Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth!

The Alamo Downtown's Music Mondays series strikes again tonight at 9:45 with Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth! This exclusive compendium focuses on the "golden age" of bubblegum (roughly 1967-1972) and features rare footage of 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express and the Bay City Rollers as well as beloved Saturday morning faves like the Archies, the Banana Splits, the Wombles and Lancelot Link. Resident Alamo musicologist Kier-La Janisse based Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth! on Kim Cooper and David Smay's same-named book. Admission is just one buck, and you can get your sugar rush on with dollar soda pop, too.

I've always had a sweet tooth for bubblegum music. In fact, it's the very core of my musical foundation. The first album I ever owned was K-Tel's Goofy Greats, which shoe-horned 24 bubblegum-flavored classics onto one flimsy piece of vinyl. When I first heard the Ramones' Rocket to Russia, the Goofy Greats parallels were obvious even before I got to their cover of the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird." I've learned to appreciate and enjoy more genteel music, but the fun stuff is still what feels like home to me.