Public Good: Blurt’s Best Kept Secret

Latest pick of cool emerging artist in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the latest (December 2009) pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Washington, DC-based the Public Good.

The band was formed a couple of years ago by John Elderkin and Steve Ruppenthal, a songwriting team that had previously garnered national acclaim back in the early ‘90s as members of Chapel Hill's The Popes (a big college radio fave). After the demise of that band Ruppenthal and Elderkin worked together in Stumble, followed by the Lovely Lads, eventually going their own separate ways to pursue work and academic careers.

After they both wound up in DC they resumed the partnership and by the summer of 2009 had released their debut album No. 1. The record's stuffed to the gills with hi-nrg pop, from the Husker Du/Replacements-worthy "F-105" and the irrepressibly jangly, Kinksian "(Imagine the Girlfriends I'd Have) If I Still Had Hair" to the chiming/humming, buoyantly harmonious "Cigarette". Suffice to say that the Public Good lives up to, and in many ways surpasses, the early musical promise demonstrated two decades ago by the mighty Popes.

The lineup:

John Elderkin - guitar, vocals

Steve Ruppenthal - bass, vocals

Sam Esquith - guitar, keyboards

Chris Garges - drums

We'll have an interview with the band posted to the site shortly. Check out the band's MySpace page for song samples, tour dates and more, as well as their official website.  And congratulations to the Public Good. They're one of the, ahem, good ‘uns, trust us.

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Bands, go to www.sonicbids.com/blurtonline to submit and have us review your materials for feature consideration.

>Our November ‘08 Best Kept Secret: The Handcuffs, from Chicago.

>Our December Best Kept Secret: Black Swan Green, from Brooklyn

>Our January Best Kept Secret: stephaniesÄ­d, from Asheville

>Our March Best Kept Secret: Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle, from England

>Our June Best Kept Secret: Wiretree, from Austin

>Our August Best Kept Secret: Bulletproof Vests, from Memphis

>Our November Best Kept Secret: The Vivs, from Boston