Ohio Express

Always dug Ohio Express for the way they turned bubblegum songs into garage band stormers: “Yummy Yummy Yummy” is classic bubblegum, but its reductive arrangement – twangy, chiming guitars; accents on the four; clattering drums, lithe bass, the strain in singer Joey Levine’s voice – offers a direct route from those early Them sides to garage outsiders like Mouse & The Traps. Of course, Ohio Express weren’t really Ohio Express; the band that performed live on television were miming to session recordings from the young Levine and co. It didn’t really matter for this album, which benefits from the studio largesse, though it must have chafed for the actual group Ohio Express, who had a local rep for grittier R&B sounds. If you’re going to get steamrolled into a Super K production fantasy, though, at least your name will be attached some great proto-jangle pop songs as part of the deal.