The Sperlings’ Triumphant Return

Got a brief email a week or so ago from Mike Fuller, ex-lead singer/guitarist of back-n-the-day H-town power-pop band The Sperlings, with some pretty neat news:

The Sperlings are being resurrected from the dead.
All four members

Mike Fuller
Carl Sandin
Rob Smith
Bruce Stone

Will be working on new material for release at the end of the year.

Very cool. For those who missed the band the first time out, trust me when I say that they were damn entertaining. They were a bit of an anomaly at a time when Houston’s scene seemed torn between proto-emo, pop-punk, ska, and the occasional noise/indie band; rather than get heavy or throw on a ton of horns, the Sperlings wore their love of full-on power-pop on their sleeves, channeling Cheap Trick, Big Star, & The Kinks with insane sincerity.

The guitars were downright fiery, esp. on 1997’s excellent Sea of Sarcasm, the vocals were sweet and earnest, and the melodies drilled right into your (well, my) brain. To top it all off, the four guys in the band were the nicest, friendliest, most down-to-earth guys you could hope to meet, with no rockstar egos in sight. Every time I saw ’em play, they were unfailingly cool. They always felt, though, like they were a bit out-of-sync with the rest of what was going on in Houston at the time; they never really seemed to get their due.

The band started out a little hit-and-miss, I’ll admit (I was kinda “eh” on Glidepath to Normalcy, I’m afraid), but after Sarcasm and Green Manilow, they looked poised to do some really great things. Life in the H-town scene and the pull of real-life adulthood took hold, though, and the band imploded right around when Green Manilow came out; drummer James headed off to law school, while the other guys kept at the musical stuff.

Fuller and bassist/vocalist Carl Sandin went on to do solo things, while lead guitarist Rob Smith dumped the guitar in favor of keys and went on to the ill-fated (but brilliant) Japanic and solo techno-noise deal LOW.Z.

Anyway, this little bit of news just plain makes me smile. Keep your eyes out for more; I’m seriously curious to see what these guys come up with after close to a decade off doing their own things. (BTW, the band’s old website does still exist, but it seems a little weird these days; no sign of any Myspace presence just yet, but heck, it’ll probably happen soon…)