Fools Face - Tell America
#571
1981 Housekeeping LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Fools Face
Tell America
Genre: Power Pop
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
American Guilt
Land of the Hunted
(Gotta Get) a Letter to You
Valentine
The Truth
I’ve been listening to a lot of Garage/Power Pop bands lately, especially a Louisville, KY group called White Reaper. And this is their spiritual ancestor that I am sure they have never heard. But, dammit, this is the same stuff. And it’s terrific.
Bands like Fools Face and White Reaper (and the defunct Biters and also defunct Barreracudas) and so many others, they didn’t fall in love with Cheap Trick from the Budokan album like so many of us. Nope. They were there from Cheap Trick, In Color and Dream Police. They are the children of Zander and Nielsen. And they deserved better than the dustbin.
There’s a healthy dose of Raspberries in this as well. Just delicious.
If you can get past the seven songs on side one without pulling the needle all the way back to the start, you get to flip it over and treat yourself to even more! Including an opening retro-garage track “L5” which I think really sets the tone for the rest of the side.
I started by listening to a YouTube playlist but Sheffield got a hold of the entire record and put it on a Google Drive. So I went back and re-listened and boy am I glad I did. The recorded versions are spectacular. It crackles and surprises the way Fingerprintz’s debut did. Or the Nerves. Or Squeeze.
Except that in Fools Face, every member of the band contributed a at least one or more tunes. They are the Queen of Power Pop.
The band is terrific but Jim Wirt, the bassist, is magic. He doesn’t overpower anything but, much like Mike Mills of REM, he’s indispensable. When you notice what he’s doing you just want to register to the whole thing just to hear his bass licks.
Missed?: Absofuckinglutely
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pCwQQUgVbVSMdcuV5R6tqUhzyNpugy6O?usp=sharing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmnXkgQies&list=PLlvn8uktX5Lt5XYXWBIccDEC7v3H7d4Xe
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