’93-’13: Tinted Windows, Messing With My Head

A series highlighting great (but critically-ignored) songs from the past twenty years.

James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Taylor Hanson from your bedroom wall team up with Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos and pump out one dazzling set of power pop tunes before disappearing. It’s the type of side project that could quickly be forgotten in today’s rush of releases; indeed numerous fans of Hanson and/or Smashing Pumpkins still have no idea such a record exists. Hopefully, this song’s undeniable excellence will see their 2009 self-titled record slowly surface and begin to take hold. It took Big Star years to gain recognition, and Messing With My Head certainly doesn’t live streets away from Big Star’s more bombastic cuts.

For those with overriding high school hangups about having a crush on the blonde chick from Hanson, this song packs much more of a punch than Hanson’s R’n’B-leaning material, with no ivory tickled during the making of the record whatsoever.

Taylor Hanson still seemed excited about the project years later, telling writer Caitlin Welsh last year that, “For me, getting to be a part of that collective of musicians was so awesome. It’s so cool to turn around and go, ’That’s Bun E. Carlos playing drums!’ Not that Zac isn’t an awesome drummer, but that guy played I Want You To Want Me!” Unfortunately, the chances of a follow-up record remain slim, with Hanson adding,   “It’s kind of an open-ended story. For everybody it’s a side project.”

Shame, it’s the best thing any of the four members have produced in years.