Day After Day #278: DVP

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

DVP (2016)

I've been writing the majority of these posts about music from many years ago, but that's not to imply that I don't listen to current rock music. For the last 11 years, I've been putting together a weekly radio show and most of those episodes include an hour of new music. One of the bands that I've really grown to love is PUP, a punk-pop act out of my hometown Toronto.

Originally called Topanga (after a character on the old sitcom Boy Meets World), the band was formed in 2010 by bassist Nestor Chumak, guitarist Steve Sladkowski, drummer Zack Mykula and singer-guitarist Stefan Babcock. As the group's sound got heavier and punkier, they decided to change their name to PUP, which was an acronym based on a quote from Babcock's grandmother; she said playing in a rock band was a "pathetic use of potential."

The band released their self-titled debut in Canada in October 2013, later signing to SideOneDummy and re-releasing it in the U.S. in April 2014. A heavy touring schedule with bands like the Hives, the Menzingers, Lemuria and Cayetana helped generate buzz for PUP, which then played at the Reading and Leeds festivals in the U.K. and Riot Fest at Chicago and Toronto. The group specializes in sarcastic lyrics, big riffs, gang vocals and catchy hooks.

The group's second album, The Dream is Over, came out in May 2016; the title was a quote from Babcock's doctor after examining the singer's damaged vocal cords. The lead track on the album, "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will," starts off quietly before erupting in punk fury halfway through and it segues right into the album's first single, "DVP," named after the heavily congested highway that runs through Toronto.

"Your sister thinks that I'm a freak/She's been ignoring my calls, we haven't spoken in a week/I get so drunk that I can't speak/Yeah, nothing's workin' and our future's lookin' bleak, and I said/Three beers and I'm so messed up/Get drunk and I can't shut up/She says that I drink too much/I'm fucked up and she hates my guts/She says I need to grow up."

The song hurtles along as Babcock continues to chronicle his bad decisions.

"I'm drivin' fast to get away/Doin' 180 on the Don Valley Parkway/Yeah, I'd be better off dead/I don't give a shit, I just don't wanna die, and I don't wanna live, I said."

Babcock has expressed some regret about the song glorifying bad habits, but he said he still loves the song. Certainly it's not the first song about immature behavior; it's definitely a cautionary tale, at least for those of us who have moved on from such hijinks.

"Three beers and I'm so messed up/Get drunk and I can't shut up/She says that I drink too much/Fucked up and she hates my guts/I just don't know what to do/I'm still fucked up over you/She says that I drink too much/Hawaiian red fruit punch/She says I need to grow up."

The band released a fun lyric video for the song, with the lyrics running over clips from classic videogames. The Dream is Over hit #82 on the Billboard 200 and performed well on several other Billboard charts, including topping the Heatseekers Albums chart.

In the years since, PUP has released two more albums and an EP, all of which are excellent. The most recent is 2022's The Unraveling of PUPTheBand, a concept album about a band named PUP that was falling apart. Somehow I still haven't seen them live, which is something I plan to rectify the next time they come through town. The band doesn't take itself seriously, which is part of its appeal, but it still rocks furiously. PUP is one of the best groups going right now.

Day After Day #277: The Bottom Line

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Bottom Line (1985)

After the Clash fired lead guitarist and co-lead singer Mick Jones in 1983, things really got weird. The band's appearance at the 1983 US Festival was Jones' last show with the Clash. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon fired Jones that fall, replacing him with Nick Sheppard and Vince White. That Clash lineup released the album Cut the Crap in November 1985 and other than the single "This is England," it was an abysmal failure. 

Meanwhile, after he left the Clash, Jones played briefly with General Public before forming the band Top Risk Action Company (T.R.A.C.) with former Clash drummer Topper Headon; after Jones fire Headon for being hooked on heroin and Lennard either left or was fired, the band split up. Jones and bassist Leo Williams from T.R.A.C. teamed with film director Don Letts, drummer Greg Roberts and keyboardist Dan Donovan to form Big Audio Dynamite in 1984. 

