Scroll down for reviews of releases by Andrea Perry, The Lackloves, The Paybacks and OK Go. Click here for reviews of releases by The Wildweeds, Doug Powell, The Black Watch amd Kimberley Rew.

Various Artists
Right To Chews: Bubblegum Classics Revisited

(Not Lame)

notlame.com

Slowly but surely, bubblegum is getting more respect. For years, there has been an ironic appreciation of the simplistic ditties that were the product of Kasenatz and Katz, Don Kirshner's stable of songwriters, Andy Kim and other folks whose surnames did not begin with a ‘K'. If you're an adult, there will probably always be a need to keep a certain intellectual distance from bubblegum tunes – irony has its place. But more and more smart pop fans are appreciating dumb fun set to some of the most insanely catchy music ever composed – letting the inner child rule the ears for a while. And really, take out some blitzkriegs and cretins and weren't a lot of early Ramones songs really just rocking bubblegum? Some of the fuzztoned-to-death songs of Outrageous Cherry, once you strip away the reverb, could have been penned by Tommy Roe or Jeff Barry. In some circles, Steve Miller was a cool post-psych artist jamming with Boz Scaggs in the Bay Area. To me, he created the first blues rock bubblegum ("Take the Money and Run" anyone?), mutating into pure bubblebliss ("Abracadabra" and the awesome, but massive flop, "Bongo Bongo").

My point is, a tribute to classic bubblegum tunes is an idea whose time has come. This disc does it right. Combining a cadre of great pop artists with a variety of tunes, mixing gigantic hits with somewhat forgotten tracks from the past, and topped off by an awesome album cover (with cover model Miss Mellie of PurrBox – sorry fellas, she's married!), the album is a labor of puppy love.

One thing that is not greatly in evidence is major reinvention. Often a staple of tribute discs, I think the artists here wisely realized that the simplistic songs did not offer a load of opportunities for messing around. Instead, the general focus was on inspired performances. The greatest chance was taken by The Beatifics, on their version of The Clique's (and later R.E.M.'s) "Superman". Chris Dorn slows it down into more of a psych-pop tune, which gives a bit more of an edge to the song, the jealous lover sounding more jealous and less lovable.
On an album that contains nary a weak performance, a few tracks are particular standouts. Doug Powell applies his marvelous voice to the Partridge Family's "I Woke Up in Love This Morning". He begins the song delicately, just the voice. Then he kicks it in, and adds layers of guitars – the song has a bit more spunk than the original. He uses a variety of arrangement tricks in the verses to give the song an added urgency. Spectacular. Yet that might not be the best singing on the disc – I think I'd have to pin that medal on Susan West's jacket. The sassy Sparkle * Jet U.K.er (I'd say sassiest, but Mike Simmons can be pretty sassy) brings that special strong woman with girly cuteness thing that she does so well and her awesome singing power on the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." Every time I listen to this, I just nod my head in awe.

Some versions are so obvious, they just had to be done. Japanese bubblepoppers The Oranges have always sounded like they sang clad in tartan (polyester tartan, of course), so their hoppin' take of The Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" is as good as it should be. Likewise, Chris Von Sneidern, who has a knack for picking tribute songs that fit perfectly with his style, gives a great reading of "Smile a Little Smile for Me", sifting out some of the sugar without losing any of the sweetness.

Other highlights amongst the highlights include Walter Clevenger and the Dairy Kings' robust treatment of "Little Bit O' Soul" (The Music Explosion), Teen Machine tearing up Ohio Express' "Yummy Yummy Yummy", Mary Kate O'Neil doing "Get Down", the Gilbert O'Sullivan track that was made for a man, but the ladies like it too, Lolas resurrect an Archies obscurity, with lyrics that reflect the true Zen of Jughead "Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y. D.O.O.)", and Michael Carpenter showing that Australians could relate to the quintessential ravages of puberty as well as us Yanks, warmly rendering The Brady Bunch's "Time to Change". The Osmonds' "Down by the Lazy River" is a true raver and every member of Wonderboy takes a verse. Jeremy, Ed James and Todd Borsch of The Ringles got together as Joyride for my favorite bubble entendre, "1, 2, 3, Red Light" (a 1910 Fruitgum Company hit) – the sunny melody can't hide the seething adolescent frustration – every night the singer's girl just won't put out.

