Come on you happy chickens, come on!

Last week at the Garage there was a kid wearing an MC5 T-shirt. I played the President's cover of Kick Out The Jams. The kid didn't dance. Maybe he was just a purist eh? Do Motorhead, MC5 and The Ramones even bother selling merchendise or do that just leave it to TopShop?

Oh before I forget, I feel I should plug the Garage myspace again. It's here at http://groups.myspace.com/thegarageclub. It's not exactly flush with members at the moment, so please join up and get things going. Plus, I don't really understand myspace, so if there is anyone who is more clued up and wants to give me a hand, I would be very grateful. Free drinks grateful

Today's band are an offshoot of one of my favourite ever bands (and you'll be hard pressed to know this because I very rarely mention them), The Get Up Kids. One of the crown princes of nerdrock, they have released at least two seminal albums, although I'm sure I don't really need to tell you this. The man on the keys, James Dewees, decided that inbetween playing drums for Coalesce and live keyboards for New Found Glory, he'd like to inflict a side project on the world and in 1998, Reggie and The Full Effect was born. Being the clever guy that he is, Dewees plays almost every instrument on the bands four albums, and his ear for a pop hook has transferred from The Get Up Kids nicely.

Now initially I hated Reggie. The songs were too cheesy, the albums were full of little in-joke skits where there should have been actual songs, and my DJing partner in crime at Hospital Radio, Mr Reynolds would play In The Mood For Love every week, a song which nobody actually seemed to like. But gradually they got under my skin, and the clever pop songs hidden beneath everything would suddenly pop into my head when I was driving or showering or doing charity work for the starving millions (maybe). So I present for you three cuts from three different Reggie albums, Congratulations Smack And Katie being my fave. Obviously as a man I'm not prone to saying things like this, but it is an incredibly cute video. It's up their with the milk cartons from Blur's Coffee and TV video. And because I want to, I'm going to stick a Get Up Kids video on the end, so you can hear James' 'proper' band

Reggie And The Full Effect - Congratulations Smack And Katie



Reggie And The Full Effect - Love Reality



Reggie And The Full Effect - Get Well Soon




The Get Up Kids - Action & Action