Looking for your 2010 summer jam? Look no further than the opening track from Clip Art’s debut EP Broken By Design. The opener, “Dead Letter”, is just the kind of pure pop song that reminds you that pop doesn’t have to be a dirty word. Three chords, sweet melodies, well-timed key changes; these can be the ingredients of musical bliss. Andy Rosenstein, the man behind Clip Art, has thoroughly digested that fact and produced 17 minutes of unabashedly pop songs.

The Midwest has a tradition of pop -- specifically power pop -- that quite honestly befuddles me. Why here? From Cheap Trick to The Pezband to Shoes, Illinois in the 70′s alone was rife with 60′s style melodies played with an arena rock edge. Do long, cold winters steer some bands to write sunny, summery songs with an attitude? Perhaps. Clip Art seem well poised to join this discussion. More Todd Rundgren (Philadelphia raised but still cold as far as I know) than Cheap Trick, Clip Art’s debut bristles with charm and, more importantly, hooks.

Hand claps and McCartney-like deep bass lines fill out not only the driving pop of opener “Dead Letter”, but the rest of the EP’s songs as well. All the while, Rosenstein’s vocals fluctuate between high nasal and falsetto. It’s a short and sugary sweet record that begs to be listened to over and over. If most pop music is often a Snuggie, Clip Art’s is a quilt handmade by your grandmother. Sure, that first day with the Snuggie is filled with smiles and Facebook photo ops, but days later it ends up behind the couch collecting cat hair. Meanwhile, when you need warmth, honest to goodness warmth, it’s grandma’s quilt that you keep coming back to, or is it like mom’s mac ‘n’ cheese as opposed to Kraft’s? Either way, Clip Art’s songs have a good chance of standing the test of time.

And , in just five songs, Clip Art make sure to cover all their bases. “I Was Gone” is a a slow, piano driven song that recalls Lapalco-era Brendan Benson. So many crass, commercial based bands have mined this territory to mind numbing failure that it is hard to remember how effective a well written pop song like this can be. “Better” rides along on vibes and keyboards and is downright devotional. Its soulful underbelly could so easily be rendered moot by someone merely pretending to be soulful. But there’s no shred of dis-ingenuousness here. Listen closely, and a little Jeff Buckley even shines through in the vocals.

“Six Sides” is a chippy, peppy little ditty. Closer “Broken By Design” -- which comes much too soon -- slows things down once more and again brings touches of soul to its pop structure and is replete with “Yeah Yeah Yeah”-s and call-and-response background singers. It highlights Rosenstein’s pitch perfect vocals. This is what pop music should sound like.

The word “pop” in conjunction with the word “music” unfortunately often conjures up tired song structures and easily digestible but ultimately easily forgotten songs. It’s predictable: Here comes the key change, and now we chorus over and over until we fade out. But considering that a band like The Beatles were essentially a pop band, the realization that if the artists knows what they’re doing and do it for their love of it, pop music can be both joyous and unforgettable.

That being said, Clip Art may not be the Beatles (that’s Oasis of course). But they’re well-schooled in the genre and write and play pop music from the heart. That’s all you really can ask.
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Catch Clip Art at the Double Door on Saturday, May 29! Tickets are available right now on Ticketfly.com for only $15!
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Clip Art -- “I Was Gone”