Dinky Doo

“Apple” b/w “Sciencefare” single
Holbroo Records

Here we find Stewart Pack in 1995 with his group Dinky Doo, one of several post-1-900s lineups with similarly ill-advised monikers. What you should really know about Pack is you can always count on great melodies, great hooks and a tightly arranged buzz of big dumb ’70s guitars ensconced in a saccharine crunch that always delivers and rarely disappoints. Side A’s “Apple” is certainly worthy of such qualification, but this is just one of those records where the “B” side is better. “Apple” bears maybe a bit too much resemblance to Dinosaur Jr. but otherwise is well-executed and quite pleasing.

“Sciencefare” is the real blue-ribbon winner here and features a lyrical device I’ve always been a sucker for:  the teenage vignette — especially when sprinkled with a sense of the macabre. Anyone that can come up with a couplet like this is always going to be OK in my book:

There I stood at the half-court line
She took the top of the key
Her exoskeleton fell to the ground
And gave ’way at the seams

Pack’s ear for sugary goodness and loud guitars always makes for a good time, and if you’ve heard his newest stuff, you’ll know this record really finds him trying to tie up all the loose ends, but it still deserves way more recognition than it ever received. While other bands of the same era with Big Record Contracts were getting all the attention, Pack’s series of Dinky Doos and Glowplugs and whatnots kept hammering away in relative obscurity. He’s one of those guys who is sneaky good, and perhaps his utter lack of pretension has been ultimately detrimental. Don’t let him fool you, though; he’s ace when it comes to the recording process. He even plays his own drums and quite adeptly. It’s unfortunate that Pack’s musical output during this particular period isn’t better documented because much of it is on par with the you-know-whos of Knoxville’s mid-’90s Big Time.