There was a slew of good power-pop bands from the aughts. There was, however, no excess of great ones. The Frantics exemplify the good category but they did write at least one song that flirted with greatness like a brazen hussy. Despite The Beatles-esque title, the band clearly love their Cheap Trick more than anything and some of the members (their line-up is murky) were connected to some eighties hair-metal bands, so you can expect some attempted Big Rock tricks to liven up (or drag down) a tight batch of songs. While Meet The Frantics came out on some Christian rock label, you'd never know unless you noted the ghostliness of their occasional Weezer-isms ("What's Up With Your Homey" is NOT an acceptable song title.) While, "Little Bit Good" is a fine power-pop ballad and "All the Same" is as well, the reason you need to know about this is the T.S. Elliot-referencing album opener, "Not With a Bang" which, despite its denial, does indeed kick off the album an "earth-shattering ka-boom".
(The Frantics - Not With a Bang)
Meet the Frantics link is is the comments.
Speaking of comments, is "Not With a Bang" a great undiscovered song or not?
This CD is available for one cent on Amazon (not the first or last thing posted here of which that could be said) and the members went on to form a band called London Calling (whose first album is called "New Sensation" which brings to mind a curious amalgam of The Clash and INXS.)
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HELLO COMMENTERS PLEASE LEAVE US YOUR TAKE ON THE FRANTICS.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uqmnwnymmgk
"Not With A Bang" is such a killer song. It's really a shame it didn't get more attention back in the day. Let's hope some big time Hollywood soundtrack Maker stumbles upon this very post and realizes he MUST use said song for the opening credits to the sci-fi-spy-rom-com he's got in the works.
ReplyDeleteThe movie's title? Why, "Music Ruined My Life" of course...
Safe to assume not the same band as these Frantics, yes? http://onesidedwar.blogspot.com/2009/03/frantics-downtown-delirium-ep-1997.html
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ReplyDeleteYay my script is going into production _ I hope they'll let me compile the OST
xJerryx
So that means there is a sixties garage rock Frantics, A Canadian comedy Frantics, A pop-punk Frantics and a Christian new wave Frantics - it's a name that has done the rounds!
P.S. I like the Mutant Pop Frantics' single.
Dear Jeffen,
ReplyDeleteI adore power pop and your series is like manna from heaven for me because they mostly all passed me by as I was of an age when record buying wasn't happening.
Right , The Frantics - I don't think that the 1st track is a chart buster very good tho it is- what is great is that the rest of their material does not dip much below the good quality of that opening track.Certainly an album I will return to listen to regularly.
Thank you for what you do and THE POWER POP SERIES MUST CONTINUE please!!!!
Cheers
C
censusloss
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement, it's always appreciated. While "Not With a Bang' is my fave, I agree that the overall quality of the songs never takes a drastic dip.
They were originally a little garage band called Simple Mystery. The lead singer and lyricist decided to leave the band to focus on his family, which is when the other band members formed the new group. He still writes music, but on a smaller scale and it's more definitively christian now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update!
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