Mystery Date

Attention, power pop geeks! We've got a real treat for you! I say "we" because Greg Mongroll did all the heavy lifting on this project. Mystery Date is his find. He scouted these guys out and brought them to my attention while I was lying in a hammock eating grapes. I immediately fell to the ground in amazement. I compensated Greg with some scrap metal and a Gerry Cheevers rookie card. All that's left for me to do is write the review. That's the easy part. Should sales of Mystery Date's debut 7" skyrocket due to the 47 views this post receives, remember that Greg's birthday is July 24th of every year. He likes records.

On to the music! Mystery Date hails from Minneapolis/St. Paul and does absolutely CLASSIC power pop in the late '70s U.K. mold. Their single, "Dreaming In Black and White", is out on Three Dimensional Records - home to the likes of Boys Club and Real Numbers. With its mix of power pop, mod, and late '70s-ish pop/punk, this release could easily pass for some long lost Power Pearls obscurity. It's that good and that on-point to the period. "Yeah, I remember Mystery Date. They were lovely chaps. Played a few shows with Protex and Excel before breaking up so the singer could go to clown college full-time. Whatever happened to those guys?" The title track has a bittersweet feel and really reels you in with a captivating melody that will invade your brain for hours or even days. B-side cut "Endless Nights" is a little punkier and more heavily '60s inspired. It reminds me quite a bit of the Stiv Bators singles on Bomp! Records. As far as power pop goes, this is absolute A+ stuff. The songwriting is aces, and Mystery Date's brand of power pop has some real balls to it. As the label spiel says, it's neat to hear music like this coming out now when you can get the record for a mere $5. Mystery Date also has a self-titled cassette out, and you can get a little taste at the group's Bandcamp page. But enough of my babble. Go click play, and you can thank me later. Actually, you should just thank Greg. He done good!


-L.R.

http://mysterydate1.bandcamp.com/album/dreaming-in-black-and-white
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mystery-Date/219099284778269