AM Radio
Good news in the World Cup: my second-favorite team demolished their opponent. Bad news: my favorite team got demolished. The Czech Republic beat the US 3-0, which puts them in good position to make the next round, but means the US is in serious trouble. They now need to beat Ghana and Italy (which may be pretty tough) to qualify, and even if they do, there´s a good chance they´d end up playing Brazil in the octofinals. Oh well.
Today is my last full day in Mexico. I´ve got an overnight bus to Mexico City and then a plane back, so next time I post it´ll be from the States. Today, I want to talk about Kevin Ridel. Rivers Cuomo has called him “my favorite songwriter in the world.” Now, I wouldn’t go nearly so far myself, but that’s still a pretty strong endorsement. The two actually used to be in a band together in the pre-Weezer days. The band was called Truth and it was…ahem…a Christian metal band.
How times have changed. Now Ridel is the frontman for AM Radio, a band which is exactly what it purports to be: a slice of good ol’ fashioned AM power-pop. At times, they veer a little too far into the sort of “anthemic” that took over the airwaves in the late 90s, but on the whole, you can trust these guys to take a riff, keep it simple, and build a great melody out of it.
They made a minor splash in 2003 with their album Radioactive (you know that song “I Just Wanna Be Loved”? Yeah, that’s them), though frankly I think it’s the worst of their work. Overproduced, too much of that “frat-rock” feel. Ridel is much better when he’s just letting loose with the indie-pop.
Accordingly, by far their best song is from their first album, now out-of-print and basically impossible to find:
Final Destination
A great beat, those crunchy guitars, and fantastic singing. Back when three guitarists met a drummer for the very first time, this is what they were hoping for.
For more songs, check out their Myspace page, or go to JasonPenick.com, where you can also download some tracks from Ridel’s old band: Peel. I’ll recommend “Summer Song” in particular.
By the way, that page claims AM Radio is no more, but their website seems to disagree. Anyone know the real answer?