Meteor, released today

Late in the final years of the last millenium, I worked on a radio program that had a feature - "The Coolest Song in the World This Week." The two bands I'm talking about today each were multiple designees of that title.... and these two bands were based in Tennessee. That program I worked on centered around music of the garage genre... but it was really just rock n roll... rock n roll influenced by the Beatles and also influenced by the Beatles of my generation, The Ramones.. or at least, that was the presumption when we tried to define what our fearless leader identified as garage rock.

Its been 10 years since that germ of an idea presented itself, and a good five years since I scoured the world for talented garage bands... and these two bands from Tennessee that I championed and became friendly with through that job are releasing records this month after a long absence from the record store racks.

That absence from the retail world was not due to lack of talent or trying... sometimes things just happen that way.

Love and Curses released on August 11

Those five years I hope allow the fans, media and world some critical distance so that these two Tennessee bands can be evaluated on merit rather than a celebrity endorsement and the labeling of them as the then-trendy garage bands... because they kind of aren't.

It can be argued that the Reigning Sound are the epitome of a garage band for many reasons, one being that its founder, Greg Cartwright is the very same garage rock legend who just toured Europe with one of his bands, the Oblivians and another garage rock legend (Detroit's Gories, who kickstarted the whole neo-garage thing of the 90s) on an unprecedented reunion tour. Perhaps Greg Oblivian/Cartwright is the most garage on this page, but the Reigning Sound's first album might easily fit into the Americana section of your speciality record store too... that and Home for Orphans with its many alt takes versions of songs from the return to garage/punk roots Too Much Guitar that found Cartwright taking his Oblivian self out for a spin on the dance floor on many tracks. But "garage" is too limiting for Mr. Cartwright, whose singing and songwriting capabilities demonstrate a facility in the punk, r&b, country, soul and vocal group genres.

The latest from the Reigning Sound, released next Tuesday - Love and Curses finds Greg Cartwright's tough but tender tobacco-stained tenor once again singing generation-defining anthems, love songs for the postmodern romantic pragmatist and lo-fi dance party grooves. The man knows his way around a classic chord progression and song structure that hearkens evergreen favorites ranging from Sam Cooke to the Gentrys and (lately) Neil Young. Have a listen on their myspace music player - you'll get it and shake it, too!

If the Reigning Sound, whose Greg Cartwright hails from Memphis, on Tennessee's most Western shores, represent the gritty side of pretty songs and the lo-fi garage side of pop music, then The Shazam founded and fronted by Hans Rotenberry who grew up near the birthplace of country music, on Tennessee's most Eastern mountain range, represents the high gloss sonic of 1970s classic pop and arena rock, performing pretty, shiny gems that are still as hard as the diamonds that they are.

Today, The Shazam release Meteor. Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by the man who produced some of the very bands that influenced The Shazam's sound (ELO, Queen to name-drop but two) - MACK. If you closed your eyes while watching The Shazam, you might feel that it was 1977 and you were at a concert where Cheap Trick, The Who and ELO were on the same bill playing Beatles songs along with their own... and Led Zeppelin showed up to do the encore.

You may be getting ready to comment: how can you compare this kind of rock to a garage rock band? Well... I always wondered myself during my years in the garage when our head grease monkey identified The Shazam as the "best thing ... in 20 f**king years." Well, they ARE THAT. Magnificent vocals, infectious power pop song structures, a great sense of humor in the songwriting and fairly sophisticated production for an independent band. The key element is The Beatles.

When you think about it, The Ramones are the Kings of NYC punk rock - yet they're the Beatles of punk rock! They're a pop band. Phil Spector even produced them. So The Shazam are the Beatles of the peer group into which they were thrown - not by their own choosing, but by someone who took the initiative to make garage rock safe for satellite radio.

Be that as it may - The Shazam are so awesome. How one band can go from Badfinger to Led Zeppelin in one album and have that work feel and sound cohesive is nothing less than genius.

Aside from hailing from opposite ends of Tennessee and representing the gritty and pretty side of pop music, The Reigning Sound and The Shazam are quite simply two of my favorite bands on record and live. Each band features an accomplished songwriter gifted with a supernatural vocal talent, journeyman guitar skills and a band that follows his every note like a well-oiled machine.

How dare I compare the two? Simple: they are cake and pie! What's not to like? The song playing is from Meteor - Time For Pie... now that's power pop!!

Greg Cartwright

Hans Rotenberry