Big Stir Records, in partnership with Rare Bird Books, is proud to announce the arrival of a brand new band (featuring some familiar faces) as TheGoAllTheWays release their debut single, “Silly Girl” b/w “Tourist”, as the newest Big Stir Digital Single! Both sides drop Friday, October 11 at www.bigstirrecords.com/big-stir-digital-singles and are available now for pre-order. But just who is this mysterious assemblage of LA pop scene veterans and why have they convened? Read on:

TheGoAllTheWays is a power pop band inspired by a book about power pop bands.

This fast and furious project sprang from the pages of Go All The Way: A Literary Appreciation of Power Pop (Rare Bird Books). The idea was to flip the 'punks covering pop songs' trope to exploit the hidden harmonies and hooks in a couple of our favorite bashers. More reasonable musicians might have had a few punch-drunk laughs about this concept and moved on with their lives, but not Jeff Whalen (Tsar, The Brothers Steve); Rex Broome (The Armoires, Big Stir Records); Tyson Cornell (Rare Bird Lit); Marko DeSantis (Sugarcult), and Steve Coulter (aka S.W. Lauden, who co-edited Go All The Way with Paul Myers). This LA-based stupor group immediately booked time at a hidden recording studio and got to work.

The result is a jangly re-imagining of "Silly Girl" (by SoCal punk heroes The Descendents); and a wistful take on "Tourist" (by Florida underground legends The Pink Lincolns). TheGoAllTheWays lovingly reconstructed these 80s cult classics with Rickenbacker guitars, stacked vocals and driving rhythms, all adorned with backing vocals galore, thunderous hand claps and furiously shaking tambourines.

If you've read this far, you probably have your own definition of power pop. We don't claim to be experts, but our money's on this quote from Pulitzer-winning author Michael Chabon's excellent Go All The Way essay, "Tragic Magic": "Finally, power pop at its purest is the music of hit records that miss."

So are these power pop songs? That's for you to decide.