records 1984) is a cheesy stab at exploiting the Halloween market via the hip-hop genre in the mid 80's. Aside from it being Pickett's last release (famous for his 1962 novelty release "Monster Mash") there's virtually no redeeming qualities to this curiosity. The claymation artwork on the sleeve resembles the hologram figures in the chess game played in Star Wars.
Not really recommended for lovers of even the most dire kitsch.
Last but not least is "Screamin' Skull" (I.R.S. Records 1983) by The Fleshtones. The lyrics are basically about amphetamines and living fast in Los Angeles, as the band was doing at the time. It's set in a faux-horror garage rock setting, complete with honking saxophone and spooky organ intro.
It's the second single release for the band's amazing Hexbreaker album. Despite it's very "American-sound" the label made the possibly wrong-headed decision to only release this (and the first single from this album) only in the U.K.. The B-Side is a nice cover of the John Lee Hooker atheist rave-up "Burning Hell", which also nudges the single into Halloween/Horror genre. An excellent should-have-been-hit-single from Queens New York's finest purveyors of "Super Rock".
After being passed over by Twin/Tone Records for local upstarts The Replacements, Hüsker Dü entered Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis to record their would-be debut 10" EP. They instead paired it down to a more financially-feasible 7" single and released it on their own Reflex Records. Taken long-thought lost safety masters, it has been issued on Record Store Day 2013 as a deluxe 7" EP on Numero Group Records, including the two tracks that were dropped once the 10" release was scrapped.
"Statues" has a nice cyclical flanged bass-line and is a Public Image Limited-esque Grant Hart song about the straitjacket of punk conformity. "Amusement" is live recording of a Bob Mould-penned song that obliquely refers to the band being slighted by Twin/Tone Records. "Let's Go Die" is a Greg Norton song that was previously appeared on the 1993 Rhino Records compilation Everything Falls Apart And More. "Writer's Cramp" is a previously unreleased mid-tempo Buzzcocks-flavored song written by Bob Mould.
It's a fine debut single, and it barely hints at the direction the band would next take. It neither points toward the amphetamine-fueled live album Land Speed Record nor the debut studio album Everything Falls Apart.
Released as part of Numero Group's 700 Line (reissues), limited to 4,000 copies (2,000 on white vinyl & 2,000 on black vinyl) and packaged in a 28pt board gatefold sleeve. The artwork is exactly duplicated from the original Reflex issue on this very nice release. If there are still any post-punk aficionados who have not yet heard Hüsker Dü (which to my mind is like a baseball fan not being all that familiar with who Nolan Ryan was), you need to hear this release, or New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig and Zen Arcade asap.
Here's the video review:
Thanks to Numero Group Records, Fake Name Graphx & Stephen Gersztoff.
Scarsdale, New York's Too Much Joy are perhaps one of my all-time favorite bands. They were most certainly my favorite 90's band (they existed in the public eye from 1987 - 1997). Having said this, it's not so difficult to retain all objectivity when discussing them anymore (or other favorite artists of mine). If I were still a teen, which I haven't been for a few years, this would be a completely different story. My enthusiasm for the band was sincere, as they were all but updated hybrids of various favorite bands of mine. Namely The Replacements, but there were elements of Cheap Trick meets The Clash and The Who meets The Raspberries as well, here and there.
There was a subversive element where the vocals were concerned. They approached their backing vocals as maybe The Beach Boys filtered through the Beastie Boys, but they were a guitar-based proto-pop-punk quartet. Or just a punk-y power pop band. Their lead singer/lyricist Tim Quirk had a fairly unconventional voice. It's pretty obvious Lou Reed was a template for him. Or at least it was an excuse to talk-sing his vocals, some of the time (this is probably most obvious on the band's debut album Green Aggs And Crack). Guitarist Jay Blumenfield had the best voice in the bunch and could hold his own with either R.E.M. jangle or Clash-infused barre chords. Sandy Smallens was a dexterous bassist and whose over-emoted vocals acted as a perfect foil the sweet vocals of Blumenfield and talkier vocals of Quirk. Now-retired NYPD Sergeant drummer Tommy Vinton was basically modern-rock's answer to Keith Moon. Instrumentally, he's possibly the finest in Too Much Joy. He could play small, understated parts and loud, overstated ones with equal skill.
