Disappear Fear - Priceless

#Disappear Fear #Sonia Rutstein #folk rock #folk pop #alternative folk #indie folk #power pop #worldbeat #singer-songwriter #1980s #1990s

Hi Sonia, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?


I was five years old when my Aunt Laura took me out of kindergarten to attend the Flower Mart near the Washington Monument on Charles Street in Baltimore. It was around noon and for the first time, I saw Louis Armstrong perform, Hello Dolly. I was quite short so looking up at him I was looking directly into the sun rays was like swords of light into my eyes around the black outline of a man playing the trumpet and singing.
It was the first time I saw the sound from a radio come alive. It was REAL. I believe at that moment I decided I wanted to make music that could be heard on the radio and to be real on stages around the world. It made me feel good and that’s what I wanted to do, make folks feel good. I started writing songs when I was 14 and playing downtown at the dingy and famous Peabody Bookstore. my mother would drive me to the gig and my sister and I were paid $50 for two 40 minute sets.
It was a whole lot better than the $1.40 an hour I was making pizza and sundaes at the Beef Inn. So making music was my dream and has become my destiny but that is a bit of how it started. How I got to where I am I am today… was practice practice practice a bit of luck, a lot of naivety, determination, and perseverance. A publishing company in London heard my first record and flew me and my sister (singer/business partner) over to England and we signed our first publishing deal. We continued to play and amass a nice following in the USA and now around the world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?


The most important thing to me was/is to be true to myself. It is a high price to pay. But it is the only way I can sleep well at night. As a kid, I would see all this glitter and gold on TV Stevie Lawrence and the Las Vegas guys, and that sort of thing and it seemed so phony. I wanted REAL. So folk music with harmonies and guitars that didn’t need a bunch of electricity just authenticity seemed the way to go. My sister Cindy and I had already been singing together for 25 years so starting our own band, disappear fear was a logical step.
But female and out lesbian independent singer-songwriters were not at all present in the local national or international pop or rock or folk music scene. There were out gay performers in the gay market but we wanted to be 100% inclusive so we had to show the world and essentially audition at every club and radio station we stepped foot into and we did just that. Once the folks started coming out we had the upper hand we could call the shots and make the show really great. We did get ripped off financially. There was a club in downtown Baltimore we had a CD release concert and our contract said we got 80% of the door and the owner got 20% of the door and the whole bar tab. We had a counter at each door entrance that calculated our earnings to be $2600.
But at the end of the night, the dude gave us $500.00. we told him that he had shorted us and he said, “that’s enough money for two girls in one night”. The police station was right around the corner and we did file a report but nothing happened and we went back out on the road so no follow-up. Once also in Baltimore, we had a 2 monthly contract with a bar for every Wednesday night. The first night we packed the place and then someone yelled, “KiSS iN” and all these lesbians started kissing. and we got fired at the end of the night. The owner said he, “did not want THOSE kinds of people in his club”. We took the case to court and we met with The Council for Human Relations- they offered us in settlement $2000 to amend the $ we lost but they did not apologize for their homophobic and blatant prejudice.
We did not accept the settlement. At this time. I was still working for the Rape Crisis Center in Baltimore City. My dear friend. Lynnel said to me, “Sonia -show business is crazy and cutthroat. You can either spend your time chasing down the bad guys or move on”. We moved on. Touring in the southeast in the early 90s the sound guys wouldn’t even look you in the eye. They wanted a dude to talk to tell them what was needed for that night tech-wise. And it was not limited to the south it was prevalent across the country. And then on the other end of the career spectrum struggles - once you start making a little money the evil wanna-be’s wanna beat and take advantage of you. I find it is best, to be honest. In the celebrity-mania culture that we live in it is valuable to know the difference between dream and reality. You can’t really buy success - your heart and soul know the difference.

From: https://voyagebaltimore.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-sonia-disappear-fear-rutstein/

Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped

 #Ben Folds Five #alternative/indie rock #power pop #piano rock #1990s #music video

“Song for the Dumped” is a breakup song. The singer rants in an honest and explicit way about the girl who just dumped him. The simplicity of his anger makes the song powerful. He just wants his money back. And his black t-shirt. After everything, it seems like the least she could do.
Shortly before the song, an argument between the band can be heard:
(I hope we got that on tape, because it was a really…)
(Is someone saying something?)
(…it was a really…)
(I don’t know)
(…I was thinking…)
(No, I think I hear some kind of noise — cut that shit!)
(I was thinking about, you know, respecting your work with Steven and…)

The argument was removed from some pressings of the album, although it seems to appear on current CD and digital releases. In 1999, Folds said: The talking before ‘Song for the Dumped’ was a painfully documented real argument that kept bringing up bad feelings. We decided to get rid of it and let the first pressings be for collectors. Better to keep the band together. It was ugly.

I was writing ‘One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces’ and it seemed a little complicated to Darren. And Darren, as a joke—and I guess to make a point—wrote the lyrics to ‘Song for the Dumped’ (without any music or anything) in my notebook next to ‘Dwarf.’ Like, ‘Here’s the way you should write a song. It shouldn’t be that complicated. It should be this simple.’ And I took that one day and made some music to it and showed it to him and we started playing it on tour. I don’t think we ever actually thought that would make the album, but it made the album.

