One of my favorite things about being a music fan is constantly discovering new bands and also new-to-me bands. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the first and only album by mid-2000s Los Angeles rock band Throttle Back Sparky has received a (very) limited vinyl release. I'm wondering where the heck I was when this album came out. Thirtysomething me would have flipped out over this thing! It's a remarkable album, and the story behind it is perhaps even more remarkable. How did a bunch of actors from a theater company, all with completely unlike musical tastes, become sensations of the LA power pop scene and release one of the best albums you never heard? Robbie Rist, who played drums on the album and produced most of the tracks, famously described Throttle Back Sparky as "seven people, each with different records in their record collections, vibrating at different frequencies, held together by rubber bands." How could you read a quote like that and
not be intrigued?
Throttle Back, Sparky, which was self-released on compact disc in 2005, is now available as a vinyl record that comes with a 32-page history of the band penned by lead singer Allen Lulu, who many of you know as an actor, music writer, and passionate rock historian. And what can I say about the album itself? In an entirely good way, it's unlike any record I've ever heard. It broadly falls under the umbrella of power pop, but any attempt to neatly place it into any defined genre of music would fail woefully. It's over-the-top theatrical yet also spectacularly hook-laden and audaciously rocking. Imagine if Meat Loaf had tried to make a hair metal record but only listened to the bands that secretly wanted to be The Raspberries or Cheap Trick, and he'd hired musicians who were into everything from punk to jazz, yet somehow it all worked through some kind of happy cosmic accident. If "Another Hoop" sounds like it could be the opening number from a rock opera, at least it's one you'd totally want to see. "Devil Got Shot" pushes itself oh-so-close to the line where a little campy might devolve into parody, but it never crosses it (largely because its hooks are undeniable, and it genuinely & convincingly rocks). "Beatrice" is the closest the album comes to power pop by the book, and it's glorious. Whatever your definition of an "epic" rock song is, "Trusted" will stretch it. Covers of The Sweet's "Hellraiser" and Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" (which have been excluded from the Bandcamp digital version) present a fuller picture of what Throttle Back Sparky was all about, both musically and spiritually.
If you're going to go to the trouble of releasing a largely unsung album on vinyl twenty years after its original release, above all else you have to believe in its staying power. Certainly the cult of power pop is better organized now than it was two decades ago — if not considerably larger. So there's clearly an audience for Throttle Back, Sparky beyond longtime fans who will be excited to upgrade to vinyl. More importantly, this is an album that has clearly stood the test of time. This is not a case of "You had to be there." At a time when literally thousands of new releases get launched into the ether every single day, this album is something that stands out, something highly worthy of being heard and discovered by a whole new generation of fans. With only 100 total copies of the vinyl available, there is certainly some urgency required if you want in on the action. But I also think this album will be thoroughly enjoyed by a whole lots of folks who prefer to listen to their music digitally. If you love power pop but not necessarily the "same old, same old" type stuff, Throttle Back, Sparky ought to bring a jolt of sonic excitement into your new year.
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