YOUR ACADEMY

When semi-legendary Memphis power pop band crash into june acrimoniously split in 2005, founding member and bass player Johnny Norris clinged to hope that the band would one day regroup to make one more great album to complement its critically acclaimed releases from blind to blue (1999) and Another Vivid Scene (2002). While reunion shows in 2013 and 2016 sparked hope, a group commitment to record again never materialized. And, when Norris’s efforts to reform the band in August 2019 to celebrate his birthday were rebuffed by the latest incarnation of the group, it appeared that all hope of another CIJ- related recording was extinguished.

Enter guitarist Chris Gafford and drummer Dan Shumake, both of whom appeared on CIJ’s debut release, from blind to blue. Since leaving crash into june, Gafford and Shumake remained active in the Memphis music scene and had joined Stephen Burns’ most recent reincarnation of The Scruffs. When approached, the two eagerly signed on to join Norris for an August 2019 performance of crash into june songs and other power pop classics. But, the question remained: who would sing?

Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Brandon McGovern cut his teeth on the soul and blues sound of his city. With a love for The Beatles and 60's garage bands, he spent his early years playing in various bands, including Madison Treehouse, which played many shows with crash into june throughout the 90’s on Memphis’s famed Highland Strip.

Enter Adam Hill. Hill is affectionately known in power pop circles as “The Big Star Archivist” having assisted Ardent Studios founder, the late John Fry, with locating, transferring and mixing long lost Big Star and Chris Bell tracks for inclusion on box sets released in the early 2000’s. Adam also plays guitar in The Scruffs and is an accomplished recording engineer having worked with Jack White, Cat Power, Klaus Voorman, Low Cut Connie, and, of course, Big Star. Adam signed on to play lead guitar in and record Your Academy.

Under Hill’s tutelage, Your Academy has recorded what truly is the resurrection of Memphis power pop.

ARTICLES + interviews

Collectively these gents know a thing or two about crafting a damn good power pop tune and this S/T debut is full of them. From chunkier stuff like the great “Heaven Knows” to more tender, almost ballad stuff like “Sunrise” these guys know how to mix it up. Side B offers up the soaring “Better Nature” while “Bluff City” delivers, too in all of its heartfelt glory. McGovern has a seriously terrific set of pipes while the rest of the band are all great players. - DAgger zine | read more

Intrinsic to Your Academy’s appeal is this uninhibited bigness of conception, especially when they slow it down. That is, if it bothers you that “Sunrise” sounds like it could’ve been a late ’80s radio hit, well, there’s really nothing that can be done about it. Except maybe contemplate how “Sunrise” and the following cut “Better Alone Together” offer alternate reality flashes of a young Robert Pollard (we’re talking well pre-Bee Thousand) going full-on Cheap Trick with infusions of Beach Boys-Hollies harmony.

“Starlight” does inch toward the bedrock inspiration of pre-Third Big Star but with a little late ’70s-early ’80s North Carolinian action (e.g. dB’s and Mitch Easter) expanding matters. “Starlight,” also offered in a slightly stripped-down bonus alternate version that’s the nearest Your Academy comes to the contents of Numero Group’s Buttons comps, and “Better Nature,” which reminds me just a bit of Big Dipper and Velvet Crush, both insinuate, had Your Academy existed during the early ’90s Alt-indie boom, a potential signing to DGC (home of Teenage Fanclub and The Posies).

“Talent Party” is a mid-tempo jangle-strummer with some handclaps and cool ’60s-ish organ, which is appropriate as the song’s an ode to a Memphis-based teen dance TV program that ran in the ’60s-early ’70s. But “Bluff City,” even as it slows the pace and begins with a little mellow ’70s electric piano, quickly kicks into gear and delivers an emotive soaring gush that’s impossible to extricate from visions of lit lighters aloft during the Clinton era.

