False Teeth – Bugz
Don’t lose hope just yet, and save pop music in your prayers for a while longer. Yes, it’s true that the truly popular, chart-conquering songs haven’t been much to shout about for a long time now. But history’s just three chords and a few melodies away from being changed at any time.
All of us lose when pop music takes advantage of our desire to hear a pleasant song. All of us lose when the brightest minds decide that they’d rather do something else than write pop songs. Yes, all of us lose when the likes of False Teeth stop believing.
But never forget who built this house. From The Beatles to The Beach Boys, from Belle and Sebastian to Nirvana, the great pop groups of yesteryear were filled with people who could have done anything with their lives. They chose to write the sort of jingles that would thrill us.
Add False Teeth’s “Bugz” to the list of “Impossible to resist pop songs.” It’s an old-fashioned way of achieving those results as well. It’s a guitar tune written with saucy lyrics and played against impossibly catchy melodies. It’s meant to be a Lennon/McCartney track for modern generations. And it achieves all these things without sounding like a copy of a copy. Makes you wonder what the musicians who made it could have been doing instead. Hopefully, we’ll never know.
Johnny Cuba & The Gusanos – OD OD
You’re watching history unfold before your eyes, and, unless you listen to the news designed to scare you out of your wits, you don’t even know you. But don’t feel bad. Nobody else did or will either.
They do say that the majority of the great writers based their works on the past or the future, neglecting the present, even when revolutions, wars, and catastrophes were occurring. Sure, that wouldn’t be the kind of opportunity that Johnny Caba & The Gusanos would miss.
But these musicians are among the few who’ve realised that an artist’s best bet is to study themselves and the times in which they’re living. Surely, a story will come out of all the effort. Certainly, something that seems of little importance now, but that will feel very meaningful later, will end up being jolted down.
Johnny Cuba & The Gusanos resemble the minority of ’80s rock bands who dedicated their existence to chasing down terrific songs and making those the currency with which they travelled through the world. “OD OD” features sweet vocals and a keys and guitar combo reminiscent of ‘60s pop-rock like Zombies. But it’s a song about a fateful, awful decision and a story that most listeners will immediately be able to understand. Who needs to wait for the future when there’s so much to do right now?
