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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

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"Pop As Can Be & Dance City All The Way" Liner Notes

Tv_neats_spike_kneelingTV Neats was the 4th "punk rock" and/or "new wave" band that I was in, in New Haven, Connecticut between 1978 and 1981, after The Special Guests (featuring early New Haven scene producer and former member of "The Snotz" Thom Gartland), The Obvious (with Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal, both later of Miracle Legion), and The Excerpts (Power-Pop hero Jon Brion's 1st band-represented on this compilation by the song "Will I Ever See You Again").

Ricky Rondo (sometimes "Rondeaux" - real name Ric Orlando) led a power trio called Hot Bodies, which was one of my favorite combos on the local scene (I covered  "In The Inside", written by their drummer Kerry Miller, on my 2005 LP "Stars After Stars After Stars"). There was some talk of me joining Hot Bodies as the 2nd guitarist/singer, but instead Rick broke up the band and started the "local supergroup" TV Neats.

Recording had begun on the first TV Neats demo (sometime in 1980) before I was officially asked to join the band. Ric and keyboardist/singer Robyn Ouiba (real name Robyn Cornell) formerly of "The Kids", had gone into Joe Mendyk's West Haven studio with local "rhythm section for hire", Rich D'Albis (Drums) and Doug "Derek"  Riccio (Bass) -both then of "Doug Derek & The Hoax". They recorded four songs: Ric's "Runnin' Round", "Shadows" and "Don't You Take It Away" and Robyn's "Was I Dreaming Again".  I was soon asked to join the band and I added my guitar and vocals to all 4 songs. The tape garnered a bunch of airplay on the local college radio stations.

The band was then filled out by Robyn's former "The Kids" bandmate, bassist Greg "Chipper" Anderson (who had also been in the Connecticut band "Epitome") who was enticed to move back from Hollywood on the strength of the first TV Neats demo. Jay Potts (real name Potocsky- his brothers are Joel Potts of "Miracle Legion" and Moe Potts of "The Laughing Dogs") was brought in to play the drums.

We played around the local clubs like "The Joint", "The Whalley Cinema" & "The Arcadia Ballroom" with other area bands such as "The Poodle Boys", "Suburbanites",  "Disturbance", and the aforementioned "Doug Derek & The Hoax" as well as opening for, at New Haven's premier venue "Toad's Place",  national and international acts such as "Joan Jett & The Blackhearts" and "The Stranglers" (who made Chip change out of his leather trousers as it was in their contract that no support bands could wear leather on stage!). One of our more unusual regular gigs was opening on weekends for local singer Michael Bolotin (long before he changed his name to Michael Bolton and became so successful) in a loft above a steak restaurant, a job we got because our drummer Jay and his brother Moe (Mark) were also the dual drummers in Bolotin's band.

On April 1-3, 1981 we returned to Joe Mendyk's studio and recorded 9 more songs. An alternate version of the 1st demo's "Don't You Take It Away", "Who's Courtin' Who", Robyn's "I Said On No", my song "Pushing Buttons", "Band Tonite", the obligatory "white reggae" jam "Sound Off", "I'm OK" (written by Ric but sung by me), "Do You Remember Me" and "Dear Abby".

By the end of July 1981, Chipper had left the line-up to start a band with New Haven guitar prodigy Bobbie Rose (The Snotz). He was replaced by former "Hot Bodies" member Scott Harris (that's him in the pictures of TV Neats live on the New Haven Green). The band broke up not too long after that. Ric and Jay moved to Boston and started the funk band "Skin". Robyn stopped playing music and for a while managed the band "October Days". I played bass in "Stray Divides" with Mark Mulcahy and Ray Neal and future "Dumptruck" co-founder (and former "Suburbanite") Kirk Swan, until I finished high school & moved to New York City in the fall of 1982 to attend the School of Visual Arts.

In 2006, Ric Orlando is a successful chef and restauranteur near Woodstock, NY. Robyn Cornell lives with her husband and son in her home town of Monroe, Connecticut. Greg "Chipper' Anderson is a professional fox hunter in North Carolina and still plays in bands. Michael "Spike" Priggen is a songwriter and recording artist in New York City and publishes the blog Bedazzled.tv.

Read TV Neats Original PR Letter
Buy TV Neats & The Excerpts "Pop As Can Be & Dance City All The Way"

Posted by on Aug 05, 2006 at 11:25 AM in Scrapbook, TV Neats |

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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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