The band released This Is Big Audio Dynamite in November 1985, introducing a post-punk sound that incorporated tons of movie samples (mostly from spaghetti Westerns) and sound effects, beatbox rhythms and Jones' unmistakable lead vocals. The single was 4:35, but the 12-inch version of the song, which clocks in at 8:45, is considered the definitive version.

"The horses are on the track/There's a new dance that's going around/When the hits start flying you gotta get down/All the young people dance round the square/That old time groove is really nowhere/When you reach the bottom line/The only thing to do is climb/Pick yourself up off the floor/Don't know what you're waiting for."

B.A.D. was definitely focused on the dance floor, far from the Clash's weighty role as spokespunks for a generation. But Jones would sneak some political commentary in between the beats and samples.

"A dance to the tune of economic decline/Is when you do the bottom line/Nagging questions always remain/Why did it happen and who was to blame?/When you reach the bottom line/The only thing to do is climb/Pick yourself up off the floor/Don't know what you're waiting for."

The song is catchy and anthemic, although it didn't really hit with the public. It only reached #97 on the U.K. Singles Chart (as opposed to "This is England," which hit #24), although it hit #33 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in the U.S. But it got plenty of play on WBCN in Boston, where I first heard it; similarly, the album's other singles "E=MC2" and "Medicine Show" also got some play. Strummer and Simonon actually appeared in the "Medicine Show" video as police officers.

Strummer, who had disbanded the Clash by this point, helped Jones out on 1986's No. 10, Upping Street, co-producing the album and co-writing five songs. B.A.D. had a good rest of the '80s, releasing two more well-received albums, including 1989's Megatop Phoenix. But in 1990, Jones debuted a new version of the band called B.A.D. II in which he was the only remaining member from the original lineup. After releasing a U.K.-only album Kool Aid in 1990, B.A.D. II released The Globe in 1991 and scoring the hit "Rush," which hit #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In the U.K., the song was released as a double A-side single with the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go," which went to #1; the accolade was given to the Clash. The title track from the album was also a rock radio hit in the U.S. 

The band opened for U2 on the Zoo TV tour and then headlined an MTV 120 Minutes tour with Public Image Ltd., Live and Blind Melon. The rest of the '90s was a struggle for Jones and the band, however. In 1994, going as Big Audio, the band released Higher Power, which didn't do much; 1995's F-Punk did even less and the band's last album, Entering a New Ride, wasn't even released by the group's label, Radioactive Records. B.A.D. started releasing songs from the album online, but by 2001, the band split up.

Jones teamed with Tony James (Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik) to form Carbon/Silicon in 2002. The group has been pretty prolific, releasing a ton of music (much of it for free online) but remaining fairly low profile. In 2011, the original lineup of B.A.D. reunited for a short tour; I saw them at Avalon in Boston and they were great.  But that's the last we've heard from the group. Jones has also worked as a producer and has collaborated with Gorillaz, the Wallflowers, the Flaming Lips and the Avalanches.

Day After Day #276: Johnny Come Home

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Johnny Come Home (1985)

Becoming a successful band is difficult and rare. Walking away at the height of their fame is even more rare. Fine Young Cannibals were on top in the late '80s and within a few years were done. And amazingly, over 30 years later, they still haven't reunited, which is also pretty rare.

The group was formed in 1984 by David Steele (bass) and Andy Cox (guitar), former members of the Beat, who teamed up with singer Roland Gift (formerly of ska-punk group the Akrylykz). The band struggled to get a record deal, but after their video for "Johnny Come Home" was played on the British show The Tube, they suddenly received offers. 

"Johnny Come Home" was released in May 1985, well ahead of their self-titled debut album, which came out in December. The song mixes rock and ska, much like Steele and Cox's work with the Beat, but adds in some jazzy trumpet and the unique vocals of Gift, whose quavering voice set the group apart. The guy is instantly identifiable. 

