March 09, 2002

All Girl Summer Fun Band "All Girl Summer Fun Band"

This is a very typical K Records record. Now, let's not think for one minute that being "typical" is bad. I mean, if you were to hear a Beatles song, you'd know it was the Beatles. Though, for the purpose of All Girl Summer Fun Band, I guess I should say the Beach Boys, as they indeed have a great deal more in common with Brian Wilson and Mike Love's early vision of fun-in-the-sun, let's have a party and flirt with the opposite sex.

Of course, with a K Band such as this, the band really doesn't stray too terribly much from the label's historically traditional girl-rock formula. While the press release mentions the Shirelles and the Waitresses, I'm really hearing the sounds of such wonderful bands as Heavenly, Go Sailor, Tiger Trap, and the Softies. Did I mention the Softies? It's funny that I did, as this is the project of Jen Sbragia, AKA the non-Rose Melberg Softie. In fact, on first listen, I scanned the credits to make sure that I wasn't actually hearing her in places.

Let's set the record straight. Okay, this isn't serious music. It's FUN music, and I think that, every so often, the world needs to take off their stuffy, art-rock and indie-rock records and just have a moment of pure musical enjoyment. And oh! what fun the All Girl Summer Fun Band is! Their charm is found in their quasi-amateurism and their ability to make up for their shortcomings with fun melodies. With songs about boys, phone calls, cars, scooters, berets, and all things girly-girl, I'm tempted to dub this as Cutie Pie Rock...and as they have a song entitled "Cutie Pie," I'm sure they'd be more than willing to agree with that sentiment. Light-hearted, terribly innocent, sweet to the core, All Girl Summer Fun Band may not be the most innovative band around, but I really don't think they care--they're having way too much fun.

--Joseph Kyle

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