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Reviews of "The Very Thing That You Treasure"


  • "Beautifully crafted, laid-back pop songs as sunny as a fresh summer's day, and as melancholy as mid-fall, Spike Priggen's The Very Thing That You Treasure is a delicate, yet sophisticated acoustic pop record."

    Alex Steininger

    In Music We Trust


  • "The Very Thing That You Treasure, Priggen will tell you, has been a lifetime in the making. Quite frankly it’s been worth the wait."

    Kurt Hernon

    Bangsheet


  • If there is any justice in this teen-popping world, The Very Thing That You Treasure won't get lost on the streets. It's a sweet little treasure that deserves a home.

    Carrie Havranek

    SonicNet


  • "The Very Thing that You Treasure is, quite simply, an amazing album. From the first track, a gorgeously reverby, jangly pop ballad called "Every Broken Heart," you know you're into something good. Priggen's voice is kind of nasal and a little bit awkward, but there is a gentleness to it that is immediately charming."

    Scout

    Delusions Of Adequacy


  • "Next time I'm getting over a terrorizing, head-over-heels heartbreak, The Very Thing That You Treasure will be in the driver's seat, helping me cry myself into the nearest telephone pole. Until then, this unbelievably depressing CD will be sitting on my shelf, safe from unsuspecting ears that can't deal with its gut-wrenching power. Priggen definitely has issues with chicks, as several tunes (including "Every Broken Heart" and "She Used To Be My Baby") highlight a borderline obsessive-compulsive singer-songwriter bloodletting his emotions onto a recorded medium. Priggen has a way with words, and his exceptional lyrics weave intricate tales of desperation and loss that somehow, by the disc's end, inspire a sense of hope and yearning. Nonetheless, this potent collection of tear jerking, honky-tonk pop tunes is a marvelous expression of calculated emotional outbursts. Medical authorities should be contacted immediately, as this CD should only be allowed into your CD player with a prescription from your local psychiatrist."

    Andrew Magilow

    Splendid E-zine


  • “To be blunt about it, this is a brilliant LP, and as debuts go ranks right up there with those of Marshall Crenshaw, Big Star and The Pretenders. It’s full of indelible hooks and I just want to keep playing it again and again and again…One of the year’s best”

    Toast Magazine


  • “Turns simple phrases around gorgeous melodies and into moving pop poetry”

    Mean Magazine


  • “Gloriously melancholy. Worth every minute of the ride.”

    Power Of Pop


  • “The very definition of bittersweet”

    Joey Sweeney

    Time Out New York


  • "His lyrics seethe with John Lennon's anger (and wit), but most often, and most brilliantly, they hinge on the sort of forlorn melancholy that Chris Bell made so affecting."

    Red Tunic Troll

    Amazon Customer Review


  • "In the finicky music world, Spike Priggen may well be destined to skirt around the perimeters of success for a few more years to come, but his satisfying songs are already worthy of a wider audience. Priggen's debut, The Very Thing That You Treasure, finds the accomplished musician joining the alt.country fray as a less cocky version of Ryan Adams. Two of the better offerings, Every Broken Heart and Outtasight take to the sort of countrified twang that R.E.M. tried for on 1991's Out Of Time. .. It is welcome news that Priggen has already set to work on a follow up."

    Rip It Up Magazine


  • "Priggen's songs are so melodic and throw up so many surprises both lyrically and sonically that it is hard not to love everything on this record.All of the tracks have been a favourite at different times so it is hard to pick out a standout song. It changes from the opening 'Every Broken Heart' to everything in-between that and the last song, 'So Good To See You', a strange psychedelic ballad full of weird effects and mellotron.

    Pennyblack Music Website


  • "In truth it's hard to single out tunes for praise when all 12 tracks are consistently solid. This is a 'song' record, an album that's not about glossy production or sampled drum beats. Spike Priggen writes damn good songs, and that's what you'll find on The Very Thing That You Treasure."

    Barfly.com


  • "Not the most rock 'n' roll of names, and one most likely that most of you have never encountered before, but then 'The Very Thing That You Treasure' isn't the most rock 'n' roll of records. In fact, the debut from New York based multi-instrumentalist Priggen is a wonderfully vibrant melting pot of eclectic pop rock styles that will have power pop fans drooling.

    Classic Rock (UK)


  • "Starting with a chorus of “Every broken heart is just like the first one”, Priggen shows his perfect hand early. Matching Teenage Fanclub with Matthew Sweet, he can’t help but sound like Big Star – which is even better! Irresistibly ragged production and endlessly bittersweet guitar solos will have you singing every line, and feeling like you wrote them all yourself. Proof beyond question that the one thing you can never grow out of is a teenage crush."

