Teacher’s Pet

(Smog Veil)
by Craig Regala

Holy fucking power pop nirvana! Classic, mid/late-70s amped up guitar rock and roll with the churnin’, yernin’, burnin’, winsome gal crazy focus firmly grasped in hand. It seems a shame I’m not listening to this stuff on a double A side 45, but alas, the Smog Veil folks have graced us with over 40 minutes of the good stuff on CD. Yeah, a buncha stuff’s live, and it adds to the charged nature of the tunes. From memory, I quote Pete Townsend (dude pretty much coined the “power pop” term) that “The Who were interested in writing colorful powerful pop records at 3:50″ a throw.” OK, so it’s really a paraphrase.

Teachers Pet‘s naggingly hooky farfisa organ, chopped “Mod” Faces, Who, Raspberries chords, pushy chunky-chunky drumming classic and non-obvious covers – including a cut from Cook/Jones (drums, guitar for the Sex Pistols) which, if I remember correctly, was from their record recorded as “The Professionals” – ring just right. It was pretty good, if very orthodox, “rock.” A place I visit often, as this will be, as I throw cuts on iPod mixes for the gym, work, and wandering through the state that birthed the lads.
(www.smogveil.com)