On June 30, Big Stir Records is set to launch “Best Of Friends,” sparkle*jets u.k.’s highly anticipated album, marking the band’s triumphant return after a gap of more than two decades. This remarkable release pays homage to the vibrant LA music scene that redefined the very essence of Power Pop during the turn of the century.

Michael Simmons explains how “Best Of Friends” came about.

SSM: How is it possible that your band, after a 20-year hiatus, manages to sound so cohesive and tight on your new album?

Michael Simmons: Quantization. Seriously though, we never really stopped playing, and we know how to make records.

SSM: How did the idea of using the ‘theme’ of covering bands from the LA pop scene at the turn of the century come about for the album ‘Best of Friends‘?

Mike: We actually had this idea back in 2000 or whenever, after we made the compilation ‘I sparkle*jets u.k.’ which had our new musician friends covering our songs. We thought it would be fun to answer back with songs we loved from the scene.

(Note from Big Stir Records: Vintage copies of the I sparkle*jets u.k. CD will be going out with all orders of the new album Best Of Friends placed directly from the label, either at www.bigstirrecords.com or via our Bandcamp site, so fans can hear both sides of this 20-plus year concept together!)

SSM: With a plethora of songs to choose from, how did you decide which ones to include on the album?

Mike: I still had a tentative list of songs on my computer from our initial idea. We added a couple that we felt just had to be there, and yes, there are many that could have or should have been included. We figured if this does well, we will take suggestions on a 2nd volume.

SSM: Big Stir Records recently celebrated its six-year anniversary by signing six new bands, including yours. Have you found a wonderful home with the label?

Mike: We have always been DIY and hands-on as far as getting the recorded product to exist. The areas where we have trouble are promo and distribution. Aside from Christina & Rex being totally wonderful, positive, and infinitely supportive, they have those two areas well covered. It’s a perfect fit that’s already showing results. We are all very excited about this project and other things in the pipeline!

SSM: Is this the first interview where the band name has not been mentioned at all?

Mike: Probably. Long story short, we had our first album about to go to the plant back in 1997 or 1998, and the band name was sparkle*jets. Then we saw that a band out of Fresno was using the name Sparkle Jet. Not wanting to change our name and our artwork yet again, we came up with the snarky idea to add ‘u.k.’ to it, kinda like Squeeze, Wham, and the Charlatans all had to do when making records in the US. It was a bit of a joke, but it worked. It also stands out as a type-able logo, but had we known we would be so hard to search for on streaming services 20 years later, we might have called ourselves something cool like Coldplay.