The song tells the tale of a young runaway, switching perspectives from the runaway to his parents.

"Nobody knows/The trouble you feel/Nobody cares/The feeling is real/Johnny, we're sorry/Won't you come on home?/We worry/Won't you come on?/What is wrong in my life that I must get drunk every night?/Johnny, we're sorry."

The song was a top 10 hit in the U.K., getting up to #8 on the U.K. Singles chart, but it only got to #76 on the Billboard Hot 100; "Johnny Come Home" hit #9 on the Billboard dance chart, however.

"Use the phone/Call your mom/She's missing you badly/Who do you know?/Where will you stay?/Big city life/Is not what they say/Johnny, we're sorry/Won't you come on home?/We worry/Won't you come on?/What is wrong with my life that I must get drunk every night?/Johnny, we're sorry."

The album went to #11 in the U.K. and #2 in Australia, but got as high as #49 in the U.S. A cover of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" was also a hit in the U.K.

FYC appeared in the 1987 Barry Levinson film Tin Men as a club band and included songs on the soundtrack, including "Good Thing." Steele and Cox also released an instrumental house single called "Tired of Getting Pushed Around" in '87 under the name Two Men, a Drum Machine and a Trumpet. Gift, who was also an actor, appeared in the Stephen Frears movie Sammy and Rosie Get Laid.

Two years later, the group released The Raw and the Cooked, which totally blew up, especially in the U.S. "Good Thing" and "She Drives Me Crazy" both went to #1. Some of the album was already recorded, including the three songs from Tin Men and a cover of the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)." 

The band was hoping to have Prince produce the second half of the album, but he was unavailable, so the band was paired with producer David Z, who had worked with Prince and was the brother of Bobby Z of the Revolution. The subsequent album combined the band's retro soul leanings with modern dance sounds to huge effect, going to #1 in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and Austria. After spending seven weeks at #1 in the U.S., the album was bumped by Prince's Batman soundtrack.

 

A remix album, appropriately dubbed The Raw & the Remix, was released in 1990. But after this, there was very little FYC activity. The band contributed a Cole Porter cover to the Red Hot + Blue AIDS benefit album in 1990 and then split up in 1992. Disagreements between the band members led to the breakup, although they did briefly get together in 1996 to record a song for a greatest hits collection. Gift released a solo album in 2002 and has made occasional acting appearances in U.K. movies and TV shows. Steele has worked as a producer and has played on a number of albums by other artists; Cox has been less active, releasing an album as Cribabi with Japanese singer Yukari Fujiu in 2002.

All these years later, it doesn't appear an FYC reunion is in the offing, but I suppose you never know. All we have are the two albums they made in the '80s and those are very good indeed.

Day After Day #275: Ruby Soho

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Ruby Soho (1995)

In rock music, there's a fine line between homage and rip-off. We're far enough into rock (70+ years!) where even the bands you thought were derivative have bands copying them. But just because you sound a lot like another artist shouldn't automatically disqualify the validity of your music. When I first heard Rancid's "Roots Radical" in 1995, I kind of dismissed them as Clash ripoffs, but then I heard the next few singles off ...And Out Come the Wolves and I realized these guys were really good.

Rancid was formed in Berkeley, California in 1991 by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, who had previously been in Bay Area ska-punk legends Operation Ivy. After some lineup changes, the band was solidified by adding Lars Frederiksen on guitar and Brett Reed on drums. They released a self-titled debut album on Epitaph in 1993, but it was 1994's Let's Go that put Rancid on the map, riding the wave of younger punk bands that was led by Green Day and the Offspring. The band was pursued by several major labels, including Madonna's Maverick Records.

Ultimately, Rancid stuck with Epitaph and released ...And Out Come the Wolves in August 1995 and found immediate success with its three singles, "Roots Radicals," "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho." The album leaned on the band's ska roots with songs like "Time Bomb," but it also embraced pop punk with the ridiculously catchy "Ruby Soho." 