From: https://genius.com/Ben-folds-five-song-for-the-dumped-lyrics

Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds (lead vocals, piano, keyboards, melodica, principal songwriting), Robert Sledge (bass, contrabass, synthesizer, backing vocals), and Darren Jessee (drums, percussion, backing vocals, songwriter, and co-writer for some songs). The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes. The band is best known for the hit single "Brick" from their 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen, which gained airplay on many mainstream radio stations. During their seven years together, the band released three proper studio records, one retrospective album of B-sides and outtakes, and eight singles. They also contributed to a number of soundtracks and compilations. Ben Folds Five disbanded in October 2000, apparently under amicable circumstances.  From: https://www.lyrics.com/artist/Ben-Folds-Five/359896

The Grip Weeds - Porpoise Song

 #The Grip Weeds #power pop #psychedelic rock #psychedelic pop rock #garage rock #indie rock #folk-pop #Monkees cover

The Grip Weeds are one of the foremost modern practitioners of the psychedelic rock, garage rock, and power pop genres. The music of this well-respected New Jersey band is strongly influenced by the mid to late 1960s sounds of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Buffalo Springfield. Since the band formed back in 1998, they’ve been captivating their fans with fantastic live performances and excellent discs such as 1994’s House of Vibes and 2015’s How I Won The War. The current lineup of the band features Kurt Reil on vocals, guitar, drums, and keyboards, Kristen Pinell Reil on guitars, percussion and vocals, Rick Reil on vocals, guitar and keyboards, and Dave DeSantis on bass. The Grip Weeds have just released their latest album, DiG, on JEM Records. It’s an outstanding disc, celebrating the garage rock and psychedelic era music that inspired the band. DiG includes classic songs from The Zombies, The Byrds, and The Monkees, but the album is also chock full of lesser-known (and equally memorable) tunes from bands such as Mouse and the Traps, The Gants, and The Nightcrawlers. The liner notes for the album are provided by Lenny Kaye, whose groundbreaking 1972 compilation Nuggets was one of the first retrospectives of the music of the garage rock and psychedelic era. I recently had an in-depth chat with founding member and producer Kurt Reil about the making of DiG.

Q: What was the genesis of DiG? Given the fact that your sound is deeply entrenched in the music of the 1960s, encompassing genres such as rock, pop, psychedelia, and garage rock, the songs on the album feel like a perfect fit for the band.

A: DiG is partly a discovery or re-discovery of our roots, and partly a way to get through a very difficult time during the pandemic. The album was something we found we could do as a band, and in some cases, work long distance because of the circumstances. We were planning to start a new record of original material, and we worked on a few things, but it quickly became apparent that we were actually having more fun playing the cover tunes we were messing around with, so we just shifted gears. It was just something we just found ourselves gravitating towards at the time.

Q: One of the things I love about the album is that you didn’t just pick familiar songs to cover. The selection of tunes is wonderfully eclectic. Even though there are some well-known songs like “Journey to the Center of the Mind” from The Amboy Dukes and “Lady Friend” by The Byrds, there are a number of tunes from less familiar garage rock bands such as “Lie, Beg Borrow and Steal” by Mouse and the Traps, and “I Wonder” by The Gants. Before the advent of CDs and internet radio shows like Little Steven’s Underground Garage, the only way to hear these records was on a vinyl compilation like Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets, or to search them out in places like used record stores.

A: We went pretty deep on DiG. When we started out as a band, we were excited by the songs that we hadn’t heard or that hadn’t been played to death. They were hard to find, and when we discovered them, we were saying “Wow! I can’t believe this record.” It was very exciting. Part of the DiG concept is the musical excavation of these nuggets or buried treasures. That’s what it was like for us in our early days when we would track down these records at flea markets or garage sales. When we started out in the late 1980s, these records were just gone. They had been forgotten by the industry because they’d had their run. They were really hard to come by, and CD re-issues of this kind of music hadn’t kicked in yet. What spurred on these garage bands to make music in the first place, was dreaming about becoming stars, because of The Beatles. We started out that way, too. That was the dream that The Beatles made possible. These groups, particularly the ones featured on Nuggets, were often teenagers, and in a lot of cases, they didn’t have much money. The bands would make a record in a local studio, they’d have some success, and their songs would take off for a while. Then they went on with their lives, and that was it. Those records are like time capsules of that era.

Q: One of the other cool things about the music of that era is that the “garage rock” bands actually wrote and recorded songs that encompassed a number of genres, including rock, pop, and soul. It wasn’t just one type of music, and that’s reflected by the songs on DiG.

A: These groups were looking at the charts and listening to the radio, and there were a lot of different kinds of music being played on “pop radio” back then. The garage bands were mirroring what they heard, so if what they heard was The Rolling Stones, they did a blues kind of thing, if it was The Beatles, they went for a pop or rock sound, and sometimes their inspiration came from other things, like Motown or vocal groups. We tried to accentuate that on DiG. One example is the song “Little Black Egg” which is included on the deluxe edition. The band used to play it in our early days, during our acoustic shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey. We wanted this version to have a really playful tone, so we pulled out a banjo and temple blocks to help give it that child-like vibe. One of our friends suggested Kristen should sing the lead because she has such an innocent-sounding voice. “Little Black Egg” was really fun to work on. Each song on the album has a particular significance and a story behind it.

From: https://www.culturesonar.com/the-grip-weeds-dig-some-cool-covers/

XTC - Dear God

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop rock #1980s #1990s

Andy: “This was the B-side to ‘Grass’, but radio stations started to flip it over. The lyrics really got up some people's noses, and it became a big radio hit. Whoever first flipped it probably saved us.”

Andy (on the band demo): “A lot has been written and wrangled over with this song, and, you know, it hasn't deserved it. I just tried to wrestle with the paradox of God and the last dying doubts of belief that had hung, bat like, in the dark corners of my head since childhood. I'll just say one more time this song failed to crystalize all my thoughts on the subject in under 4 minutes. Human belief is too big a beast to bring to the floor in such a short time.

“This tune had a few incarnations. It started as a kind of skiffle rag with a much bluesier melody but after several blacksmith like bending and bashing sessions (oddly, in my kitchen) it gradually morphed into its well known shape.

“On the run up to the Skylarking sessions with Todd Rundgren, we congregated at Dave's tiny terraced house, in Swindon's Stanier Street, to record a few band demos on his four track reel to reel. So, awash with much tea and ginger biscuits, we tackled this and ‘Summer's Cauldron’, trying to get something presentable for Todd. Dave found a very ‘House of the Rising Sun’ arpeggio guitar figure to ornament my rather pedestrian acoustic strumming, while Colin anchored away with the Linn drum pretending to be a future Prairie Prince. The Mellotron had been living at Dave's for a few months (where he would tend lovingly its Heath Robinsonesque guts) so we decided this would supply the strings, I'd asked for something a bit Gershwin in the middle, a pinch of ‘Summertime’, a soupçon of ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’. You know, ‘Dat Ol' Debbil Be A Coming Missy’, orchestral blues bend. I remember that Dave's front room floral wallpaper seemed to gaze down at us with almost temperance meeting scorn, as we stirred up our sinful sounds that afternoon.

