The Volebeats

(Rainbow Quartz) This Volebeats have been around for what must be 25 years, making incredibly pleasant 60s-style country rock/mellow pop hell bent on denying their native Detroit any of the fury that has been it's white people rock n roll legacy. Over the last decade they certainly could have amped up the strain of light psychedelia in their work to try to jump on the freak folk/garage train, but instead they produce this album, which countless tracks of blissful, near ambient Americana with pop vocals and production so sweet they make these ethereal anthems downright seductive. The greatest achievement of this record is their cover of the KISS song"See You Tonight," a staple of KISS' mid-90s unplugged convention tour. Gene Simmons always dreamed of being a Beatle-esque songwriter, and while he achieved the Liverpool lads' stadium success, the "Simmons/Stanley" brand never achieved an iota of the songwriting respect yielded by "Lennon/McCarthy." But the Volebeats prove just how beautifully Beatle-ish Simmons' songwriting could be, and I hope he hears this. Maybe the Volebeats will get to play his birthday party on that bogus reality show!