There's tons more fun here – Cliff Hillis, The Rubinoos, Receiver, Einstein's Sister, Beagle, The Andersons!, Linus Of Hollywood, Mitch Easter and so on. This marks the second awesome tribute put together by writer John Borack (drummer for Receiver and The Popdudes), right on the heels of the excellent Shoe Fetish comp. Borack also pens great liner notes – a short piece on the general joys of ‘gum and a track-by-track guide. This ranks right up there with the best tributes I've heard and it's fun for the whole family.

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Andrea Perry
Two

(Trust Issue)

trustissuerecords.com

Witty and arty pop from the talented Perry, who does everything but play drums. Perry has a voice that sometimes betrays no emotion, sometimes is a bit girlish, and is sometimes sexy in an elusive way. Perry's songs are complex in how she puts together relatively simple instrumental passages into a denser whole. Her bass lines are wobbly and compelling and her modal guitar leads could have come off an ancient Sparks record or a more recent Sugarplastic platter. While she doesn't sound like The Sugarplastic or XTC, those artists are good reference points for the way she's able to blend some offbeat sounds with terrific melodies, using the inherent tension to make the melodies all the stronger.

She combines this with clever and whimsical lyrics that are concise and satisfying. Here's a litmus test – if you like this opening couplet, from the pretty piano rumination "Across the Water" (where she combines keyboard sounds that remind me of Elton John's piano and the majestic organ of Procol Harum), this may be for you: "playing a child's game/playing it like a child". This opening is a portent for a warm and beautiful song.
Some of her songs have a jaunty yet serene vibe that brings to mind a modern update on Margo Guryan's jazz-tinged pop. "Bye Bye" wisps in with the chorus which is varied by the brief verses – two melodies that counterpoint and intertwine, flowing into a middle eight that varies the melodic concepts previously heard. She juxtaposes the ascending and descending chord progressions – I'm (obviously!) not a musician, but it is so fascinating how Perry finds as many wrinkles as possible from a few series of notes. Brilliant.

Perry comes off like a Californian Nina Persson vocally, and combines chicken scratch funk guitar with oddball leads that are reminiscent of Adrian Belew on "Make the World Go Round". And that only describes in part all the stuff going on on this track. The song percolates behind drummer SearCh's beatkeeping (part shuffle, part aggressive jazz). In addition to Perry's compelling lead, she also provides weaving backing vocals and counterpart lead vocals during the punchy middle eight. Perry's melody sounds like it's just hanging on, managing to keep up with the numerous rhythmic twists and turns. Yet again, brilliant.

SearCh taps out a New Orleans jazz rhythm on "Light Up the Underworld" – boy, Perry should have multi-tracked this part, this could have sounded like Carla Bley rewriting Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk". Perry's bass playing is equally critical, so rubbery and playful, while she embellishes with anything she can – dissonant guitars, electronic keyboards whooshes and squeals, etc.

Perry's walking bassline and cooing vocals are accompanied by an appropriate melody in the verses of "Time to Say Hello". The verses lead into the clockwork rhythm of the chorus – this is one of the songs that reminded me of the Sugarplastic/XTC approach. If anything, this dissonant meets pretty approach works a bit better with a vocalist as pleasant as Perry. This song has stayed in my head since the first time I spun the disc.

Normally, this is the part of the review where I acknowledge flaws in the disc, or areas in which the artist could improve to make the disc better. Here, I'm at a loss as to what Perry should change. Oh yeah – next time, print the lyrics in the disc booklet. I can't think of much else I'd change.

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The Lackloves
Starcitybaby

(Rainbow Quartz)

rainbowquartz.com

I've always been a Mike-chauvinist. During my pop lovin' gestation, my favorite Monkee was Mike, because he was tall and skinny (as I was, relatively, as a youngster), played the twangy guitar and, most importantly, his name was Mike. It's a natural inclination for me to want to like other Mikes. Granted, since the name is pretty pervasive, I've realized that there are plenty of assholes named Mike. Still, all things considered, I'm pro-Mike (and Michael).

After all, if I had to name the three of the best ‘60 inspired songwriters currently making music, I couldn't think of a much better trio than Michael Quercio (ex-Three O'Clock, The Jupiter Affect), Michael Mazzarella (The Rooks) and the leader of The Lackloves, Mike Jarvis (whose mother presumably, and probably inevitably, calls him Michael). Jarvis and his bandmates deserve credit for sticking it out in Milwaukee, making music that is so far away from any trends and aspires to equal the classics of days gone by.

