Brightest Young Things

There isn’t much that needs to be said in these here parts about the joys of Mark Robinson, whether it is his iconic Teenbeat Records label or his mischevious smile or his many musical pursuits from all-time fave Unrest to his multiple solo monikers. The man is a little stick of dynamite – pure and simple. His tale grew just a little more complex when the charms of Evelyn Hurley and her mates in Blast Off Country Style entered the fray. Soon Robinson and Hurley were a courtin’ and then they did the honorable thing and made it legit with some shiny rings.

A couple kids (hi boys from Uncle Johnny!) later and a move to the North, they settled into a domestic existence that always retained some time for playing music. It took a long, long time but finally the inevitable has happened and they find themselves staring across the stage into each other’s eyes as the slick duo known as Cotton Candy.

I had the pleasure of seeing one of their early shows at a wild party (well, as wild as a bunch of graphic designers in a strange city can muster) in Boston a little over a year ago. It was everything one could hope for in strummy harmonies and a barrel full of charm. They have stuck to it (an album is in the offing for Fall) and the sound is now sharper and poppier and has begun to incorporate many of the influences in their individual work. Marks’ falsetto and Evelyn’s coo grace a barrage of second’s long covers of commercial jingles from their past surrounding their new single and I can’t help but be reminded all the way back to the juvenile prank calls recently resurrected from the Teenbeat vaults.

However, it is the “A” and “B” side of the single that really impress. “Fantastic & Spectacular” is classic Robinson with it's nervous fretwork and stilted singing into honey-coated choruses. The two then merge their voices together into pure and utter sweetness. The hyper bursts of casio drum machine samba and techno breakdowns highlight the creativity being brought out by having it be a home project with found sound and one string guitar solos. It also features those simple yet poignant lines Mark specializes in with a promise from Evelyn that “I will comb your hair.”

“Tint Control & Fine Tuning” is straight to the dance floor with a no wave vocal over top a 90’s drum sequence hurricane that somehow uses adjusting a television picture as an overt come on. The slow, deliberate reading of the “Lowenbrau” jingle that follows makes far too much sense at this point.

The focus of all this is to say that the kids have still got it.

Sunday night as an opening act at the Cat can be the very definition of doomed - but let’s pay back some of the love that Mark and Evelyn have shown the city over the decades (yes, decades) and get on out there early for some charm and joy and joy and charm. Assuming you like both in equal doses and coated in strum and beats – and we both know that you do.

Oh yeah… you can stay for Crystal Stilts and The Ladybug Transistor. Those guys are pretty good too.