“Surely, for this tune, we will burn in Hull.”

Andy (on the skiffle version): “Found this a while back laying cowering in a corner of a cassette. It's pretty much me feeling-out the tune with blah blah type lyrics. Little did I know that this piece of brain blurt would be the tip of the iceberg to so much more acceptance for XTC in the U.S. Thank you God.”

From: https://xtc.fandom.com/wiki/Dear_God

Andy is a militant atheist. It's amazing how people see what they want want to, no matter how clear the message is. The idea that he must believe in god because it's addressed to god is just silly. It's a lyrical device...take a literature course. For those who refuse to see the song for what it is and how it was meant, here is a quote from Andy about the song: "it [Dear God] failed in part, because it wasn't as caustic as I would've liked it to be. It should've been a nail in throat of the public, but instead some took it as a declaration of faith when I wanted to make it clear that I don't believe in God - and that even if there is a He or a She they have nothing to do with organized religion." Just watch the video for Dear God. Andy is attacking the massive twisted tree (religion) that people are desperately clinging to, which is exactly what he is doing in the lyrics. I really don't see how he could be any clearer.  From: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/103714/ 

Eve's Plum - Cherry Alive

 #Eve's Plum #Colleen Fitzpatrick #alternative rock #power pop #grunge #1990s

Eve's Plum was a rock band that originated in 1991 in New York City. They released two albums and various singles in the mid-1990s, before disbanding in 1998. Michael Kotch and his twin brother Ben Kotch had been looking to start a band and needed a singer and bassist. After Colleen Fitzpatrick met Michael while both were in school at New York University, she eventually became the group's singer; Fitzpatrick, who had studied dance previously, had recently had some success with a leading role in John Waters' 1988 film, Hairspray, which went on to become a cult classic. The band went through several bass players. The name "Eve's Plum" was derived from Eve Plumb, the actress who most notably portrayed Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch.
The group was signed to Sony Records in 1992, and in 1993, their debut album, "Envy", was released. Its first single (arguably its most popular) was "Blue", which had the good fortune to have its music video appear in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Two additional singles were released from Envy, "Die Like Someone" and "I Want It All". After some difficulty locating the right bass player, Theo Mack joined the group. Another single, "Eye", appeared on the soundtrack to "Higher Learning".
The band's second album, "Cherry Alive", was released in 1995. While developing the album, the band recorded a cover version of "If I Can't Have You" which found its way onto a compilation album, "Spirit Of 73 Rock for Choice". Two singles were promoted from Cherry Alive, though not very well: "Wishing the Day Away" and "Jesus Loves You". Not successful commercially, the band did not receive further support from their label and were subsequently dropped. They performed for some time thereafter, but this was the beginning of the end. They recorded "Save a Prayer" for a Duran Duran tribute album in 1998, but the band was not really viable. Its members moved on to other projects. Fitzpatrick has had some success with solo albums under the name Vitamin C, as well as acting parts in several films.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Eve%27s+Plum/+wiki

Garbage - Thirteen

 #Garbage #alternative rock #electronic rock #industrial rock #trip-hop #industrial power pop #Alex Chilton cover

The name of the album was #1 Record, which was bitterly ironic, as it ended up selling under 10,000 copies upon its initial release in 1972. The name of the band, Big Star, also proved to be an unfortunate misnomer, because outside of critics and other musicians, they remained virtually anonymous during their brief time together. Despite all these negatives and contradictions, Big Star included on #1 Record one of the best ballads of the rock-and-roll era, the hauntingly yearning “Thirteen.” The title comes from the age of the narrator, and the song is one of the most accurate depictions of an era in life when the first pangs of romance arrive to simultaneously enthrall and torture.
On #1 Record, their debut album, Big Star wielded an impressive duo of singer-songwriters in the Memphis-raised pair Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. Chilton had already achieved chart success as a teenager with The Box Tops, displaying gritty vocals that were soulful beyond his years on a string of rhythm and blues-influenced singles. But when he joined up with Bell, a proponent of a combination of Byrdsy jangle and Beatles-y catchiness that would come to be known as power pop, Chilton changed his game. Bell and Chilton wanted to emulate the Lennon/McCartney formula as much as they could, so they shared credit on many of the songs on #1 Record even though there was in fact little writing collaboration between the two. “Thirteen,” for example, was entirely Chilton’s creation, and he also delivers the aching vocal that vacillates between hope and heartache and that many cover versions have tried to emulate but never quite matched.
“Thirteen” focuses on an age that is somewhat underrepresented in pop and rock music. Many have written songs about childhood, and, since rock and roll was born out of teenage rebellion, high school ages and upward are of course the focus of many a ditty. But Chilton finds that bittersweet spot in between when innocence still lingers but more complicated emotions start to work their way into the picture. Over tender acoustic guitars, Chilton begins with a question that thirteen-year-old boys have been asking thirteen-year-old girls for generations: “Won’t you let me walk you home from school?” “Won’ t you let me meet you at the pool?” he follows, again treading lightly so as not to scare her away. He eventually suggests a date at the dance on Friday; “And I’ll take you,” Chilton delicately sings, as if anything more forceful than a gentle plea will destroy his chances.
In the second verse, the narrator for the first time reveals an obstacle blocking the path to this girl for whom he is clearly falling hard, his modest queries notwithstanding. “Won’ t you tell your Dad get off my back?” he asks her. His response to the doubting father is brilliant: “Tell him what we said about ‘Paint It Black.’” By drawing a parallel between his own musical tastes and that of the father, he’s hoping to show that he’ s not just some punk kid with bad intentions, although doing that by name-dropping a song by The Rolling Stones, one of the most lascivious bands, might be defeating the purpose. And his next exhortation (“Come inside now, it’s okay/ And I’ll shake you”) shows that his intentions aren’t all that pure after all, the sexual hinting a gutty and honest move by Chilton.
The final verse finds him struggling as she remains both rigidly unknowable (“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?”) and frustratingly proper (“Would you bean outlaw for my love?”) His concluding lines redeem him in terms of his integrity and honor, even as they suggest that he’s losing his opportunity with her in the process: “If it’s no then I can go / I won’t make you.” The final “Ooo-hoo” that Chilton utters is a real killer, tinged as it is with the sting of implied refusal.
From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-thirteen-by-big-star/