Armstrong's raspy growl tells the tale of two lovers dealing with an uncertain future.

"Echoes of reggae/Comin' through my bedroom wall/Havin' a party up next door/But I'm sittin' here all alone/Two lovers in the bedroom/And the other started to shout/All I got was this blank stare/And that don't carry no clout at all/Go/Destination unknown/Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Soho/Destination unknown/Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Soho." 

You can play spot the reference with these guys, but they play with such heart and energy, it's hard not to like them. Once I picked up the album, I was sold. They're great musicians and they can write a gang-vocal chorus that'll stick in your brain until the end of time.

"He's singin'/And she's there to lend a hand/He's seen his name on the marquee/But she will never understand/Once again he's leavin'/And she's there with a tear in her eye/Embraces with a warm gesture, it's time/Time to say goodbye."

The song hit #13 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and the album went gold within six months, and eventually went platinum. Rancid performed both "Roots Radicals" and "Ruby Soho" on Saturday Night Live.

The band toured the album heavily for two years before recording its fourth album, Life Won't Wait, which came out in June 1998. It didn't perform as well as its predecessor, but it leaned into roots reggae, dub and funk and has held up well. Rancid's next few albums received mixed reviews and in 2004, the band took a hiatus. Armstrong played with his side project the Transplants, guested on a Cypress Hill album and released a solo album, A Poet's Life, in 2007 (which is excellent, btw). Frederiksen worked on his band Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and Freeman briefly toured with Social Distortion.

Over the years, "Ruby Soho" has been covered by everyone from the Dollyrots to Vampire Weekend to the great Jimmy Cliff (see below) to Phish's Mike Gordon.

Rancid reformed in 2006 and has released four albums since, including last year's Tomorrow Never Comes, which was pretty good. So yeah, they sound a lot like bands that came before, but they also brought a lot to the table. Which can't be said for the many Led Zep clones that have popped up over the years (see Kingdom Come and Greta Van Fleet, for examples). And honestly, I feel like they've held up better than their contemporaries like Green Day and the Offspring. So they've got that going for them, which is nice.

Day After Day #274: Girls Talk

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Girls Talk (1979)

Many artists have had vanity labels over the years, usually to release their own material. When Led Zeppelin was at the height of its powers in 1974, its contract with Atlantic Records expired and the band decided to start its own label, Swan Song Records. The Rolling Stones and Beatles had done similar moves a few years earlier; the idea was to release future Zeppelin albums as well as music by other artists the band liked. 

The first Swan Song releases weren't Zep-related, but the debut album by Bad Company and a new record from the Pretty Things. The label was active for a decade, ending in 1983 after Zep broke up and manager Peter Grant fell into ill health (although Swan Song is still used for re-releases of its albums). One of the artists who signed to the label in the early days was Welsh guitarist Dave Edmunds, who had been playing in bands since he was a teenager in the late '50s.

Although Edmunds was primarily known as a rockabilly artist, he also was a producer and had a big hit in 1970 with a cover of "I Hear You Knocking." He produced early '70s British pub rock acts like Brinsley Schwarz (featuring a young Nick Lowe) and Flamin' Groovies as well as blues-rockers Foghat. Edmunds released a 1972 album called Rockpile and for the tour, called his band Dave Edmunds and Rockpile; after the tour, the band split up.

In 1976, Edmunds and Lowe formed a new version of Rockpile along with Billy Bremner and Terry Williams (who had played drums in the original Rockpile); by this point, Rockpile's sound had evolved into power pop, although it also got lumped in as new wave by the late '70s. But because Edmunds had his deal with Swan Song and Lowe had his with Stiff Records (where he was in-house producer), things got a little complicated. Essentially, the band would record albums and then release them as either Lowe or Edmunds solo albums. 

