CD of the Day, 10/30/08: Class Three Overbite-Horses for Courses

Mike Elgert and Brad Jendza have done it again. The duo known as Class Three Overbite has followed up their 2007 debut Rendezvous with perhaps an ever better disc this time with Horses for Courses. Lots of bands can capture the sound of the 70s, but few can capture its spirit, and CTO are one of those bands. Equal parts the sound of Queen, T-Rex, Jellyfish and other band who aren't afraid of putting some spunk in their power pop, Class Three Overbite still manages to not bite off more than it can chew.

That becomes apparent right off the bat with "Storm's Comin'", a cornucopia of falsetto vocalls, funky riffs, and guitars that rawk. If this one doesn't grab you, you may already be comatose. "Chasin' The Rabbit" sounds like a secular Rick Altizer fronting Queen, and "Sunshine" is Freddie Mercury gone flower child. "Reptiles" will make the day, if not week or month, of anyone who thinks the power pop world revolves around Jellyfish, and if there's any justice in the world, Paul Thomas Anderson will re-release the movie Boogie Nights with "Porn Addict" included in the soundtrack. "Wait For Me" is another standout with its Brian May guitar sound, "She Can't Make a Decision" is pure rock, and I always thought "Lex Luthor" deserved his own song. Finally, "You'd Better Love" is the perfect kind of overblown (and I mean that in a good way) power ballad to close out an album like this.

Coming back to their most profound influence, I'd say this is the best Queen album not named after a Marx Brothers movie that you'll find, and another year-end top-part-of-the-list contender to a year that started off slowly but is finishing strong.

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CD of the Day, 4/12/07: Class Three Overbite-Rendezvous

If you're old enough, just close your eyes and picture the scene in your head: you're sitting on the floor of a wood-paneled basement with wall-to-wall carpet and you've wearing a pair of headphones listening to the latest rock LP you bought from the local record store for $4.99. The year is 1976. Now open them. You're sitting in front of a computer listening to mp3s and the year is 2007. Either way, it works for Class Three Overbite's Rendezvous, a gem of a disc that will appeal to rockers young and old.

Class Three Overbite is the brainchild of Mike Elgert and Bradley Jendza. Elgert should be familiar to power pop fans and readers of this site; his Days Gone By placed a cool #59 on last year's Absolute Powerpop Top 100. But whereas Days Gone By was more straightforward Jellyfish/Superdrag-inspired power pop, Rendezvous is more in debt to 70s glam and "corporate rock". The opener "Milkshake" sounds like one of Tommy Shaw's Styx tracks; The title track, with almost a danceable disco beat, reminds me of none other than Kiss's "I Was Made For Loving You", their stab at disco-rock. "No Good Rotten" is my favorite track on the album, with a heavy Queen influence - but more the Queen of Brian May than Freddie Mercury, and "Life Is a Piece of Cake" is cut from the same cloth. And "What's So Funny" is probably the album's quintessential track, trading folky verses with a glam-rocking chorus.

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