The Cavedogs - Joyrides for Shut-ins (1990, Enigma)

To make the great American pop album, you have to be the great American pop band. Boston's Cavedogs were just that, and outside of a few thousand true believers, their tale was an all too familiar one of misguided record label priorities and sheer mainstream ignorance. But as for the music itself, it couldn't have been better. A little over two years ago, I shared a Cavedogs 2001 "fanclub" release of sorts called Fall Back In It, a hodgepodge of unreleased rarities, demos and live cuts, delivered in the guise of a faux radio program, rife with goofy and animated dialogues. While Fall Back In It was the dessert, I had yet to serve up the main course, which I'm attending to at this very moment.

After a locally released single and a clutch of tapes sent to various Beantown radio outlets, the Cavedogs signed to Enigma Records (and soon after Capital), and in 1990 got down to brass tacks with renown producer Ed Stasium to conceive the aforementioned "great American pop album," Joyrides for Shut-ins. Almost entirely on par with their recently elevated left-of-the-dial peers Matthew Sweet, The Posies, and the Smithereens (and kinda sounding like a prodigiously brilliant amalgamation of all three) The Cavedogs Rickenbacker-laced power pop was deftly executed and eminently catchy. There was a video for "Tayter Country," and "Baba Ghanooj" was a local radio favorite, but at large, Joyrides.., and moreover the band itself, weren't afforded adequate exposure to achieve the breakout success they sincerely deserved. The public's loss and our gain I suppose, but a hell of a band to fall by the wayside. The follow-up to Joyrides... was the equally winsome 1992 Capital Records release, Soul Martini. Cavedogs bassist/mouthpiece Brian Stevens would cut a solo album in 1996, Prettier Than You.

01. Tayter Country
02. Leave Me Alone
03. Bed of Nails
04. Proud Land
05. What in the World?
06. Right on the Nail
07. Step Down
08. Baba Ghanooj
09. Calm Him Down
10. Taking Up Space
11. La La La
12. In Tayter Valley (unlisted track)

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