With famous fans such as REM’s Peter Buck bigging you up to anyone who’ll listen, not to mention leaping on stage for impromptu jams, you could be forgiven for thinking that stardom was only a couple more strums away. Not so for Basnight, who, despite sticking to the same radio-friendly guns as Tom Petty and Cheap Trick for more than quarter of a century, remains the one that got away.
This compilation kicks off with Basnight’s late 70s band The Moberlys cutting a Beatlesesque rug in his native Seattle, playing The Raspberries at their own power-pop game (Lose Me, Tonight), and perfecting punky Johnny Thunders’ sneer (Sixteen, I Wanna Be Yours). The Petty-like vocal mannerisms are occasionally a little too close for comfort, but it’s the forgivable gusto of a young man wearing his fandom on his sleeve.
Basnight’s later band The Rockinghams offer a more rough-edged garage sound on Space and More Than One Way, though the ear for melody is undiminished, as evinced by the jaunty bubblegum of Riding Rainbows. By no means a major player, he’s undoubtedly among thousands of more than competent would-be rock stars, though few can match him for spirit and enthusiasm.
