7#_     . NNNN X bbrxN  5*_ 5&55_555555Who: Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, That Dog and the Tuffskins When: Wed., July 26, 7 p.m. Where: Tennessee Amphitheater How Much: $17.50 adv./ $20 door TALKING BOUT POP MUSIC Teenage Fanclub leave their past in the dust with a gentle new record by Shelly Ridenour I have a confession to make. I am an unabashed, unashamed Teenage Fanclub fan. I swoon at the sound of their lilting Scottish brogues. I once skipped a midterm exam to see them live. I own more 12-inch singles and import CDs than I should probably ever admit to. The truth is that I cant get enough of what is possibly the most inoffensive pop music since Wings ... but Alcoholiday and About You are no more silly little love songs than Paul is the walrus. To be honest, I never thought TFCs sweet dollops of ear candy would last in my tape player more than a few months, but Bandwagonesque (DGC) is still in my car, its hot pink bubblegum cover faded white by the sun and four summers of East Tennessee heat. The songs havent faded, though, or lost any of their pink bubblegum flavor, chiming out as fresh and sincere as at the first listen. These arent just pretty throwaways, this is classic pop. Of course, classic usually evokes something from the past. And more than a few (try dozens and dozens) critics have pointed out the influence of underground American pop sensations Big Star on TFC. In fact, for a while the comparisons to Alex Chiltons Brit Invasion-by-way-of Memphis revival overshadowed every review, every interview and every other thing printed or spoken about the band. We got it more with Bandwagonesque, especially in the U.K., cause Big Star is extremely unknown in the U.K. Youve got all these people trying to ... like, oneupmanship, who could hear Big Star first, bassist Gerard Love reports. It was madness for a while, but its kind of stopped now. Were slagged off on our terms now, rather than our influences, he laughs. Despite the Big Star references, their music holds clearer echoes of the Byrds, the Raspberries and, most especially, Badfinger. Guitarist Norman Blake and Love are two of the most underrated song crafters on this planet, sort of a Nilsson and Wilson for the 90s. An odd couple, to be sure, but one that constructs beautiful textural riffs, undeniable hooks and harmonies that could melt a polar ice cap. Bandwagonesque, TFCs second album and their major label debut, was the masterpiece that came early in the bands careertoo early, perhaps. Like Liz Phair or Matthew Sweet, they made a critically adored, near-perfect album (when it came out in 1991, Spin called Bandwagonesque the best record white people have made this year) barely out of the starting gate, and everything that comes later is held up against that near-perfection. Critics judge them with a more scrupulousand often snobbyear, hungry to pick over the pieces and tear down the very hype theyve built up. Like Phairs Whipsmart, TFCs Thirteen was a record that should have been, would have been, could have been called brilliant had it been anything but the follow-up to the Big Hit. With Bandwagonesque, we were overexposed, [with] a lot of hype surrounding us. It was kind of funny, but some people were annoyed by that. So I guess I could see why they might want to dislike the next record, Love reasons. We were kind of down on it initially because we just came out of the studio after eight months. It was if wed been in prison for a while. It was the whole process again. It was too complicated, and we tried to record too many things. And although critics may not let them forget their past, Love swears he never dwells on it. I dont feel the pressure to live up to the past. Bandwagonesque just happened, and theres no way we could ever reproduce what we did then, you know? Rather than recreate history, TFC has carefully evolved from the raw indie rock of A Catholic Education (Matador) to the, well, classic pop of the bands latest release, Grand Prix. (DGC) I dont think there was any point where we made a conscious effort to sound more pop. Each of the records just represents the way we could play at the time, Love explains. Its been an evolution through only four records, but its taken six years. Grand Prix is, overall, a quieter record than anything TFCs done before. Tears is a stripped-down symphony of majestically swaying, Penny Lane-esque horns, weeping strings and softly rolling piano, while Mellow Doubt shimmers with a low guitar strum, clicking sticks, and a gentle harmony of whistles and hums. Basically, before we went into the studio we decided we wanted to try and simplify the process of recording, Love says. In the past, weve recorded a song and put layer upon layer of guitars and voices. This time we wanted to make a simpler and more direct record that we could reproduce live more easily. We tried to place more emphasis on the songs instead of how loud we could play. And there lies the beauty of Teenage Fanclubsimple, fresh, sweet and addictive, with no bitter aftertaste. 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