The Little Girls didn’t appear in director Martha Coolidge’s 1983 cult movie classic Valley Girl, but they should have. In fact, the easiest way to describe them to any child of the new wave ’80s who remembers that surprisingly good time capsule of cultural ephemera would probably be “Imagine if Julie and her friends formed a band.” By all rights, the Little Girls should have faded onto the scrap heap of history with pink-and-black striped shirts and skinny plastic-framed sunglasses, but this short-lived and under-recorded Los Angeles power pop band led by adorable twin sisters Caron Maso and Michele Maso (even their names’ creative spellings scream early-’80s California) remains fondly remembered by fans and collectors alike. The compilation No More Vinyl contains the entirety of their sole EP and a clutch of later, previously unreleased cuts. The EP, Thank Heaven!, was released on the tiny PVC label in 1983, and its six tracks are uniformly fine. Besides the band’s two best-known songs, “The Earthquake Song” and “How to Pick Up Girls” (both of which were popular on new wave radio shows, with the latter also garnering some early MTV play), the EP is surprisingly strong throughout. “Left Without a Real Kiss” and “Rich Girl” marry real-life lyrical detail with the kind of spunky pop-punk that the Go-Go’s perfected on their first album, and both the ballad “No Time to Say Goodbye” and the bad-boy rocker “Bandana” recall Josie Cotton’s neo-girl group vibe. (Note: this version of “The Earthquake Song” is a later re-recording than the band’s original single, which appeared on Poshboy’s The Best of Rodney on the ROQ, Vol. 2 in 1982 and on many similar punk and new wave comps since. This version adds a gimmicky rumbling sound effect to the beginning and prudently changes one lyric in the second verse that could be construed as kinda racist.) The three later songs were recorded in 1984 with a new lineup that matched singer Michele, guitarist Caron, and stalwart guitarist Kip Brown with ex-Blondie rhythm section Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke. Unlike many similar acts (the Go-Go’s and Cotton come to mind again), these later songs don’t try for a slicker and more mainstream pop sound. Although marginally better produced, they’re not slick, and all three would have fit neatly on the EP. The Little Girls never would have been major stars, but No More Vinyl reveals that they were a smart, sly pop band deserving wider exposure than they got. – Stewart Mason
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