The Flashcubes - Reminisce
New York State power pop legends THE FLASHCUBES return to kick off the Summer with a new single: “Reminisce”, their first new original in decades and a worthy followup to the classics they covered on their acclaimed 2023 covers collection Pop Masters. The first of three new singles paving the way for a surprise new album both featuring and paying tribute to THE FLASHCUBES, “Reminisce” bows on all digital platforms June 27, and is up for pre-order and pre-save now:
Followers of Big Stir Records and the global indie pop scene will surely notice a pattern emerging, as beloved Power Pop Hall Of Famers THE FLASHCUBES join a veritable parade of their fellow honorees – 20/20, The Spongetones, and Splitsville, not to mention future PPHOF shoo-ins Sorrows – in returning to the airwaves under the label's wing. The difference is that while those much-missed bands are returning after decades away, THE FLASHCUBES, with the same lineup as when they burst onto the Syracuse scene in 1977 – guitarists Paul Armstrong and Arty Lenin, bassist Gary Frenay and drummer Tommy Allen – have been on fire in recent years. They stepped back into the limelight with the from-the-vaults live set ON FIRE in 2022 and immediately embarked on a series of brand new singles, covering and often collaborating with their guitar pop peers and influences (including members of Shoes, Pezband, Pilot, The Paley Brothers and the aforementioned Spongetones), ultimately yielding the acclaimed 2023 album POP MASTERS. That record not only walked away with damned near every Year's Best Covers Album in the power pop world, it spawned a side project (Allen and Frenay's THE HALF-CUBES) to continue the tributes.
Just about the only thing THE FLASHCUBES didn't do in this flurry of activity was to release new, original material of their own.. until now. The aptly-titled “Reminisce” – the kickoff to a trilogy of new singles from the band this Summer on the way to a unique and exciting project to be announced soon – is proof positive that, in the present tense, THE FLASHCUBES can create music every bit as bracing and hook-heavy as the artists they've been covering. It's a real rocker, penned and mostly sung by Paul Armstrong, mixing a tinge of nostalgia with an energy that's as supercharged as anything the band produced in the late '70s. “Who can forget the sound of a Telecaster through a Deluxe amp up loud?” goes the opening line, mirroring the cover art and proving its own point with crunching chords and riffs. By the time the song reaches the Ramones shout out, you'll know that The Flashcubes not only lived it during the days on the road recounted in the lyrics, but they still know how to bring it on like not a year has passed.
“This song was actually written over 30 years ago and performed at one show in Syracuse after we learned it at sound check,” says Armstrong. “It was shelved at the time, as I didn’t feel it fit my limited vocal range, and has been fermenting in my head ever since. Now in 2025 it has been resurrected, with others singing the bits out of my range, as a love letter to all of our friends, peers, and fans as we reflect on the good times had by all over the past almost 50 years. I wanna go back!” That accounts for the welcome presence of MIKE GENT, famed for his work with THE FIGGS and occasional sideman duties with GRAHAM PARKER. And that's the key to what's to come: there two more brand new singles from THE FLASHCUBES on the way this Summer, and they'll culminate this September in a project whereupon these masters of the tribute track will be paid tribute in kind, by some legendary fans and followers (including a few already mentioned here). But more on that later... for now, let's “Reminisce” with THE FLASHCUBES!
