Colorfully Endearing Mish-Mosh
The Good Brand Band - Brian Protheroe (Newer Music Friday)
Today’s Newer Music Friday might be one of the first that shows exactly why I used the word “newer” instead of “new” when naming my article categories. Brian Protheroe’s Pick Up is an album that’s been around for a solid number of years, and yet I only stumbled across it this past Tuesday. What a miracle it was that “The Good Brand Band” randomly came on my Spotify queue, because it’s quickly become a favorite in these past few days! (And would you just look at that amazing album cover? I mean, seriously!)
“The Good Brand Band” sparked a lot of comparisons for me when I heard it for the first time. Imagine if the creeping chord progression of “Arrow Through Me” by Wings met the smiley vocal tone “Phenomenal Cat” by the Kinks and then adopted the kazoo-filled craziness of “Seaside Rendezvous” by Queen. Believe it or not, that happy song family only partially represents the colorfully endearing mish-mosh that is “The Good Brand Band”!
A song with this many details has to have good production, otherwise half the genius gets lost. Lucky day for this tune then, because it has some of the most clear production I’ve heard! The track is one that immediately catches your ear AND your imagination. Like I said earlier, “The Good Brand Band” has this creeping chord progression, one that adds just a hint of apprehension to an otherwise bouncy and cheerful tune. It makes me feel like I’m starring in a 70s private eye spoof movie — trench coats and cigarette smoke, flashy cars and pretty women, etc. Furthermore, the chant of “I’m a good brand band fan” gets heavier and heavier throughout the song, sung in such a low register that I like to think it’s the chosen call of the villains coming after me. This villain theory is only supported by the sweet coo of the lead vocal immediately after; “Wanna know just what I mean?”.
All visuals aside, this song is the funfetti cake of musical details, positively FILLED what I like to call “ear candy”. It’s a tune that indulges itself, adding boisterous applause not once, but twice in the little over three minutes that it runs. It has a kazoo break! It has nonsense rhyming lyrics! It has percussion on a bucket, it has vocals that mimic the sound of the bass, it has alarm-clock style piano playing, car noises, crank noises — basically everything you never knew you wanted in a song is present in this one.
In the middle of the tune, after the “I’m a Good Brand Band Fan”, the lyrics ask “Don’t you wanna be one too?” Well, after listening to the song, I gotta say my private eye instincts take over, and I’m a little too apprehensive to be a Good Brand Band fan. But, after hearing this tune, I certainly am a Brian Protheroe fan!
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