    TNT Magazine (UK)


  • "It's an album of confidant versatility, and the two years it took to record are evident in the sound of the material, the care that has been given. So often these days music can seem meaningless, vocals tossed away with a cheap rhyme, but not here."

    Logged Off Website

« May 2005 | Main | August 2005 »

Spendid Magazine Review

Splendidlogo2002If nothing else, Spike Priggen is a generous man. Not only does he offer both Stars After Stars After Stars and his first album, The Very Thing That You Treasure, for free download on his website; he also sent us a CD featuring the originals of the songs he covers on Stars....

Yes, you read that correctly: for his second outing, Priggen elected to record a covers album. Given that he spent his entire life recording his debut, it's understandable that he might have trouble coming up with an album of new material in just two or three years, but it's still odd, to say the least. Even if the songs he covers aren't very well known, it's a strange career move.

Then again, after listening to Stars After Stars..., you get the idea that maybe writing your own material is overrated, particularly when you're able to make other people's songs sound so much like your own, as Priggen does. In part, this is because the songs he covers -- tracks from acts like Hot Bodies, the Pontiac Brothers and The Jacobites -- are hardly chart-topping hits, so Priggen can apply his Stipe-like vocals and power pop sensibilities to them without immediate concern about unfavorable comparison to the originals. Thus, Jennifer Jackson's "When You Looked At Me" becomes Beatles-tinged country-rock, while Hot Bodies' "In The Inside" and the Pontiac Brothers' "Be Married Song" evolve into big, crunchy pop-rock.

Songs by better-known acts give more of a sense of how much Priggen makes each tune his own. His version of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen", for example, is just as rocking, but his twangy vocals are a distinct change. Similarly, his version of "Questioningly" is a million miles away from what The Ramones did with the original -- it would work well on an early REM record. In Priggen's hands, The Zombies' "How We Were Before" becomes a hybrid of power pop and flamenco, and Big Star's "Nightime" evolves into a beautifully understated acoustic lament.

It's unlikely that Stars After Stars After Stars will bring Priggen much attention or acclaim, except from power pop aficionados who have a thing for covers. That said, it's definitely worth your time to investigate it; not only is it free, but the accompanying blog functions as the sort of old-school liner notes most artists can't be bothered to provide, offering background information and revealing the personal significance behind each song choice. Priggen deserves a bigger, more devoted fan base, and Stars After Stars After Stars can only help it grow.-- Matthew Pollesel

Note From Spike: The music is actually only available as pretty low-res Realplayer files for the most part, although I have been putting them up as mp3s one at a time. I'm not actually giving it away for free (at least, I wasn't meaning to).  Also, I've actually written many more songs than ended up on my first CD and have already recorded 11 songs for my next CD which will be all original songs. As far as it being a weird career move for me to record an all-covers record, I'd have to say, what career? Cool review though. Starts off like it's gonna be really negative, but I won him over!

Posted by Spike on Jun 21, 2005 at 08:24 PM in Reviews |

Downtown Express Feature

Volume 18 • Issue 4 | JUNE 17-23, 20

Spike priggen
Saturday, June 18th
 The Lakeside Lounge
162 Avenue B
between 10th and 11th Sts.

Power pop tribute album

New York-based musician sings cover songs

By David Chiu

Spike Priggen may not be a recognizable name to most casual music listeners, and that’s fine with him. “Yeah, nobody knows who I am,” deadpans the 41-year-old singer, songwriter who has been part of the alternative rock scene for over 25 years. “I’m totally obscure. Most of the music I like is really obscure so I can take some solace in that.”

Obscure also best describes the NewYork-based musician’s choice of cover songs that make up his second solo album “Stars after Stars After Stars.” It consists of tracks originally recorded by the Ramones, Big Star, Alice Cooper, and the Zombies, as well as songs by the Jacobites and Hot Bodies, two local bands from Priggen’s hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. Making the covers album started out as an excuse to experiment and test new production techniques. “I did it for fun early on to begin with,” he says. “It kind of grew into a record that I wanted to release.”

Rather than recreating the songs in their original letter-perfect form, Priggen applied his distinct power pop melodic touch to them; one might have thought the catchy songs were truly his own tunes. “I’ve been doing them for so long that I can almost forget that I didn’t write them,” he says. “I just had it in my head from the way I remember them. I didn’t want to have them be just like the originals.”

The songs transported him back to the ‘70s and early ‘80s during which his musical tastes developed. One song he felt proud of interpreting on the record is “When You Looked At Me” by singer/songwriter Jennifer Jackson. “I think we added a pretty arrangement on that one, like what Harry Nilsson did on the Badfinger song “Without You.” Priggen even goes as far to cover “A Slow Soul” by the British pop group Scritti Politti. “It’s more of a soul ballad before they used drum machines,” he says. “It’s as far away from their later [‘80s synth pop] stuff.”

