Joy Rides for Shut-Ins by The Cavedogs

Joy Rides for Shut-Ins, the Cavedogs' first album, came out on Enigma in 1990 with Ed Stasium producing, and it's a power pop record with scuffed knuckles. The Boston trio was Brian Stevens on bass, Todd Spahr on guitar and Mark Rivers on drums, all three singing, and those stacked three-part harmonies are the secret weapon.

Trouser Press caught the band's record collection showing, bits of the Move, Floyd, the Beatles and the Monkees tucked beside echoes of the Jam, the dB's, R.E.M. and the Smithereens, and reckoned they'd moved past pure paisley revival. USA Today liked the punk sass riding on hard rock melody, and a couple of years on the New Yorker was still calling it a set of blissful power pop crunchers. They took it on the road with the Dead Milkmen and Mojo Nixon, and live they were known for their humor, working David Cross's troupe Cross Comedy into the show. "Leave Me Alone" is the one that made the countdowns, and Soul Martini came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.