Unveiling the new model of a machine that made its debut three years prior, alternative rock outfit Garbage polished the raw grind of their hazy first album with the sparkling digital sheen of 1998 sophomore effort Version 2.0. Emerging from the eerie trip-hop and bleak grunge of the critically acclaimed, multi-platinum Garbage, the quartet expanded their vision, going into overdrive with a futuristic sound that blended their inspirations both classic (the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Pretenders) and contemporary (Björk, Portishead, and the Prodigy). While Garbage retained the sleaze and effortless cool of their debut -- hinted on early tracks "As Heaven Is Wide" and "A Stroke of Luck" -- they infused Version 2.0 with deeper electronic layering, improved hooks, and an intimate lyrical focus courtesy of iconic vocalist Shirley Manson, who seized her place as the face and voice of the band with authority and confidence. On the propulsive "When I Grow Up" and the bittersweet "Special," Garbage took cues from '60s girl groups with "sha-la-la"s and stacked vocal harmonies, grounding them with a delivery inspired by Chrissie Hynde. Elsewhere, the hard techno edges of Curve and Björk cut through the frustrated "Dumb" and the lusty "Sleep Together," while Depeche Mode's Wild West years received tribute on the stomping "Wicked Ways." Beyond the blistering hit singles "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Push It," Version 2.0 is also home to Garbage's most tender and heartbreaking moments, from the pensive "Medication" to the trip-hop-indebted "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" and "You Look So Fine." Balanced and taut, Version 2.0 is a greatest-hits collection packaged as a regular album, not only a peak in Garbage's catalog, but one of the definitive releases of the late '90s.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/version-20-mw0000032128

Mary's Danish - Hoof

 #Mary's Danish #alternative rock #power pop #indie rock #funk rock #pop punk #1980s #1990s

“I’m caught between hideous and forgotten,” bemoan Mary’s Danish in one of the finer tunes from the lamentably forgotten band’s far-from-hideous and impossibly eclectic catalog — a catalog whose eclecticism is especially notable considering its relatively small volume. Mary’s Danish, which came together in Los Angeles in the late ’80s, was itself a diverse lot — in personality and background — that served up funk, pop, punk and country. The blending of the last two genres clearly betrays the influence of X, from whom lead singers Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter also inherited intricately woven harmony vocals. They were joined in Mary’s Danish by bassist Chris “Wag” Wagner, drummer James Bradley Jr., guitarist David A. King and second guitarist Louis Gutierrez, who had played in the Three O’Clock. All were accomplished musicians with an uncanny pliability, but their secret weapon was frequent sax sideman Michael Barbera, who added jazz and R&B flavor to the mix. Mary’s Danish were as varied thematically as they were sonically, with religion, domestic violence, social criticism and biting self-analysis all receiving narrative attention.
'There Goes the Wondertruck' ably introduces the band’s offbeat stylistic fusion. The bizarre narrative of “Mary Had a Bar” does not seem to be a band theme song, and “What to Do” is not a Stones cover. It’s not revealed what “BVD” stands for, but “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry” does just that. The catchy college rock favorite “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” impressed some in the West Coast music biz, including Peter Asher, who became the band’s manager.
Five of the six live tracks on 'Experience' are more fully realized versions of songs from There Goes the Wondertruck, particularly a frenzied, beefier “Blue Stockings” and the high lonesome croon of “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry.” The disc’s studio track, a riotous take on Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady,” slyly recasts the classic rock staple with a letter-perfect Led Zeppelin quote inserted into the bridge.
With funding from pseudo-indie Morgan’s Creek, Mary’s Danish beefed up the production values to adequately match their expanded palette of musical ideas. A veritable omnibus of musical styles, 'Circa' encircles just about every genre imaginable. The metallic crunch of “Mr. Floosack” leads into the introspective back-porch southern rock of “Hoof.” The folky instrumental jam “Down” begets the Devo dada of “These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been.” It’s easy to get lost within the stylistic shifts of Circa, where “Julie’s Blanket (pigsheadsnakeface)” is the only straight-ahead rocker. As few of the 17 tunes exceed three minutes, the five-minute “7 Deadly Sins” seems positively epic. Despite its attention deficit, the presence of songs as clever as “Beat Me Up” and “Cover Your Face” helped make this label debut a promise of big things to come.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/marys-danish/

XTC - Then She Appeared

 #XTC #new wave #post-punk #progressive pop #art rock #pop rock #baroque pop #art punk #power pop #psychedelic pop #1980s #1990s

XTC are one of those odd bands that defied convention and actually got better as time went on. Usually a band makes a big splash at the start of their career and continue to make continually less impressive albums as their career progresses. XTC did it the other way round: they started off as a reasonably good power-pop act and actually steadily improved over time. True, there was a slight stumble with Mummer and The Big Express, but they had reached incredible creative heights with Skylarking and by the time of Nonsuch they had reached a point where they had outlasted almost all of their peers and were still making music at least as good as what had been released before. Andy Partridge was still at his height as a songwriter, Colin Moulding was gaining confidence and penning gems like “Bungalow” and Dave Gregory’s guitar and keyboard work was giving the whole band a musical maturity which marked them as a band of rare quality.
Despite it equaling Oranges & Lemons’ chart success, Nonsuch has become increasingly overlooked as a key album in XTC’s career, as it wasn’t cited as an influence on the second wave of Brit-pop that reached its crescendo in the middle of the last decade, nor was it hailed by the more heavyweight music press in the same way that Skylarking, and to a lesser extent Oranges & Lemons were. For years the only copies of Nonsuch available in the UK were as a part of a substantial remaster and reissue programme by their former record label.
While Nonsuch has never enjoyed the sycophantic praise smothered over it by lesser acts as their early albums have, or enjoyed the press recognition of being a lost classic in the same way that Skylarking has, it remains one of XTC’s most well-rounded and broad albums. Over two decades on from its original release Nonsuch finally seems to be getting the recognition it deserves for being not only a great XTC album, but one of the finest British pop albums of the 90s. Oddly enough there seems to be a major reissue of it due in the not too distant future, as apparently Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame has been following his success of doing similar work for the likes of prog rock acts like King Crimson and Yes, by working on a full bells and whistles version of Nonsuch.
From: https://www.backseatmafia.com/not-forgotten-xtc-nonsuch/

