The Rubinoos 1970 - 2019

There is a new Rubinoos LP out, From Home 2019. Produced by Chuck Prophet, with new songs by Tommy Dunbar and Prophet, it is chock full of classic Rubinoos delights. The straight-ahead power-pop Rubinoos sound, like the Archies or The 1910 Fruitgum Company, delivered without a trace of irony. Prophet wisely leaves their sound alone, letting all we love about the Rubinoos come shining through. The nostalgia of Do You Remember, the mid-tempo magic of January, the pristine vocals and syncopation of Do I Love You?, and the ancient Greek goddess Phaedra done up all Beach Boys/Raspberries style. Honey From The Honeycombs idolizes the great female drummer. Masochist Davey takes a different look at not-quite-sweet love. The record closes with Watching The Sun Go Down, a lovely ballad that Jon Rubin sings beautifully, and the band adds great harmony. It is another fine outing from this band that has been doing this sweetly perfect pop for fifty years.

Although the band formed as early as 1970, their recorded debut was on the Beserkly Chartbusters compilation in 1975. They performed a cover of Gorilla by the DeFranco Family. Then, in 1977, came their debut, The Rubinoos. A more perfect pop record is hard to imagine. While the cover of I Think We're Alone Now was a modest hit as a single, the record is rife with gems. Leave My Heart Alone, Rock And Roll Is Dead, Nothing A Little Love Won't Cure, Make It Easy, and I Never Thought It Would Happen are all chart-worthy. Catchy melodies, great hook-filled choruses, remarkable harmonies, and the crystal clear pipes of Jon Rubin, along with fine ensemble playing and singing throughout, it would almost be legacy enough. 

If it is hard to imagine a better record than the debut, Back To The Drawing Board 1979 comes mighty close. More great songs from Tommy Dunbar, and more of everything on offer on the debut. Fallin' In Love, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, Drivin' Music, Operator, Arcade Queen, Lightning Love Affair, and 1, 2, 3 Forever maintain the quality, and a tour opening for Elvis Costello should have made them famous. But Beserkley Records was never able to support them as well as a larger label, and let's face it, although this music is charmingly perfect, in the late 1970s, it is decidedly not contemporary. It is an interesting exercise to contemplate what might have been if this music had been released in the mid-sixties. Because it is certainly of that time, but also better than most of the competition even then.

Party Of Two 1983, produced by Todd Rundgren with instrumental support from Utopia, yielded If I Had You Back, the video for which got some MTV air time. It was a decent EP, but didn't capture their sound (or their best songs) as well as the first two. Around the same time they recorded the theme song for The Revenge Of The Nerds movie. And that would have seemed to be the end of the Rubinoos.

They recorded another record in the mid 80s that never got released at the time, but in 1993 and 1994 those recordings were released as The Basement Tapes and Garage Sale. Rather than sound like demos, the material on Basement Tapes just sounded like the next Rubinoos release. The interest in those recordings confirmed that the band still had fans, and successful tours in Japan and Europe led to new recordings in the new century.

Paleophonic 2000 picked up where they had left off, and had a fuller sound, with great production from Kevin Gilbert. Amnesia, Early Winter, Pursuit Of Happiness, and the Raspberries' Beach Boys tribute Cruisin' Music jump with pop thrills and harmonies galore. Perfect Stranger is a glorious ballad, and a surf instrumental version of the Star Trek theme complete the mix.

2003's Crimes Against Music is their covers record. It is a wild mix of songs and styles, and it all comes out Rubinoos. Pop greats by The America Breed (Bend Me, Shape Me), Looking Glass (Brandy), Lou Christie (If Only My Car Could Talk), and the Beach Boys (Heroes And Villains) are mixed with less likely choices like Eurythmics, Todd Rundgren, Elvis Costello, and Yardbirds. It works really well, but it is a covers record, and that means that we miss out on Tommy Dunbar's unique songcraft. The thing that is so consistently fun about Rubinoos is their original songs that sound like you heard them 30 years ago but can't remember where.

