"Kind of a Girl" - Tinted Windows

Among the wickedness the pandemic wrought, the loss of Adam Schelsinger to COVID was a true gut punch. Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, That Thing You Do. He was a pop music genius and probably my favorite songwriter of all time (so. many. hooks.). In other words, he will be making multiple appearances here on 3-6-5. But Schlesinger is here today because of his supergroup side project, Tinted Windows. He assembled a Chicago supergroup with James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) on guitar, Taylor Hanson (Mmmmbop Hanson) on vocals, and on drums, Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), who, disappointingly, does not sport a dangling cigarette in this video.

“Kind of a Girl” makes me think of Siskel and Ebert. Part of how that duo would rate a movie was based on what that movie was trying to be. How funny was a movie that was trying to be a comedy, etc. “Kind of a Girl” both reaffirms and confounds this metric. “Kind of a Girl” is trying to be a super catchy, fun pop song. “Kind of a Girl” isn’t really trying at all, it just feels like it poured out of the band.

What “Kind of a Girl” is, though, is 100 percent pure uncut power pop. Flashy guitar riffs, singalongable “Ooh-whoa-ooh-ohhs”, and a spark that jumps off your speakers like a Tesla coil. It’s not surprising that the song wasn’t bigger, as “Kind of a Girl” is both out of place and out of time. It’s a 1970s song released in 2009, released by a band who weren’t famous on their own, and whose fame was mostly behind them. The total addressable market for this song was, like middle aged suburban dads. Which, was kind of a loss for everyone.

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Class of ‘90 rulez.