Self-released, 25 June 2021
The Blendours are one of my favorites. Here’s 7 more reasons why.
The Blendours (songwriter/singer/guitar player Trevor Blendour, sometimes with a little help from his friends) are pretty much everything I’m looking for in music. Blending influences ranging from bands like Ramones and The Beatles to musicians including Dion and Buck Owens, The Blendours end up hitting me a bunch like Buddy Holly, and I love ‘em for that. And the songs. My gosh, do Blendours songs destroy me. They get me laughing, they get me thinking, and they get me singing. Plus, they’re from Iowa (home to great and sometimes missed-out-on “fly-over” bands/labels like TV Cop, Death Kill Overdrive, Rational Anthem, and Bloated Kat Records). Me too.
With Go On Vacation, The Blendours do what they seemingly always do so well – create some of my favorite sing-song singalongs and couple them with all the gorgeous doo-wop inflected harmonies and high energy infectiousness on the planet. At only 7 songs and somewhere around 10 minutes, there is no fat to be trimmed here – these songs have a bit of a quick pace and they tend to lean into pop punk structures and brevity. The opening pair, “Another Regret” and “Buzzkill”, hit quick with tons of enthusiasm and snark. “Another Regret” is a wonderful sort of “Summer Lovin’” with all of the vocal hooks and harmonies that can possibly be mustered in 44 seconds. Plus, they work in great lines like “I’m just another stupid guy that needs a shrink”. Self-deprecating and clever – my kind of thing. “Buzzkill” swaddles a blowhard experience we’ve all had a time or a hundred (“you’re a buzzkill, I think you’re full of shit”) in some rapidfire melodic mouthfuls that get me coming back for more. And then, they slow it down a bit with “Tell Me The Truth”, a slower melancholy number that reminds me of a mournful early Beatles song.
The back half of Vacation keeps pace. The surfy guitar lead on “I’ll Be the Guy” sounds great alongside the Chuck Berry-style boogie rhythm guitar and the “one last chance” harmonies are gorgeous leading into the “you know I’ll be the guy” ending. Jump ahead a bit to the guitar lead on “Good to You” and listen to the incredible mountain of melodic hooks and harmonies, the fantastic “sha na na na’s”, and an eventual key change down the stretch that winds me up to a giddy state. And while the brief “Following Through” ends quick, the hits-home couplet “following through is something I don’t know how to do, my motivation never lasts” is sung in such a catchy and sincere fashion that I can’t help but smile with familiarity. That gets us to the closer, “Goodbye Christine”. More fast guitar strum shuffling, endearing “ba-ba-ba” backing vocals, and a great “goodbye Christine, so long” vocal melody that sends me out on a high.
Go On Vacation is more utter brilliance, again proving why The Blendours are one of my favorite bands around. If you’ve not heard them before, then this is as good a place to start as any. And if you have heard ‘em, you know what you’re getting and you’re giddy with excitement.
Favorite song: “Good to You”
Favorite moment: surfy lead guitar on “I’ll Be the Guy”
Favorite whatever else: “Another Regret” slays me in 44 seconds with wit and hooks
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
