Only recently has Wisconsin’s ’80s power-pop legacy been unearthed for critical re-examination. Following reissues earlier this decade of material by Milwaukee and Madison bands in the genre, one of Green Bay’s finest is receiving their due. Fun w/ Atoms’ Main Street has at its base the refangled Merseybeat melodic and instrumental tropes that form the rudiments of the style. The trio took those influences in directions very much of their time in the middle of the Reagan years, but the results don’t really sound dated three decades on. Crisp production by Butch Vig, toward the end of his initial tenure with Madison power popsters Spooner and six years before changing the face of rock with Nirvana, can be credited some with how the album has aged so well.
The band’s openness to post-punk darkness, dance-oriented rock pulsation and the twang of nascent cow punk give the music a diversity that made Fun w/ Atoms a bit ahead of their time. Rick Smith’s plaintive vocals, sometimes recalling Spooner vocalist Doug Erikson, seal the deal, especially when the lyrics stray from traditional boy/girl relationships. And they do often enough, as Smith tells of working on an Alaskan pipeline, romancing a paramour he met through National Geographic and using the weather and their hometown NFL team for romantic metaphor. A second CD is comprised of a 2015 concert at Green Bay’s Lyric Room with three songs from Fun w/ Atoms’ unfortunately slim discography added for good measure. The third disc? A logo-embossed coaster!
