The Mike Benign Compulsion

Martha

Feb. 20, 2012

midnight

Power-pop is a genre that has seen its better dayand that was sometime in 1972. And yet, on its second CD, The Mike Benign Compulsion delivers a perfectly shaped blast of power-pop with “My Michelle,” a short, pointed, fiercely tuneful song with a girl's name. Not that the Milwaukee band can easily be filed under power-pop (as the term is usually understood nowadays). The Compulsion owes much of its inspiration to the ideal marriage of words, melody and rock rhythm found on the best 1980s-era tracks of Squeeze and Elvis Costello. Programmed in the manner of a classic album, Martha isn't a disheveled grab bag of tunes, but rather a set of songs with a dynamic flow between soaring peaks and gentle slopes. The Mike Benign Compulsion performs with Slo-Fi Feb. 25 at Tonic Tavern.