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Here are ten of my favorite power pop performers who visit New York now and then:
The Rubinoos/The Rosenbergs 7/16/99, Maxwell's Hoboken, NJ
ABOVE: NINE YEARS LATER, THE RUBINOOS IN SAN FRANCISCO JUNE 21, 2008 There's a joke that's older than dust about two shopkeepers discussing their business strategies. The first has an interesting strategy - he buys stuff for, say, $1.00, and sells it for 95 cents. The second businessman asks, "Aren't you going to go out of business with such a plan? You lose money on each sale" And the first answers , "What do you know about business - you dunce? I'll make it up with the increased volume!" Well, the Rubinoos must have relied on that shopkeeper for business advice when they flew across the country from their Californian homes to play two planned concerts in the New York area last weekend. It had to be a financial loss for them to play in a small club like Maxwell's before about fifty devoted fans. This is how Jon Rubin explained it from the stage - He got a phone call from a friend in Brooklyn who said that he heard "Pursuit of Happiness" on WFMU-FM, a New Jersey listener-supported radio station. Jon marveled that they were not only playing a cut from the hard-to-find 1998 release "Paleophonic", but a *deep* cut at that! "You gotta call the guys from the radio station", his friend said. And the radio guys said - "come to our area, we're supporting your new record, you can play a couple of clubs, it'll be so cool." So the Rubes packed up and gave their New York fans an illogically unexpected treat in the form of a most amazingly good concert. Well, not to denigrate the Rubinoos' achievement of being in heavy rotation on WFMU, but according to an article by Jim Beckerman in the Bergen Record the following is the range of music that gets play on that free-form station: "A 1898 Edison cylinder to Fifties rockabilly, to lo-fi bedroom recordings made by nobodies in New Hampshire, to experimental music, to lectures on Zen, to barnyard noises. Death metal, Sixties lounge music, mambo, garage rock, mariachi bands, rockabilly, interviews with atomic physicists, and yodeling. Beckerman adds, "What wouldn't we do?" asks Ken Freedman, deejay and station manager. "Other than stuff that was blatantly illegal, there's probably nothing we wouldn't do," he says." Life works in funny ways: When I saw the 'Noos at the San Francisco Keystone while I was on vacation in August 1981, I fully expected to see them in the near future. They played the great new stuff that later surfaced on the "Basement Tapes", the club was packed, they were on a roll. They signed with major labels, I had no reason to suspect their coming disappearance. And then I read about last year's L.A. appearance. Improbably, the Rubes were back. I was wondering how I could time one of my trips to the West coast to coincide with one of their concerts. Little did I suspect, that after an absence of twenty years, the Rubes would return to New Jersey, headlining for the first time in the area? I could listen to their music with a new perspective, with eighteen more years of radio listening and CD buying to guide me. And I could learn more about how the band constructs their sound, reminding myself of forgotten details. So enough rambling here's the review: The Rubinoos sounded fantastic. At times (such as Boyfriend) the live sound was a perfect reproduction of the recording. Other times, I swear, the sound was even better than the recording! If the voices were affected by illness, it would take instruments more delicate than the human ear to detect. Jon's unique lead vocals soared. The harmonies were interesting. Sometimes two-part, sometimes three or four-part. Different combinations of vocalists producing subtly different sounds. Tommy, I think, changed some guitar lines on a few of the songs to improve their sound from the originals. Donn, Al and Alex excelled as well in their important foundation roles. I always remembered that Jon did almost all the lead vocals for the Rubinoos, but listening to the Basement Tapes and Paleophonic, I heard that Tommy and Al got a larger share of leads. So I thought that they would get an increased lead vocal role at the recent concert. Not so, but Al's version of "Tonight" kicked, and I learned that Tommy takes the first verse of "Operator." I mentioned in a previous post that I listened to an old live tape of the Rubinoos, and marvelled at the lengthy in-between-song chatter. Well, I thought that the talking really added to last weeks gig. Jon has a great wit, and Tom is always ready for a snappy comeback. The falling safe joke is the driest joke ever composed - more of a social commentary than a joke. The Rosenbergs, a New York area power pop band, were one of the opening acts on the bill. Their E.P., "Ameripop" is outstanding. The songs on it have hooks that will stay in your brain for eternity. They opened their set with their three best songs in rapid succession. They played some unreleased stuff such as the "Puff Daddy isn't Kosher" and "Silverstone" and an amazing cover of "B.B.C." by Ming Tea. They played with great energy and adeptness. They love to play loud. Loud is good, hey I saw the Who and my eardrums were ringing for days, no complaints, but I don't personally enjoy the music when it's so over-amplified that it is sometimes distorted, as was the case that night. In conclusion, in these days where it seems like the industry believes that melody is a minus rather than a plus in a song, it was a pleasure to hear melodic pop played by true believers. I hope that the interest in pop music in California revitalizes my favorite music style.
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