When I heard Too Much Joy for the first time it was in my friend, the late-Eddie Byrne's living room. On the stereo we had on WDRE 92.7 FM in the Summer of 1991. "Long Haired Guys From England" came on, and it was a complete breath of fresh air from what seemed like a stagnant programming-time on my favorite station. The song was four chords (A-E-G-D) repeated for two-minutes and forty-five seconds. It was loud, catchy, memorable, clever and funny. It sounded like it was going to go off the rails toward the end, yet somehow gained momentum and ended no sooner than it began. However, the song segued into a stream of commercials and there was no mention of the artist's name when the D.J. returned to announce the next block of songs. Regardless, I loved it.
And then I forgot about it for about a year, until bonafide Too Much Joy fan and fellow alternative music lover Doug Mashkow loaned me Too Much Joy's third album Cereal Killers (along with their second, SonOf Sam I Am). For some reason Cereal Killers was a difficult listen at first - I initially found there to be too much separation between the vocals and the music, why is the lead singer singing...like that? What was up with these synthesized glockenspiels? I returned to the album a day or so later. Eventually, the fourteen songs on Cereal Killers sunk their subversive power pop/pop-punk metaphoric teeth in. The lyrics were plainly brilliant, the music was well-written and executed and the band was basically a pop juggernaut.
The songs are basically in something of a loose-thematic cycle. When analyzing/dissecting the album, S. Scott Lessig's apt description in Issue Six of Joybuzzer is "Loneliness leads to alienation (which) leads to rage". He basically sums up the entire album with that one sentence. I'd have to add "Resignation" to that description as well. The alienation in the songs, "Pirate", "Goodbye Ohio" & "William Holden Caulfield" also contain the element of rage. In fact, you could easily make a pie chart with which songs fall into which part of the pie (alienation/resignation/loneliness/rage), and have a ridiculous amount of overlap. It was fairly unique at the time - recorded in the Summer of 1990, released in the Spring of 1991 - for an album this dark to have such a pop sheen. Having said this, for the listeners who wanted to wade in the shallower waters of the material; there are plenty of references to getting drunk, getting stoned, and having sex.
Produced by Paul Fox, who also produced XTC's Oranges & Lemons, Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians' Perspex Island and They Might Be Giants' John Henry, the album was a critical success. Its' only flirtation with the charts was the power pop single "Crush Story" (which also stealthily recycles the same chords from "Long Haired Guys From England" for the verses) peaking at #17 on Billboard's Modern Rock Charts. It also contained the Replacements-like single "Susquehanna Hat Company", the somewhat true-story "Thanksgiving In Reno", the frat-rock classic "King Of Beers", the completely-in-denial "Nothing On My Mind" and the bands' very own "Theme Song".
Side One Dummy Records has done vinyl-loving TMJ fans the service of reissuing the album on vinyl. Its' only initial vinyl release was in Germany which awkwardly contained the 1990 single "That's A Lie" from SonOf Sam I Am. It is a limited pressing of 500 yellow and 500 blue copies. The release contains newly-penned and plenty revealing liner notes from Tim Quirk. Some orders made through www.sideonedummy.com will contain a brand new issue of Too Much Joy's Official Fanzine Joybuzzer. Side One Dummy did a really nice job with the release - the vinyl looks really nice and the record sounds beautiful. The packaging is faithful to the artwork of original release. Hopefully Side One Dummy will one day release the band's follow-up album Mutiny as well (which would be making its debut on vinyl, if they did).
Highly Recommended for fans of snarky modern rock (the then-term for such bands), pop-punk and power pop alike.
Here's my video review of the album:
Special thanks to Clive Young (for the nice blue vinyl), Joybuzzer Zine and Doug Mashkow at CD Island (for the informal introduction to the world of Too Much Joy).
