The Real Kids “The Real Kids” 1977. Red Star Records. Hard rocking power pop with a punk edge. The Real Kids was the Boston-based rockers first LP. Founder John Felice was a childhood friend of Johnathan Richman’s and was even in Richman’s Modern Lovers for a bit (at age 15)  before starting The Real Kids in ’72. He was also a roadie for the Ramones. Both influences, as well as 50’s and 60’s rock, can be heard on The Real Kids. The album is a mix of mostly originals and a few covers, including a punk’d up version of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” a rough blues interpretation of Eddie Cochran’s “My Way” and the rollicking boogie-woogie’d cover of “Roberta” by Frankie Ford + Huey “Piano” Smith. Of the originals my top picks are the hard-jangled power pop album opener “All Kindsa Girls,” the (early) Beatlesesque with a hard edge “She’s Alright” – it’s tight, an absolute scorcher, and the album closer “Reggae Reggae” (though on discogs it is listed as “Raggae Raggae”) which has absolutely zero reggae influences that I can hear but damn, it’s a hot garage rock ass-shaker. (That said, if the album cover has a misprint, it would make more sense. The track has more in common with a raga than reggae.)