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"Terminal Pop" reviewed by Gregory Nicoll for the Creative Loafing Squeezing an impressive 21 different artists onto a single disc, the new local band compilation CD Terminal Pop offers a lot of music for the money and, fortunately, every number's a winner. Terminal Pop serves up its 20-plus tunes with breathtaking alacrity. Expertly paced, the disc zips along like some superb radio broadcast or club mix, with minimal gaps between each song. 17 Years' "Wrecking Ball" is the smashing opener, striking with enough ballsy punk drive to knock down walls; and Pain's "Antidote" is the immediate follow-up, a crazy rollicking love song with frantic wordplay ("Everybody's got a parasite/I've got you!") over an energetic beat. "Consider Yourself Lucky" finds atomsplit performing their typically fast and furious pop in an uncharacteristically ominous minor key; the Stimulants' "Bad Shoes" follows in the fine footsteps of Concrete Blonde; and on the Darwins' "That College DJ," singer Ted Lee complains with obvious justification about the title character ("He thinks we sound too much like Duran Duran!"). The Little Bobby Taylors' "New and Improved" gives the disc a breather with a quiet, pretty song featuring John Hill's typically terrific Wall of Voodoo- style harmonica accents, after which Nillah's "Something to Write Home About" picks up the pace with a brisk tune that wouldn't seem out of place if credited to the Dead Milkwomen. "We Can Barter Dreams (Radio Edit)" finds Path of Allyson parading their rich, full sound behind Stephen Jordan's dark, haunted vocals; Boxing Josh's "Slush Puppy" punches barking drums throughout a snarling punk love song, and "Cellophane Jane" offers a sweet sample of Crave's smooth Blondie-like song sensibility before Wonderlust's "Glorya" crashes in, loud and proud, with its rough edges sticking out like the tuning pegs on Gibson SG. This CD's goofiest entry is "Visible Man" by Orange Hat, a construction of transparent silliness inspired by an anatomical model kit and which, in the disc's deepest in-joke, is played almost entirely on an organ (insert groan here). However, some Replacements-like jokesters calling themselves the Young Antiques nearly top the Hat trick on "Do You Remember?" winning both the Best Band Name award and the prize for Best Band Name Vis-a-Vis Song Title. Crush's "Car Song" (second place winner in the latter category) is a strange mix of a '50s-type tune with very laid- back '70s-style production, as if, say, the Eagles tried playing Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The Verna Cannon's "Softly Slaying Dragons" is a pretty, acoustic tune; and Astroglyde's "Badge on a Sleeve" offers a nice re-creation of the '80s "skinny tie" sound with particularly good melodic bass. New boots-and-buckskin scenesters Elroy's Big Machine roll out "Down the Line," which offers very lively country twang mounted on a galloping beat; and the Well Drinkers' "Funky Metallic Chic" showcases a singer with a soulful Joe Cocker/Mitch Ryder voice, atop music that could almost pass for early James Brown. Finally, the disc concludes with three numbers featuring female lead vocals. Bliss' "Wake Me Up" (from their forthcoming full-length CD Energy to Please) opens with singer Trayce in extremely pretty voice backed by a delicately fingerpicked electric guitar which abruptly becomes angry and wild in mid-song. Toy's "Hang" is a bright uptempo tune with irresistible choruses of "Hang on to everything" (which I remember quite distinctly from the single live performance I witnessed over four months ago), and Sonia Tetlow's "Beauty" brings Terminal Pop to a slow, quiet and brooding conclusion with the best vocals on the entire disc. This is a compilation that my old boss at WYMX Augusta -- who forbade his deejays from playing back-to-back songs by women singers (and once nearly fired a guy over a Heart/Pat Benatar/Quarterflash indiscretion) -- would have absolutely despised. But, heh heh, if he'd only programmed WYMX as brilliantly as Terminal Pop is sequenced, that station would probably still be on the air. WNNX Atlanta recently named Terminal Pop its "Pick of the Week." Here's to the new generation! Check out the artist's website: http://www.shuteyerecords.com Track List: 1. 17 Years - Wrecking Ball 2. Pain - Antidote 3. Atomsplit - Consider Yourself Lucky 4. The Stimulants - Bad Shoes 5. The Darwins - That College DJ 6. Little Bobby Taylors - New & Improved 7. Nillah - Something to Write Home About 8. Path of Allyson - We Can Barter Dreams 9. Boxing Josh - Slush Puppy 10. Crave - Cellophane Jane 11. Wonderlust - Glorya 12. Orange Hat - Visible Man 13. The Verna Cannon - Softly Slaying Dragons 14. Elroy's Big Machine - Down the Line 15. Young Antiques - Do You Remember? 16. The Well Drinkers - Funky Metallic Chic 17. Crush - Car Song 18. Astroglyde - Badge on a Sleeve 19. Bliss - Wake Me Up 20. Toy - Hang 21. Sonia Tetlow - Beauty Suggested CDs:
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