my power pop addiction, no. 50 (122)

Add the Michael Guthrie Band, from Athens, Georgia, to the list of groups that will leave you scratching your head, wondering why they didn't make it big. And as usual, the only answer I can come up with is that, as a general rule, people tend to have bad taste. In 1981, the MGB released Direct Hits, a veritable treasure trove of power pop magic. When I first heard the album about 15 years ago, it took a while for the music to grow on me. The basic template they follow is the one initially laid down by the Who, with lots of heavy power chords and songs that split the difference between rock and pop. But once the hooks sink into your skin and begin to circulate in your blood, you'll be wanting more and more of this stuff... Today's song is one of

the finest on Direct Hits and is yet another tune that gets at the mood I'm in at the moment as I continue to wrestle internally with some of the melodrama I was forced to deal with in connection with my high school reunion. It's funny how you can try so hard to do the right thing, to do right by yourself and by others, but in the end sometimes trouble just finds you, no matter what you've done to prevent it from doing so. But I shouldn't complain too much. For the most part, it's been a lovely week for me here in NYC. I'm accompanying my sister and one of her best friends to the country this weekend, where we'll join my brother-in-law for a weekend of good food, a fair bit of drinking, and some low-impact engagement with nature. Then on Monday I'll get on a plane, head back to my adopted hometown, and everything that's happened, good and bad, will be stored in my memory, where I can draw on it all periodically for inspiration and perspective... Now, sit back, relax, put a set of cans on if you have 'em nearby, and let the hard driving yet deceptively tuneful stylings of the Michael Guthrie Band take you away...