One of those albums was 1979's Repeat When Necessary, which was billed to Edmunds. The album featured mostly covers, although Bremner contributed three originals, including Graham Parker's "Crawling from the Wreckage" and Hank DeVito's "Queen of Hearts" (which later became a hit for Juice Newton). The most prominent song on the album was "Girls Talk," which Elvis Costello wrote and gave to Edmunds to cover. 

It's a typically lacerating but extremely tuneful Costello composition about the emotionally damaging world of gossip. 

"There are some things/You can't cover up with lipstick and powder/Thought I heard you mention my name/Can't you talk any louder?/Don't come any closer, don't come any nearer/My vision of you can't come any clearer/Oh, I just wanna hear girls talk."

Costello and the Attractions did their own version and released it in 1980 as the B-side to their cover of "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down."

"Got a loaded imagination being fired by girls talk/It's a more or less situation inspired by girls talk/But I can't say the words you wanna hear/I suppose you're gonna have to play it by ear, right here/And now girls talk/And they wanna know how, girls talk/And they say it's not allowed, girls talk/If they say that it's so/Don't they think that I know by now?"

The Edmunds version is more upbeat than Costello's, driven by Edmunds' acoustic guitar work and vocal delivery, while Costello's take is a little more sinister. Both versions are excellent, but they just hit differently.

"But the word up on everyone's lipstick that you're dedicated/You may not be an old-fashioned girl but you're gonna get dated/Was it really murder? Were you just pretending?/Lately, I have heard you're the living end."

Edmunds' version was released in June 1979 and hit #4 on the U.K. Singles Chart; it also got to #18 in Canada, which is where I was hearing it regularly on the radio. In the U.S., the song reached #65 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Linda Ronstadt also covered the song on her 1980 new wavy album Mad Love; she also covered two other Costello songs ("Party Girl" and "Talking in the Dark"). Aimee Mann has praised the song, saying she used to cover it live, and Tegan and Sara did a version for the soundtrack of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

After the success of "Girls Talk," Edmunds and Rockpile released the first and only album under the name Rockpile with 1980's Seconds of Pleasure; Edmunds' contract with Swan Song was up so he was freed to do so. The album had a minor hit with "Teacher, Teacher" and the band ended up playing the Heatwave festival in Toronto in August 1980 in front of over 100,000 fans. But tensions between Edmunds and Lowe, mainly over Edmunds' dislike of band manager Jake Riviera, led to Rockpile splitting up in 1981.

Edmunds released four more albums in the '80s with limited success and by the '90s was essentially retired, although he joined a couple of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band tours in 1992 and 2000. He did a tour in 2007 and performed live a few times over the next couple of years. His last release was an instrumental album in 2015. 

Stuck In Thee Garage #549: October 11, 2024

When it comes to transportation, walking is an underrated way to get around. There are so many more flashy and faster ways to get from one place to another, but walking is a dependable option. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about walking in hour 2. Today's gonna be a great day!

This playlist walks the walk:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

The Hard Quartet - Chrome Mess/The Hard Quartet

Kim Deal - A Good Time Pushed/Nobody Loves Me More

Dinosaur Jr. - Brooklyn/Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin

Maximo Park - Favourite Songs/Stream of Life

Bleeding Star - Don't Want Your Sympathy/Sympathy

Geordie Greep - Holy, Holy/The New Sound

The Cure - Alone/Songs of a Lost World

John Davis - Free to Fall/Jinx

Dale Crover - Spoiled Daisies (feat. Ty Segall)/Glossolalia

Nada Surf - X is You/Moon Mirror

Chime School - Desperate Days/The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel

Fake Fruit - Gotta Meet You/Mucho Mistrust

The Bug Club - Cold. Hard. Love./On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System

Osees - Blimp/SORCS 80

Fucked Up - More/Another Day

Hour 2: Walking

Run the Jewels - Walking in the Snow/RTJ4

Fugazi - Margin Walker/13 Songs

Stove - I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel/Is the Meat That Fell Out

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Walk Into the Mirror/Real Emotional Trash

