Loud Family

A power-pop unit from San Francisco that like, say, Teenage Fanclub, saw the bleached-out and tattered grunge of the time and raised it one Big Star. Acerbic, animated alt-rock that took noodly baroque and sunny surf and college headiness, then ran it all through a shredder for a patina of grizzled grit.

It's excellent rave-up music, projected through a kaleidoscope for a trippy, paisley psych effect, and topped off with a laser-tight glam guitar that sometimes sounds as though it was yanked from a hair-metal arena show circa '87. And sprayed with lots of keys, a spritely touch that quietly adds extra dimension to an already very 3D group. 

Later, I'll share some thoughts on frontman Scott Miller's first band, Game Theory, also inspired, albeit pockmarked with a few more flaws. I should if only to write more on the guy, whose textured, colorful career and life tragically ended when he committed suicide in 2013. There is much more of this story to tell.