Zippo Hot Tour

Power pop, for far too long, has been music wasted on the old. Throughout the '90s, it seemed only to emanate from bitter people over 30, but now you have accomplished bands not much older than the teen constituency power pop was originally intended for. And self-sufficient ones, too --...

By Serene Dominic

November 24, 2005

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Power pop, for far too long, has been music wasted on the old. Throughout the '90s, it seemed only to emanate from bitter people over 30, but now you have accomplished bands not much older than the teen constituency power pop was originally intended for. And self-sufficient ones, too -- no Fountains of Wayne song doctors dispatched here like with the Click Five. The All-American Rejects may have a slight edge in indie cred on the bill, having been produced by Tim O'Heir (Sebadoh, Juliana Hatfield, Superdrag), but Rooney seems more likely to amass the same large female following *NSYNC once did. These guys are the real teen pop deal, innocuous pups with long bangs singing earnest songs about "sh-sh-shaking," with fey keyboards that sound like they were sampled off a musical greeting card. Their Spit and Sweat concert DVD shows the band members teetering dangerously close to teeny-boppering, with singer Robert Carmine (younger brother of actor Jason Schwartzman) abandoning guitar onstage (giving him two free hands to goad the audience into "spontaneous" clapping) and wearing a polyester white suit that leaves him looking like Eric Carmen while everyone else is trying to look like Jet.

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