The Nice Boys: one of Spin magazine's 50 Next Big Things
Written: Dec 19 '06 (Updated Dec 03 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: On their acclaimed 2006 release, The Nice Boys grab for the glam-rock throne.
Cons: None.
The Bottom Line: The Nice Boys were named as one of Spin magazine's 50 Next Big Things, and this 2006 release is a wonderful collection of glam-rock and power pop-influenced tunes.
Don_Krider's Full Review: The Nice Boys by The Nice Boys
For someone like myself who constantly laments the current state of Top 40 radio playlists, discovering the melodic glam-rock/power pop mix of The Nice Boys on their new self-titled debut album for the Birdman Recording Group is something to savor.
For 32 minutes and 52 seconds, this 2006 release had me in heaven and punching replay on my CD player over-and-over. Great harmonies sung over catchy uptempo melodies that take me back to my 1970's youth.
Rarely does a band have me trying to sing along with lyrics I've heard but once, or reaching for a guitar and trying to figure out how to play a tune --- these guys had me doing both on the second play of this album.
The band is more than a '60s-'70s rock 'n' roll time machine, they are one of the group's to be watched as 2007 approaches --- they deserve to be discovered and to make it big.
Spin magazine has praised them for mixing "Nick Lowe's infectious pub-rock songcraft with the charmingly sloppy abandon of the Faces."
Spin also named the band as one of it's 50 Next Big Things in 2006.
Fader magazine took the praise further, saying, "If there isn't a standout track on the album, it's only because they're all standout kid pop genius concoctions."
The Nice Boys
The Nice Boys' frontman, Terry Six, is the sole survivor of Portland's The Exploding Hearts. Outside of Eugene, Orgeon, in 2003, with critical praise for Exploding Heart's debut album everywhere on critics' year-end lists, that band's van flipped over and killed three of the band's members.
Overcoming that tragedy, surviving guitarist Terry Six hooked up with fellow electric warriors from Portland's The Riffs to form The Nice Boys. The Nice Boy's other members are guitarist Gabe Lageson, bassist Colin Jarrell, drummer Alan Mansfield and keyboardist Brian Lelko.
Check out their album cover at http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000GIWGPI.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V41360832_.jpg --- these guys are as much a flashback in album cover artwork as their music is like digging into an archive of 20th Century glam-rock and then reinventing the genre for the 21st Century listener.
Their music gives me the same feeling I've had only a few times listening to acts like The New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers, The Sweet, Slade, T. Rex, The Ramones, Raspberries, Badfinger, Stories, Artful Dodger, David Bowie, The Posies and Jellyfish --- that something fresh and vibrant might happen to change a music industry that was going stale with created pop sounds or one-too-many extended jam session by self-absorbed entertainers.
This CD
Produced by The Nice Boys and Pat Kearns (who has also been the live-sound engineer for bands like Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie and Vanderslice), The Nice Boys self-titled CD's 10 songs have a total running time 32 minutes and 52 seconds.
The sound is crisp and clear, showing that Jackpot Studios may yet rival the old Record Plant (John Lennon, Raspberries) recordings from the '70s for sound quality.
The four-page CD booklet is slim but cool (great cover artwork, with the two center pages done as a small open-up poster of the band). Lyrics would have been a nice addition, but I'm not going to complain when the music is this good.
All 10 songs were written by members of the band.
The music
The 10 teen pop radio anthems on The Nice Boys are honestly to die for. Catchy as hell and invigorating as they play (who needs caffeine when the music sets the heart to beating this fast).
Teenage Nights owes as much to Cheap Trick's I Can't Take It and Dream Police as it does to Raspberries I Don't Know What I Want --- lead singer Terry Six has a strong vocal power and range, not unlike Marc Bolin of T. Rex (Bang A Gong) or Kyle Vincent of Candy (Whatever Happened To Fun), and his stuttering lead vocal also recalls Roger Daltrey here ("ta-ta-ta-teenage nights").
Teenage Nights features some of the best drum sounds I've heard in years --- clear, crisp, hard knockout percussion punches in the gut in the spirit of Keith Moon (The Who) and Dino Danelli (The Rascals, Fotomaker). Layered with searing lead guitar lightning bolts and pulsating bass rhythms, with answering backup vocals boosting the effect of the thrilling lead vocal.
Power teen anthems (think Slade's Cum On Feel The Noize (their spelling, not mine) and Alice Cooper's School's Out) are the types of songs that fans still cherish decades after their release. I think The Nice BoysTeenage Nights fits that category very well in presenting a kid crying out for release from teenage frustration ("somebody get me out of this hell").
With bassist Colin Jarrell also playing lead guitar on Only In Dreams, the song sounds like Dwight Twilley (I'm On Fire) singing lead backed by The Darkness --- I know that's hard to imagine, but I swear it's a neat effect combined with a drum intro that seems straight out of The Rolling Stones' Get Off Of My Cloud.
The band's ability to recreate The Beatles circa 1967 on Avenue 29, with John Lennon-ish lead vocals by guitarist Gabe Lageson, is also impressive ("say hello to all the people on the avenue, say hello to the next in line to lose their mind"). It's a truly gorgeous tune that Beatles' fans will love.
On Ain't That Beat, The Nice Boys have produced a tune that sounds like it belongs on Nick Lowe's Labour Of Love album with a sound not unlike Cruel To Be Kind. The constant backbeat propels the tune about bad guys and girls looking for some action, with ringing guitars accenting the stressed-out vocal ("looking for trouble, you found me, ain't that beat").
The Ramones are reborn on Southern Streets --- where Eric Carmen could offer an effortless Paul McCartney or Roger Daltrey impersonation in Raspberries, Terry Six seems equally able to sound like any number of his idols, and he recreates Joey Ramone's vocal-stylings here. It's a power-chorded rocker, full of jangly guitars and pumped full of sweat as a guy finds himself in the wrong alley one night ("running from the Southern Streets").
Lead singer Terry Six plays drums on the first half of Cheryl Anne (Carry On) while drummer Alan Mansfield plays piano. This mid-tempo ballad is done in the style of The Beatles' A Day In The Life, starting as a slow Lennon-ish piano piece and then moving mid-song into an all-out McCartney-ish raver. Great stuff.
Final recommendation
The Nice Boys mix of song styles (glam, power pop, rock) may not appeal to everyone, but if you're like me and love to listen to T. Rex as much as you do The Beatles, then you might like this release. Me, I love this, and I don't say that about many albums.
On the web
The official myspace.com page (where you can listen to sound clips): http://www.myspace.com/niceboys
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