Let it never be said that we here at Popdose don’t unabashedly cannibalize each other’s ideas…and our readership’s ideas, too!

After I posted my all-covers edition of Mix Disc Friday, which included the Judybats’ take on Gary Numan’s “Cars,” Reader Rich observed that “someone should do a ‘Why You Should Like’ on them,” and our man John Hughes…sorry, John C. Hughes…accepted the gauntlet that Reader Rich had thrown down. In less than a week’s time, Mr. Hughes had indeed produced such a column, providing an exemplary look back at the band’s major-label work. I was crestfallen, however, when he offered almost no mention of the band’s last recorded effort, Judybats ‘00. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like he ignored it altogether, but he simply said this:

The Judybats dissolved after Full-Empty, only to half-heartedly reunite for a final album under the Judybats name in 2000 (this version only featured Heiskell and guitarist Johnny Sughrue).

Actually, it doesn’t even include Sughrue…or, at least, he’s not mentioned in the credits. In Mr. Hughes’ defense, however, the album is out of print and almost impossible to come by, its independent release occurring so far under the radar that it’s not referenced in either their AllMusic.com profile or their Wikipedia entry, so maybe he was just going from a word-of-mouth report. But according to my copy of the disc, Heiskell was the only original member of the band to carry over, with the new line-up featuring Rob Bell (bass), Doug Hairrell (guitar), Mike Hairrell (drums), and Reed Pendleton (guitar). In fact, I remember noting this at the time, finding myself torn between being totally psyched about a new Judybats album and thinking it was a little misleading to release what essentially a Jeff Heiskell solo album under the Judybats moniker. If you’re in the same camp, you’ll leave this piece with considerably more understanding about why things went down the way they did with Judybats ‘00…but, first, let’s check out the album itself.

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“I been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time.” —Dr. John

Boy, if that doesn’t sum up the self-titled debut/swan song of Bounce the Ocean, I don’t know what does. Picture it: Washington, 1991. Hawk Bjorn and John Utter are surrounded by the burgeoning world of grunge, but choosing to follow their muse rather than the trends of the day, they produce an album of glossy, harmony-laden pop music that would’ve sounded more at home on the radio in 1981. They still managed to score a decent-sized radio hit, though, thanks to the album’s opening track, “Throw It All Away,” and another song — “Wasting My Time” — earned them at least a little bit of airplay, though it admittedly did so without ever actually charting.

You’d like to think that it was a testament to the quality of their work (because, wow, those harmonies are fucking incredible), but really, when was the last time quality had anything to do with a song becoming a hit?

In truth, the band had been working their way up through the ranks for a while, first getting some exposure by getting their music placed in the Patrick Dempsey flick Some Girls (1988), then by getting signed to Private Music, a label that had previously been known solely for its new-age artists (Yanni, Suzanne Ciani) but in ‘91 was getting ink in the music trades for securing Ringo Starr for their roster. It was probably the Private Music connection that did the most for their profile, but a high profile can only do so much when the music you’re making isn’t anything remotely like what “the kids” are listening to. In fact, looking back, it’s somewhat ironic that the band’s big-nosed labelmate was actually playing more to current musical trends than the members of Bounce the Ocean were, since Starr’s album featured a cover of the Posies’ “Golden Blunders” and had Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning from Jellyfish providing harmonies.

But, really, who’s complaining?

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