In 2018, Huey Lewis lost his tonal hearing, from Meniere’s Disease. Lewis and his band took to the stage in Texas, and it immediately became clear that something wasn’t right. Lewis was singing a full note off from what the band was playing. The show was abruptly halted, and the rest of the tour cancelled.
Thankfully, before Lewis lost his ability to sing, the band was already seven tracks into recording a new record, Weather. Still masters at meat & potatoes rock and roll, the group has never sounded better, or more at ease in its own collective skin.
“Her Love Is Killing Me,” chock-full of Lewis’s bluesy harmonica, Sean Hopper’s B3 and Johnny Colla’s sax, it’s everything that longtime fans could hope for. Other standouts include the Chicago blues number “Hurry Back Baby” and “Pretty Girls Everywhere,” a snappy doo-wop ode. If this is to be Huey Lewis & The News’s swan song, it’s a damn fine one.
If you were a kid growing up in the 60’s or 70’s, chances are you collected Topps baseball cards. Whether you played the actual game or not, nearly every kid had a collection. They weren’t only good for trading, they were even better at making noise between the spokes of your candy-colored Schwinn. Now that’s the sound of summer!
When I was in grade school, my Mom would buy me a pack of cards if I went grocery shopping with her. They were in every checkout aisle, and I couldn’t wait to get my grubby little hands on ‘em after the shopping was finally done.
If I’m remembering correctly, for most of my childhood they hovered around the 15-cent mark. Once in awhile, I would luck out and Mom would buy me three packs, instead of the usual single pack. I can still remember the feel of that waxy wrapper, which smelled like the often rock-hard stick of bubblegum hiding in between Barry Foote and Oscar Gamble.
You’d always get a few cards that you already had, “doubles,” to keep with the stack of cards you’d trade, but every once in awhile, you’d get something special, like a Reggie Jackson or a full-team picture card. Occasionally, they’d do runs of fathers and sons who’d both played in the bigs, pictured on the same card. Those were cool, too, and hard to come by.
Even though I’m nearly 53 now, I’ve still got the bulk of what I collected as a kid, before so many companies like Fleer entered the market, and collecting everything became financially impossible for a kid. I finally bought binders and protective plastic sheets to keep everything safe and organized a few years ago. It was a lot of sorting work, but it was also a lot of fun taking a long look back.
The best part was that after I had sorted everything, I must’ve had 100 cards that were doubles and triples, left over. I went online and asked my friends if any had kids that collected baseball cards. About a half-dozen replied that they did, so I sorted the cards by region, so they might get players that their Dads had told them about. I pictured myself as a kid, and what it would have meant to me to be handed a bunch of Chicago Cubs cards from the 1930’s, when I was a kid in the 70’s.
That thought still makes me smile. Funny how a few little rectangles of cardboard could mean so much, all these years later.
In the interest of transparency, I have to say that I love everything that Jamie Hoover does; solo, with The Spongetones, The Van DeLeki’s, Stepford Knives, etc. I’m such a big fan of this guy’s music that I signed him and released his “Happy Hoover Days” CD on my own Vandalay Records label. I’m already in the bag before hearing a note of this new vinyl single (also available as a download).
Here, he’s teamed with Otis Hughes of Animal Bag, who sings lead on the slightly-spooky “Blue In The face,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on “Beatles For Sale.” Floating on acoustic guitars, it’s got a very similar vibe to “No Reply,” which I absolutely love about it.
Jamie takes the lead on “I Don’t Want Her (Anymore),” which is three minutes of snappy pop perfection. Otis’s harmonies blend excellently with Jamie. Combined with a nifty melody line, if ever a track begged for “Double A-side” status, this is it.
Adding the icing on this delicious pop cake is the always-eye-catching artwork of artist Issa Ibrahim and the beautiful blue vinyl of the platter itself. I tried to take a picture of it on my phone, but a picture just doesn’t do it justice. Buy this record, or download it, TODAY.
