June 17, 2009

Mod-A-Day: Vinyl Kings

The Vinyl Kings have made a career out of crafting some excellent, sixties infused, garage pop music. Their finest release is actually a tribute to their biggest influence, the Beatles. The Vinyl Kings are a group, a large group, of producers, songwriters, and session musicians who have played with a variety of artists from Kim Carnes to Steppenwolf, Etta James to the Ozark Mountain Devils. Out of all that the group has put together some nice albums with a sixties pop and rock flavor.

In 2002 they released A Little Trip an album of all original songs where each was done in the style of the Beatles. It might sound derivative or redundant, but surprisingly it isn't. Thanks to the superb songwriting and excekkebt musicianship what you have is arguably one of the best Beatles emulations of all time. These don't sound like Beatles songs, rather they are done in a style that you recognize. But instead of sounding like song we already know like the back of our hands, these songs are original and unique which is what makes the album work. That being said, the song here struck me as the most likely to have been penned by the fab four -- "Don't Worry About Me".

Vinyl Kings -- Don't Worry About Me