Some of you might recall Jarvis's previous unit, the superswell Blow Pops. The Lackloves retain all the jangle folk pop goodness of the Pops, but expand the musical vision much further. On their excellent 2000 debut As Far As You Know, The Lackloves showed off some muscle that you didn't hear from The Blow Pops, even throwing in some mild funk guitar and knocking off a great folk-garage chestnut ("Until You Go Away" is as good as the best tunes from The Last).

Since the debut is out-of-print, the band re-recorded three numbers for this disc, while the new songs are a mix of tried-and-true ‘60s pop, with some overt ‘50s influences really coming to the fore. Album opener "Starspangledsatellites" pulses like prime Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Nick Verban tapping out the appropriate galloping rhythm, while Bob Eickhoff plays single notes in a distinct pattern in the background. Jarvis's applies his retro love song melodies and an evocative voice – he strains his range on almost every song, but his vocals have a John Lennonish sound and exude passion, tenderness and pain, as the song requires. Very few folks out there are pulling off such traditional rock and roll tunesmithing so well (Nick Lowe and Walter Clevenger come to mind – don't know if anyone is doing it as well as the Nickster, but these songs are near that standard).

In a related vein, "Do You Miss Me?" is an old-fashioned ballad, that isn't too far from the type Elvis Presley was doing in his heyday. What makes this all the more interesting is that the band's performance does not echo the ‘50s style – instead, it has the band's typical ‘60s folk-pop sound. You get two layers of retro brilliance, all on one song. If country radio takes a turn for more organic songs again, someone should slide this to a Dwight Yoakam or some other worthy singer.

Tracks such as "Love on the Phone" and "Need to See You Tonight" aren't as striking in their traditional bent, but are also fine examples of The Lackloves command of basic lighthearted American rock and roll. The three holdover tracks from the debut all sound great – the swoony "Where Love Ain't Around" (with it's urgent bridge and chorus shaking you up so well), the jangly "Goodbye" and the biggest beneficiary of re-recording, "Molasses Funk", which starts with an "Eight Miles High"-meets-Cheap Trick guitar burst, and settles into a Monkees-psychedelia combo. The new version has more guitar magic and well defined backing vocals and sounds just a bit more energized.

About the only thing lacking (ooh...that's kind of a pun, isn't it?) on this album of top drawer songs is a couple more songs of similar fire, because the more rocking side of the band gets the short shrift. Still, the songs here are so good, maybe I'm just being hypercritical. The Lackloves are a unique band, applying 1957-65 songcraft with an execution more in line with 1964-1968. Trendy, no? Great, indeed.

The Paybacks
Knock Loud

(Get Hip)

gethip.com

Rock-and-fucking-roll! The Stones, The Dolls, The Divinyls (they started out a hard unit) all come to mind while grooving to this scorcher. Lead singer Wendy Case is the real deal, rasping out her declamations with a voice that rages, hurts, exhorts and exemplifies survival. The band is driven – the momentum on this record never flags. These guys must simply obliterate small clubs and play with a fury that could fill a much better space.

What's really impressive about The Paybacks is that they leaven the hot slabs of molten rock with a few genuine pop-rock songs. They obviously know that they can kick your ass any time they feel like pressing down on the accelerator. This makes for one hell of an album.

The ‘hit' is the dazzling "Black Girl". The song is so freaking simple – "Street Fighting Man"-era Stones colliding with the ultra-hookiness of Slayed?-era Slade. Start with a basic blues-jangle riff. Let drums and lead guitar kick in. Enter Case with a basic lyrical bit ("The blacker the berry/the sweeter the juice") and from there the tale of the Black Girl gets going. Then the chorus – "She's a real black girl/a real black girl/and you la la la la la la la yeah...." -- an inexact quote, and those words may seem inarticulate, but drenched with Case's lace and whiskey attitude, it's poetry of the first division, rock style. Add the superb Marco Delicato guitar solo and the general melodic thrust – fuck, this should be put out in an 8-track version.

