Sugar Stems

Bands everywhere are partying like it’s 1963 in 2010, digging out old girl-group harmonies and Brill Building melodies and sprucing them up with crunchy guitars. Sugar Stems aren’t exactly revolutionaries in this regard, but the Milwaukee band’s debut, Sweet Sounds Of The Sugar Stems, is still a sparkling example of how this template can spin infectious power-pop gems that marry the sexy purr of Ronnie Spector with the giddy energy of The Go-Gos. Sweet Sounds is built around the interplay of ex-Flips singer-guitarist Betsy Borst and Drew Fredrichsen, who retains the gum-chomping, sleeve-rolling cool he mastered as guitarist for Sheboygan’s Jetty Boys. Every song is packed with big, open chords and even bigger vocal harmonies supplied by Borst and Fredrichsen, particularly on the soaring “I Don’t Wanna Be Around You.” 

Updated 11/21/2011