Imperial Drag - Boy Or A Girl

 #Imperial Drag #power pop #glam rock #alternative rock #pop rock #retro-1970s #ex-Jellyfish #1990s

Just like 2 Live Crew before them, Imperial Drag has experienced problems in Florida. Radio station WXTB in Tampa says they pulled the band's single "Boy or A Girl" after complaints came in from listeners who were uncomfortable with the song's lyrical content. "I didn't think it was such a button pusher," says Imperial Drag singer/guitarist Eric Dover of the banned song he wrote about talk show exploitation and sexual paranoia. "It's about coming to grips with certain tendencies. I guess some people got upset because it addresses an alternative side of someone's sexuality. But what I think is strange is the way an alternative radio station folded under pressure. How alternative is that? Some might bypass any alternative tag for the band and simply stick Imperial Drag in with the retro-lo-fi-polyester trend that's been around for the past couple years. The band's Beatles-meet-T. Rex glam-pop sound obviously draws plenty from the past. "We get a retro tag because our influences just show up too damn well," says keyboardist Roger Manning, ex-Jellyfish founder and recent Moog Cookbook chef. "I could write an AC/DC or Queen song in five minutes. I guess that's a blessing and a curse. But for the fans of this music the tag is not an issue. Besides, people are always digging up childhood memorabilia. It's always fascinating that anything from the 70s gets a negative tag, but ska and punk were around years ago too and today it's seen as something new. But I guess people are going to like what they like for whatever reasons.  From: https://www.mtv.com/news/5cjntm/dont-call-imperial-drag-retro

Disappear Fear - Is There Anybody Here

 #Disappear Fear #folk rock #folk pop #alternative folk #indie folk #power pop #worldbeat #singer-songwriter #1980s #1990s

Beneath Disappear Fear’s veneer of catchy tunes, poppish folk rhythms, and the sophisticated harmonies of blood sisters Sonia Rutstein and Cindy Frank, beats a heart of hardcore social feminist consciousness. Born and raised in Baltimore, the sisters formed Disappear Fear in 1987. As the name implies, they call for unity and an end to injustice, and seek to break down the prejudicial barriers that keep people apart. Rutstein composes most of the songs and her compositions have been compared to those of Phil Ochs, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. Their harmonies and approach are reminiscent of the Indigo Girls. After three critically acclaimed self-released albums and an EP, the duo signed to Philo Records. In 1995, their self-titled album for Philo Records received a Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for Outstanding Album. In June 1996, they released Seed in the Sahara. That same year, Sonia also began pursuing a solo career, returning to Disappear Fear only for occasional guest appearances for almost a decade.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/disappear-fear-mn0000154744/biography

Dada - Bob, The Drummer

 #Dada #alternative rock #psychedelic rock #power pop #pop rock #1990s

Dada is no one-hit wonder. It had four solid albums in the 1990s and several great songs, one of which attained worldwide acclaim. The band broke with a unique sound at the time with Joie Calio (bass/co-lead vocals) and Michael Gurley (guitar/co-lead vocals) singing harmonies over catchy hooks boosted by Gurley’s supreme guitar playing. Calio calls it Jimi Hendrix meets Simon & Garfunkel. As a rock band in the early 1990s, dada was painted in the broad swath called alternative rock. “That meant you didn’t sound like Guns 'N' Roses or heavy metal of the ‘80s,” Calio said. Dada took a cerebral path to success. “It was never just a garage band,” Calio said. “It was serious. It was a life change when we made the move to start Dada.” Calio and Gurley were friends in high school and separately they landed in Los Angeles where they played in various bands. Coincidentally, they lived within walking distance of each other. “It was so easy,” Calio said. “We just got together every day or night after work or whatever and worked on music. Only a few weeks into it, we started realizing this was a really good idea. Before we’d maybe write 10 songs in a year and one of them was OK. Now we’re starting to write 10 songs every two weeks.” The epiphany was to stop working on being in bands and just work on songwriting. After about a year, a musical peer, Louis Gutierrez of Mary’s Danish, listened to one of their sessions and told them they needed to perform. The duo argued that they didn’t have a band, but Gutierrez insisted, “You guys are going to open for us” at an upcoming show. The duo played about a half-dozen songs before receiving a standing ovation. “I will never forget that moment because as we walked offstage, I said, ‘Maybe Louis was right. We don’t need a band for right now.’ Then Louis comes over and said, ‘Hey, you guys. Just stay on the tour.’ And so we went up the coast with them and it was it was great.” Calio had a most appropriate day job, working in the mail room at Geffen Records. “It was like going to college,” he said. “I learned the ins and outs of the music business, and after we made demos, I knew who to take them to rather than blanket the entire industry.” The band broke out right away after it added drummer Phil Leavitt. Dada was boosted by a dream.
In the early 1990s, television viewers saw exuberant Super Bowl and World Series winners exclaim they were going to Disneyland and then news reports of the Gulf War and the L.A. Riots. The juxtaposition weaved into Calio’s subconscious. “I woke up about 5:00 in the morning,” Calio said. “All I remember about the dream right now is a big bus went in front of me that had the word Disneyland on it and I heard the melody.” Before going back to sleep, Calio jotted down about 20 verses, such as, “I shot my gun into the night, now I’m going to Dizz Knee Land. I just flipped off President George, I’m going to Dizz Knee Land.” At noon he called Gurley, the two met and put the song together. “I had the peanut butter, he had the chocolate,” Calio said.  From: https://www.tahoeonstage.com/reviews/dada/

