Two years after bursting on the scene in 1966, The Monkees had grown tired of their status as the Prefab[ricated] Four and unleashed a trippy, plot-less, non sequitur-ridden, fuck you of a movie called Head. It has since become a cult favorite but did little business when released in 1968. As the story goes, the teeny-boppers who favored the group were summarily turned off by the pseudo avant-garde stylings of the flick, while the hip, intellectual types that would’ve reveled in the movie’s gleeful desecration of mainstream consumerist pop culture types—such as The Monkees themselves—would not come within a mile of a film starring an allegedly disposable pop group. Thus, it died a quick box office death.
Teen sensation Drake Bell—who, for the record is 21—shares with The Monkees the music-career-propelled-by-a-hit-TV-show phenomenon. His “Found A Way” plays over the opening credits of the hit Nickelodeon sitcom The Drake and Josh Show and last September Universal released a spruced up version of his independently-released debut album Telegraph and renamed it It’s Only Time, which of course includes “Found A Way”. And yes, the teeny boppers love him. But like The Monkees’ problems with their aforementioned film, Bell’s got a potential audience that may be rejecting him while depriving themselves of a tasty treat. You see, It’s Only Time is some top-notch, modern, Beatles/Beach Boys-influenced, power pop ear candy of the type that fans of Ben Folds, Fountains of Wayne, Jellyfish, Sloan, and Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers, to name a few, would go ga-ga over. Yes, you read right.
And the sad thing is, no one will ever make an effort to appeal to this small, but extremely loyal niche. We only found out about this kid and his superb album after flipping channels, hearing “I Found A Way” on his show, and being completely floored by it. Too bad. But on the bright side, if this is the kind of music that 'tweens and teens are gravitating to, then it’s gonna be alright.
