Little Rock dream pop duo
the Boondogs will forever have a footnote in Internet music history: they were the first and only band offered a recording contract by garageband.com, one of the dot-com era's more impressive flameouts. Although an album funded by the website was recorded (at Ardent Studios with Jim Dickinson, the studio and producer responsible for
Big Star's classic Third/Sister Lovers!), it was never released, due to the general collapse of the entire "new economy" in 2001. Four years and a couple of placeholder EPs later,
Fever Dreams is
the Boondogs' true coming-out party. Recorded at Fat Possum founder
Bruce Watson's Mississippi studio,
Fever Dreams doesn't sound a thing like the raunchy electric blues that's
Watson's primary stock in trade. Actually, a lot of that
Big Star sound is present in the hazy indie pop textures of husband-and-wife team
Jason Weinheimer and Indy Grotto. Grotto's songs in particular, rooted in her soft but expressive voice and a taste for neo-psychedelic keyboard textures, actually recall '80s U.K. dream pop supergroup
This Mortal Coil, who themselves recorded a number of
Big Star covers.
Weinheimer's somewhat more muscular tunes are fairly straightforward Southern power pop in the mold of
Mitch Easter's
Let's Active, though it must be said that
Weinheimer and Grotto lack
Easter's knack for solid '60s pop hooks. However, songs like the catchy Grotto-sung "Stranger Inside" are compelling jangle pop. Took long enough, but
Fever Dreams is mostly worth the wait. ~ Stewart Mason