The Grays - Very Best Years

 #The Grays #Jason Faulkner #pop rock #power pop #indie rock #supergroup #post-Jellyfish #1990s

The Grays - a ramshackle collective of four musicians who all hated playing in bands, the Grays comprised ex-Jellyfish member Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. After coming together in 1993, the group released just one album, Ro Sham Bo, before amicably packing it in. Falkner later began a solo career, while Brion worked with Aimee Mann, Eels, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.  From: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/97842-the-grays

The Grays were a supergroup which consisted of four insanely talented musicians/songwriters that honestly not too many people knew of outside of the L.A. power pop scene. The band was Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. I know, you’re thinking “Who?”. Falkner got his start in the power pop band Jellyfish. Brion, ironically enough, had taken over guitar duties for Falkner when he left Jellyfish and played on the band’s last album Spilt Milk. Of course Brion has gone on to be a rather prolific film composer and producer, but at the time of The Grays he was still a relative unknown. Judge and McCarroll? I have no idea where they came from, but for them to keep up with Falkner and Brion they had to be damn good.
Jason Falkner felt rather underused in Jellyfish with Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning fighting for supremacy in the songwriting department. He left the band on bad terms and vowed never to be in a band again, just work as a solo artist and make music the way he wanted to make it. But as fate would have it his girlfriend happened to be playing a mixtape at a coffeeshop where she worked that he made for her. It was a good chunk of Zombie’s Odessey and Oracle and The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society, which completely blew away customer Jon Brion. This led to Brion and Falkner meeting, jamming, and next thing you know these cats are signed to Epic Records. The band was supposed to be a band of four equals, with each getting the same amount of tracks on the album. No one person as front man. Of course this didn’t work. The producer, the legendary Jack Joseph Puig was partial to Falkner’s songs and voice, so he got one more song on the album than the rest of the guys. Egos clashed, feelings hurt, and the band disbanded.
Falkner and Brion did quite well regardless. Falkner went on to a pretty great solo career with solid albums, as well as a side project called TV Eyes with Brian Reitzell and Roger Manning (old pal from Jellyfish.) He also performed and produced two children’s albums of Beatles covers for Sony Music Group called Bedtime With The Beatles 1 and 2. Brion, well, he’s scored countless amazing films for Paul Thomas Anderson, Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Judd Apatow, and Greta Gerwig to name a few. He’s also produced for artists like Fiona Apple, Kanye West, Spoon, and Rufus Wainwright. His solo album, Meaningless, is extraordinary, too. As far as Buddy Judge and Dan McCarroll, I don’t know. I’m sure they’re good. I guess Dan McCarroll was the former president of Warner Brothers Records, so yeah, I think he’s good.
Despite all the in-fighting and ego clashing, The Grays made an outstanding record. Ro Sham Bo, for me, is the quintessential power pop album. But it’s got some teeth. It’s not twee or precious; it’s a record that pulls from both classic reference points and, for the time, more modern indie vibes. There’s a groove and an edge to the tracks, with an undercurrent of psychedelia. Jason Falkner, on reflecting on the album 25 years later, felt it could’ve been far more psychedelic and weird. But producer Jack Puig mixed it as a more straightforward, “classic rock” album.
From: https://complexdistractions.blog/2021/08/13/orchard-ridge-albums-part-one-the-grays-ro-sham-bo/

Susanna Hoffs - Feel Like Makin' Love

 #Susanna Hoffs #ex-Bangles #singer-songwriter #alternative rock #folk rock #pop rock #jangle pop #power pop #paisley pop #Bad Company cover #live music video

The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs will release a covers album, ‘Bright Lights’, on November 12, 2021 via Baroque Folk Records. On it she covers songs by Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, The Velvet Underground, Chris Bell, Prince (who wrote The Bangles' hit "Manic Monday"), The Monkees, and more. “The artists on Bright Lights approached songwriting from a deeply emotional place and with a profound sensitivity to the world around them,” says Hoffs. “Sadly, many of them died too young. I didn’t actually see the big picture of that until I looked at the whole tracklist. It was subconscious. Yet I’ve always been drawn to songs that were intensely emotional.” The first single from the album is a cover of Badfinger's "Name of the Game," which is a duet with Aimee Mann. ‘Bright Lights’ recalls the 1984 covers album credited to Rainy Day that was led by the late David Roback (of Rain Parade, Opal, and later Mazzy Star), and featured members of L.A.'s "Paisley Underground" scene, including Hoffs and members of The Three O'Clock, The Dream Syndicate and more, with their versions of songs by The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Big Star and more.  From: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-bangles-susanna-hoffs-preps-covers-lp-shares-badfinger-cover-ft-aimee-mann/

Cosmic Rough Riders - The Gun Isn't Loaded

 #Cosmic Rough Riders #alternative rock #folk rock #alternative country rock #psychedelic rock #power pop #jangle pop #Scottish

It's hard to describe the Cosmic Rough Riders without mentioning Teenage Fanclub - both are Scottish, both rely on mellow guitars, soaring harmonies, and tuneful choruses; both draw from a similar well of Big Star and the Beach Boys. But the Cosmic Rough Riders have plenty of memorable tunes of their own. Who exactly the Cosmic Rough Riders are is a complicated story. The studio band was originally just singer/songwriter Daniel Wylie with help from guitarist Stephen Fleming. Yet when Wylie left, Fleming kept the band going under the Cosmic Rough Riders name, kind of like Doug Yule's Velvet Underground. The first post-Wylie album (2003's Too Close To See Far) actually managed to sound like a Wylie album, though a later one did not. Meanwhile, Wylie issued a number of solo albums before, more recently, recovering the band name and issuing a few albums as Daniel's Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders. Anyway, Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine is the key release from the original incarnation of the band. It's a bit of a cheat, a compilation of sorts, mostly compiling tracks from an independently-released album called Panorama joined by a couple tracks from a prior release and a few new tunes.  And it's pretty damn great. You've got a few absolutely stellar singles, most notably "Glastonbury Revisited," "Revolution In The Summertime," and "Have You Heard The News Today?" Seriously, each one of these should have made the band a monster. The rest may blend together a bit more, but it's never less than lovely.  From: https://www.jitterywhiteguymusic.com/2019/06/cosmic-rough-riders-enjoy-melodic.html

