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Souvenirs: Little Gems of Pop

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Souvenirs: Little Gems of Pop --- 2009

Liner notes by the Great Bruce Bodeen. Below is the text from the sadly missed Not Lame written by BB. Swedish Import and compilation of rare power pop, melodic gems - most from the 80s. Liner notes written by yours truly (me!) and sure to evoke special memories of LP shopping in the 60s, 70s and 80s depending on how old you are. 21 songs and features such bands as Three Hour Tour, Jimmy Silva, The Wishniaks, Erik Voeks, Todd Newman & The Leatherwoods, Flying Color, The Kicksouls, Choo Choo Train(pre-Velvet Crush), The Explosives, Manual Scan and many more! Here is a bit from my liner notes for this Sounds Asleep Records treasure: What "Souvenirs" accomplishes is a fresh walk to this time of yesteryear. You know this place. Well. From track #1, listening to the layered harmonies, relaxed jangle, shaking tambourines and Badfinger-cum The Rooks melodies of Three Hour Tour you know you are in a place that only you, only me will recognize. We thought this was outrage back in, say, 1985 when bands like Choo Choo Train(soon to be Velvet Crush), the legendary mods, The Wishniaks, Manual Scan, Todd Newman & The Leatherwoods or The Explosives wrote B-troika(Byrds, Big Star, Badfinger) inspired post-skinny-tie-power-pop for themselves, with little or no illusions of mass-market success. These bands` commitment to trebly, reverb heavy jangle was pure-Americana. No, not that kind of Americana. I;m talking about real garage bands of post-collegiate musicians wanting to play music for themselves , who were inspired by the stories of their older and brother and sisters seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show while you and me were in diapers in room upstairs. "Souvenirs" is 21 songs of perfection. Every band, every song plants itself in a time from yesteryear and captures a sound that can never be encapsulated again. These are the sounds of those times. Your past. Those places, those trips to record stores to discover the truly"new", innovative and truly indie sounds of those times which you only shared knowledge of with yourself and a few friends from other parts of the country. These artists battled hard, against all odds to get their music released and pressed up in the *hundreds* of copies, not thousands. They did not have credit cards to pay for their `output`; they saved, worked extra jobs, borrowed from extended family and sold a bit of extra pot from their personal stash to get those vinyl slabs pressed up to sent out to the few college stations that existed in those days. Hoping for a connection, an obscure review in some Xeroxed fanzine. They toiled for you and me. Fortunately, their efforts bore healthy, jangle-enriched fruit that comes from a tree that perpetually feeds the song of the earth. "Souvenirs" takes you to a place you may have forgotten about but when as soon as you listen to these songs, your longing for lost-friends, bad hairstyles, favorite records stores and an uncomplicated life will swallow your memory-lane walk whole. It is bittersweet but, then again, a reminder at how incredibly special the struggle was and how truly awesome this music was then. Still is now. Turn that `treble` button up to `10` and smile away knowing you always knew better than anyone else when it came to good music - and you still do now by enjoying "Souvenirs" today.