By Carl Cafarelli
Although Syracuse's musical reputation is largely as a blues town, the Central New York region has produced a less-recognized but consistent string of avowed pure pop and power pop acts that have consciously mined the hook-laden mother lode of melodic rock'n'roll.
The pop label, often misused and misunderstood, applies accurately to anyone actively attempting to evoke the spirit of the early Beatles and the mid-Sixties British Invasion. Such pop music is usually seasoned with various Seventies influences like Cheap Trick and the Raspberries, and frequently spiked with the added spunk of early punk, a la the Ramones and the Buzzcocks. The string stretches back locally as far as the Flashcubes in the late 1970s (and one could argue that it should go back farther still), and continues today with the Brambells, Eclipse, Oz and Biz and others employing hooks and harmonies in pursuit of a personal pop ideal.
Along the way, the parameters of pop have mutated and grown to the point where disparate acts, each of whom might seem to have little in common with the others, can still fall within the broad context of pure pop and power pop. This Local Spotlight edition shines on a trio of California acts with Central New York roots, each of which takes identifiable pop roots and offers its own interpretation of contemporary power pop.
Chris von Sneidern grew up in Phoenix, N.Y., and played in the local band the U-Turns in the early Eighties. He subsequently moved to San Francisco and served as a member of Bay Area pop bands Flying Color and the Sneetches before going solo.
In the international pop underground, von Sneidern is practically an icon, a name that may soon be spoken with nearly the same reverence as Big Star's Alex Chilton and the Raspberries' Eric Carmen. It's been that way since CVS' 1993 debut album Sight & Sound (Heyday). And his fourth album, Wood and Wire (Mod Lang), continues his unbroken streak with yet another collection of luxurious-sounding gems certain to make pure poppers around the globe giddy with delight.
Wood and Wire, presumably named after a line in the song "Amplifier" by the dB's ("An amplifier's just wood and wire...."), is CVS' most accomplished and consistent work yet. Its rich pop texture is immediately reminiscent of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, but is always above mere imitation. Every track resonates with the proud echoes of pop's history, while simultaneously demonstrating that heart-stoppin,' swoon-inducin' pure pop music can never be dated. And to further cement Wood and Wire's pop pedigree, the album was recorded and mixed by former dB's bassist Gene Holder, and features Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken on all but one track; acclaimed New York City pop singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Richard X. Heyman pounds the skins for "Like Me That Way."
The album begins invitingly with the smooth "Starting Out," and proceeds through a selection of 12 more lovely originals. Best of show is "Circles," which boasts a drop-dead-gorgeous chorus that would have sounded great blasting out of a transistor radio in the Top 40 heyday of WOLF-AM. "Love" would be a worthy cover for the Raspberries and/or Eric Carmen solo, and "Like Me That Way," "Split It," "Lines" and the soulful "Feel" conjure welcome images of Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Marshall Crenshaw, Roger McGuinn, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren convening in the studio for a one-off collaboration.
Sound like a jumbled melange of influences? Rest assured that Wood and Wire retains a sharp focus from beginning to end, an eminently enjoyable pop record worth revisiting over and over again. Like each of CVS' previous albums, it is guaranteed a secure place in the year-end Top 10 lists of pop fanatics around the world. What remains to be seen, however, is whether or not CVS can break out from the insular pop cognoscenti that already know how good he is, and find the wider mass audience he so fully deserves.
Mod Lang Records, P.O. Box 10111, Berkeley,
Calif. 94709; e-mail: mod_lang@sirius.com.
It's said that Chris von Sneidern once caught a Cockeyed Ghost show and afterward told the band, "You're not pop, you're hard rock." The story may be apocryphal, but it illustrates how the pop label has come to encompass both melodic classicists like CVS and aggressive bubblepunkers like Cockeyed Ghost.
Fronted by singer-guitarist Adam Marsland, a former Triple Cities resident, Cockeyed Ghost's full-throttle approach to pop music appears to be fueled by a diet of white sugar, coffee, beer, Lucky Charms cereal and maybe a pack or two of Marlboros. It may not be good for you, but it sure does satisfy.
The group's second album, Neverest (Big Deal), lacks some of the immediate assault-pop rush of Cockeyed Ghost's 1996 debut album Keep Yourself Amused (also on Big Deal). Nonetheless, Neverest forcefully delivers its hooks, loud'n'proud. The opening track "Buzz" offers an exuberant, fist-in-the-air vibe to match its title, followed by "Binghamton," a delicious kiss-off/putdown of Marsland's former stomping grounds that hurts as only the truth can.
Marsland's somewhat coarse vocals, reminiscent of Paul Weller in the early
days of British punk-poppers the Jam, have been an acquired taste for some pure
pop fans. Marsland sings with conviction and passion, however, with the sweeter
harmonies of bassist Rob Cassell complementing Marsland's gruffer approach.
(Cassell left Cockeyed Ghost after Neverest was released, but has since
been replaced by Robbie Rist, a former actor on TV's The Brady Bunch,
who displays a similar knack for sweet pop singing.)
Neverest's best track is "Asian Hero Worship," a rockin' ode
to Japanese students consorting with American rock'n'rollers. Clever lyrics
such as "Long hair, three day stubble/ The IQ of Barney Rubble/ She's got
a vision of the Ideal Man/ He's got a vision of the floor of a van"
adroitly avoid exploitative pitfalls, and its transcendent rockin' pop sound
packs a powerhouse punch.
The rest of the album combines sporadic moments of pretty balladry with punchy rockers that effectively channel both Kiss and the Raspberries, and a zillion other influences ranging from the Hollies to Green Day. Pop? Hard rock? Just call it a righteous good time.
Big Deal, P.O. Box 2072, Peter Stuyvesant
Station, New York City 10009-9998; e-mail: bigdealnyc@aol.com.
The Experiments, based in San Diego, include two expatriate Syracusans, guitarists Dan Bonn and Andrew Guyette. New Wave fans fondly remember Bonn from his stint with the Dead Ducks Band in the late 1970s, while Guyette played guitar for the Antics, a more obscure group that also included a young Maura Boudreau (now Maura Kennedy, half of the acoustic guitar-pop act the Kennedys with her husband Pete Kennedy). If you dug the Ducks or the Antics, you'll probably dig the Experiments, who play a pop-tinged strain of hard rock very much in the tradition of Bonn and Guyette's alma maters.
The group's first full-length album, Who the Hell Are They? (Shaking Porch), continues the grungy rock'n'roll style of its debut EP, 1997's Smacked in the Head. Although the Experiments hardly resemble a pop group in the usual sense, the band's roots in the sound of the early Who and Ramones remain evident. Hell's best tracks, "Detached from Reality" and "It Never Ends," compel you to crank the sucker up to fully appreciate their punky-pop amalgamation of the Romantics, the Damned, Cheap Trick and Soul Asylum. Otherwise, while "Taking My Time" and "Foreign Exchange" are adequate exercises in hard rock, much of the rest moves along too ploddingly for the pop crowd, although it may please the K-Rock portion of the audience.
To the Experiments' credit, the track titled "Animal Instincts" almost sounds like a Dead Boys outtake. Considering that the Dead Boys specifically set out to blend the punk venom of Iggy and the Stooges with the pop artistry of the Raspberries, perhaps that brings the pop-punk influence full circle.
Shaking Porch Music, 4822 Santa Monica Ave. #150, San Diego, Calif. 92107.
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