When Brian Wilson first heard The Wondermints, he said that if they had been around in 1967 he would have used them to tour his Smile album. Gulp. Wilson, by the way, now uses them as his touring band on his current solo tour. It ain't that difficult to fathom the attraction: on first listening they sound like how The High Llamas (Hawaii era) would have sounded had they been raised in the Californian psychedelic Sixties.
It's all too easy to bookend them with Mercury Rev on one side and The Flaming Lips on the other, and there is something distinctly alt.Americana about their sound, but there's perhaps more of a Stereolab, Beta Band, Mogwai vibe to the Wondermints - something that ensures they'll always have more column inches than record sales.
They're from Los Angeles and took their name, apparently, from a mix of Wonderboy and Mintboy. In a strange, Teenage Fanclub sort of way, their debut album was a covers album called World Of Wondermints (strictly for completists, I think) before the release of the "official" debut last year, the rather majestic Bali.
Reference points don't come too easy, but you're obviously listening to a band who have plenty of Beatles, Beach Boys, Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, Raspberries, Bad Finger and Abba (yes Abba) in their record collection, and on the production side you'd be looking at Phil Spector meets Todd Rundgren in the Goldstar studio circa 1967. Yup, they're that good. On the other side of things (or maybe not) you may also want to consider the fact that they do a few ELO covers when they play live.
Cult favourites on the LA live circuit, they've been turned down by most every major label around but have still kept banging out stuff on their own, or other people's, labels. They got a break of sorts when Mike Myers (a major fan) was doing the Austin Powers film and asked them to write some songs for the soundtrack album - which at least landed them a publishing deal - and allowed them to bring out Bali.
Coming in under the "contemporary Baroque" heading, Bali is a heady mix of strong melodies (full of hooks) played on instruments that vary from a "lunar sea flute" to "palm fronds" to a "two-speed wide-speed" - at least that's what they say on the liner notes.
It's all very layered and lush, full of moulded and sculpted songs, and comes complete with irresistible song titles like In And Around Greg Lake. "I suppose we're trying to tap into a tradition of melodicism and a certain catchiness that isn't limited to a certain era," says Darian Sahanaja from the band. "I don't think it is exclusive to the Beatlesesque period, or post-Beatles pop or early 1970s Raspberries/Badfinger power-pop. I think it transcends a lot of different music.
`Of course, the trick is to somehow incorporate that and make it interesting. And unfortunately, the Top 40 pop today - Whitney Houston, that kind of pop - is not that interesting. Kinda mediocre. There are other hybrids that I think work better, musically and lyrically."
Oddly enough the band are a walking cliche in that they are "big in Japan". They were picked up by an indie label in Tokyo a few years back and have released a number of cassettes (of all things) to growing acclaim - it remains the only country they've played live in, outside of the US. Despite an ever-growing fan base, they remain all but anonymous over here. For now.
Bali is on the Big Deal label.
bboyd@irish-times.ie
