Draw a Power Pop Family Tree. From Big Star to the dBs. From there to The Shins. And from them onto current day Brooklyn band Cende. The essence is the same, but the way the ingredients are cooked up changes with time. Cende still have that sweet Byrdsy core to what they're doing, but they tend to start ripping stuff up midway through their songs as if they're itching to start a fight at the youth club.
I have to say, it speaks to me. There's an intensity and sheer emotion to virtually every song on their latest release, (this year's mini-album # 1 Hit Single), that speaks of the suburban teenage angst that gave birth to this stuff in the first place. You can't help feeling that Alex Chilton, Jonathan Richman and Shoes would be quick to join in with the applause.
They never put a foot wrong. The record is pretty much perfect given the parameters it lays down for itself. One I've been coming back to again and again over the last few weeks whenever I've felt like being chucked around like a pinball being trapped against the bumpers on repeat. Something the best Power Pop has always done pretty well, from Shake Some Action onwards.
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