Power pop bands who worship at the altar of Big Star are a dime a dozen today, but the Scruffs were doing that long before Alex Chilton became a cool name to drop, and Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, the sole album they released during their lifetime, is that late-'70s rarity, a slice of classic power pop that doesn't sound "new wave," unlike most of smart pop's class of 1978. Using Big Star and the Raspberries as a starting point, vocalist and songwriter Stephen Burns blended an Anglophile's...   [ read more ]

CD $18.03

Failed negotiations with several major labels kept the Scruffs' second album, Teenage Gurls, in the vaults until Northern Heights finally gave it a belated release in 1998, nearly two decades after it was recorded. While the band's debut, Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, was an out-of-the-box classic, Teenage Gurls suffers by comparison; while most of the songs are solid, there are a few examples of obvious filler, most notably the title track on which singer and songwriter Stephen Burns doesn't ...   [ read more ]

CD $18.03

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