I bought the Doughboys 1990 album, Happy Accidents, on purple vinyl from SK8, a skate shop which racked a bit of music alongside the decks and wheels.
Days later, I sold it.
With Brock Pytel gone meditating, no follow up to Home Again was even possible. Instead, after starting out with Kastner's finest song yet, "Countdown", this album (and the 1991 follow-up e.p., When Up Turns to Down) headed straight down the college rock boulevard, like R.E.M. with the guitars metaled-up a bit. Gimmicky song titles like, "The Apprenticeship of Lenny Kravitz"and "Intravenus de Milo" cheapen the affair though not as much as the e.p.'s witless and grating cover of the 52's, "Private Idaho".
All slander aside, "What's Going On'" is a bouncy sing-along, "Sorry Wrong Number" is a catchy tune, and, in the cold light of the present, "Sunflower Honey" is not wretched, it's just a happy, jangly pop song - like an old sixties Rascals' single. So, surviving internal division and passing fashions, the Doughboys moved on and the results, while a mixed bag, are better than they first sounded.
Doughboys - Countdown
Download Happy Accidents
Download When Up Turns to Down
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Thanks for posting these. Interesting that I've come from the opposite direction: Happy Accidents was the first I'd heard of them, and loved their "college rock" and "jangly pop" sound, particularly "Sunflower Honey"!
ReplyDeletePoint well taken.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the comments in these posts there are many different entry points one can come to the the Doughboys through.