L.A. Weekly
October 27, 2000
Friday, October 27
THE SUGARPLASTIC at Spaceland
Attention KLSX "Breakfast With the Beatles" listeners and everyone who attended the recent Brian Wilson Homecoming Party at the Bowl: Put aside the past masters for 60 minutes and come hear some present-day hometown ones. That is, come check out The Sugarplastic, the San Fernando Valley's premier pop cultural export for seven years now (easily besting the not-as-clever-as-he-thinks-he-is Paul Thomas Anderson), who specialize in making the kind of deeply melodic, deftly arranged music that rests rather pleasantly in the Kinks-Beatles-Eno-XTC paisley-corduroy pocket. Their most recent work--the relentlessly good 17-track full-length album Resin (Escape Artist Recordings) and a delightful song on Rhino's Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains album--is witty, hook-filled, well-played and kitsch-free: in other words, a genuine rarity in this era of general artistic underachievement and cultural auto-cynicism. Live, singer-guitarist Ben Eshbach, bassist Kaira Geller and drummer David Cunningham add some extra punch n' muscle to their perfectionist pop tunes with proper noun titles. The Sugarplastic: A municipal treasure. (Jay W. Babcock)
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