Do you remember the first album by your favorite Elephant 6 artists? If you're like me, you found that none -- save maybe the Olivias -- had a debut that took you far beyond first base. Therefore, it's certainly something special when Mike and Ricky, the Galactic Heroes, turn their first E-6-like CD into a stand-up triple. Despite their modest ambitions of making a record more musically accomplished than the brothers Fair (hell, even RATT did that), Mike and Ricky create a wildly successful retro pop album thanks to their superb ears for melody and their joyful tendency to build the world around them into an instrument. Even tiny fragments of their daily lives, like dishracks and cups of laundry change, make their way into these songs -- and this, I think, is how the songs become impregnated with the brothers' personalities. These bits of personality are much needed, as other personal touches turn up infrequently. They are seldom present in the lyrics -- far from the wild eccentricities of a Jad Fair or Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal), their words come across as quite refined -- or in the Heroes' sweet but thoroughly worldly singing.

Without the sort of blistering uniqueness that makes every Jad Fair record at least somewhat worthwhile, the Galactic Heroes will probably have a tougher time creating memorable songs. That's not overly apparent here, though, as these nineteen tunes, though perhaps too similar in their fast tempos and cheery tones, occasionally smack of pure pop perfection -- especially in "Neat Street", "Cherokee", "The Hit", "Rain", "The Summer Project" and the very lovely, nostalgia-tinged "Wonderful". Their Casio-rich, Wolfie-like "Philadelphia" shows Wolfie better at this game, but the Galactic Heroes generally fare quite well against all their apparent influences, both present and past. And as for general musicianship, what but praise can be dealt to a group of young players whose guitar mastery reminds one of Dave Guard, the underrated maestro behind all the early Kingston Trio records?

As mastered by hard-working Apple Robert Schneider, How About San Francisco? is a strong debut full of riches. While the Galactic Heroes will need to branch out beyond peppy two-minute pop songs in the future -- if only to prove that they can -- this one ranks with Wolfie's Awful Mess Mystery as among the cheeriest I've heard, with its best songs undoubtedly being played again on my CD player even as you read this review.