King Khan - Don't Walk Away Mad/Three Hairs and You're Mine

Dumptruck - Walk Into Mirrors/Live at CBGBs '86 and '88

Boss Hog - Walk In/Boss Hog

The Jesus & Mary Chain - The Hardest Walk/Psychocandy

Torche - Walk It Off/Harmonicraft

Neil Young - Walk On/On the Beach

Aerosmith - Remember (Walking in the Sand)/Night in the Ruts

Dead Meadow - Keep On Walking/Old Growth

The Pursuit of Happiness - Walking in the Woods/Love Junk

The Breeders - Walk It Off/Mountain Battles

Courtney Barnett - Walkin' on Eggshells/Tell Me How You Really Feel

Missing Persons - Walking in L.A./Spring Session M

Spoon - Take a Walk/Girls Can Tell

Matthew Sweet - Walk Out/100% Fun

Walk and rock the casbah here!

Day After Day #273: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (1973)

Elton John has written some of the most popular songs of the rock era: "Rocket Man," "Crocodile Rock," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Bennie and the Jets," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "Tiny Dancer." He's had more than 50 top 40 hits in the U.K. and U.S. But my favorite song of his rarely gets played on the radio, mainly because it's 11 minutes long.

Born Reginald Dwight in England, he was playing in Long John Baldry's backup band when he teamed up with lyricist Bernie Taupin to write easy-listening songs for other artists. Eventually, they started writing more complex songs for him to sing under the name Elton John; his first album, Empty Sky, was released in the U.K. in 1969. His second, self-titled album had the hit "Your Song," which went to #7 in the U.K. and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached #4 in the U.S. and started a string of successful releases.

By the time his seventh studio album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, came out in 1973, John was a superstar. The album is best known for the title track, "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," "Candle in the Wind" and "Bennie and the Jets," which were all big hits. But it opens audaciously with a 11-minute epic.

The first part of the song, "Funeral for a Friend," is an instrumental John wrote while thinking about what he'd want played at his funeral, starting with bells and wind sounds with synths providing the dirge-like funeral intro before the rest of the band kicks in. After the first 5:30, John's piano provides the bridge into "Love Lies Bleeding," an angry breakup song written by Taupin. The songs were written separately but combined because "Funeral for a Friend" ends in the key of A and "Love Lies Bleeding" starts in A.

Guitarist Davey Johnstone provides a killer riff as John launches into the song.

"The roses in the window box have tilted to one side/Everything about this house was born to grow and die/Oh, it doesn't seem a year ago to this very day/You said, 'I'm sorry, honey, if I don't change the pace/I can't face another day'/And love lies bleeding in my hands/Oh, it kills me to think of you with another man/I was playin' rock and roll and you were just a fan/But my guitar couldn't hold you, so I split the band/Love lies bleeding in my hands."

While the song was too long for regular radio airplay, FM rock stations would play it; soon it became a fan favorite and John would often open his concerts with it.

"I wonder if those changes have left a scar on you/Like all the burning hoops of fire that you and I passed through/You're a bluebird on a telegraph line, I hope you're happy now/Well, if the wind of change comes down your way, girl/You'll make it back somehow."

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was a huge success, hitting #1 on the Billboard album chart and staying there for eight weeks. It was the best-selling album of 1974. 

John continued his success for the next few years before announcing he was retiring from performing in 1977 (which of course didn't last too long). Taupin began working with other artists while John soldiered on with different writing partners with mixed results. In the '80s, John bounced back with big hits like "I'm Still Standing," "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "I Don't Wanna Go On with You Like That," which hit #2 in 1988 (and which I totally forgot about until just now). His '80s output was still catchy, but didn't carry the same weight as his earlier material. 

For John, the '90s were known for his soundtrack work on The Lion King and his re-recording of "Candle in the Wind" in honor of Princess Diana, who had just died (it was originally about Marilyn Monroe); the song was one of the biggest selling songs in music history, selling over 33 million copies. 

