The Big Takeover

I barely remember Quincy, the New York new-wave combo that released one Elvis Costello/Cars-ish album on CBS 25 years ago after being signed by the late Paul Atkinson of The Zombies. And I never heard the white funk group Lulu Temple that followed Quincy. But the Butler brothers, who led those groups, eventually became Smash Palace and released an LP on Epic in 1985... and then nothing more for 14 years, while they wrote for other artists at BMG publishing.

Starting in 1999, they released three more Smash Palace records, and this one, like the others, is classic British-influenced jangle-pop as it's usually played by American bands. File Stephen and Brian Butler under the loose umbrella that covers the Long Ryders, Tom Petty, Windbreakers, dBs, Knack, Bangles, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield ("Steal Her Thunder" takes its hook from "Mr. Soul"), and, most of all, Beau Brummels (the early "Laugh Laugh" and "Just a Little"). Then add guitar leads and harmonies of "Dime Store Lies" from the Quincy catalog, this record is stocked with solid, workmanlike, well-written, lovingly played ringing-guitar pop that never gets old-like, apparently, the Butlers themselves.  

~Jack Rabid, Editor, The Big Takeover