Mary's Danish - Beat Me Up

#Mary's Danish #alternative rock #power pop #indie rock #funk rock #pop punk #1980s #1990s

A fine band that never quite delivered on its immense promise, Mary's Danish blended power pop, punk, country, and funk into a sometimes scattershot but always unique sound that at times was among the most exciting sounds in what was then still called alternative music and sometimes sounded like the group was constitutionally incapable of picking a style and sticking with it for longer than a song at a time.
The seeds of the group were planted when college friends Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter decided to form their own band in the middle of an X concert in their hometown of Los Angeles in late 1985. Seager preferred the band's punk edge, Ritter their country leanings, and both admired the vocal interplay of John Doe and Exene Cervenka, all of which would appear in their own band, which they named Mary's Danish after a line in an early songwriting attempt. Ritter's guitarist boyfriend David King and his bassist friend Chris "Wag" Wagner were drafted into the group at an early stage, but the group wouldn't settle into its permanent lineup until drummer James Bradley Jr., who had previously played with Anita Baker, and second guitarist Louis Gutierrez, formerly of Los Angeles paisley underground legends the Three O'Clock, joined in 1988.
The newly cemented group signed with Chameleon Records in 1989 and released their debut, There Goes the Wondertruck, later that year. Powered by the alternative radio and 120 Minutes favorite "Don't Crash the Car Tonight," the debut and a live follow-up EP, Experience, sold well enough to attract the attention of both superstar manager Peter Asher and Morgan Creek Records, a newly formed label headed by producer David Kershenbaum and spun off from a successful film production company. Eager to score an "alternative" band when that genre was becoming the next big thing, Morgan Creek threw quite a bit of money at Mary's Danish to record and release their second album, Circa, in 1991. Unfortunately, the neophyte label dropped the ball on promotion, and although the singles "Julie's Blanket" and "Foxey Lady" (a winningly sarcastic treatment of the Jimi Hendrix classic) got a lot of MTV airplay, the well-reviewed album didn't sell as well as There Goes the Wondertruck. The label prematurely rushed the group back into the studio to record 1992's American Standard, and the lackluster results showed it. Top management at Morgan Creek apparently had no idea of how to run a record label, and their poor track record caught up to them; after haphazardly burying American Standard through incompetent promotion and distribution, the label self-destructed, leaving Mary's Danish in legal limbo. Fed up, the group called it quits in 1993, with King leaving to form a new band, Rob Rule. Ritter embarked on an alt-country solo career, while Seager and Gutierrez, who had married and were expecting a child, formed the punkier Battery Acid.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/marys-danish-mn0000383632/biography

The Grip Weeds - All Tomorrow's Parties

 #The Grip Weeds #power pop #psychedelic rock #psychedelic pop rock #alternative rock #indie rock #folk-pop #Velvet Underground cover

The Grip Weeds: A powerhouse pop-psyche band extraordinaire who write insanely gripping melodic nuggets - a gorgeous alchemy of the 60's and 70's brought into the 21st century, with ripping guitars, explosive drumming and golden harmonies. Bands like The Grip Weeds usually aren’t built to last. The clichéd “personal and musical differences”, changing tastes and Father Time have brought down most of the greatest bands in history. And yet, over two decades and counting after their debut album House Of Vibes, The Grip Weeds continue to survive, thrive, surprise and innovate. They do it on their own terms, defiantly refusing to play the usual major label/name producer/big time studio game. Critics, while praising The Grip Weeds, often try to pigeonhole them with the “Power Pop” label. This is a bit of a misnomer. While there are plenty of driving, poppy melodies, chiming guitars and close harmonies, The Grip Weeds’ releases have sported many different styles of original material, from Psychedelic and Garage Rock to Folk-based ballads and thought-provoking social commentary. This diversity has landed several Grip Weeds songs on the top of the Little Steven’s Underground Garage "Coolest Song In The World” list, as well as placed Grip Weeds music in several television and film projects.  From: https://www.gripweeds.com/bio/biom.html

The Juliana Hatfield Three - Mabel

 #Juliana Hatfield #alternative rock #indie rock #power pop #singer-songwriter #ex-Blake Babies #1990s

Juliana Hatfield is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock band Blake Babies. She also records as The Juliana Hatfield Three. In 2015, Hatfield and American musician Paul Westerberg formed the duo The I Don’t Cares. Hatfield began her solo career following the Blake Babies’ breakup in 1991, releasing her first solo album Hey Babe in 1992. The album was one of the highest selling independent albums of 1992. Hatfield recruited a rhythm section comprised of former Moving Targets and Bullet LaVolta drummer Todd Phillips, and Thudpucker bassist Dean Fisher, and thus becoming The Juliana Hatfield Three. Hatfield achieved alterna-rock stardom with the release of 1993’s Become What You Are. Hatfield’s popularity coincided with the success, in the mid-1990s, of many other female musicians (such as Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Belly, Letters to Cleo, Velocity Girl, The Breeders, Hole, Veruca Salt, Poe, Throwing Muses, Magnapop, Bettie Serveert). Although she has always maintained that her gender is of only incidental importance to her music, Hatfield was pleased to have been invited, in 1997, to tour with the first Lilith Fair, a prominent all-female rock festival founded by singer Sarah McLachlan. Hatfield was profiled in a number of girls’ magazines at this time and was embraced by many pre-teen and teenage girls as a role model due to the positive way she addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews. About this period she says: “I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn’t earned it yet.” She gained notoriety in 1992 for saying that she was still a virgin in her mid-twenties in Interview magazine. In a 1994 interview for the magazine Vox she said she was surprised by the effect ‘outing’ herself had: “I think there are a lot of people out there who don’t care about sex, but who you never hear from, so I thought I should say it. The magazine I did the interview for is full of beef-cake hunky guys and scantily-clad models, so I thought it would be really funny to say that I didn’t care about sex in a magazine that’s full of sex and beauty – but no one really got the joke.”  From: https://thevogue.com/artists/juliana-hatfield/#bio

