Vista Blue - These Songs/Stay Home

So even with me having posted a review every single day for the past month, I still haven't kept pace with the ever-prolific Vista Blue! To catch up, I will discuss two of the band's new releases today! And while you might conclude that I merely enjoy the challenge of fully documenting Vista Blue's exponentially expanding catalog, the truth is that I simply love this band. This is my favorite pop-punk group and one of my two or three current favorite bands, period. On no occasion have I played a new release from VB and not been filled filled with total joy. Every single time, there's a song or a lyric that makes me smile, laugh, tear up a little, or just feel generally good about being alive. I can't think of another pop-punk band that achieves VB's blend of humor, sweetness, creativity, and wonderfully geeky affection for pop culture past and present. Mike understands as I do that the best pop-punk is just a variation on what Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys were already doing decades ago. Throw in the wit of the Mr. T. Experience, the family-friendly frenzy of the Kung Fu Monkeys, and faithful adherence to the gospel according to the Ramones, and you've got yourself the best pop-punk band going.

New EP These Songs is vintage Vista Blue goodness. I don't know if "Emmaline Is Quarantined" is the first COVID-19 love song, but it ought to be the standard for all the others that follow. It's sweet yet sad - describing this perfect girl who is now out of reach due to social distancing requirements. I've been thinking a lot lately about people who currently can't be with the ones they love and others who can't go out finding someone to love. This has got to be a shitty time to be single, and this song illuminates the struggle. The Fountains of Wayne reference makes it all the more poignant. "Come On, Come On" combines a Dr. Frank-ish charm with a chorus worthy of a kids' show sing-along. I like how you can read multiple meanings into this one. Maybe it's a song about a guy telling a girl he wants to play her the song he's written for her. Or maybe it's Mike humbly introducing a song he's written for all of us. In the lyrics, he manages to write the best-ever review of Vista Blue: "One thing you can say about me/I have a kinda catchy melody/I have a three-part harmony/Might even try a fourth chord". Man, I need to steal that for a future review (Spoiler alert, he does try that fourth chord!). To finish, "These Songs" is sweet and sincere and cut from the same cloth as the band's wonderful "Big Stars". In my overactive imagination, "Come On, Come On" sounds like it could be an introduction to "These Songs".

Also new from Vista Blue is Stay Home - an EP featuring acoustic versions of three songs that Mike did not originally sing on. You may be familiar with The Loblaws' classic "Tossing and Turning" - which was track one on the band's Mutant Pop 7". Those lyrics still make me laugh every time. "Johnny's Gonna Strike Out" is a song off of Vista Blue's second EP that featured Mike's wife Donna on lead vocals. "My Dad Taught Me How To Rock and Roll" is a tune that Mike's brother Todd wrote for their dad one year as a Father's Day gift. I'm quite moved by this one because it reminds me that so many of us inherited our love of music from parents. Although I must say that Mike and Todd's much dad was way cooler than mine if he was into '80s metal. My dad got me into Jim Croce, which I guess isn't so bad either. I can neither confirm nor deny that this of those Vista Blue songs that made me tear up a little.

Well I ought to sign off before I write a book about rock and roll. If you're in the Vista Blue super fan club with me, you will get a real kick out of Stay Home. And if you like pop-punk even a little, These Songs is gonna be your new favorite record. If there's more in store from these guys in the coming weeks, I just might emerge from this pandemic with my good spirits in tact.



-L.R.

https://wearevistablue.bandcamp.com/album/these-songs
https://radiantradish.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wearevistablue/