{"id":25527,"date":"2023-06-24T05:30:51","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T09:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25527"},"modified":"2023-07-06T22:07:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T02:07:31","slug":"album-review-the-mosquitos-this-then-are-the-mosquitos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/24\/album-review-the-mosquitos-this-then-are-the-mosquitos\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: The Mosquitos \u2013 This Then are the Mosquitos!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hey hey, remember the Monkees revival of the \u201880s? MTV rebroadcast the classic \u201860s musical comedy series, and included bumper segments featuring the band (well, Micky, Peter and Davy, anyway). The success of that run led to a reunion tour (I saw them at the Omni in Atlanta; it was as fun as one might expect).<\/p>\n

That success also led to a compilation album, Then & Now\u2026 The Best of the Monkees<\/i>. Released on two different labels (one a single-disc, the other a double LP), that collection featured a good selection of the group\u2019s most beloved songs. And both versions featured three previously-unreleased tracks featuring Tork and Dolenz. Nevertheless credited to The Monkees, those tunes weren\u2019t earth-shaking, but they were pretty good. Of particular note \u2013 and relevant to this review\/essay \u2013 was the song that provided the album\u2019s title. \u201cThat Was Then, This is Now\u201d was written by Vance Brescia, leader of the group called The Mosquitos.<\/p>\n

The Mosquitos had a character that might remind listeners of Hamburg-era Beatles: tight songs with tighter arrangements, burning energy, enthusiasm and good humor. The group was quite popular in and around New York City, where they were apparently thought of primarily as a live act.<\/p>\n

But as this new 2CD collection from Kool Kat Musik shows, The Mosquitos were able to capture the searing live performances in the studio, too. As the liner notes point out, This Then Are the Mosquitos<\/em> contains nearly everything the group ever committed to tape. And while \u201call killer, no filler\u201d is a shopworn phrase, it applies here: whether a given track is from the studio or sourced from any one of a dozen-plus live venues in NYC or beyond, it deserves inclusion here. Whether it\u2019s an original or a well-chosen cover (like the careening \u201cHippy Hippy Shake\u201d) it classifies as must-hear.<\/p>\n

And in case you were wondering, yes, \u201cThat Was Then\u201d is included in this set. And with all due respect to Micky Dolenz, The original is better. Way<\/i> better, in fact. In an alternate universe and timeline, it could have served as The Wonders\u2019 signature song in That Thing You Do!<\/i> Yes, that good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rare pleasure to stumble across recordings from 40-plus years ago that warrant attention and appreciation. This is just such a case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey hey, remember the Monkees revival of the \u201880s? MTV rebroadcast the classic \u201860s musical comedy series, and included bumper segments featuring the band (well, Micky, Peter and Davy, anyway). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,55,62,65],"tags":[1259,5175],"class_list":["post-25527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-kool-kat-musik","tag-mosquitos","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25527"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25605,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25527\/revisions\/25605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}