hold me up
Reviews of Hold Me Up. I love the second review here. Give me some of that psychedelic tangerine juiced into a punch spiced with pop rocks!!!
Exclusive Review
After four years, two albums and enough ups-and-downs to destroy many a lesser band, ladies and gentlemen, the Gao Gao Dolls have ARRIVED. This Buffalo (NY) power-trio owes a lot of their spirit to early Replacements: there's the same alcohol-fueled power-punk abandon softened by timeless pop hooks, and the Goos are also legendary for their crazy choices of cover material (this LP features songs written by the Plimsouls and Prince!). While their long-lost first LP was too juvenile and the last was simply too much like the Replacements, this one finds the band delivering on all of its potential: the influences have been absorbed into a distinctive sound that comes across more as Ramones-meet-early-Cheap Trick than anything else. While this album is more suited to "alternative" radio, metal shows should check "Laughing," "There You Are," "Hey" and (for laffs) "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man."
© 1978-1999 College Media, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Exclusive Review
Imagine a psychedelic tangerine juiced into a punch spiked with pop rocks for zest, served with a tantalizing goober grape sandwich, and you'll have an idea what the Goo Goo Dolls were nurtured on. Hold Me Up, the Dolls' third LP, is a rollercoaster of all the joy and pain two guitars, drums and a couple of bothered voices can muster. With all the youthful exhuberance of Lemonheads circa Hate Your Friends/ Creator or Tied To The Tracks-era Soul Asylum, this Buffalo threesome come off as the freshest power-pop we've heard in a couple of years, or at least since 1989's Jed. Just dip into "Laughing," the lead cut-if the sing-along chorus doesn't bowl you over, then watch out for the fiesty power chords and the bouncing bass-line. Other fave candy corns include "Just The Way You Are," "There You Are" and "Hey." And there's a little bit of Buffalo, NY, history in the two cover songs. The tongue-in-cheek cover of Prince's "Never Take The Place Of Your Man" is sung by Buffalo cocktail-bar legend Lance Diamond, and the spirited version of the Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away" (remember that classic power-pop hit from Volley Girl?) was written by head `Soul Peter Case, who's also from Buffalo.
© 1978-1999 College Media, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
