Bye Bye Blackbirds and The Toms

Bye Bye Blackbirds “Fixed Hearts”
Rainbow Quartz recent pick up is this Oakland band we reviewed way back, and they sound better than ever. “Elizabeth Park” sounds like Tom Petty playing with The Spongetones, it’s a snappy jangle filled melody that impresses.  The followup. “Open A Light” continues the warm feeling, with some sweet guitar chord shifts on this mid-tempo gem. The country beat makes “Jack Frost” a bit like Gary Louris (Jayhawks) with a Beatlesque twist – its my favorite track here. Another good song is “Every Night At Noon” with a Nilsson-like break between the chorus. Almost every song is decent here, but some just are flat out great like “Through The Clouds” with its harmonies and California rhythms. Overall a highly enjoyable album, listen to it streaming over at the band’s website.

The Toms “s/t”
This release was previously a true rarity and lost classic that commanded sky high prices on ebay. The album was lost in 1979, and faded away to the cut-out bins in New Jersey record stores. Rediscovered by the power pop crowd later on it got instant fame and acclaim as a cult musical nugget. In an effort to get his old music out, Tom Marolda (aka The Toms) released this album as a download on CD Baby, but if you prefer a hard copy Amazon has a few. For those who don’t know, Marolda made this album in DIY fashion (recording in the basement) using old reel-to-reel equipment. The songs are fun, infectious and some sound like old lost Beatle tunes (“The Door“) for the 70’s New Wave crowd. Not Lame carried this CD for a few years and it would sell out pretty fast, so if you never got it – here it is.