Those had already been mentioned, or else I would have...

Also FWIW, I like Apocalypse 91 way less than the two PE albums before it, maybe even less than Bum Rush the Show.

Stop just posting album covers, Dalen

The Spongetones - Oh Yeah!

At the end of the 70s, The Spongetones were just a North Carolina-based Beatles cover band, playing the bar scene. Over the years, word spread that they were no ordinary cover band - but a really amazing cover band (seriously, check Youtube for some videos from 1980 and pretend you don't wish this band played at your favorite dive). Somewhere along the line though, they signed a record deal, starting writing their own music and in 1982 released one of the all-time great power-pop records "Beat Music", a homage to the great Beat bands of the 60s, complete with an absurdly mod-influence album cover.

Fast forward 3 records and 9 years later and The Spongetones released "Oh Yeah!", which to me is clearly their best album. While the band is still unabashedly Beatles influenced to the point that it might really drive away some lazy, cynical folks - this album features their strongest songwriting and most cohesive playing. Every song sounds like it was made for soundtracking the best pool party you ever went to. The guys are clearly musicians who just love music for what it is and don't need to try their hand at being the next big thing. It's power-pop, sure - but it still has that Mersey Beat sound to it. Beatles harmonies, Yardbirds guitars, early Kinks drums.

It's absolutely one of my favorite power-pop records because it doesn't try to be anything that it's not. It's music that is so well played, it's almost as though sunshine is emanating from your speakers right on your face. You feel warm when you listen to this music, the nostalgia it brings ups makes you smile. And while your first listen might make you double check whether this is actually an early Beatles records - you'll soon find the things that make this record uniquely a Spongetones record, one that belongs in everyone's record collection.

Oh Yeah! is my favorite, but "Beat Music" which is their first album and from 1982 is their most praised album. It's really good too.

Oh Yeah! is pretty good. The only other Spongetones I've heard is Where-Ever Land which pales greatly in comparison.

Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain is an album of bizarre love songs. Strange lyrics play over a backdrop of clarinet solos and melody. Dogbowl spares no one in making music that is incredible challenging and very likable at the same time. Really, the core of the songs are pop love songs, but he approaches them with such strange imagery that the music comes alive more than any straightforward ballad could ever. Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain doesn't compromise anything for palatability. It is really pop music that has mutated into a similar but different entity. The melodies are sweet, but the lyrics and sound are so far removed from anything the average music fan is familiar with. Dogbowl writes good songs outside any kind of standard convention. The mismatched imagery is reminiscent of King Missile, but each track is a full-rounded song. The noticeable difference between King Missile and Dogbowl is that Dogbowl has replay value as well as a bizarre sense of humor. Cyclops Nuclear Submarine Captain offers up complete songs that are very sing-able. Dogbowl has created music that is memorable and strange and definitely underappreciated.

The decline in the Young Fresh Fellows' wackiness factor (and the growth of their relatively serious side) that began on This One's for the Ladies following the departure of Chuck Carroll continued on Electric Bird Digest. Musically, the band sounded harder and more aggressive than ever before, with Kurt Bloch and Scott McCaughey's guitars sounding much better integrated than on their previous go-round, though the pop sensibilities of primary songwriter McCaughey were still very much in evidence. And while there are glimmers of the band's trademark sense of humor (most obviously on the goofy snippet "The Teen Thing" and in titles like "Tomorrow's Gone (And So Are You)" and "Swiftly But Gently"), for the most part Electric Bird Digest is witty rather than laugh-out-loud funny, and there's a thin but audible undercurrent of angst running through much of the album (especially on Kurt Bloch's songs, which suggest the Fastbacks without their undertow of gleeful sloppiness) -- not particularly surprising from a band still trying to struggle by on a cult reputation after close to a decade on the boards. But as a rock band, the Young Fresh Fellows rarely sounded tighter or more emphatic than they do here, and, as on This One's for the Ladies, the best songs on Electric Bird Digest prove that the band could get serious and still have plenty to say, both musically and lyrically. And the production by Butch Vig gives the band's sound a muscle it rarely had in the past, without losing their melodic sense along the way. It's not one of the Fellows most fun albums, but, from a musical standpoint, it captures them at the top of their game.
4.5 stars