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Currently the Jim Ruiz Group are only legends in their own minds, but pop music this fun and refreshingly unmannered deserves a much wider audience. They give all of 1960s pop a big bear hug -- the band has echoes of old Astrud Gilberto and California Dreaming-era Wes Montgomery, as well as the more standard Beatles and Kinks influences. They combine these sounds with more modern retro references, such as early Everything But the Girl, the Style Council, and Haircut 100. This type of creamy pop is being made in Europe by Sarah Cracknell, Louis Philippe and Le Mans, although there is nothing Euro about this very American Minneapolis group except that they love great U.S. music as much as their Siesta label mates. Don't go for that expensive import price tag -- both Oh, Brother Where Art Thou (a nod to Preston Sturges) and the even finer Sniff have earned rave reviews and are available at cheap, domestic prices. We can't think of a better way to blow a few bucks than to actually make the Jim Ruiz Group legendary.
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