@larsman: The Smithereens’ songs had some great hooky riffs, didn’t they?!
@mitchagain: Jellyfish were astounding, just as good live as on record.
The Wondermints were very well known around L.A. before they hooked up with Brian Wilson, and their CD’s are now somewhat hard to find. Their original bassist Brian Kassan became frustrated by the group not recording more of his songs (he was their George Harrison in that regard), and left the group shortly before the Wilson hookup. Oops! ;-)
Kassan then formed his own group, Chewy Marble, and switched to piano. Derrick Anderson---a fantastic musician who had his own group, The Andersons---was enlisted to play bass (he has more recently been playing bass with The Bangles on the road). Their 1997 s/t first album (on Permanent Press Records) contains lots of good Pop music, with one instant classic: "I Want You Only".
Drummer Tammy Glover left the group after that album, and my were services were engaged (Kassan and I met when we were both recruited to back Emitt Rhodes for his first live show in a quarter century, at the 1997 Poptopia Festival) for the recording of the second---Bowl Of Surreal, an over-all better album.
