Hang Ups Turn to Old Pros to Fashion a Breakthrough

Pure-pop bands have to struggle to sell well-crafted melodies, catchy choruses and soaring harmonies in the era of grinding, angst-driven alternative rock.

That hasn’t stopped the Hang Ups, a blissful, maturing pure-pop band out of Minneapolis, from trying.

The group--which plays tonight in Anaheim and features lead singer-songwriter Brian Tighe, lead guitarist Jeff Kearns, bassist Aaron Lundholm and drummer Chadwick Nelson (plus sometimes-session drummer Stephen Ittner)--has yet to dazzle the mainstream, but it has made some inroads.

One of the quartet’s songs, “Jump Start,” was used in the Kevin Smith film “Chasing Amy.” Another tune, “Top of the Morning,” was featured in a “Dawson’s Creek” episode.

The Hang Ups’ latest high-profile association is with Don Dixon and Mitch Easter, who helped launch R.E.M. along the path to stardom in the early ‘80s.

Dixon and Easter, the production team that played a key role in shaping R.E.M.’s “Murmur” and “Reckoning” albums, have re-teamed to produce the Hang Ups’ fourth release, “Second Story,” scheduled for release Sept. 28 on Restless Records.

*

Dixon and William Hein, then-president of the record label Restless, were well-acquainted from their previous ties to Enigma Records. Dixon had produced albums for Enigma by the Smithereens and Wednesday Week, and released several of his own solo records while Hein was running that now-defunct label.

Hein asked Dixon to remix “Jump Start,” whose original version was released on the Hang Ups’ 1993 “He’s After Me” album. He agreed, the remix became part of the “Chasing Amy” soundtrack, and Dixon began mulling the idea of getting Easter to co-produce “Second Story.” They hadn’t collaborated formally since 1984.

“Even though we hadn’t produced anything together in quite awhile, Mitch and I were in touch a lot,” Dixon said in a recent phone interview. “He had played on all of my and Marti’s records [referring to Dixon’s wife, singer-songwriter Marti Jones]. So when Bill asked me about producing the Hang Ups’ album, I felt it was a good opportunity for Mitch to bring in some ideas I might not have thought of. His outlook just seemed to fit the style of this band.”

*

Tighe, in a separate phone interview, said the band members felt the same way. “Mitch really became the ‘other member’ of the band. He read us perfectly and understood our sensibilities. He was like one of the guys. . . . His dog even made it onto the record.” (That’s him woofing on the song “Party.”)

Although Dixon liked the demos the Hang Ups had recorded for “Second Story,” he felt he could help turn the material into something grander.

“The thing is, if a demo sounds great to me, then there’s no need for me to get involved, really,” Dixon said. “I thought the group was good, but it could use some guidance. I felt the guys were kind of struggling with direction and were psychologically a bit adrift.

“As a producer, I try not to be too intellectual,” he said. “I’m instinctive and impulsive, whereas the band tends to be more pragmatic and deliberate. So I saw my role as someone who’d hold up a mirror for them to look into . . . to help them articulate their own ideas a bit more clearly.”

The recording was done at Easter’s old red-brick farmhouse in the small town of Kernsville, N.C.

“The place was just full of all this vintage gear, like antique mikes . . . and this wonderful, ’56 Gibson acoustic guitar,” Kearns said while taking a turn on the phone. “The house just had this beautiful, enchanting aura that was so conducive to allowing the creative juices to flow.”

Although Dixon and Easter are indelibly linked to R.E.M.’s classic early sound, the Hang Ups, who number themselves among R.E.M.’s fans, consider the Kinks to be their most prominent musical influence.

“It’s hard to match what the Kinks did, particularly in the late ‘60s with ‘Village Green [Preservation Society]’ and ‘Arthur,’ ” Tighe said. “The wit and humor, the melodic grace, and the vocal delivery of Ray Davies. . . . I just marvel at the complex character sketches he’s created.”

*

Whether Hang Ups’ fate will mirror the critically praised but commercially underappreciated Kinks is anybody’s guess. In any event, Tighe is ever the optimist.

“You don’t see many [pure] pop bands crashing the charts these days, but still, my faith in the genre has been restored,” he said. “Have you heard the new Flaming Lips record [‘The Soft Bulletin’]? It’s wonderful. Plus, from a songwriting standpoint, you can always count on something worthwhile by Elliott Smith and Ron Sexsmith. There’s really no need to panic.”

* Waiting for Gumbo, the Color Red and the Hang Ups perform tonight at Linda’s Doll Hut, 107 S. Adams St., Anaheim. 9 p.m. $5. (714) 533-1286.