Top 10 Pop CDs Include No Punk, for a Change

It’s time for the midyear roll call of Orange County’s best pop recordings of 1999.

Only after compiling this top 10 did I notice there’s nothing on it that accurately could be called punk rock--the cornerstone of much of O.C.’s most widely recognized indigenous music and a consistent presence on my best-of lists from the previous 11 years.

Is punk passe? Or have its most accomplished local practitioners grown beyond its limitations?

That’s the case with two of my top three selections. Michael Ubaldini and Mike Ness (Mr. Orange County Punk to the many local fans of his stalwart band, Social Distortion) come out of similar musical backgrounds.

Their imaginations and ambitions were sparked not only by the expansive punk vision of the Clash, but by rock’s bedrock traditions of rockabilly, blues, folk and country music. Their first solo CDs are both winners that expand upon what they’ve done before--Ubaldini with his rockabilly-steeped-roots rock band, Mystery Train, and Ness playing exceptionally melodic but ever-attacking punk rock with Social Distortion.

In fact, the top five slots on this list, and six overall, fall to artists deeply imbued with such old-line influences as folk, country music, soul and R&B;, and ‘50s and ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll.

I could play the Y2K card and argue that it’s a case of musicians, like a lot of us, trying to hold onto the past and its retrospective comforts in a year uniquely fraught with anxiety and uncertainty over what it will mean to live in a new millennium.

It’s a lot more sensible to say, simply, that a year is a year is a year, and that any year is a good one for artists of a traditionalist temperament to find fresh inspiration by making the past their guide (but never their slave master).

One further note: This list reflects the fact that good music can come from anywhere on the commercial spectrum. Lit and Sugar Ray, both on major labels, have gone gold and platinum, respectively.

Ness, recording for an independent label with major distribution, and the Orange County Supertones, on a well-established Christian alterna-rock label, have excellent prospects for selling in the hundreds of thousands.

But four of these artistic pacesetters, including three of the top five, are do-it-yourselfers with no outside backing, and two are on small specialty labels.

Last, as always, a caveat: This list is based on what I’ve heard, not all that’s been released. I’m sure there are worthy contenders in the long, guilt-inspiring rows of unplayed local CDs I’ve accumulated. Time was when a fella could keep up with most, if not all, of the worthwhile pop recordings coming out of Orange County.

Cheap studio time and inexpensive CD pressing costs, plus the huge carrot presented by the O.C. alterna-rock scene’s commercial breakthrough of the past five years, have made those days a memory.

Nevertheless, pop artists from Orange County and Long Beach should consider this an invitation to increase my guilt by sending their work to me at the Times Orange County, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. As a favorite song of mine by Steve Forbert puts it: “You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play.”

1. MICHAEL UBALDINI, “Acoustic Rumble” (JT Records). The best albums aren’t just collections of likable songs, but creative journeys in which the artist conjures a whole, intact world of thought and experience--nothing scanted, nothing superfluous. With this sparse, drumless one-man effort that evokes Bruce Springsteen’s acoustic releases, Ubaldini uses folk protest songs, soul balladry, wild-eyed rock ‘n’ roll and a lovely, closing honky-tonk waltz to scorn what galls him in the outside world of politics and pop culture, while honoring the personal ideals and inner yearnings that keep him going. Now in his mid-30s, he is a local-scene lifer, a memorable melodist, a strong singer and a masterful player who is one of O.C.’s undiscovered treasures.

2. BIG SANDY & HIS FLY-RITE BOYS, “Radio Favorites” (HMG). With each release by this band that carries on the traditions of western swing and jump-blues, I keep raving about a front man, Robert Williams, whose singing and songwriting have the effortless lightness and appetite for life you find in Gene Kelly’s dancing, and an incredibly talented instrumental crew cut from the same mold. So ditto, and then some, for this flawless, six-song disc so enlivening that its essence should be extracted, bottled and sold as an antidepressant.

3. MIKE NESS, “Cheating at Solitaire” (Time Bomb). When Ness’ time on Earth is up, scientists should cut through all the tattoos, examine his innards, and try to explain how such a limited singer could be so compelling so consistently for so long. Here he applies his inspired ear for melody to a closer examination of his wide-ranging influences, and even sets his trademark gruff snarl to tender, introspective songs, with gratifying results.

4. PALEFACE JACK, “Out of Nowhere” (Paleface Jack). A young band that plays old-fashioned, straight-ahead, yet nicely varied guitar rock that can’t be hyphenated or squished into a segmented radio format. Good singin’ (like Michael Hutchence reincarnated without the glitz), good playin’ and meaningful lyrics about widely shared dreams and frustrations.

5. PATTY BOOKER, “I Don’t Need All That . . .” (PMS Records). The first CD by this veteran country singer has all the traditional virtues: honesty, humor, heart-piercing feeling. Booker, with writing, playing and production help from some of Southern California’s twang-music elite, splendidly fills the part of a woman vulnerable enough to be hurt, but tough enough not to be a doormat.

6. THE ORANGE COUNTY SUPERTONES, “Chase the Sun” (BEC). It’s easy to scoff at Orange County ska music as terminally lightweight, but this evangelizing Christian ska-punk group is an artistic heavyweight. Matt Morginsky’s warm yet gritty singing is immensely appealing, the tunes are catchy, and the lyrics reflect a religious sensibility that’s alert, questioning, aspiring and even defiant, never smug and satisfied.

7. TUB, “Coffee Tea Soda Pop Pee” (Centipede Records). Scruffy garage rock is a grand, powerful and transporting thing when done right, and this is a textbook example. The title suggests that a swig from Tub’s canteen could be noxious, but the music’s blend of the Who, the Replacements, Liquor Giants and Dramarama is eminently quaffable.

8. LIT, “A Place in the Sun” (RCA). Even the songs that are essentially modern-rock rehash recalling the likes of Semisonic and Third Eye Blind have a spark, and the ones that mine influences from the Beatles and Elvis Costello really soar. The songs confront everyday problems and mood swings of post-adolescence with tuneful zest and affirmation.

9. BARRELHOUSE, “13 Sonic Splendors” (Barrelhouse). More good soul and blues from a reliable band that knows how to write and deliver a strong song. Anyone who likes the Black Crowes should enjoy this; and those who think the Black Crowes often botch rootsy rock by over-inflating it will find that Barrelhouse gets it right.

10. SUGAR RAY, “14:59” (Lava/Atlantic). I’ve used some choice epithets, including “idiotic,” “offensive” and “banal,” in reviewing Sugar Ray, my favorite local whipping boys. Now the punk-metal-hip-hop lunkheads go and make a sweet, savvy, endearing commercial-pop album that cuts through all my defenses, except for the (choose your epithet) cover of Steve Miller’s annoying “Abracadabra.” To the list of modern miracles (New York Mets, 1969; U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, 1980), add this: Sugar Ray makes my midyear top 10 list, 1999.