Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of December 29th-January 4th, 2015:
Some Pulp - Some Pulp
01. Undone '93 (The Tubetop Song)
02. Oh Oh (Who's Cryin' Now)
03. Tell Me Ur Mine
04. New Lame
05. Take A Ride
06. Pizza, Pop, & Cigarettes
07. Baby
08. Blue Pout
09. Teenage Mess
If you, like me, tend to spend too much time thinking about music, you've inevitably stumbled onto the question, "What would it be like if we got a time machine, pulled Marc Bolan out of T. Rex in 1971, transported him to the late 90's, and had him front The Muffs?" Well, wonder no more! Some Pulp is here to answer that question with a resounding, "It would be mostly awesome!"
Some Pulp started as the duo of Graham Barton (vocals, guitar) & Dane Hoppe (drums) that has since grown to a trio with the addition of Elliott Snyder on bass. I stumbled across them over the course of my slavish devotion to "Song Of The Day" podcasts when their single "Oh Oh (Who''s Cryin' Now)" was featured on Radio K's SOTD podcast. It makes for a stellar single, instantly appealing to both the pop music fan & bitter aging guy sides of me.
On the strength of "Oh Oh," I figured I should check out what's going on with these guys. I went over to their Bandcamp page to find out more and came away with two relevant facts:
1. They're signed to Forged Artifacts (and Forged Artifacts don't play).
2. Their album is a Name Your Price download (which means you should probably check it out).
While the band stretches out a bit in the second half of Some Pulp, the first three songs stand as one of the great runs by any Minnesota musician in 2014. "Undone '93," "Oh Oh," & "Tell Me Ur Mine" lay out everything that's great about Some Pulp right from the get-go. Hooks? Check. Snarky Anger? Check. Romanticism? Check. A titular reference to the 90's that helps place their sound some context? Check. Even if you don't make it through the whole album (all 24 minutes of it), at least take 8 minutes and bask in the bubblegum glory of that opening hat trick.
Look, the year's almost done. Most of you have already done your "Best Of 2014" lists (I know for certain that "Oh Oh (Who's Cryin Now)" is going to turn up on my "Best Of Radio K's Song Of The Day" podcast in just a week or two) but if you haven't you'd do well to give this one a spin.
As mentioned above, Some Pulp is available as a "Name Your Price" download on their Bandcamp page.