Priggen employed several talented local musicians for “Stars after Stars After Stars;” the biggest highlight according to him was having Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos play on several tracks. He has been friends with Carlos for over 25 years since meeting him backstage at a Cheap Trick concert. “It was almost like having Ringo Starr and [Led Zeppelin’s] John Boham playing drums on my record,” he says proudly. “I couldn’t think of anything that comes close to that.”

Cheap Trick were one of the bands that fostered Priggen’s love for power pop as a kid in New Haven; one of his other influences were legendary cult band Big Star, whose “Nightime” is on Priggen’s record. “I loved Big Star since when I was 12 or 13,” he says. ”I’ve always been a big fan of theirs, back when it was literally me and two other guys in New Haven knew who Big Star were.”

Spike (nee Michael) Priggen had been playing music since 1978 as a member of various bands in New Haven. He was a part of the city’s underground punk and New Wave scene (whose graduates included musician/producer Jon Brion, and Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal of the rock band Miracle Legion). Priggen later moved to New York to study photography at the School of Visual Arts; he also formed a band called Blue Period, which later evolved into the Hello Strangers during the ‘80s. He was involved with other ensembles including the Boston-based Dumptruck; he later launched an independent label #1 Records and produced various projects. “I figured out over the last couple of weeks that a band I was in, in 1980, called TV Neats is on three different power pop compilations,” he says, indicative of his long musical resume.

After years of playing and recording with other people, Priggen finally released “The Very Thing You Treasure” (2001)—his first album under his own name—to acclaimed reviews. Recording and releasing that album proved to be a challenge when Priggen was involved in a car accident that sidelined him for several months, and suffered a vocal ailment. “I couldn’t sing for like a year,” he remembers, “between recording the music and the singing—it sort of made that record take a long time to get done.

Priggen is already busy working on a new album of his own original compositions. He doesn’t plan to go out on an extensive tour, although he will play a few local shows. Right now, he hopes that people will like and enjoy “Stars after Stars After Stars.” “I like to play and sing,” Priggen says simply. “That’s about it really. It’s like a big vanity project. I’m not making these records because somebody’s paying me. I’m making them because I’m taking money out of my own pocket and doing it.”

Posted by Spike on Jun 21, 2005 at 06:56 PM in Press, Reviews |

Spike Priggen & Band Lakeside Lounge Saturday Night

Boat_2Spike Priggen w/
Chris Erikson, Nancy Polstein, Greg Beshers and Eddy Zweibeck
Please come and see us!

JUNE 18TH, 2005 10:30
162 AVENUE B (10TH & 11TH)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
212.529.8463

Stars After Stars After Stars
Spike Priggen
by John D. Luerssen
From The All Music Guide

"Unlike most albums of covers, Spike Priggen's Stars After Stars After Stars succeeds from start to finish. Priggen -- who's done time in almost-famous bands like Dumptruck, The Liquor Giants and The Caroline Know -- knows a thing about arranging an alt-pop song, and it shows on this diverse song cycle. "In The Inside" is a scorching, superb take on the Hot Bodies' original, and The Zombies' "How We Were Before" comes off as a winsome, warm tribute. A pair of ballads (The Pontiac Brothers' twangy, spooky "Be Married Song" and Jenifer Jackson's shimmering, guitar weeper "When You Looked At Me") are done right, while Priggen's lilting, gorgeous rendition of Big Star's "Nighttime" may be the best thing going for Stars After Stars After Stars. The man even scores by resuscitating Alice Cooper's rebellious hard rock classic "I'm Eighteen", turning it into a likable countrified bastardization of the original. Well done, Spike, well done."

Posted by Spike on Jun 17, 2005 at 09:58 AM in Gigs |

Me And Bun E

BunespikeHere's me and Bun E Carlos in the front seat of my (since deceased) 1977 Volare Station Wagon. We're on our way to Brooklyn's "Fireproof Recording"  where Bun E played on 8 Spike Priggen tracks in one day (nice going Bun E!). 6 songs are on my new all-covers CD "Stars After Stars After Stars" and there'll be 2 more on my next all originals CD (working title "There's No Sound In Flutes").

Posted by Spike on Jun 13, 2005 at 11:02 AM in Pictures, Scrapbook, Stars After Stars After Stars |

Only Children Sleeping

Starsafterstarscover21The 6th song on my new CD "Stars After Stars After Stars" is "Only Children Sleeping" - originally recorded by The Jacobites (Dave Kusworth/Nikki Sudden).
 