Not every song is such a hook fest. The Paybacks often just bludgeon with power. The relentless "Tie Me in a Knot" meets minimum catchiness requirements, but works well as a simple piledriver that fans of AC/DC and The Supersuckers would get equally fired up over. The song does have a pretty cool dual lead guitar middle that adds to it's ‘70s hard rock feel. Case's voice barely registers above the guitar fury on "Blackout", another song premised on a repetitive lead guitar line. The song gets in and out in less than two-and-one-half minutes and wrings you dry.

If one song exemplifies how cool Wendy Case is, check out "Don't Lay it on Me": "don't lay your cool upon me/(I'm) just a square having fun/you want to fuck it up for everyone". The song manages to be pissed off while still swinging thanks to the great rhythm section work by Mike Latulippe (drums) and John Szymanski (bass). While bitter looks so good on Case, she can be kinda romantic, as she practically throws herself at a dude in "If I Fell". This is the strongest melodic construction on the disc, and even when she's trying to convince a guy that he should be with her, she still sounds pretty tough: ("Say my name/you're going to do it anyway").

Call it garage, call it punk, call it what you will. This is a fine rock platter. If the band's next disc adds a few more tunes of "Black Girl" quality, the next LP with be godlike.

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OK Go
OK Go

(Capitol)

hollywoodandvine.com

The press has been touting the revival of rock and roll, but the combined forces of The Hives, The Strokes, The White Stripes have not produced that magical slice of three minute heaven – the summer single. The summer single is a convergence of rock and pop that has a way of capping off a sunny perfect 80 degree day with a blend of crunch and uplifting melody. Moreover, anyone should be able to sing along with it.

OK Go has recorded precisely such a song, so perhaps 2002 will not go down in rock history as The Year Without A Summer Single. Of course, the summer single MUST lead off the accompanying long player, and OK Go does not disappoint in that respect. "Get Over It" is 3:16 of perfection. The song starts with handclaps, for god's sake, metronomically setting up the simple J.Geils Freeze Frame-era guitar riff, all which lead to the monster chorus, a simple mantra accompanied by just the right squiggly keyboard line. This riff-chrous combo is played and recorded with the largeness of a prime Def Leppard single. This means only one thing – manna for the radio.
As often occurred in the ‘80s, the second song ("Don't Ask Me") sounds like the perfect follow up single. Blending some like Antmusic stutter percussion to a bratty Weezer-melody and throwing in a twinky cuteness that could be JoBoxers, Huey Lewis and the News or Barenaked Ladies, this song is a second example of how a basic, danceable rhythm and sing-a-long ease can make a hit.

The winning streak continues on "You're So Damn Hot", which really establishes how new wavey these guys are. This is a cousin to the twinkier Cars material – songs like "You Might Think" and "Shake it Up". God, the keyboards are cheesy and the backing vocals almost capture that Roy Thomas Baker artificiality so well. The ‘wacky' guitar solo even comes close to Elliot Eastonosity.

Things go downhill from this giddy start. The songs slow down and the melodies thin out and the hooks follow accordingly. Moreover, as the album winds on, the band loses its snap, which may be a flaw of the extremely slick production. And like the aforementioned Barenaked Ladies, OK Go's innate preciousness becomes more cloying as the album goes on, which is exacerbated by the slower tempos – when the band is rocking, it seems all the more forgivable.

Only on "Return" does the band somewhat sell the song. This song has a haunting hook. The overall feel is somewhere between Electric Light Orchestra and Howard Jones, tilting the balance more towards ELO. The recording still seems to fall short of potential, as the band doesn't quite crank up the passion. If you want her to return, sound like it.

The last nine tracks of the album illustrate what an elusive combination of performance, production and songwriting are necessary to make a song more than just listenable fluff. OK Go are craftsmen and every track has something positive about it – a memorable keyboard flourish from Andy Duncan, a witty lyrical phrase sung by Damian Kulash (though the band's lyrics seem to go in one ear and out the other too often, which at times seems to be a byproduct of keeping Kulash's voice mired in the middle of the guitars), a hummable refrain. Yet they don't really add up to much, particularly in light of all of the energy expended by the band on the first three tracks. Too call this filler would be too damning, but it's not that fulfilling – these guys are about five steps away from Fountains of Wayne b-sides on these tracks.

Still, the thought of any of the first three tracks on this disc conquering radio is quite the pleasant one. And they are a stitch live – covering everything from The Specials to Rick Springfield to Toto. I hope this is a hit and they can then make a full album's worth of good tracks on their follow up.

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