Outrageous Cherry

Outrageous Cherry maintained a singular blend of bubblegum pop, garage rock, and psychedelia that kept them anchored in the Detroit rock community while earning a devoted international following across almost thirty years. At the core of their approach stood singer and songwriter Matthew Smith’s honeyed voice alongside lead guitarist Larry Ray’s fluid lines, allowing the group to channel touchstones such as the Beach Boys, the Velvet Underground, and Love without ever lapsing into studied revivalism. Their catalog demonstrated breadth inside that framework: the 1994 self-titled debut and 1999’s Out There in the Dark offered sparkling, jangly numbers that evoked forgotten chart successes, whereas 2001’s The Book of Spectral Projections ventured into prog and space rock territories. This steady stream of strong releases concluded only with Ray’s passing in 2017, after which 2018’s Meet Me in the Shadows served as a poignant coda.

Smith, who also handled guitar and production duties, joined forces with Ray in 1991 to establish the band and cultivate a melody-driven garage-pop style built around their guitar dialogue and a stripped-down drum setup limited to floor tom and snare. Their inaugural single, “Pale, Frail Lovely One,” surfaced in 1993 on the Detroit-based Third Gear imprint and later appeared on the self-titled 1994 album issued jointly by Bar/None and March Records. Returning to Third Gear, the group issued the 1996 covers collection Stereo Action Rent Party, highlighted by a striking interpretation of Petula Clark’s “Sign of the Times,” followed the next year by Nothing’s Gonna Cheer You Up, which juxtaposed expansive rock workouts with concise bubblegum moments.

Outrageous Cherry shifted to DF2K—Del-Fi’s newly launched imprint—for 1999’s Out There in the Dark. That same year they supplied a reading of “Keep Everything Under Your Hat” to the Skip Spence tribute album More Oar. The 2001 release The Book of Spectral Projections, steeped in prog and space-rock elements, appeared on Alan McGee’s Poptones label and was reissued in 2002 by Rainbow Quartz, which subsequently put out 2003’s Supernatural Equinox and the Stay Right Here for a Little While EP. A return to brighter pop forms marked the 2004 Why Don’t We Talk About Something Else EP, 2005’s Our Love Will Change the World, and 2006’s Stay Happy. In 2008 Wicked Cool Record Co. assembled the first overview of their work, Wide Awake in the Spirit World: The Best of Outrageous Cherry.

Adding ’70s glam and Krautrock hues, the band made its Alive Records bow with 2009’s Universal Malcontents; the following year’s Seemingly Solid Reality turned inward to spotlight Smith’s songwriting. Burger Records became their home in 2014, releasing both the Retrospective: 1993-2010 compilation and the lo-fi-leaning The Digital Age. The 2017 single “I Believe in Sunshine” preceded Ray’s death from lung cancer in October of that year. Prior to his passing the group finished its last recording, Meet Me in the Shadows, which Burger issued in December 2018.