Track This: Ultimate Fake Book's "Real Drums"

This is the first part of a summer series of Track This entries that will focus on lesser-known power pop songs.

I first discovered Ultimate Fakebook in the cheap bin at one of my favorite record stores, Radio Kaos, and I am not exactly sure why I picked it up. Looking at the album cover for their major label debut, the repackaged This Will Be Laughing Week, now, I do not see how it attracted me. I'm assuming that I had heard the name in reference to shows they played with The Get Up Kids or other Kansas area emo bands that I was heavily into at the time.

However, when I played the CD, I realized that Ultimate Fakebook was not an emo band but a power pop band that loved hooks. When I played them for friends, I always compared them favorably to Weezer's early albums. Recently, I listened to an interview with them on the 90s music podcast, Dig Me Out, and they explained that now they tell people they sounded like Weezer. Apparently, at the time they were more interested in just making good pop music and never thought about that connection. They also discuss how they loved classic guitar rock like Cheap Trick and metal bands from the 80s. At the time, I did not catch the latter influences, but Cheap Trick was certainly evident. I love power pop, so the album quickly became a favorite, and sometimes I find myself humming these hooky songs even when I have not listened to them in awhile. I still need to track down the original independent version of This Will Be Laughing Week to hear different versions of several songs that the label wanted them to re-record.

To me, the standout track has always been "Real Drums," one of several songs that focus on rocking. "Brokyn Needle" is about jamming after school in an impossibly glammy band that will rule the world and asks directly "are you ready to rock?", while "Real Drums" is a paean to rock bands that still use real instruments in an increasingly digital age. The track starts with Bill McShane's ghostly vocals and an ethereal acoustic vibe before kicking in after the three minute track is 2/3rds over with the real drums of the song's title. Then the band proceeds to rock out. The track shows the variability of the power pop form and the inventiveness of the band. Like many of us in the late 90s and early 2000s, they missed the days that rock music was central to the album experience, and by starting with a vibe that counters, yet mimics, music of the period before mimicking the musical heroics of their heroes, they provide a (dare I say it) postmodern take on power pop.

The rest of the album plays with the form with similar results; many propulsive and sugary tracks replete with hummable melodies and catchy 80s guitar hooks are power pop bliss. The rhythm section, Nick Colby on Bass and Eric Melin on drums, provide muscular backup for Bill McShane's guitar lines and expressive voice. McShane easily slips between falsetto and mellow balladeer, singing lyrics that generally cover relationships ("Of Course We Will") and youthful exuberance ("Brokyn Needle").Ultimate Fakebook takes listeners back to a time when pop music was fun, inventive, and musicians were not afraid of taking chances.

Listen to the "Real Drums":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKaEjocwD_Q

Listen to the Dig Me Out interview: http://www.digmeoutpodcast.com/episode/384-this-will-be-laughing-week-by-ultimate-fakebook

Get the album:  https://www.amazon.com/This-Will-Be-Laughing-Week/dp/B00004VW9S

Track This is a recurring feature of Snobbin' that turns the music appreciation dial up and rips it off of your stereo. It attempts to introduce a new track, allow readers to rediscover an underappreciated track, or just serve as a forum to flat out discuss a track that falls into the ear candy category and should be listened to unabashedly for years to come.