Try Marvelous 3 for fun rock

April 2, 1999
Jane Ratcliffe
The Detroit News

What’s so marvelous about the Marvelous 3?

Well, for starters there’s the deliciously frothy pop fuzz of their debut album Hey! Album (HiFi). And the bubble gum snap of lyrics like, “I’d take a bath today/ And wash you away/ As all of your little blond hairs go down the drain,” or “You lost your mind/ I lost my keys.”

Not to mention the live show the band — which will open for Collective Soul Tuesday night at Detroit’s State Theatre — puts on.

“I was sold within a minute and a half of seeing them onstage,” John Heckler, president of HiFi Records told Billboard. “They are absolutely fearless when they play. They’re like the rock stars I went to see when I was growing up.”

And some of those rock stars would clearly have to be Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Cheap Trick. Perhaps on a day when they’d been listening to a little Roxy Music or, say, T-Rex. With worn-down power chords galore and dizzyingly happy melodies this is Top 40 pop at its gloriously unabashed best.

Friends since high school, this Atlanta-based trio — frontman Butch Walker, bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Slug — formed in 1997 and immediately hit the road, playing more than 250 shows a year. They put out a self-made version of Hey! Album on their own Marvelous Records in 1998 and created quite a frenzy among critics and radio alike, quickly landing them their major-label deal.

Then, in an unusual move, they went back in the studio and re-recorded the entire album with producer Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks). “It’s been like an artistic science project,” muses Walker.

But one that seems likely to explode rather than implode. The boys are swiping grand reviews and their first single, “Freak of the Week,” is popping up the charts. And they’ve already played in front of 500,000 people, sharing the stage with groups such as the Goo Goo Dolls, Semisonic and Fastball.

And while their single may speak to those who worry about how they’re perceived, Walker doesn’t number himself among them. He believes in staying true to the music and not worrying about how you’re going to be judged.

“And don’t be afraid to enjoy it,” he adds. “We entertain the hell out of people. And it’s so much fun to do it. It beats waking up and having to make the doughnuts, if you know what I mean.”