Garage Rock: The Rosenbergs' Department Store Girl

For my 13th birthday party I got to invite 2 friends to stay at an Embassy Suites with my family and me. This was when Embassy Suites was brand new in Minneapolis, and this also happened to be when Miami Vice was the coolest show on TV. Therefore, in the open atrium and balconies of the Embassy Suites, my friends, Nathan and Harry, my sister, Jennifer, and I played Miami Vice—playing the rock ‘n’ roll version of cops ‘n’ robbers from floor to floor, in the glass elevators, and in the large lobby.

So it is no surprise that I am completely in love with the Rosenbergs’ new album, Department Store Girl. How could I not like it when they have a song called “Crockett & Tubbs,” a song about buddies like the team from Miami Vice?

With ditties and guitar riffs and balladic anthems and harmonies, the Rosenbergs land next to Too Much Joy, Relient K, and Deathray in the Spectrum. This is the Garage Rock section. I suppose at first, the Rosenbergs don’t seem to have much in common with the farther end of the Garage Rock category, bands like Soul Asylum, but there’s a playfulness in the Rosenbergs that gives you the idea that these guys are just throwing down great licks in the back garage, the fun band down the street who plays at all of the local gigs. That’s what I hear in the music.

One reviewer trashed the album, because the lyrics were too trite, citing the line, “’Cause we go together just like jam and bread/or maybe birds of a feather.” On paper, of course, this sounds like the worst songwriting ever. But listen to “Birds of a Feather” and quickly you realize that lead singer/guitarist/songwriter David Fagin’s tongue is practically poking right through his cheek. The song is a little bubblegum pop ditty which makes your head bounce from side to side like you’re in some bad 60’s music video. It’s a beautiful thing to hear such a fun little song that is aware that it is a fun little song.

Other great tracks include “Bulletproof Vest” and “Gold Coast,” which both through the riffs and lyrics bring out the Chicago sound. Charging chords that still hearken back to Chicago blues, earnest vocals from Midwestern boys. Moving Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity to Chicago for the movie version makes perfect sense when you hear music the Rosenbergs, music that is so aware of people who have a soundtrack to our lives.

The first 3 people to email me to win a CD Sampler from the Rosenbergs were: Ron of Decatur, IN, Roland of Laramie, WY, and Kristoff of Calgary, AB.

Thanks to Force MP Entertainment and to The Rosenbergs for their help in providing a review copy of the album and the giveaways.