I've been a big Jacobites fan since I first became aware of them in the mid-80's. I've always loved The Only Ones, and Johnny Thunders, and these guys crossed that kinda Junkie Rock vibe, with this incredibly sweet, romantic side (especially Kusworth). In the summer of 1994 I bicycled from Battersea to Islington and back in the rain to see the Jacobites after Sudden and Kusworth re-united (Nikki's Brother, the Late Epic Soundtracks, was the DJ that night). They were brilliant. An autographed setlist from that night is part of the cover art on my new CD.

If there are any reviewers or audiobloggers out there who would like a copy or download, email me. Both of my CD's can be listened to in their entirety here and here.

Spike Priggen-Only Children Sleeping.mp3
Spike Priggen-Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Optigan
Danny Weinkauf-Bass
Mark Spencer-6 and 12 String Guitars,Hammond Organ
Jon Graboff-Pedal Steel, Mandolin
Bun E Carlos-Drums
Eddy Zweiback-Percussion

The Jacobites-Only Children Sleeping.mp3

Posted by Spike on Jun 11, 2005 at 10:10 AM in Sounds, Stars After Stars After Stars |

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Reviews Of "Stars After Stars After Stars"


  • "New York-based Spike Priggen of Liquor Giants, Pussywillows, and Dumptruck enthralled fans with his 2001 solo debut's synthesis of Big Star's chime, the dBs' quirkiness, and Dwight Twilley's pure pop power. This follow-up of lovingly selected covers (in the tradition of Bowie's Pin-Ups and the Band's Moondog Matinee) melds the hearts and minds of the originals with his overarching melancholy, mating a collector's ear for material with a producer's imagination for re-creation. Highlights include Priggen's versions of the Pontiac Brothers' yearning "Be Married Song" and the Zombies' delicate morning-after B-side "How We Were Before." The Ramones, Tracey Thorn, and Scritti Politti's songs all find a common wistfulness in Priggen's soul- and country-inflected arrangements. Closing the disc is a mesmerizing found-sound "J&H Productions" tape, in which a would-be Cincinnati concert promoter attempts to "get with" the "label industry." Whether the "label industry" "gets with" Spike Priggen, lovers of Lennon, Chilton, Stamey, and Sweet certainly should."

    Eli Messinger

    East Bay Express


  • "Although it is a highly eclectic collection of mostly obscure songs by other artists, Priggen's second album, "Stars After Stars After Stars," underscores the considerable depths of his talent. Priggen makes each song his own, giving the album a remarkable coherent sound. Some of that is due to his song selection, songs which, except for a straightforward reading of Alice Cooper's "Eighteen," render themselves to his vaguely rootsy power pop interpretations. Priggen reclaims "Questioningly," the Ramones' well-written but improbable stab at country-rock and rescues from obscurity early British pop gems such as Tracy Thorn's "Plainsailing" and Scritti Politti's "A Slow Soul.""

    Mark Wilson

    Evansville Courier & Press


  • "This second album finds Spike Priggen and a bunch of friends (Ivan Julian, Bun E Carlos, etc.) covering some great underknown songs by folks like the Pontiac Brothers, the Zombies, Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth the Jacobites, Tracy Thorn, the Ramones, etc. If Spike is doing all of the vocals as the press kit seems to indicate; he's the best singing vocal mimic I've ever heard. His Tracy Thorn, and Joey Ramone are uncanny."

    George Parsons

    Dream Magazine #5


  • "Priggen is a frequent performer on the NYC scene and at various times has been a member of Dumptruck, Hello Strangers, Liquor Giants, Schramms, and Pussywillows. His 2001 debut revealed a tremendous talent for perfect pop songs often filtered through a country sound. Therefore, the first track on his new disc comes as quite a shock with its blast of synthesizer. Thereafter, he returns to his normal style, for which a useful comparison is Freedy Johnston, whom Priggen resembles in vocal timbre, melodically (especially), and to a lesser extent in overall style. It's a sound that doesn't work well unless lavished on high-quality songs, and Priggen supplies plenty."

    Steve

    The Big Takeover


  • "Most of the album is a nostalgic look back at the artist's past, including the bands he's played in as well as those he's idolized, including the Hot Bodies, the Jacobites, and the Zombies. He works through these songs competently and respectfully, and in the end what he's created is a tribute to his own musical development. But in doing so he's also given us a window back into some forgotten moments in music from the 70's and 80's various indie, new-wave, and punk scenes."

    George Ford

    Delusions Of Adequacy


  • "On Spike's new "Stars After Stars After Stars" he pulls off the neat trick of recording a classy set of covers (The Pontiac Bros. "Be Married Song"; Zombies, Jenifer Jackson, Sudden & Kusworth) with a star-studded cast (Bun E Carlos, Ivan Julian). He's kicked around in some bands that almost crossed over (Dumptruck, The Liquor Giants, The Caroline Know)--can he finally get a break?". -

    Josh Goldfein

    The Village Voice

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