INTERNATIONAL ACCIDENT BY TOXIC MELONS

Toxic Melons has 543 fans on Facebook.  It's a deceptive number.  To a degree, I feel like we have an involuntary negative bias towards bands that have less than thousands and thousands of Facebook fans.  Here's an example: your buddy's band has 35,000 likes and is playing a show saturday night.  Should you see the opening band? Well, they only have 350 Facebook fans.  Because of that number, a lot of us wouldn't even listen to the songs on their profile. The way I see it is, nobody pays attention until thousands of people have paid attention.  It's a strange sort of paradox.  It's part of the reason why so many artists become frustrated.  And part of the reason many give up.  

I'll say it again: Toxic Melons has 543 fans on Facebook.  It's a deceptive number.  How?

1. Their music has been featured on Coldplay's website.

2. DJ Jazzy Jeff ("Parent's Just Don't Understand") has personally endorsed one of their songs.

Toxic Melons is a "band" with a non-permanent, revolving lineup.  It is the brainchild of a 26 year old, power pop fanatic from the UK named Pablo Melons.  Melons, whose real name is Paul Fairbairn, is a producer, arranger and songwriter with a wild aural imagination.  Unless your name is Amanda Palmer, no undiscovered act wants to "make it" as much as Fairbairn.  If his music falls on deaf ears, he can have the satisfaction of knowing he's done everything he could to gain a following.   He spends night and day marketing Toxic Melons.  According to Fairbairn, he sends his music to  "everyone you can think of...not everyone replies, but some do."

One person who did reply was one of Fairbairn's biggest heroes, a multi-instrumentalist named Eric Dover.  Dover has recorded with everyone from Meatloaf to Alice Cooper, but he is most beloved as the guitarist for Jellyfish.  A now defunct power pop cult favorite, Jellyfish has influenced a variety of established musicians including  Ben Folds, members of Fastball ("The Way") and "Call You Maybe" co-writer Josh Ramsay.  Fairbairn is probably the biggest—and youngest—Jellyfish super fan alive.  After building an online relationship with Eric Dover, he was able to convince the former Jellyfish guitarist to record on Toxic Melons' second recording, an EP called International Accident.  

For someone who creates his sound with a virtual band of members from all over the world, you'd be surprised just how sophisticated the sound and arrangements are on International Accident.  Even if the music doesn't match your taste, you can't help but be impressed by the amount of details, the plethora of "ooo's" and  "ahhh's"  on the vocals and the varied instrumentation, which includes everything from organs to guitars to god-knows-what.  Fairbairn has an innate ability to translate what's in his head onto record.  If he doesn't make it with Toxic Melons, the EP International Accident should indicate enough credibility for him to land gigs producing for other bands.  As a songwriter, he sometimes lets his imagination go too far, opting for a lot of notes and jarring, zig-zaggy interludes.  His music could probably benefit from a "less is more" approach.  That said, there's enough examples of his strong melodic abilities on songs like "Ode To Procrastination" and "Alex's Song" to make one believe Fairbairn only needs more discipline and that there are volcanoes of potential inside him.  Make no mistake, they're itching to erupt.  

Click this and get ready to be International Accidented. 

SINGLES GOING STEADY: "GO ALL THE WAY" AND "OVERNIGHT SENSATION (HIT RECORD)" BY THE RASPBERRIES

Cleveland Power Popstars: The Raspberries

The Raspberries should have been huge.  This has been acknowledged by everyone from John Lennon and Elton John to Kurt Cobain and Guns 'N Roses.

Bruce Springsteen once said in an interview with USA Today, "In the [recording "stretch" for 1980's The River] I had gotten into Woody Guthrie and country music and at the same time, I was listening to The Raspberries Greatest Hits.  It was one of my favorite records that summer.  They were great little pop records.  I loved the production, and when I went into the stuidio a lot of things we did were like that."

The Raspberries formed outside of Cleveland, OH in 1970.  It was a quartet led by a singer/songwriter named Eric Carmen.  And to be fair, while they weren't huge, they did have their 15 minutes of fame.   Their 1972 single "Go All The Way" managed to sell more than one million copies and broke the Top 5, in the process.  According to rock critic Mark Deming, the song "is without a doubt among the finest records ever made about one of the key subjects in rock 'n roll—convincing your girlfriend to have sex with you."  

While the irresitable melody and The Who influenced guitar riff made the song huge, the sexuality in the lyrics put a road block in the song's commercial potential.  The BBC were none too pleased by the sexiness and they banned it from the radio.  Kind of funny, if you ask me, because by today's standards, it would be the fucking tamest shit on the radio!—oops, I gotta wash my mouth out now.  

