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Halloween Costume Parade!!

For the Airport 77s, music is about attitude — and altitude. Grounded in the timeless tenets of power pop, the Maryland trio assembles a sturdy airframe of killer hooks, catchy beats and sneaky Zevonesque wordplay, then applies enough energy to take flight. If you find yourself dancing, well, that’s the entire point.

Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, bassist Chuck Dolan, drummer John Kelly, and guitarist Andy Sullivan came together over a shared love of obscure 1970s nuggets like “Back of My Hand (I’ve Got Your Number)” by the Jags and “Nuclear Boy” by 20/20. Over the subsequent five years, they forged their sound in bars, VFW’s, front porches and Fourth of July floats across the Washington region.

Along the way, they have jammed with heroes like the King of Power Pop, Paul Collins, won the occasional battle of the bands, and developed a repertoire of more than 100 songs. The steady work and long nights taught them some important lessons: “If we’re going to play original material, it’s got to be good enough to follow ‘Jessie’s Girl’ in the set,” says Andy.

Grounded by the pandemic, the Airport 77s used their layover to book studio time at Arlington’s legendary Inner Ear Studio, where they knocked out eight songs in two days in October with engineer Don Zientara at the board. The band’s self-produced debut release is called “Rotation” — the act of pulling back the yoke to lift the aircraft’s nose off the runway.

No, the Airport 77s are not airline pilots, but they do want to take you somewhere: to that magical place where tight harmonies, chunky guitars and a relentless beat can make the world right, if only for three minutes at a time.