Sunshine Pop in the same vein as "Up, Up and Away" by The 5th Dimension of "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things" by The Cowsills...but Bubbles has a smidgen of funk in the drums and bassline. This track was also covered recently on the 'Powerpuff Girls' soundtrack.
from Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love (Project 3) available on CD - Bubbles (Siesta)
18 May 02 ·Sem Sinatra: This is the undoubted King of Sunshine Pop ... how can you possibly top the follwing: "My tummy has a little pain, when does Jesus come again?" 31 Jul 04 ·charlesives: Notice the wacked out time signature in the hook. They shave a 16th note off the hook making it a little Mahavishnu-esque. A couple of years before Mahavishnu of course.
Well, i guess musicaltaste is a rather safe place to recommend some Free Design without getting laughed at. It always strikes me they haven't been more popular back in the late sixties. "Kites Are Fun" is one of their more popular and one of their best tracks for sure. Uber-jolly, playfull, catchy with superb vocal harmonies, gentle guitar, flute, bass and drums and some keyboards.
10 Jun 05 ·nighteye: This is great song! Sunshine pop at its best, how can you not feel happy listening to this song? I like kites! 10 Jun 05 ·Festy: I really dig "My Brother Woody" from the same album. Whoever the drummer is, he really cooks on this track. 11 Jun 05 ·konsu: The drummer's name is Bill LaVorgna. He has an unmistakable touch on the drums. He's also on some of Pat Williams Verve LP's.
11 Jul 04 ·djfreshmoney: How about filling in the rest of the info, including the reasons you're recommending the song! Tell me why you think this group and the song are good! Without that, your recommendation isn't really worth anything. 12 Jul 04 ·eftimihn: Hmmm, there have been lots of new users lately that sign in and recommend some dozen songs without any information except title and song. Seems pretty pointless to me, i mean evryone could recommend 100 songs in an a couple of minutes that way. Apart from that, amazing song for sure... 12 Jul 04 ·delicado: I think the key is to assume no knowledge on the part of the reader when describing the track. A lot of us are so into our favorite music that perhaps for a moment we imagine everyone else is as well. But the fact is that with no explanation, a recommendation probably means nothing to most people. I love this song as well, although a fellow DJ once laughed at me for playing it in a bar! 23 Jul 04 ·konsu: My two cents may contribute to an already long thread but, I have to add as a writer on this site it takes guts to reccomend a Free Design song that doesn't sound like Stereolab. And I should mention the same for any DJ that plays them out. Let em' laugh
Delicado!
Despite '2002 - A Hit Song's insistent chorus of "it's gonna be a hit, hit, hit!", by the end you're not convinced, "it's not gonna be a hit is it Free Designers?" "No� I'm afraid not Rum. To be honest it hasn't a hope in hell. Oh yeah we're bitter, of course we are, but, you know, when you're in the idiom of soft rock you can't get away with angst, you've got to maintain this 'pleasing' fa�ade, so that's why we sound so jolly, so 'up' on this song. But yeah, it's hard..." Yes, they may, as they sing, have "sealed it with a kiss" but the cracks show. And it's that that makes this song particularly memorable. It's fascinating to see the rips in their Peter Pan wonderland, a place where they usually spend their time flying kites, blowing bubbles, befriending dolphins. And so this palpable excitement you hear in their heady harmonies is not fuelled by a surefire optimism of success but by an almost delirious desperation, "hit, hit, hit, sure to be a hit, hit, hit, gonna make a hit, hit, hit" they sing, panting, shaking nervously, craving that big fix. The track is a flip-side to the Byrds' 'So You Wanna Be A Rock'N'Roll Star'. Both are bitter recipes for pop success but whereas the Byrds are pissed off that any talentless buffoon can follow their recipe to success get a hit, the Free Design are pissed that "We did all this last time, and it did not work!". I guess you have to suffer for your art, and maybe the Free Design were having too happy a time. Or maybe their hair didn't swing right or their pants weren't tight.
10 Feb 05 ·olli: heh..brilliant commentary. 11 Feb 05 ·konsu: Wow. I never thought of that song as such an exploded schematic. But it does shed light on their own self awareness even if unintentional at the time.
