Rubinews

A bunch of Rubinoos CDs were added to emusic this week, including their most recent one Twist Pop Sin. This came out last year, and was previously available only as a costly Japanese import. I found a copy during Tower Records' going-out-of-business blowout sale for 75% off the $29.99 list price ($7.50), mostly because I've always wanted to purchase a CD for $20 off list price!

I also just found out that their 1983 mini-LP Party of Two (a collaboration with Utopia produced by Todd Rundgren) is scheduled to be reissued in March, with six bonus tracks.

These guys have been together for nearly 35 years without changing their sound, despite their brand of pop being out of fashion for most of those 35 years. According to their myspace page, they still list Berkeley as their home, but they haven't played more than two local gigs in the last ten years (and I missed them both times). I've only seen them once, at the Starry Plough in the early 90s, and hopefully will see them again before they hang it up.

I've been a Rubinoos fan since the first time I heard "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" on the radio (KFRC AM) . It didn't really sound like anything around at that time, and that song had a timeless 8th grade innocence that spoke to my 8th grade self. I went to buy the record, and told the clerk at the Record Factory I was looking for an album by the Rubynews with "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" on it. He ended up giving me the first Ramones record (which also has a song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"), either by mistake or maybe just to mess with me. The band names (Rubinoos, Ramones) were close enough that I thought I'd just misheard the name, but that was not the case.

All these years on, the Rubinoos still exude the same junior high innocence they did when they started, even though they're all pushing (or maybe even pulling) 50. If the power pop genre has lifetime achievement awards, these guys have definitely earned theirs!