The 88's commercial prospects brighten

For several years, power-poppers the 88 were catchy with everyone in Los Angeles except the record industry. Their jaunty songs and dapper stage presence made them club favorites, and it seemed when I first saw them more than three years ago (and then tabbed them in my annual local-music review "Homegrown and Happening" in 2005) that eventually somebody would notice.

Music supervisors did, mining the 88's catalogue more than 30 times over the past several years for music to use in television shows and commercials. "The fact that we've had so many [placements] is amazing," keyboardist Adam Merrin says.

The band's good fortune continued with this week's announcement it has signed to Island Def Jam records, home to Fall Out Boy, the Killers and the Bravery. The 88's third album is planned for early 2008, and the band already has recorded three songs with producer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.

"I'm still surprised by the whole thing," Merrin says, "because the type of music we play is not what you hear on the radio ... although we always thought it was accessible enough."

Some say that television shows and commericals are the new radio -- if so, the 88 is doing on the right wavelength. The band's latest coup was having "Coming Home" used in a Sears commercial -- the minute-long spot is almost entirely music, until the end.

And Merrin is understandly enthused about working with Edmonds: "The great thing is, he didn't change us. We're still able to sound like the 88 -- it's just sonically bigger."

Here's the video for "Hide Another Mistake," from 2005's "Over and Over":

After the jump, just for grins, read my take on the 88 in September 2005:

The 88

File under: Stylish power pop

For all his chops as a songwriter, Keith Slettedahl is pretty rough on himself. "The hard part is knowing deep down that we're really not improving on anything," says the front man of the L.A. quintet the 88. "I mean, I sit in my room and write songs. I'm obsessed with it. It's something I've always done. ... But my life is changing. I'm getting married, and I worry, 'Are we going to have this life?' "

He's talking about life as a struggling musician, which, for now, includes such mundane duties as passing out fliers and sample CDs outside local clubs. It's no way for a 32-year-old singer-guitarist to spend his evenings. But Slettedahl knows it is penance for being a late bloomer, a chunk of his 20s having been clouded by drug problems.

With last week's release of the band's sophomore album, "Over and Over," however, the 88's outlook figures to brighten. The album is a follow-up to 2003's "Kind of Light," a do-it-yourself affair produced by keyboardist Adam Merrin. It netted a flurry of TV and movie placements, including a song on "The O.C.," and landed the fivesome on "The Jimmy Kimmel Show." Between their cathartic pop and their penchant for getting all decked out in suits for shows, they became L.A. club favorites.

Besides, maybe they are improving on something. Blessed with a troubadour's nice-guy tenor, Slettedahl packs all manner of hooks, changes-of-pace and irresistible subterfuge into his new songs. Merrin, guitarist Brandon Jay, bassist Carlos Torres and drummer Anthony Zimmitti keep up with almost mathematical precision, and Ethan Allen's production helps it sound as crisp as a Santa Ana breeze. It's not the Kinks, or Beatles, or Todd Rundgren, but droplets of all those, distilled into something distinctly 88. But if they take anything from those influences, says Merrin, who met Slettedahl at Calabasas High, "it's how they went about things -- they didn't make any concessions to what was cool at the time."

Artistically, that vision has paid off. Career-wise, well, the 88 are still waiting for that first dinner with major-label executives -- after all, pop musicians aren't necessarily hot commodities once they're out of their 20s. But perhaps "Over and Over" will prove irresistible. Says Slettedahl: "We've always had that little-band-that-could mentality."

Band photo by Jeaneen Lund