Ellie Pop - Ellie Pop 1968

Ellie Pop's sole 1968 LP has always been a bit of an enigma. Hailing from Roseville, Michigan, the band enjoyed some regional success, even playing Detroit's Grande Ballroom on a bill with Blood, Sweat & Tears and Iggy Pop. Made up of high school friends, the group's main lineup featured Bill Long on lead guitar, George Kouri (listed as George Dunn) on vocals and keyboards, Doug Kouri (as Doug Koun) on bass, and Len Gervasi (bass, vocals). Not listed but also members of the band at various times were Wayne Kolar on drums, Rick Chaff on keyboards and vocals, and Julian Evola on drums. Together, they played a hooky brand of guitar-centric melodic pop heavily indebted to the British Invasion style of the Beatles and the Kinks. While essentially a Detroit band, they somehow managed to grab the attention of New York record executive Bob Shad's Mainstream Records. Founded in 1964, Mainstream was home to a bevy of jazz artists, but also other rock and soul acts, including Big Brother and the Holding Company and fellow Midwesterners the Amboy Dukes. Ellie Pop were a perfect fit for the label's burgeoning roster of evocatively named psych-pop bands like the Bohemian Vendetta, the Jelly Bean Bandits, and the Tangerine Zoo. Although released in 1968, one gets the feeling that Ellie Pop might have been recorded a few years earlier (between the release of the Beatles' Help! and Revolver), just before acid and other psychedelic drugs really took over the scene. Songs like the opening "Seven North Frederick," "Winner Loser," and "Can't Be Love" showcase the band's knack for pairing warm group harmonies with an undercurrent of crackling Fender guitar and tube-amp soul swagger. You wouldn't really call this bubblegum pop, but cuts like "Whatcha Gonna Do" have a buoyant, AM radio charm. There's even a hint of fuzz-tone Indian classical music in the guitar solo at the start of "Caught in the Rain." Particularly compelling is "Remembering (Sunnybrook)," a jazzy, sun-dappled song about growing old and looking back on one's youth that displays some remarkably sophisticated time-signature and feel changes. Sadly, as with many of their Mainstream Records peers, Ellie Pop only stayed together for a short time after the release of their album. AMG.

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