I've been on a power-pop bender of late digging deep into the catalogues of The dB's, The Beat and their precursor The Breakaways, Shoes, and Teenage Head. The band I really can't shake though is Milwaukee, Wisconsin's The Shivvers. The group only existed for three years—from 1979 to 1982—and never achieved much commercial success, but if you peep the 20-track Lost Hits compilation released back in 2006, the quality of The Shivvers' songs is staggering. People talk about how power-pop combines the mischievous punk attitude of rock 'n' roll with the crisp melodic accessibility of pop music. That's The Shivvers in a nutshell: "Please Stand By" is all jagged guitars and singer Jill Kossoris' lispy rasp, but the song's chorus sounds lifted straight out of the Top 40; the bouncy "No Substitute" could have fit neatly onto the B-side of an early Blondie single. I've been particularly obsessed with "Don't Tell Me," which kicks off with a few chords of cheesy keyboard before reeling in a swinging off-kilter guitar-drum rhythm combo and a chorus that's as simple as it is deadly and intoxicating: "Don't tell me what to do," sings Kossoris, "I can't live by your rules."
Grab The Shivvers Lost Hits comp via the iTunes button below.
Always been partial to this one myself:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqrlqeZFrkY