The Scruffs Can I Feel the Way I Want to Feel Again
| The Scruffs | |
|---|---|
| Scruffs in 2001, Japanese tour Photo: Masao Nakagami | |
| Background data | |
| Origin | Memphis, Tennessee, Tennessee United States |
| Genres | Power pop[1] |
| Years active | 1974–nowadays |
| Labels | Verve |
| Members | Stephen Burns, Adam Colina, Bobby Kildea, Mark Rodgers |
| By members | David Branyan, Zeph Paulson, Rick Branyan, Tommy Hoehn, Nib Mathieu, Neb Godley, Steve O'Rourke, Alex Chilton, Stevie Jackson, Stuart Murdoch, Zachary Ware, Francis MacDonald |
The Scruffs are an American power pop group formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1974 past writer/guitarist/vocalist Stephen Burns along with guitarist David Branyan, bassist Rick Branyan, and drummer Zeph Paulson.[2] Although their line up has changed many times over the years, The Scruffs, centered around Burns, have continued to release records upwardly through the 2010s.[3] [four] [v]
History
Germination and early years (1974–1976)
Formed in 1974 past singer/songwriter and guitarist Stephen Burns, who would cut classes at the University of Memphis to rehearse and record, the grouping spent a 2-year menses in which information technology would write music and rehearse in a warehouse at Shoe Studio and then record at Ardent Studios when it had enough songs.[vi] Rick Branyan left the ring in 1976, and Andy Tanus, Ken Woodley, and Van Duren were brought into the studio to play bass, with Beak Godley ultimately filling the role until Branyan'due south render a year later. Burns' high school friend, Tommy Hoehn, who led the power pop group Prix, was brought in for backing vocals.
During this catamenia, the band recorded many of the songs (most penned by Burns or Burns co-writing with David Branyan) that would later announced on its first anthology. The songs from this period were collected and released more than than twenty years later on the album Angst: The Early Recordings 1974-1976. Big Star producer Jim Dickinson, who was working on Large Star'south Third/Sister Lovers at Agog when The Scruffs began recording there, and who heard The Scruffs' demos in their earliest stages, recalled that people on the local scene expected The Scruffs to take the radio by storm. Dickinson said of these early recordings, "If there's going to be a Scruffs history, that'due south it . . . . It really does represent, if not the stop, so the beginning of the end of something in Memphis music. Later that, nobody even tried to exercise that once again."[6]
Wanna Meet the Scruffs? and initial breakup
In early on 1977, the Scruffs released their start single, "Break the Ice," on Power Play records. The record received local airplay in Memphis. The Scruffs and so returned to Ardent to re-tape a choice of their material and, later in 1977, released the new recordings as their first LP, Wanna Run into the Scruffs?.
Those critics who heard the album were unanimous in their praise.[2] Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau wrote:
But a sucker for rock and gyre could love this record, and I am that sucker. A centre-flow Beatles extrapolation in the manner of Big Star (another out-of-step Memphis power-pop group on a small, out-of-step Memphis label), it bursts with off harmonies, left hooks, and jolts of random free energy. The trouble is, these serve a shamelessly and peradventure permanently post-adolescent vision of life'south pain, nigh of which would appear to involve gurls. To which objection the rockin' formalist in me responds, "I wanna hear 'Revenge' once more."[vii]
The album, nevertheless, received only local airplay and little more. In August 1978, the grouping began recording a follow-up anthology. Afterwards completing half dozen songs, the ring moved to New York Urban center and played at CBGB and Max'southward Kansas Metropolis. In 1979, Rick Branyan moved back to Memphis, and was replaced by Steve Wood.[2] Several months later, Dave Branyan quit mid-performance and was replaced by a local guitarist, Steve O'Rourke.[2] In October 1979, the group recorded the rest of the follow-upwardly anthology at Ardent Studios in Memphis. Returning to New York, the band opened for acts as disparate equally Chuck Drupe, Johnny Thunders, and Peter Noone.[2]
Although they received major characterization involvement, they were unable to secure a record deal for their second album. That anthology, Teenage Gurls, would finally be released about twenty years later. As one critic would write of the anthology, "the band is in peachy form throughout, sounding tighter and fuller than on the debut, and at that place are more than a few first-class songs here, especially 'Alice, Please Don't Go,' 'Danger,' and 'Go Faster.'"[8]
By 1981, having only released the single Shakin' from the album, the grouping disbanded.[2]
1980s
After the group'due south initial break-up, many of the members pursued other careers. Rick Branyan became a Latin teacher at a local private loftier school in Memphis. David Branyan pursued a solo career recording again at Ardent Studios, before attending Columbia and Yale universities.
Burns returned to Memphis from New York in 1982, and connected to record sporadically as The Scruffs with various musicians throughout the rest of the 1980s while finishing his liberal arts caste at the Academy of Memphis and obtaining a second degree in business and accounting.[ix] These recordings were eventually released every bit The Scruffs' 3rd anthology, MidTown. Noting the influence of Memphis's seminal power pop grouping, Robert Christgau wrote of the album, "it's Memphis, information technology'due south the '80s, and darn it, Big Star lives ('Machiavellian Eyes,' 'Judy [She Put the Devil in Me]')."[10]
1990s-2000s
Burns took a hiatus from recording, during which time he worked in his father'due south insurance concern and married and divorced.[9] Burns and then regrouped with a new lineup of musicians and, in 1997, released the album Signs & Symbols under the group name "Messenger 45." The album was re-released with a different runway social club in 2013 as The Scruffs' album Back from the Grave, and is considered the group's fourth studio album chronologically. Writing in AllMusic, critic Marking Deming observed that the album "marked a creative departure for Burns," finding him "writing lusher and more complex music . . . . But Burns' fondness for British-influenced pop hasn't left him, and if [the album] is a very different kettle of fish from the classic Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, it suggests that he still believes a nice melody and a good hook are the keys to the universe -- and who knows, he may well be right."[eleven]
In the late 1990s, Big Star co-founder Alex Chilton convinced Burns to follow him to Glasgow, Scotland,[9] where Big Star and The Scruffs themselves had been proclaimed a major influence past Scottish bands constituting what the press had dubbed "The Bellshill Audio."[2] Burns reformed The Scruffs in Glasgow with local musicians Bobby Kildea, Stevie Jackson and Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian renown, Zachary Ware, guitarist with The Proclaimers, Francis MacDonald of Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits fame, and Wil O'Brien, guitarist for Los Angeles based power pop bands The Andersons!, and Receiver. The group began recording at CaVa Studios in Glasgow. The new material was mixed at Ardent in Memphis. Information technology was released in 2002 every bit The Scruffs' fifth anthology, Dearest, The Scruffs, initially just in Nippon, where The Scruffs enjoyed a loyal post-obit.[two] Two tours in Nippon followed over the next two years.[2]
In 2003, The Scruffs released their 6th anthology, Swingin' Singles. Although now principally living back in the The states, Burns continued to work in, variously, Glasgow and Edinburgh equally well as Memphis. Although The Scruffs primarily toured in Europe and Japan, the grouping played its beginning concert in Memphis in over 20 years in 2006 while working on a new anthology at Ardent.[12]
At the end of 2006, The Scruffs released their seventh album, Pop Manifesto, to many favorable reviews. One critic wrote that "Burns is still writing terrific songs with glorious melodies and superb hooks, which is the real link between this music and his past," calling the anthology "a fine and well-crafted visit to smart pop heaven that proves Stephen Burns isn't running out of interesting ideas."[13] David Bash ranked the album at number 5 on his superlative 125 albums of 2007 listing.[14]
2010s-
In 2009, The Scruffs began recording songs for their eighth studio anthology, first in Glasgow and later in Memphis. Conquest was released in January 2010 to, over again, many favorable reviews. In his AllMusic review, critic William Ruhlman wrote that "Burns retains his talent for catchy melodies and his lyrical fascination with young women . . . while as a record-maker he evokes mid-'60s Embankment Boys and Beatles, along with mid-'70s Electric Light Orchestra."[15]
Encouraged by the response to Conquest, The Scruffs reconvened in Edinburgh in early 2010 to commence rehearsals for another album, recording the fabric at Ardent in November 2010. The Scruffs' main line upwards for these recordings was Burns (guitar, vocals, producer), Adam Hill (guitars, backing vocals, additional bass), Bobby Kildea (bass, backing vocals, percussion) and Marker Rodgers (drums, percussion), with the Vest Brothers (also from Memphis) providing backing vocals and guitar. Peter Cadet of R.Due east.M. as well made a guest appearance on one vocal.
Mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, Kill! Kill!, The Scruffs' 9th studio album, was released in February 2011. One critic described it equally "a McCartney-esque pop tour de force that sounds fresh and surprisingly fierce coming from a band in its 36th year of existence," stating that it showed why Burns "might be the most vital remaining fellow member of the now somewhat legendary Memphis power-pop scene of the 1970s."[16]
Discography
Studio albums
- Wanna Encounter the Scruffs? – (Power Play Records, 1977) HLPP-5050
- TeenAge Gurls – (recorded 1978-1979; Northern Heights Records, 1998) NHM-40214
- MidTown – (recorded 1982-1989; Northern Heights Records, 1998) NHM-40216
- Back from the Grave – (Northern Heights Records, 1997) NHM-40220
- Dearest, The Scruffs – (Nippon Crown Co., Ltd. Records, 2002) CRCL-4568; (Blast Records, 2003) SR1415
- Swingin' Singles – (Nail Records, 2003) SR1413
- Pop Manifesto – (Scruffsville Records, 2006) 5240130
- Conquest – (Scruffsville Records, 2010)
- Kill! Kill! – (Scruffsville Records, 2011) ARD8524
Singles
- Break the Water ice / She Say Yea – (Power Play Records, 1977) PP 1955
- Shakin' / Teenage Girls – (Ability Play Records, 1978) PP 1957
Compilation albums
- Angst: The Early Recordings 1974-1976 – (Northern Heights Records, 1998) NHM-40210
References
Source: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Scruffs
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