Good to Know: The Beckies Story in Bloomington, MN

After leaving
the Stories
, songwriter and keyboardist
Michael Brown
was looking for a new band, so he roped in some like-minded musicians from Kansas City and
the Beckies
were born.
Brown
was also the songwriter and driving force behind
the Left Banke
, and he took on both roles with the band, giving their rough-and-tumble power pop sound some light Baroque touches. They recorded one album for
Sire
in 1976 before splitting, and
Omnivore
's
Good to Know: The Beckies Story
combines that with demo sessions recorded during the group's formative early days and a session recorded in 1975. The album itself is a nice artifact of the power pop era, calling to mind
Badfinger
in the way it melds crunchy guitars and uptempo tracks with yearning vocals, soaring melodies, and the occasional string-filled arrangement. The best songs are those that rock lightly with breezy vocal harmonies and
's key dancing around the edge. "Right by My Side (Etude)" and "Other Side of Town" are fine examples of how
give the power pop equation a little bit of their own math. Sometimes they go a little too far in the Baroque direction -- like on "River Bayou" or "On the Morning That She Came" -- and the vocals let them down. Both vocalists in the band (
Scott Trusty
and
Gary Hodgden
) are fine on the rockers, but neither of them has the pipes to match
's level. It's still a nice little artifact, though, and some of the songs are quite good. The added demos are a little rougher, yet somehow sound better. Maybe it's the added looseness or the less formal recording setting, but the songs have a little more life, and the roughness of the vocals fits better. Most of the demos were co-written by
Trusty
. For some reason, those were all tossed out when it came time to record the album and replaced by songs co-written by
Hodgden
. That meant the band's catchiest song, "Blue Monday," and the one with the prettiest melody, "Baby Oh Baby," were both left off the album. That's inter-band politics for you, one supposes. It's good that the tunes are finally getting official release, and nice that the
Mercury
demo was saved too.
The Beckies
may have lacked that extra bit of zing that the best bands have, but they were decent, and this collection is worth checking out for power pop completists. ~ Tim Sendra