Short Cuts

In my latest Short Cuts review roundup, I’m catching up on some fun rockin’ albums from artists past and present, including Boston’s The Remains; Staten Island, New York’s Ron Dante (i.e., the voice of The Archies!); Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Michigander; and Dayton, Ohio’s Guided By Voices. These four artists, some of them with 50-plus years of experience, come from various points in America, and they all share a common thread of rocking out with joyous, melodic music-making abandon on these new releases of theirs that were issued in late 2024 and early on here in 2025.

Seriously, folks, the four garage-a-rama-themed LPs I’m reviewing here couldn’t be more different, but there’s some connective glue — they all feature relatively short songs, catchy hooks, and frequently great grooves. Most importantly, they all share the basic joy of making groovy pop, rock & roll. (Links are provided in or after each individual review for you to obtain any or all of these LPs, as you so choose.)

And with that — let’s get down to it!

THE REMAINS
A SESSION WITH THE REMAINS
1LP (Sundazed)
MUSIC: 10
SOUND: 8

A Session With The Remains is technically a reissue of a mid-’90s archival release from Boston’s The Remains, updated with new cover art and improved mastering. Crafted mostly from demos the band made for Capitol in 1965 and 1966, this album is reputedly a more accurate capture of the band’s live stage energy and sound — something that wasn’t in full evidence on their lone album made for Epic in ’66. The late-2024-released A Session With The Remains LP (SRP: $28.99) remains — avoidable pun intended — a great testament to the power of this group captured in glorious mono on analog tape, and lovingly restored for a new generation to rediscover.

But, you might ask, Who are The Remains? Well, if you check the interwebs, you’ll find out that they opened up for a little band some of you might know called The Beatles on their final 1966 U.S. tour! That alone gives this band a near inexhaustible level of street cred in my book. Personally, my appreciation goes a step further because, as it turned out, their bassist, Vern Miller, ended up being my band teacher when I was in junior high. And, frankly, that was where I first learned about The Remains via my friend Carter, who hepped me to our super-cool teacher’s history with that band and his own subsequent Warner Bros. group from the early ’70s, Swallow.

While this was great for us kids to know at the time, in retrospect, it also underscored the tragedy that a band this good got the music-industry short-shrift back in the day — but that was part of what went on then for so many artists of the day. Heck, even The Kinks almost imploded after being effectively blacklisted from U.S. stages for a good portion of the 1960s. And if Tommy hadn’t become a hit in 1969, The Who would very likely have gone bankrupt — they were thisclose, apparently, and very much in debt at the time — but I digress.

Given all that, imagine my joy at seeing a new Remains album showing up in the bins at Amoeba Music. I invite you to play this one really loud — per the hype sticker! — as it’s a great rocking session recorded in living loving monaural sound. Many fab tunes abound here, including raucous, righteously scorching covers of hits of the times such as The McCoys’ “Hang on Sloopy” (Side One, Track 1), Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” (Side One, Track 4), and The Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night” (Side One, Track 2). Their badass cover of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” (Side One, Track 5) might have given The Rolling Stones — and The Beatles, for that matter — a bit of pause. The Remains’ take on Bo Diddley’s “I’m a Man” (Side One, Track 6) sincerely rips, and probably should have been released as a single to challenge The Yardbirds back in the day — heck, it should be released as a single now! — and this was all just on Side One.

Side Two has some blues workouts — not a surprise, as The Remains had a regional hit in 1966 with their cover of Muddy Waters’ “Diddy Wah Diddy,” along with number of originals like “Ain’t That Her.” The A Session With album includes two takes of their Zombies’-worthy original “Why Do I Cry” (Side One, Track 3; and Side Two, Track 5), a song that had apparently been a local chart hit, originally recorded for their above-noted self-titled 1966 debut LP on Epic. Vern Miller’s “All Good Things” (Side Two, Track 7) wraps up the album on a fun, Kinks-inspired note, featuring a solo that Kinks guitarist Dave Davies would probably have approved.

A Session With The Remains is a fine Sundazed reissue — mastered by Bob Irwin and Kip Smith, and pressed by Citizen Vinyl — and the red-vinyl pressing is happily quiet and well-centered. Sundazed gave it a label design reminiscent of a late-’50s Epic promo with the hypnotic stripes around the perimeter. It might have been cooler to have given it a Capitol-styled rainbow-ringed label considering where much of this music was recorded — but that just wasn’t to be, I guess, given the association with the band’s original label.

