my power pop addiction, no. 10 (82)

I came relatively late to the bands of LA’s paisley underground, a 60s-revivialist scene that had about one year of real juice in the early 80s. One of those bands, the Bangles, made the leap into pop stardom. Others, like Rain Parade, Long Ryders, Dream Syndicate and the Three O’clock, had sporadic and moderate successes but never really broke out big. I had the Long Ryders’ State of Our Union, a pretty good cow punk/neo-country rock record, when I was in high school, and I liked Dream Syndicate’s Days of Wine and Roses when a hip friend played it for me during my sophomore year in college. But I didn’t approach the paisley underground bands as a singular, somewhat coherent movement until about 15 years ago, after reading Waiting for the Sun, Barney Hoskyns’ great book on Los Angeles music. For anyone who loves LA, loves pop, and is obsessed with the intersection between the two, Waiting for the Sun, along with its sequel, Hotel California, are must-reads. Hoskyns especially gave me a real appreciation for the Three O’Clock’s fantastic brand of punchy psychedelic pop. The band’s debut EP, Baroque Hoedown, and their first full-length album, the excellently titled Sixteen Tambourines, were both produced by Earle Mankey, a legend of sorts in the LA pop world who, among other things, was in Sparks and produced 20/20. …When I first heard tonight’s song, I didn’t know whether it was supposed to be played at 45 or 33 RPM. (Answer: 45). What a great testament to the delightfully strange sound of Michael Quercio’s elfin voice. The clip is from MV3, a local LA MTV-replica show that used to air after school. Remember the days when there was actually local programming other than news about stabbings and car jackings? The band’s syncing is a bit off, but the music is great and manages inexplicably to be at once very unique sounding and a simulation of a simulation…

PS - I'd like to extend my warm thanks to those of you who wrote asking about Polly. She's doing much better. She's spending one more night tonight at the hospital, and then I'll pick her up and bring her home tomorrow. It's been a tough few days, much more so for her than me, but I suspect we'll both be having liberal dosages of catnip tomorrow.