Customer Reviews

D.I.Y.: Come Out And Play - American Power Pop (1975-78)

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Rhino records is a godsend to fans looking to learn more about a musical genre. Every genre they tackle is chronicled lovingly and contains a great mix of obscure gems and popular classics. The D.I.Y. series views late 70's punk-styled music in 9 volumes, separated by region and musical style. There are 4 "pop" collections, 2 each for the U.S. and the U.K. The U.S. collections are less stylistically varied but considerably more fun and tuneful, since British pop often goes over my head (see: XTC, for starters, who I am starting to love). This collection covers the "early" years of US power pop, 1975-1978, which means it misses the Raspberries and Big Star but still gets many of the major players. Very highly recommended, snag this while its around!

Best Tracks:
"Shake Some Action" - Stones meets Beatles anthem. One of the Groovies' best and that's saying something, this has a great chorus and some tidy guitar work.
"Wayside" - Big Star acoustics give way to something that's equal parts power pop, hard rock, and pure genius rock and roll.
"Hit The Floor" - More great guitar and a booming mix make this Earth Quake's best original. The most raw and rocking song here, it's a song just waiting to be discovered by bar bands everywhere.
"Can't Wait" - Why are the Piper CD's out of print? Billy Squier's best work was done with this unknown band, and this track is nearly perfect.
"Blow Yourself Up" - Off-kilter drum work and Tommy Hoehn's alternately strong/shaky voice showcase this shoulda-been-a-classic.
"Why Can't It Be" - The Names are one of the totally unknown bands on this compilation and this was a fine single. Wild drumming and very Eric-Carmen vocals, the liner notes slam the production, but it's great for a 70's indie.
"Come Out And Play" - Cheesy? Yes, but this song has such great hooks that it's a worthy power pop song by anyone's standards. Better than today's teen pop by far.

Bravo, Rhino!! That is a huge selection of a very funny times for power pop. It is plenty of jewels and gems (please Rhino, we want a Nerves discography re-edition!) like probably one of the best songs ever made: "I am the Cosmos" of the Big Star most unknown half Chris Bell, or the Flamin' Groovies masterpiece "shake some action" from their self named LP...best recomended!!

Bless Rhino's heart for compiling this gem. Flamin' Groovies, Nerves, Artful Dodger...terrific! But the long lost nugget of this CD is Chris Stamey & the dbs' "Summer Sun". Released as an indie single, it was backed with what I deem the most influential indie pop song of the era, "I Thought You Wanted To Know". Reminiscent of Big Star, this little masterpiece is available only on Vol. II of the American Power Pop series, "Shake It Up", which has been sadly deleted from Rhino's catalog. The #1 best power pop collection of all time, "Vol. II" deserves to see the light of day again. I myself would give just about anything to find a copy...can anybody out there help me out?

A note of trivia, the artwork cover to this CD release features The Nerves, a band who existed from 1974-1977 and recorded the original version of Hanging On The Telephone later covered by Deborah Harry and Blondie. From left to right you can see Jack Lee, Paul Collins (The Beat) and Peter Case (The Plimsouls). This is one of the greatest CD compilations and is packed with more songs than most standard albums would contain. This is one of the few CDs where you can actually find full songs from The Nerves and this will have to suffice until Paul Collins can re-issue The Nerves to CD and vinyl in 2007. This disc features other legendary bands in addition to The Nerves, including Cheap Trick, Fotomaker, Chris Bell (of Big Star), The Scruffs, The Real Kids, Pezband, Chris Stamey, Artful Dodger and The Flashcubes.