Excerpt from the Fresno Bee
"Artists You Should Know"

For fans of vinyl music (or those old enough to remember when vinyl was all there was), the sound of the needle as it drops into that first groove is magic. Fun fact: That sound has a name.

It's called a cue pop, and symbolically, it's perfect reference for the band QPOP Radio. The band harkens to a time before streaming music and digital downloads, when "the hits" were on the radio.

Let's start with the basics. Who plays what in the band?

QPOP is Art Farkas on guitar, Mike Mogan on guitar, Rick Wood on piano, Mark Randle on bass, Phillip K. Rhodes on drums and Tim Pugsley on organ and guitar. Everybody sings, some even have mics.

Why the specific time frame? What's so magical about the mid-'60s to mid-'70s? Or, to put it another way, why are songs from that period so good?

It's a pop-rock cultural goldmine. There are currently plenty of '50s and rockabilly groups, along with '80s and '90s cover bands and tribute acts playing the circuit. Our focus is a period in time that embraced peace and love, the hippie movement, social and political protest, the Summer of Love and Woodstock (the real one) with revolutionary ideas and vibes and new, original sounds.

Photo courtesy of Rick Horowitz - soshootme.com

QPOP Radio is:
Art Farkas, Phillip K Rhodes, Mike Mogan, Rick Wood, Mark Randle, and Tim Pugsley

You aren't the typical "Oldies" cover band. How did you come up with your approach to the live show?

We all love this particular era of music, and very few groups, if any, cover this material. We thought it would be fun to surprise people with music they loved but forgot about.

How do you decide which songs / bands to cover?

First and foremost, all the guys in the band know, love and respect this music. The songs are quirky best friends that we grew up with, so they're like family. However, from an analytical perspective, we also took a good look at the era, combing through Billboard reports and wiki pages to determine what groups had a high number of charting positions.

How important is it to get the sound right for each song?

We try to be as faithful to the original recordings as possible in live performance because - aside from being a kick for us - the emotional impact created by the vintage sounds connecting with people's memories of that moment in time can really zap you back to a special place.