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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
"There's No Sound In Flutes!" On Sale Now!
On
his third solo album There's No Sound In Flutes, New York-based
singer/songwriter/guitarist/blogger/pop-culture archivist Spike Priggen
delivers yet another winsome, bracing blast of punchy, sublimely catchy
guitar-driven pop-rock songcraft, filtered through the singular
sensibility of a much-traveled musical adventurer who's a born
romantic, a voracious pop-culture fiend and, above all, a lifelong
believer in rock 'n' roll's ability to transcend, transform and inspire.
From the jangly romanticism of "I Know Everything," to the scathing wit of "Everyone Loves Me But You," to the heart-on-sleeve sentiment of "Little Star," to the elegant, evocative twang of "The Only Girl (in the World)," the self-penned, self-produced There's No Sound In Flutes (on the artist's own Volare Label) maintains the same bountiful levels of craft, energy and heart that distinguished Priggen's prior solo releases, the all-original The Very Thing That You Treasure and the quirky covers collection Stars After Stars After Stars.
Priggen's new songs also feature distinctive arrangements that make use of all manner of exotic sounds and textures. "I liked the way all the orchestral stuff on Stars After Stars After Stars turned out," the artist explains. "So almost every song on this one has some kind of orchestral element, from simple chamberlain and mellotron parts to complex 18-piece arrangements. I've always loved that sound, and once I realized that we could do these amazing arrangements, I wanted to have that on every song. Once or twice I thought we might have gone overboard on some of the songs, but they all eventually won me over."
In addition to showcasing Priggen's performing and songwriting gifts, There's No Sound In Flutes also draws upon the talents of many of the stellar players with whom Priggen has crossed paths over the years. The album was engineered by longtime collaborator Adam Lasus, whose recent recording credits include work with the Rogers Sisters and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, a longtime Priggen pal, is featured on two songs, while other tracks feature such stalwart New York players as guitarists Mark Spencer (Laura Cantrell/Jay Farrar) and Jon Graboff (Ryan Adams/Amy Rigby), bassists Danny Weinkauf (They Might Be Giants/Fountains of Wayne) and Scott Yoder (Kevin Salem/Amy Rigby), keyboardists Rob Arthur (Joan Osborne/Peter Frampton), drummer Brian Doherty (They Might Be Giants/XTC) and keyboardist/arranger CP Roth (Blessid Union of Souls/Ozzy Osbourne), who masterminded the album's inventive faux-orchestral arrangements.
Meanwhile, renowned underground
illustrator Peter Bagge provided the album's inspired cover art, which,
like the disc's title, is based on legendary big-band drummer Buddy
Rich's fabled tape-recorded rants.
Spike Priggen "Hideaway".mp3
SpikePriggen.com
Spike Priggen Myspace page
Spike Priggen @ Allmusic Guide
Spike Priggen "The Very Thing That You Treasure" on iTunes
Spike Priggen "Stars After Stars After Stars" on iTunes
Buy From CD Baby
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Buy Spike Priggen "There's No Sound In Flutes" w/ US Shipping $12
TV Neats & The Excerpts "Pop As Can Be & Dance City All The Way"
2 CD's of previously unreleased music by the premier Connecticut Power-Pop band of 1981- TV Neats (plus 1 song by The Excerpts featuring Jon Brion). On Japan's Wizzard In Vinyl Label.
Disc 1 contains 15 Power-Pop gems. 14 by TV Neats + "Will I Ever See You Again" by The Excerpts (written and sung by Michael "Spike' Priggen and Jon Brion). All are remastered from cassette as all master tapes are lost. TV Neats-Pushing Buttons.mp3
Disc 2 is TV Neats Live At The Educational Center For The Arts in New Haven, Connecticut, February 20th, 1981. TV Neats-"Dear Abby" (Live).mp3
TV Neats & The Excerpts "Pop As Can Be & Dance City All The Way" $20 including US Shipping
Stars After Stars After Stars CD
$14 INCLUDES SHIPPING WITHIN US
The Very Thing That You Treasure By Spike Priggen
The Very Thing That You Treasure By Spike Priggen (Jewel Case-US Shipping) $14.00
The Hello Strangers "Sumthin' Sweet" 45
The 1991 7" single with picture cover, by The Hello Strangers-"Sumthin' Sweet"/"The Way That You Used 2 B" on the #1 Records' label. Both songs and bass playing by Spike Priggen. Recorded by Adam Lasus on 8 tracks at the Old School Studio Red (in the basement). Band includes Ward Dotson and Kevin Salem on guitars, Dave Schramm on steel and Doug Wygal on drums. From the Hello Strangers "Lost" LP "Daylight Losing Time" coming soon on The Volare Label. $4
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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
Music Links
- Anders Parker
- Big Lazy
- Cheap Trick
- Chris Harford
- ClePunk
- Dwight Twilley
- Eyeless In Gaza
- Florence Dore
- Freedy Johnston
- Hub Moore
- Jenifer Jackson
- Jon Brion
- Jon Graboff
- Josef K
- Julian Cope
- Kirk Swan
- Mark Mulcahy
- Mark Spencer
- NRBQ!
- Norton Records
- Paul Haig
- Raymond Scott
- Roy Wood
- Steve Almaas
- Sundazed
- The Bus Stop Label
- The Dave Graney Show
- The La's
- The Raspberries
- Ween
- WeenRadio.Com
- Wormco
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