Twist Pop Sin 2005 continued their more recent successes. You Hit The Nerve is classic Rubinoos pop, and there's plenty to go around with The Other Side Of The Rain, In The Worst Way, She Won't Let Me, Nobody Said Life Was Fair, and the sweet ballad Someday. Maybe not their strongest effort, but not a disappointment by any measure.

2010 saw Biff-Boff-Boing. A children's record, I haven't heard it. I listened to the samples, and there is no reason not to like their sound as a vehicle to entertain children. Their sound has always been for kids. In 2011, no one expected Automatic Toaster. Released to coincide with a European tour, the record appeared on the scene without fanfare. And it is a pretty darn good Rubinoos record. Great songs keep coming with Two Guitars, Bass And Drums, I Pity The Fool, Mak Schau, Black Is Black (Los Bravos cover), and Past, Present And Future.

They just won't go away. And we are all the better for it. 2015 saw 45. As in 45 rpm of course, but also marking 45 years since the band formed in 1970. And guess what? It is their best effort since the first two, hands down. Donn Spindt is back on drums (missing since Paleophonic), and Dunbar managed to write his best set of songs in a long while. Run Mascara Run, Graveyard Shift, I Love Louie Louie, Countdown To Love, You Are Here, That Thing You Do, All It Takes, She Drives Me Crazy, and This Is Good all rock like crazy, and the ballad What More Could You Ask Of A Friend is as good a sweet ballad as they have ever done.

Who would have thought that the Rubinoos would still be with us in 2020? It is amazing really that they have managed to keep doing their uniquely Rubinoos thing all this time. You can't go wrong with the first two records. Get them on vinyl if you have that capability. None of their records suck. The new one, From Home is excellent, as is 45, and Paleophonic. Do you miss the Raspberries? Tommy James? Simple pop for grown-ups? Rubinoos are the answer to your dilemma.

Elephant's Memory 1972

Elephant's Memory are one of those many strange stories in rock history. A New York City band that featured horns, eclectic songwriting, multiple line-up changes, and several record labels, they are best known for being the backing band on Some Time In New York City by John Lennon, easily arguable as Lennon's worst release, although that isn't due to Elephant's Memory as the backing band. John and Yoko produced this 1971 Apple records outing, which has never been released on CD.

Side one opens with Liberation Special, a fast-driving, hard rocking song with a solid riff, vague lyrics about freedom, and good drive. Baddest Of The Mean follows, and it is a big plodding boogie with Stan Bronstein's gravely baritone delivery that verges on the Wolfman Jack sound, and not in a good way. The Johnny B Goode riff of Cryin' Blacksheep Blues follows, with similarly bad vocals, but a nice sax solo. Chuck 'N' Bo is a hard driving boogie that tells the story of John and Yoko attending a Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly concert.

Side two is a bit more varied. We get a few sung by members other than Bronstein, which helps, but the lyrical content is consistently weak, and they play off their celebrity producers again with the closing Local Plastic Ono Band. The country-ish Wind Ridge, the big loud Power Boogie (with more Wolfman vocals), and the hard rock of Madness and Gypsy Wolf keep things moving.

The band is tight. The lead guitar is generally interesting. The horn solos are highlights when they appear. The recording has a thick sound that could be tightened up a bit, but that doesn't wreck it.

I've said it before- All you really need is a singer, a songwriter, and a solid drummer. I can't say anything bad about the drumming. Songwriting is musically simple but effective, but lyrically banal. And vocals are a big problem for the band. They had other singers in their earlier iterations, but Bronstein just isn't up to the job, vacillating between his gravelly baritone and a high scream, it is a hard voice to see as an effective instrument. Maybe in a metal band, but not here.

Better lyrics and vocals would have made this a better record. But not better enough to make it great. There are millions of lesser artists that managed to put out a few records. Some of them made famous friends, but that doesn't mean they made memorable music.