In the mid-90s I was paying more attention to music than ever, yet there were some artists I just plain missed the memo about.
Three Hour Tour was among them, and much to my detriment. I was aware of their existence via the proliferation of Parasol Records catalogs and mailings at the time, but it wasn't until recent decades that I really took the plunge, and this 45 was an ideal spot to dive in. As it turned out, 3HT were a marvelous power pop proposition from the fertile plains of Champaign, IL, brandishing a classist bent a la The Posies and Matthew Sweet. The A-side, "'Til the Next Time' is a deftly honed slice of three-and-a-half-minute hook manna from the skies that doesn't so much as waste a nanosecond, and its two flip sides are just about as arresting. I discovered that lead Hour
Darren Cooper's lineage reached back a decade earlier through his collaboration with
Ric Menck and
Paul Chastain in the embarrassment of jangle pop riches that was
Choo Choo Train. In fact, Chastain joins in on some of the magic here via a co-songwriting credit with Cooper on the bittersweet "Prancing Horse Farms." All three songs here would appear on the subsequent 3HT album,
1969 a few years later, though I can't vouch for them being the same versions.
A. 'Til the Next Time
B1. King of the Mountain
B2. Prancing Horse Farms
3 comments:
Great Post! Apparently they are working on a new album, Junk Mail.
Agreed - GREAT post for dudes and dudettes that were hungry, desperate and clamoring for anything with a 'power pop' vibe or written word attached to it. I was in the same place mail ordering everything during this time(well, actually, since the mid-70s BUUTTT....).
This single hit me pretty hard...but in retrospect it DID because it led to discovering Choo Choo Train and other artists of similar ilk in '92/'93...and was very much a big inspiration for me to lean into starting up Not Lame Recordings in late '94....it's very, very cool to think about that now...so THANKS for triggering the good memories here....
What Bruce said above...... :)
Post a Comment