(Sunshine Pop #5)
The ’80s phase of New Wave music is steeped with bands with a mouthful of creative names such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Men Without Hats, and Pet Shop Boys, to name just a few. While this might seem revolutionary at the time and for the uninitiated, this style of naming was no longer new even in the ’70s nor the ’80s. The previous decade’s Psychedelic/Sunshine Pop realm, for its part, was already teeming with even more colorful monikers–The Peppermint Trolley Company, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Sunshine Company, and The Tuneful Trolley.
The Tuneful Trolley was among the short-lived groups that made the late ’60s brilliant and bright. Unfortunately, it got to release only one yet beautiful album that deserves reintroducing to enthusiasts of not only New Wave but also any melodic and arty kind of Pop.
What best characterizes the music of The Tuneful Trolley are the catchy melodies reminiscent of the Psychedelic phase of The Beatles, the Bubblegum harmonies of The Beach Boys, and the band’s very own style of playful, sunny sensibilities. After all, the trolley boys wrote most of their songs.
Founded in 1967, in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, United States, The Tuneful Trolley consisted of Antonio Bordonaro (guitar, vocals), Brian Parks (bass, vocals), Jack Riolo (drums, vocals), Joey DeSane (vocals), Paul Conocenti (organ, piano, vocals), and Santo Ciccarello (guitar, vocals). In the year that followed, the young band released what became its only album, Island in the Sky. Soon afterwards, The Tuneful Trolley disbanded.
Recommended tracks are “Sunny Days,” “Lovely Day,” “My Apple Pie,” and “Uncle Joe’s Armada.”
