The Bomb Pops - Things They Say

From the "better-late-than-never" section, Mitch Phillips dusts off the old CD pile and comes out with The Bomb Pops 2002 release, "Things They Say" which features six tracks of pogo punching pop that'll make you wanna tear your t-shirt, dye your hair green and stick a safety-pin through your nose. Clocking in at a total of 13.6 minutes, this CD, unlike Mitch, wastes no time in getting to the point.

Band: The Bomb Pops

Release: Things They Say

Year: 2002

Members: Tim Hervey (guitar) , Shawn Hervey (bass), Natalie Wegner (Vocals), Phil Bansen (drums)

When I first saw The Bomb Pops several years ago at Club Bart, I remember saying that they were all substance and no style (Can you believe the arrogance? I blame the Vicodin). Anyway, here was a great power-pop band, but without a feature to set them apart from the dozens of great bands in the same genre in Detroit.

I like to imagine they took my advice with 2001's addition of vocalist Natalie Wegner, who's smooth and sexy voice is reminiscent of Gwen Stefani or perhaps Martha Davis (No Doubt and The Motels respectively). Whatever their motivation for the line-up change, Wegner's presence gives basement-brothers Tim and Shawn Hervey a splash of style to go with their long-suffered, down-stroking verve. Like some of their infamous 30-second punk songs, The Bomb Pops "Things They Say" is also short and sweet (13.6 minutes total) and comes in a tidy, six track package that inspires an impromptu pogo on just about every track.

At first I was a bit put-off by some of the drumming on this disc (e.g. the intro on "Day Dreamer"), but after listening with fresh ears, I have to conclude everything is as it should be and any timing aberrations are either ignorable, intended or well-earned. For what it's worth, The Bomb Pops have since replaced drummer Phil Bansen with Dark Carnival's Chris Connolly, so you can expect their live show (if they're still gigging) to be quite impressive.

In any case, there's some really good stuff on this disc, particularly the bounding punk gem, "Keep On" which I'm going to add to my iPod right now. You can check out two of the tracks at Bombpops.com. Get it while you still can. - Mitch

Track Listing:

Outta Here
Take Me Away
Day Dreamer
Keep On
You Got To Know
Don't Wanna See You Cry

-- Mitch

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