While “Our Love Matters (TCB)” opens with another direct reference to Memphis, the song resonates like a Hoboken guitar pop act grappling with a Searchers fixation. Nice. And for “My Lonely Life,” the piano returns and this time sticks around to sweetly melancholy effect, nodding in the direction of pop auteur territory for the record’s finale. Even nicer. But overall, Your Academy’s debut is just an inspired power pop affair. That’s nicest of all. - VINYL DISTRICT | READ MORE

Best 20 Power Pop Albums of 2021 | #12: the songs are irresistibly catchy, the harmonies impeccable and the musicianship extraordinary. Your Academy has created on of 2021’s finest albums. - Power Pop | Read More

Johnny Norris, bassist for Memphis power-pop band Crash into June reconnected with guitarist Chris Gafford and drummer Dan Shumake, both of whom were spending time with the most recent reincarnation of The Scruffs. After agreeing to play together again they recruited lead singer Brandon McGovern, who recently toured with Dwight Twilley. Guitarist Adam Hill, a bandmate of Brandon and Big Star Archivist, joined as the final member of the group. Their goal was nothing less than the resurrection of Memphis power pop glory. - Power Popaholic | READ

This album is not a reunion of the acclaimed Memphis-based power pop group Crash Into June, which imploded in 2005. But it might be as close as it ever gets to such an event. Your Academy was started by Crash Into June bassist Johnny Norris, who is joined by guitarist Chris Gafford and drummer Dan Shumake, both of whom appeared on that band’s album “from blind to blue.” Norris, Gafford and Shumake are joined by singer Brandon McGovern to form Your Academy, whose self-titled debut has 10 tunes in the classic power-pop tradition of Big Star, the Posies or Nada Surf. Your Academy nicely combine guitar jangle and high energy pop-rock on “Heaven Knows,” “Starlight” and “Why Don’t We.” They prove to be just as good with a poppier, slightly less amped sound, as on “Our Love Matters” and the full-bodied acoustic-tinged ballad “Bluff City.” Your Academy aren’t Crash Into June 2.0, but with more albums this impressive, this quartet will make quite a name for themselves as Your Academy. - Pennsylvania News Today | READ

The harmonies are superb throughout the entirety of the album. This is immediately evident with the opening track, “Why Don’t We”. The guitars ring and the chorus grabs you. “Heaven Knows” is all guitar jangle with a solo that sounds almost as if it were pulled off of the Destination Universe album. Again, the harmonies are spot on. “Better Alone Together” is classic late 80’s – early 90’s era power pop. - Power Pop News | READ

The creamy vocal harmonies signal that yes indeed, claims as to Your Academy’s greatness might not be wide of the mark. - Musoscribe | READ

For a certain age group in this region, the two album titles from blind to blue (Craven Hill, 1999) and Another Vivid Scene (Craven Hill, 2002) are sure to conjure up memories. Those were the two albums by the Memphis band crash into june, and for a time it seemed they'd make many more, but it was not to be.

Yet the words "another vivid scene" find their way into a release that just dropped in the past week, Your Academy. That's also the band name of the latest project by crash into june's founding member and bassist, Johnny Norris. He recruited guitarist Chris Gafford and drummer Dan Shumake, both of whom appeared on from blind to blue. Since leaving crash into june, Gafford and Shumake had lately been seen in Stephen Burns’ most recent reincarnation of The Scruffs. - Memphis Flyer | READ

I've sat on this for a month or two, although I have played Heaven Knows on The IDHAS Audio Extravaganza. Now that I'm back in the review chair, I can't hold out any longer. Your Academy's self titled album is an outstanding Pop Rock offering that I know will feature on many more Power Pop Blogs as the year progresses.

After failed attempts to reform Crash Into June, a band many of us are familiar with, for a new album, Johnny Norris gathered together Your Academy. Featuring Chris Gafford and Dan Shumake who were on the CIJ debut, Blind To Blue, Brandon McGovern, a solo artist who had played Guitar in Dwight Twilley's band and Adam Hills, producer and Big Star archivist, Adam Hill. - I Don’t Hear A Single | READ

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