Regardless, this is a fun album, and if you like The Remains and other ’60s rock with strong British Invasion ties, you can’t really miss with picking up A Session With The Remains. The Music gets a full rockin’ 10 and the Sound is a solid 8, given that it is a raw demo session, with one track taken from an acetate source. Regardless, A Session With The Remains is still pretty gear and fab, and any other British Invasion love-letter words you might shine upon it.

RON DANTE
RON DANTE’S FUNHOUSE
1LP (Sunset Blvd)
MUSIC: 7
SOUND: 7

You probably already know Ron Dante’s voice from his being the lead vocalist of The Archies and their still remarkably popular 1969 smash hit No. 1 single, “Sugar, Sugar.” But Dante also had an incredible career outside, around, and beyond The Archies, having recorded numerous albums and singles under his own name and with other bands such as The Cuff Links (including their own 1969 Top 10 hit, “Tracy”). He also produced one of the biggest singer/songwriters in pop music history: Barry Manilow!

At any rate, Ron Dante’s Funhouse is a limited-edition release of 750 LPs from Sunset Blvd Records, pressed on cotton candy color vinyl (SRP: $31.98). I never got around to ordering it online when it came out late last year, but I finally picked it up when I saw it in the racks at Amoeba Music, in part because I realized it contains previously unreleased Archies tracks as well as a bunch of other rarities. (You can find it via the official Record Store Day site here.)

Most notably, Ron Dante’s Funhouse features a fantastic pop song by The Archies called “This Is Love” (Side One, Track 3), which somehow I missed along the way. No joke — I’d love to hear Bruce Springsteen produce a slightly slower version of this track for Dante as backed by The E Street Band, replacing the spoken-word section with an epic sax solo and adding Phil Spector-styled production aesthetics.

Ron Dante’s Funhouse also includes a fabulous late-period-Beach Boys-like collaboration called “California Nights” (Side One, Track 5) performed with pop singer/songwriter Andy Kim — i.e., the guy who co-wrote “Sugar, Sugar” with Jeff Barry! Side Two is basically a series of mini-sketches pulled from The Archies’ Saturday morning cartoon TV show, featuring a slew of non-LP dance tracks made exclusively for the program including “The Milkshake” (Track 8), “The Jughead” (Track 9), and “The Veronica Walk” (Track 12), among many others. In thrilling, ’60s TV-era mono, these are nonetheless fascinating snippets that Archies fans need to hear, regardless of the fidelity.

Ron Dante’s Funhouse is a fascinating release, and it also has an appropriate cartoon/illustrated cover that looks very Archies-like. This record is just simply a whole lot of fun! Oh, and the pressing on the vinyl is really quite nice — even though it looks more like bubblegum to me than cotton candy (just sayin’). And, if you are like me, you’ll also probably want to seek out the expanded 2CD version (shown above, for context).

Given that a sizable portion of this album is dedicated to TV-sourced snippets and such, that brings down the overall Music rating a bit to a still solid 7. (Don’t get me wrong — I personally love it, but I realize it might not be everyone’s cuppa.) Likewise, the Sound falls right around that 7 level as well, for similar reasons. Regardless, Ron Dante’s Funhouse LP is a whole bunch of sugar sweet you can enjoy in full, and without damaging your teeth.

MICHIGANDER
MICHIGANDER
180g 1LP (Totally Normal/Thirty Tigers)
MUSIC: 8
SOUND: 7

editor Mike Mettler saw Michigander live in concert last year opening for Crowded House up in Ontario, and he was impressed enough to ask me to check out their self-titled February 2025 debut LP on Totally Normal, a subsidiary of Thirty Tigers. The label kindly sent me a copy, and I’ve really been enjoying it.

Driven by primary songwriter Jason Singer (with six other “additional” writers), Michigander’s music is kind of a modern take on 1980s/1990s rock. Delivering all this with a somewhat nasal vocal approach (reminding this writer at times of no less than Joey Levine of ’60s bubblegum-pop legends Ohio Express), there are definitely references to groups like Weezer evident here on Michigander (SRP: $24.99). This is most notable on the undeniably catchy, homage-worthy “Peace of Mind” (Side A, Track 3) and “Letterman” (Side A, Track 5). The fun “Giving Up” (Side A, Track 4) nicks the basic vibe of Billy Joel’s 1980 hit single “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” in terms of groove, bass line, and vocal-patter approach, but somehow holds its own.

