Monday, June 21, 2010

The Vandalias: buzzbomb! (Big Deal, 1998)

(As published on the In Music We Trust website ... )

The Vandalias
buzzbomb! (Big Deal)


If the Vandalias' cartoon-character personas rank them among such enshrinees of the Animated Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as the Way-Outs, the Archies, and Josie and the Pussycats, their power-bubblegum-poppin' personas rank them among such sugar-rush titans as the Raspberries, early Cheap Trick, and Sweet (they even bid the late Brian Connolly R.I.P. in their liner notes). In other words, the fact that the Vandalia Brothers look like extras from Speed Racer (their debut wasn't called Mach V for nothing) doesn't mean they can't make rockin' like yesterday's heroes sound like the future of rock 'n' roll today. Their "The End of the World" beats R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine"), their "Big Red Catalina" beats Prince's "Little Red Corvette," their "Down" beats the Beatles' "I'm Down," their "No One Told Him" wrestles the Thin Lizzy original to a draw, their "buzzbomb!" beats both the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" and the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb," and their "Hey Kari G" would beat the Zeros' "Sticky Sweet Girls" if the Zeros' "Sticky Sweet Girls" weren't still the lip-smackingest buzzbomb ever.


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