Dada - Sick In Santorini

 #Dada #alternative rock #power pop #neo-psychedelia #progressive pop #1990s

Dada's third (and final)IRS release "El Subliminoso" is their only self-produced effort (to date, anyway). For this 1996 release, the group finally got control of the helm. The dense pile of multiple overdubbed layers on most tracks, the occasional stylistic departures, and the overall extended song lengths of this disc are evidence of the group flexing their studio muscles and letting themselves capture their full vision for the songs without someone else calling the shots or reigning them in. Close study of the results reveals a fascinating set of songs that were labored over for many months - songs that continue to reveal hidden details even after years of listening. Their extensive efforts paid off with the creation of one of the most varied and distinctive discs in an already high-quality catalog. There are plenty of songs that stay firmly within the alt-rock-power-trio-with-harmony-vocals musical territory staked out in their tasty '92 debut "Puzzle" and the sumptuous '94 follow-up "American Highway Flower". These include the soft verses/loud choruses dynamics of "I Get High", "Rise", and the disc opener "Time Is Your Friend", a rumination on mortality's ever-ticking clock. Also somewhat conventional dada-sounding are the rockin' "Sick in Santorini", the scathing rumination on self-centeredness called "Fleecing of America" and one of the disc's highlights, "A Trip with My Dad". This humorous, surrealistic tale of father/son bonding is craftily worded so that you are never quite sure whether this is the recounting of an actual point-A-to-point-B car trip, or whether maybe the two simply climbed in the station wagon, dropped acid in the driveway and never even started the engine.  From: https://www.amazon.com/El-Subliminoso-Dada/product-reviews/B000000QHO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_next_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=2

Since the release of dada’s groundbreaking 1992 debut Puzzle, the trio has created an array of songs boasting progressive rock musicianship, dazzling vocal harmonies and melodic power pop layered with inspired psychedelic and experimental rock impulses. Adding to the trio’s groundbreaking line of attack are the marathon-length shows that deliver on the promise that every performance is the only one of its kind. From: http://dadaforever.com/  

Jellyfish - Joining A Fan Club

 #Jellyfish #power pop #pop rock #psychedelic pop #indie rock #progressive rock #retro 1960s #retro 1970s #Jason Falkner #Roger Manning #1990s

San Francisco-based power pop outfit Jellyfish only released two full-length albums during their early-'90s heydays, but the group's immaculately crafted pop-rock songs and unapologetic penchant for all things retro helped throw some much needed light on what was becoming at the time a very crowded pop underground. Like their closest contemporaries the Posies, the Wondermints, and Redd Kross, Jellyfish drew from the same well as bands like Badfinger, XTC, Cheap Trick, the Move, Big Star, and the Zombies, crafting occasionally complex, impossibly catchy tunes that cast an alternative pop-rock shadow on the radio hits of the previous three decades. Formed around the talents of former Beatnik Beatch members singer/songwriter/drummer Andy Sturmer and keyboard player/multi-instrumentalist Roger Manning, as well as former Three O'Clock singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Falkner, and with Manning's brother Chris joining the group on bass for live shows, Jellyfish came to fruition in 1990 with the release of Bellybutton. The debut album earned the group a devoted yet decidedly cult following. Both Falkner and Chris Manning left the fold after the Bellybutton tour, the latter blaming a distaste for life on the road and the former unhappy with his role as just a guitar player. Sturmer and Manning spent the next two years holed up in the studio with a rotating cast of musicians who included bassist Tim Smith and multi-instrumentalist/producer Jon Brion to record Jellyfish's sophomore effort, Spilt Milk. Released in 1993, Milk was a far more elaborate affair than its predecessor, echoing the studio mastery of the Beach Boys ("Hush," "Ghost at Number One"), the guitar-heavy onslaught of Kiss and Queen ("Joining a Fan Club," "All is Forgiven"), and the psychedelic pop of the Beatles ("Bye, Bye, Bye," "Brighter Day") with impressive acumen. The band endured a year of touring (with the help of Smith and guitarist/singer Eric Dover) before calling it quits at the end of 1994.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jellyfish-mn0000319021/biography

The Smithereens - Only A Memory

#The Smithereens #alternative rock #hard rock #power pop #college rock #indie rock #1990s

Dressed in leather, brandishing heavy guitars, and exhibiting an unabashed fetish for British Invasion pop, the Smithereens were an anomaly in the American college rock scene of the late '80s. Lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Pat DiNizio stood out not only with his strange beatnik goatee, but also because his catchy hooks were haunting, not punchy, and because his lyrics were morose. As time wore on, the group became more straightforward, turning into an excellent bar band, one that attacked pop songs with the weight of AC/DC.  From: https://www.iheart.com/artist/the-smithereens-15174/

The Smithereens is a band few know about today and that in itself is a shame.  Formed in 1980, this band would produce a dozen albums in addition to innumerable compilations, live albums and soundtracks until the death of the lead singer Pat DiNizio in 2017. While the Smithereens would produce a ton of great music, it was Green Thoughts that introduced me to the band and this album remains my favorite of their to this day.
I am not sure how I came across the album Green Thoughts but somehow a copy fell into my lap sometime in early 90’s.  From the moment I heard the opening track, Only A Memory, I could tell there was something special about the band.  It may have been their polished Beatlesque sound or their ability to blend pop rock with a touch of Chet Atkins style guitar work, but whatever it was, this was a band that was on heavy rotation on my cheap GPX CD Boombox and I loved every second of it.
Part lounge singer, part crooner and part pop icon, Pat DiNizio had a voice that evoked the classic tone of Del Shannon and Buddy Holly. Coupled with the guitars by Jim Babjak, Bass from Mike Mesaros and drums by Dennis Diken, the quartet managed to create a sound that is unlike anything from its era setting itself apart from the rest by borrowing from their classic inspirations.  This was a band that was safe to listen to with music that was easy to fall in love with.  It was pop rock in it’s purest form and, with my love for the Posies that emerged at around the same time, it is no surprise that I became a fan.
From: https://latetothegame.blog/2019/07/09/stand-out-albums-the-smithereens-green-thoughts-1988/