CD Reviews

The Oohlas

Best Stop Pop | Stolen Transmission

By SHARON STEEL | November 7, 2006

2.0 Stars

The Oohlas are a blogger’s band, and not just in the traditional sense. They’ve been pushed and promoted by one blogger in particular: Sarah Lewitinn, a former Spin writer and VH1 commentator best known by her hipster DJ handle Ultragrrrl. She now co-runs and handles A&R for Stolen Transmission, a new Island imprint, and the Oohlas, an LA quartet, are relatively new as well, having written songs together for only some two years. Yes, guitarist Greg Elklund used to drum for Everclear, and what with the marketable schoolgirl-chic look sported by co-vocalist/guitarist Ollie Stone, it’s no shocker that the Oohlas (named after slang for a chick so hot the only way to describe her is through onomatopœia) were courted by majors and major minor labels alike from day one. They signed with Stolen Transmission and have been fed to the readers of Lewitinn’s blog for months. Early MySpace tracks garnered more 20,000 plays and sounded promising. And their return to dirty-yet-accessible ’90s alt-rock seemed refreshing too. Yet despite all of Lewitinn’s flyers and fan-girl pyrotechnics, Best Stop Pop doesn’t shake things up much. The album is catchy and pretty in spots, thanks to the opening sunny jangler (“Gone”), Stone’s sexy, clipped vocals, which are ideal for a boy-hazing gem like “Small Parts,” and the wall-of-sound closer (“The Rapid”). But it’s nowhere near as groundbreaking as Lewitinn would like it to be.

Topics: CD Reviews , Sarah Lewitinn

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