The Junior League – Our Broadcast Day

I’ve been a fan of Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck  and The Minus 5 for as long as I can remember. That said, I hadn’t realized until now that Joe Adragna, brainchild behind The Junior League, had been the band’s drummer for some time. As the story goes, Adragna attended a Minus 5 show years back, at a low point in his career. The show was inspirational. Joe befriended the guys, ended up in the band and continued to record as a result of the meeting. That fortuitous moment spawned five albums – and now a sixth entitled Our Broadcast Day.

Similar to past albums, Adragna spares no jangle on the thirteen tracks contained within. This time however, the songs are a little more laid back. And all are reminiscent of the radio programming of yesteryear (hence the title of the album?). The Ziggy Stardust influenced  “1973 Nervous Breakdown” immediately comes to mind. “Kinda Lost” employs Byrdsian guitars to maximum effect. The undeniably catchy “Nattering Nabobs” is another power pop gem.

Power Pop Parody

Speaking of our favorite genre, Adragna gives is “Skinny Ties”. He cites various online discussions about its definition as the impetus for the song.  I’ve always found the discussions to be ridiculous and pointless, not unlike debating the relative value of athletes of different generations. Apparently, Adragna sees the humor in it as well.

From the opening chorus, you get the idea. “When they hang themselves with their skinny ties, don’t ask why”. Chock full of as many clichés as he could pack into 2:34 – and its pretty damn catchy. It’s an absolute blast! the song even ends on a Beatles-friendly chord. Note to Joe: Where are the handclaps?

Get The Junior Leagues’ Our Broadcast Day

Our Broadcast Day is a rock solid album chock full of well written songs, smoothly pleasing vocals, jangly guitars and a bit of humor thrown in for good measure. Pick it up at Amazon,  Kool Kat Musik or anywhere fine power pop records are sold.