Golden Bubbles on the horizon

The Golden Bubbles

ALBUM: “A Good Time Was Had By All”

LABEL: Unsigned

Album release party

WHERE: Uptown Bar & Café, 3018 Hennepin Ave. S.

WHEN: Sat., July 4, 9 p.m.

Christopher Vondracek, singer and pianist of The Golden Bubbles , saw his idea of their debut album having a “suitable G-rating” unraveling after we discussed just one track. It was called “A Good Time Was Had By All,” and not only did it use the term “schwasted” but it referenced a guy writing “[Girl’s name left out for the sake of her dignity] gives good head” on a water tower, which Vondracek pointed out was illegal.

I added, “You could also call that sexual harassment.”

“And it has hints of statutory rape … “ he admitted.

The Golden Bubbles are a band that wants to target the 12-year-old demographic, according to Vondracek. Whether he’s being ironic or not, the album does release wave after wave of glitzy pop from its dungeon in ABBA’s basement, but its lack of Disney stars might hinder their mission. In the local scene, The Golden Bubbles are in the same vein as Spiritual Mansions : flamboyant, literary throwbacks to famous acts of yore. But The Golden Bubbles are less whiskey-soaked than the Mansions. If their sound was “soaked” in something, it would probably be the colored powder in Fun Dip .

The band is made up of Vondracek, his younger brother Leo, who is a junior Japanese studies major at the University, and their friend Jared Fette , who plays the drums. They met in high school in Wells, Minn. Before forming The Golden Bubbles last year, Vondracek and his brother played in Brick House Boys , where he had enough crazy experiences to write a novella about the “auspicious beginnings of indie bands” for his master’s thesis in English.

One of the Bubbles’ oddball experiences was getting kicked out of the Turf Club for sneaking in a minor.

“All our friends helped us silently move our equipment out the back door. It was like a scene out of “Air Bud” or “Free Willy.” (After being asked why he chose animal-themed films, he repeated that he likes “the PG aesthetic,” and then proceeded to analyze the moral of “Air Bud” as being a reminder of the importance of legal jargon.)

The songwriting is split between Vondracek and his brother, who he explains spends painstaking months writing songs. Of his own style, he said it’s like comparing Pizza Hut pizza to a really fine pizza.

“You can get a really good pizza at Pizza Hut, and there’s a thousand out there.”

“Are you saying your writing is like Pizza Hut?” I asked.

“I’m saying I write a lot of crap,” he answered. Then, after thinking for a moment, added, “I bring piano licks and melodies to the band.”

Their father was a band director, and the brothers grew up in a household that listened primarily to classical music, but also polka and a small dose of rock.

“We didn’t know what ‘cool’ was,” Vondracek explained.

On the other hand, he knows what kind of music he doesn’t like.

“I have more in common with a hot dog than with someone who likes jam bands.”

Of their drummer Jared Fette’s influence on the band’s sound, he says Fette is into Radiohead and “he’s got a fine taste in music; he’s a connoisseur.”

But what really impresses him about Fette is his ability to “pack a van.”

“It’s like playing Tetris. He can pack a hell of a van. I found him after he packed a van, and he just sat in the van admiring his Taj Mahal.”

Vondracek does the PR for the band himself and acknowledges their use of color branding. Their album has yellow packaging, and they frequently wear gold at gigs.

“We have arguments, but we go yellow. It’s so predictable; you can’t not use it,” Vondracek said. “Down the road, I want it to be kind of like when KISS took off their face paint. I want to do an album that will come out, and it’s all black.”

The band itself is named after a small, middle-of-nowhere dancehall called The Golden Bubbles.

“A couple decades ago it shut down,” he explained, “It had wood floors and a big disco ball.” As a perfect example of irony, they saw a news story on the day they began recording their album that showed that the venue had been turned into a meth lab.

“If this record is ever picked up by Clive Davis , we’ll buy that space,” he added.

And for the record, The Golden Bubbles don’t do meth. They just get “schwasted” sometimes.