P.S.  Yes, the "come ons" in the lyrics were influenced by The Beatles' "Please Please Me."

"Go All The Way" by The Raspberries

The Raspberries had a few more minor singles but by the mid 70s they seemed to have gone "all the way" the public would let them.  It's not that listeners and critics disliked them, it's that they were filed more often under "guilty pleasures" and less under "classics." The band tried to remedy that in 1974 with a new-ish lineup and a record entitled Starting Over.  Ironically, Starting Over would be the The Raspberries' farewell album.

The album's opening track "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" was an instant classic and a truly incredible epic power pop track.  Like "Go All The Way" it is written about one of rock and roll's most loved subjects—dying to make it big!  I'm sure this was a track Springsteen fell in love with.

The song features an incredible Phil Spector-ish, wall-of-sound production, a gorgeous piano interlude which leads into a perfect guitar solo and later into an unexpected bridge.  The arrangement isn't quite a suite, but it has at least three totally distinct hooks and two codas—one of which is appropriately taken from the recording of "Go All The Way."   The band sounds like they are singing and playing for their lives. Without a doubt, "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" is an absolute masterpiece and should be studied by producers and songwriters everywhere.  

P.S. All you drummers out there should take notice, too. The drum fills are outstanding! 

"Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" by The Raspberries

BABY SCREAM

Baby Scream

Baby Scream is the baby of Argentinian singer/guitarist Juan Pablo Mazzola who composes Beatles/Big Star/ Badfinger- influenced power pop in English with help from drummer Claudio Salas and a wide cast of guest-stars, including ex-Jellyfish guitarist—and current cult legend—Eric Dover.  Melodically, the resulting album and performances owe a lot to Mazzola's heroes, leaning closest to John Lennon's Imagine and Double Fantasy eras.

Not surprisingly, none of Baby Scream' 10 songs—and four bonus cuts—offer anything nearly as exciting and brilliant as John Lennon's material.  Or Jellyfish's for that matter.  Furthermore, there are several factors that keep Mazzola from being able to truly compete with any prominent artist from 2013.  Perhaps, the biggest problem is that Mazzola doesn't have a $250,000 budget—or an expert producer— to make a terrificly produced album.  This is the album's biggest weakness in terms of listenability.  In short, there is a cheap wash limiting the song's dynamics and undermining what must have been considerable effort in arranging and theorizing the material.  Can we fault the artist for this? Obviously not.  He is doing the best that he can with the instruments, pre-amps and software he has available.  Even though he has a song called "lazy," lazy is one thing Mazzola is not.  Let's just say, you'll appreciate his efforts more if you treat them as demos.  

Now, let's talk about things Baby Scream can control, which is the quality of the actual songwriting.  If we gave each song a rating of "unacceptably bad" to "damn good" and mixed them all together in a jar, the resulting concoction would be "okay."  By far, the most inconsistent tracks are the medium-speed, lead guitar rockers.  "Exile," "Jekyll & Hyde" and "What About You" are unmemorable and absolutely indistinguishable from one another.  

But Mazzola does have a little "something-something" going on a few songs.  His biggest strength is writing sometimes-slow/always-sensitive ballads.  "Nipone," for example, is a glorious song similar to John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy."  A song this effective can (and does) withstand a so-so production quality.  Here, Mazzola plays a very effective, chiming acoustic guitar riff, backed by a slightly-heavenly instrumental background, and his most tender vocal performance.  It proves that when this guy is inspired, he can make something quite enjoyable.  

The following track, "Lazy," is Baby Scream's second best song.  Again, it works well because it is another break from the mediocre rockers that make up the majority of the album.  Here, Mazzola actually pens and arranges a fun, stripped-down rock song, complete with a lovely, somewhat ironic, lounge opening, made from a salad of jazz chords, piano and brushes.  And this song has a decent hook, too.  On a Dr. Dog release, it would make a nice, little album track.

I mentioned money before and I can give a variety of excuses for the problems that the album Baby Scream certainly has.  The Problem is you, the listener, don't care.  As an LP, what's presented here doesn't allow for a cohesive listen.  But there are several moments where everything seems to come together.  It's just a shame that you are forced to dig it out.  Now, if this was an EP, we'd have a totally different story.  You would have something much more listenable.  I wish  Juan Pablo Mazzola simply gave us this:

The Baby Scream EP

1. Nipone

2. The Ghosts Of Valerie (Feat. Eric Dover)

3. Lazy

4. Twenty Seven

I could see myself listening to to this product at least a couple of times.  And "Nipone?" I'd give that song a few more spins.

I recommend you listen to that hypothetical EP and listen to the rest if you are curious.

Baby Scream