Mmmm… (Power) Pop
Posted on April 21, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
It’s like a power pop math puzzle:
Fountains of Waynes’ Adam Schlesinger +
Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha +
Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos +
Hanson’s Taylor Hanson =
?????
Here’s the answer:
It’s a good answer.
Here’s a Newsweek article on the band.
I’d play that song in Rock Band. It’s a technically solid, fun song that isn’t hard on the ears.
That’s the geek equivalent of “It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it,” isn’t it?
it’s disturbing how it looks like it was made in 1981
Nice to see Bun E. doing something new. The smorgasborg team reminds of the days of Power Station…
This is 800 levels of awesome.
Right on time for the warm days of spring, in dark times like this, the world needs more power pop.
Just finished listening to whole album and it’s all pretty tasty. I give a solid, enjoyable “B”.
The Cheap Trick influence is strong here. I like it!
You need some sort of Ear Worm warning when posting this stuff. I’ve played the song twice, blogged about it myself, and now I’m off to prove the RIAA wrong once again by spending money on music I first heard for free on the Internet.
That is certainly power pop. Surprisingly good. Bun E. Carlos is awesome.
This video freaked me out for a minute until I remembered that Bun E. Carlos can play drums both left handed and right handed.
Although the fact that he can do that freaks me out even more.
He uses both hands!
Wow. I didn’t realize it was really James Iha and Hanson guy etc. Too much fun!
It’s like an all-male Partridge Family: Dad, the boys, Uncle Jim. I approve.
(Also, Carlos now looks like Frank Oz. Like if it was Frank, and he forgot Animal back at the workshop, and had to sit in.)
I’ve been waiting for this one — bought it from Amazon as soon as I saw it listed. It’s good stuff, Maynard. if you like this taste, you’ll appreciate the whole album.
As a former obsessive Smashing Pumpkins fan (and currently still a fan, but not quite as crazy about it), I do not approve of this project, James. Hanson? Come on man. You’re better than this.
A Pumpkins/Fountains of Wayne/Cheap Trick union makes sense though. James Iha is part owner of the record label Fountains of Wayne was on, and Billy Corgan is known to be a big Cheap Trick fan, and when the Pumpkins got big he leveraged that into doing shows with them. How Hanson got involved in this though…I just…there are no words…
Mmm, rather nice. Catchy, a bit tart, and tasty… it’s the musical equivalent of a Midori daiquiri!
Suzumiya Haruhi vid, please.
(It makes sense in context. I swear.)
Sweet!
And, as a member of the Cheap Trick fan club, I learned a couple of weeks ago that a new Cheap Trick album is expected later on this year. Now, not all CT albums have ruled, but their last one (Rockford) was excellent so I have reasonable expectations for the new one.
Keep on rocking Bun E.!
LB, I promise the story makes perfect sense! Adam and Taylor met around ten years ago and have been friends ever since.
I’ve been listening to this song for a while on my ipod, but had no idea it was a super group! The song is aces.
And I’m no Hanson fan, but give him credit for doing something really cool and no doing it well. He sounds great. Perfect voice for the song.
Dammit, there’s no Matthew Sweet! Other than that, good tune.
D
sorry, i can’t get into it. this song hurts my teeth.
They were on Letterman last night. Good fun power pop.
And Derryl, Matthew Sweet is working with Susanna Hoffs on another covers album, the lucky, lucky bastard.
I laughed when I heard about the band forming, and now I’m just disappointed. I was looking forward to something hilariously bad, and instead I got Taylor Hanson’s weird accent on top of James Iha’s awesome guitar? Siiiiigh.
Seriously — I like the music, dislike the lyrics and the vocals. And I’m still holding out for hilarious.
They’re on Jimmy Fallon in like 5 minutes!
They remind of my favorite local band, The Dance Party (http://www.myspace.com/thedanceparty)
I love it when musicians come together like this and just have *fun*. It’s obvious these guys enjoy this kind of music, and are having a really good time playing it. That makes for perfect summertime music.