Now, I don’t want to imply here that Michigander is all derivative — I just love connecting the dots of musical influence (something I even do with my own songwriting!) — and at the root of Michigander’s self-titled debut is a solid collection of good, modern-pop rockers. I like the moody-synthy ’80s-Springsteenesque opener “Broadcast” (Side A, Track 1) with its “I’m an American dreaming” refrain/hook. The sultry, Clarence Clemons-like sax coming in against the haunting beats threaten to explode the track into a dance-pop tune, but it never expands in that direction. Instead, the song ends and slams into “Emotional” (Side A, Track 2), a sweet little indie rocker replete with synthy bass textures.

My black vinyl copy of this 180g LP was pretty quiet, and even though Side B was a bit off-center, it didn’t seem to impact the music negatively. Musically, I gave Michigander a solid 8, as it is a good debut album. But, given that somewhat off-center vinyl and slightly more digital flavor of the recording, I ranked it fairly at a 7 for Sound, as it does still sound pretty good indeed. I’ll be curious to watch Michigander’s progress as the year unfolds to see how the band’s fanbase grows. If you’re looking for new music that has a vintage 1990s vibe, you might very well dig this one.

GUIDED BY VOICES
UNIVERSE ROOM
1LP (Guided By Voices, Inc.)
MUSIC: 8
SOUND: 7

Universe Room from Guided By Voices (GBV) is their 41st album! And yes, this band seems to release a new album every 6 months — which, for those unfamiliar, is pretty much how it was done for many artists in the early-to-mid-1960s. Like most GBV records, this February 2025 release contains many short songs (17 tunes, at 40 minutes = 1LP!), a wealth of creative ideas thrown against the wall with joyous abandon.

This one is a fine blend of hi-fi mostly studio-crafted recordings — with some home-demo-type moments, in classic GBV fashion — which proceeds in overall feel like a swirling 21st century rock collage akin to The Who’s late-1967 classic LP, The Who Sell Out.

Periodically expansive and progressive at points — there are plenty of stops and starts, and gear-shifting movements here — Universe Room is no less compelling in the context of modern GBV releases, and certainly worth exploring. (And you’ll hear Mellotrons and Farfisa-like organs too!)

Sonics-wise, much of this LP sounds clear and bright without being digitally painful to listen to. There are moments where some semi-lo-fi moments feel a bit murky but, again, these only appear intermittently as little periodic bursts within the song cycle. As with most GBV albums, I have found that its songs are “growers” in nature. Typically, after my initial listens whenever I first get a new GBV album, I put it away for a month before coming back to it with fresh ears.

And, as usually happens, the songs have magically wormed their way into my subconscious, so upon relistening to tracks like the very Who-esque “Hers Purple” (Side Two, Track 1) and the almost Latin-flavored “Fran Cisco” (Side Two, Track 5) — replete with nylon-string Spanish guitar flourishes and Mellotron strings! — they jump out as familiar. Plus, “I Couldn’t See the Light” (Side One, Track 2) has a guitar solo that reminds me of the band’s work with Ric Ocasek (the late, great producer of 1999’s Do the Collapse).

And so it goes with GBV, a group enjoying a remarkable renaissance with their most recent — and arguably most powerful — incarnation featuring longtime guitarist Doug Gillard (from the 2nd era of the band) and indie-rock powerhouse guitar hero in his own right, Bobby Bare Jr. (yes, son of the famous country artist). The modern GBV’s twin-guitar assault is a palpable force!

I give GBV’s Universe Room LP an 8 for the Music and a 7 for the Sound, as both of these ratings categories offer moments of greatness and just ok-ness (if you will) in fairly equal doses. Objectively, I have to recognize that as much as I personally love all that Robert Pollard and his mates in GBV do, the erratic nature of their music and production can be frustrating to some. That said, someday, when Pollard decides to finally bring out the early GBV “hits” collection on vinyl — 2003’s awesomely titled CD-only collection The Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates — and then also create a sequel highlighting the band’s post-reunion re-ascension, that is going to be a treat for many fence-sitting fans who have been both overwhelmed with the band’s output and frustrated by their sonic inconsistencies to spin (and spin again).

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.