Home Local Music The Nice Outfit: Power-Pop Legends
Wednesday, January 16,2008
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The Nice Outfit: Power-Pop Legends
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Paul James
Wall sums up The Nice Outfit with a catchy litany of bands: “Buzzcocks,
Bangles, Beatles and Byrds.” Judging by the Milwaukee group’s new EP, Kissing Jocelyn, they
have distilled the essence of the Four Bs—plus a dollop of The
Kinks—into short, punchy, punk rock with gorgeous pop melodies and a
jangly echo.
The four songs crackle with surprising turns and unusual conviction, even though they are constructed from the same classic ’60s rock DNA that has resulted in many mediocre, lesser power-pop bands. It may be that The Nice Outfit’s principal songwriters, Wall and Terry Hackbarth, are just better than the rest. Maybe in addition to a command of music and lyrics, they are ballsier than most contemporary powerpop acts, achieving a taut harmony between swagger and sensitivity.
Although they formed The Nice Outfit in 2002, Wall and Hackbarth still tend to think of it as a side project. They became known locally in the ’90s for Trolley, a band that brought greater cultivation to the influences behind The Nice Outfit and added other sources such as psychedelia and surf instrumentals. Trolley has a finished album in the can but has been relatively dormant since the 2003 release of their best album yet, Last Chance Dance.
The Nice Outfit has taken up the slack. “It’s more off the cuff than Trolley,” Wall says. “We’ll come in with a song and bang it out.” Backed by the rhythm section of Quinn Scharber and Joe Kirschling, Kissing Jocelyn is a sharper, more focused effort than the band’s previous CD. It may be a side project, but The Nice Outfit sounds better than most bands that are trying for the proverbial brass ring.
“We just want to get the music out there,” Hackbarth says. “We have a full-length Nice Outfit CD ready to go. We just got written up by a Serbian power-pop blog and got an e-mail from Greece from someone who wants to buy the new disc.
Making a living isn’t the goal anymore. We’d all be happy if we became powerpop legends in Spain or Serbia. That would be awesome!” The Nice Outfit performs with the Five Mod Four, Plexi 3 and Two Girls at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Friday, Jan. 18.
The four songs crackle with surprising turns and unusual conviction, even though they are constructed from the same classic ’60s rock DNA that has resulted in many mediocre, lesser power-pop bands. It may be that The Nice Outfit’s principal songwriters, Wall and Terry Hackbarth, are just better than the rest. Maybe in addition to a command of music and lyrics, they are ballsier than most contemporary powerpop acts, achieving a taut harmony between swagger and sensitivity.
Although they formed The Nice Outfit in 2002, Wall and Hackbarth still tend to think of it as a side project. They became known locally in the ’90s for Trolley, a band that brought greater cultivation to the influences behind The Nice Outfit and added other sources such as psychedelia and surf instrumentals. Trolley has a finished album in the can but has been relatively dormant since the 2003 release of their best album yet, Last Chance Dance.
The Nice Outfit has taken up the slack. “It’s more off the cuff than Trolley,” Wall says. “We’ll come in with a song and bang it out.” Backed by the rhythm section of Quinn Scharber and Joe Kirschling, Kissing Jocelyn is a sharper, more focused effort than the band’s previous CD. It may be a side project, but The Nice Outfit sounds better than most bands that are trying for the proverbial brass ring.
“We just want to get the music out there,” Hackbarth says. “We have a full-length Nice Outfit CD ready to go. We just got written up by a Serbian power-pop blog and got an e-mail from Greece from someone who wants to buy the new disc.
Making a living isn’t the goal anymore. We’d all be happy if we became powerpop legends in Spain or Serbia. That would be awesome!” The Nice Outfit performs with the Five Mod Four, Plexi 3 and Two Girls at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Friday, Jan. 18.
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