The Bats (US)

One of my all-time favorite bands is the Christchurch, NZ-based group the Bats (link goes to Daddy's Highway on The Doledrums - absolutely essential!), but this summer I discovered another band by the same name led by none other than famed score composer Jon Brion. After a request on last.fm I decided to put this up today. I heard them through an 80s power-pop compilation that also included another very obscure band called The Tweeds with their record-collector theme song "I Need that Record", which I would love to acquire. So, the sound of this Bats record, entitled How Pop Can You Get? is extremely poppy, to many a bit too much. Todd Rundgren is clearly the biggest influence and it sounds well placed in the US 80s "Pop Underground." What's amazing is the band is not from New York, LA, Boston, or even North Carolina but Hartford, CT. It's more straightforward than most of Brion's later work, but is a good set regardless and his voice is unmistakeable, with some of the best tracks being the title track, "Will She Ever Come Around?" and "Not My Girl Anymore". This is vinyl rip I found off of SoulSeek, so it's not the best version (I hear this has been re-released on CD), but it will have to do:


The Bats (US) - How Pop Can You Get?