Song Of The Day 11/5/2013: The Grays - "Oh Well Maybe"

I'm a little frustrated -- well, not frustrated, in the sense that there was anything I could have done about it at the time and just didn't -- but maybe, I don't know... disappointed that the power pop bands I loved in the early '90s, those of the Beatlesque sensibilities and the unexpected-but-logical chord changes, never met with as much popular acclaim as I felt they deserved. It's not terribly surprising, in retrospect, because even though "power pop" was supposed to combine the two things the American music audience loved more than anything else -- powerful stuff that was popular -- the fact is, power pop was never popular in America after the Beatles broke up. If it had been, Big Star's #1 Record would have actually been a #1 record. You would have followed The Posies to the ends of the earth if I had my way. You would have thrown your undergarments at Cheap Trick before Budokan. I don't know what part of "crashing guitars with melodies you can sing to" the tackle-and-bait shops and truck stops didn't understand, but for me it was kind of a no-brainer. I guess it's hard to invade the pool halls with a Teenage Fanclub album. I just thought everybody else was going to the wrong pool halls. Such is the elevated sense of empowerment power pop can give you, especially if you've just finished swilling a 6-pack of ice-filtered beer and your shift at the community radio station is about to start. That would seem an ideal opportunity to separate fantasy from reality. Missed that boat, I guess.

ANYWAY, these are the Grays. They had one album. They included my favorite L.A. singer-songwriter of the '90s, one Jason Falkner, and Jon Brion, who went on to produce a lot of material that found general favor with wider segments of the population. This song features Jason. I'll be over at the corner table with my bubblegum-flavored latté and my seething discontent. Call me back in 2001.