In this century, he's done a lot of touring, with Billy Joel and on his own, and has collaborated with everyone from Lady Gagay to Alice in Chains to Queens of the Stone Age to Leon Russell, who he released an album with in 2010. More recently, he's worked with Dua Lipa, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus.

"Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" has been covered by Dream Theater, Weird Al Yankovic and fun. Most recently, it was covered by Metallica in March 2024 when John and Taupin were honored with the Gershwin Prize; it's an excellent cover and John clearly enjoyed it, as you can see in the video below.

Day After Day #272: Punk Rock Girl

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Punk Rock Girl (1988)

It's weird to think about how much power MTV had in its prime to create hits. I've written about other bands like Duran Duran and Big Country who became stars because of their videos, but one of the most unlikely success stories was that of the Dead Milkmen and "Punk Rock Girl."

The band actually got its start in 1979 when Joe Genaro and a high school friend created an imaginary band called the Dead Milkmen with a fake back story; they would record homemade cassettes as their fictional characters. In 1981, Gennaro was attending Temple University in Philadelphia when he started jamming with bassist Dave Schulthise and drummer Dean Sabatino, using the name Dead Milkmen. Rodney Linderman joined as lead vocalist in 1983 and the group started playing on Philly's punk rock circuit and then nationally. 

The Milkmen made some self-released cassettes before recording their 1985 debut album, Big Lizard in My Backyard, on Restless Records. The album started getting played on college radio, especially the song "Bitchin' Camaro." The following year, they released Eat Your Paisley, from which the single "The Thing That Only Eats Hippies" became a hit in Australia. The band released Bucky Fellini in 1987.

They were getting some attention, including in 1987 from Detroit Tigers rookie Jim Walewander, who invited them to see the game in which he hit his only major league home run. The attention grew in 1988 when the Milkmen released Beelzebubba, which featured the single "Punk Rock Girl." 

Sung by Genaro, the song featured a very un-punk and prominent accordion as the protagonist dreams about having a wild punk rock girlfriend. He wrote it years earlier after he graduated from Temple after a musician talked about wanting to write a punk rock nursery rhyme.

"One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead/I met a girl there/And she almost knocked me dead/(Punk rock girl) please, look at me/(Punk rock girl) what do you see?/Let's travel round the world/Just you and me, punk rock girl."

The song drops many pop culture references as well as locations in Philadelphia, where the low-budget video was filmed; some of the filming took place at the abandoned Eastern State Penitentiary.

"I tapped her on the shoulder/And said, 'Do you have a beau?'/She looked at me and smiled/And said she did not know/(Punk rock girl) give me a chance/(Punk rock girl) let's go slam dance/We'll dress like Minnie Pearl/Just you and me, punk rock girl/We went to the Philly Pizza Company/And ordered some hot tea/The waitress said, 'Well, no/We only have it iced'/So we jumped up on the table/And shouted, 'Anarchy!'/And someone played a Beach Boys song/On the jukebox/It was 'California Dreamin''/So we started screamin'/'On such a winter's day.'"

The song got as much credit for being "comedy rock" as for being pop-punk, but whatever it was, the video was immediately popular, getting up to #1 on the Dial MTV request list. It peaked at #11 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart in February 1989. One of the band's promotional appearances was on Club MTV, a dance music show hosted by Downtown Julie "Wubba Wubba Wubba" Brown. The Milkmen were supposed to lip sync their performance, but to do so, the band got MTV to agree to some conditions: a tuba for Lindeman (instead of keyboards) and an oversized drum kit for Sabatino. After clowning their way through the performance while the kids in the studio replicated a mosh pit, the guys were interviewed by Brown and managed to handcuff her to the tuba (see the grainy video below). According to the excellent book I Want My MTV, Brown was not thrilled and threw a tantrum backstage.

"She took me to her parents/For a Sunday meal/Her father took one look at me/And he began to squeal/(Punk rock girl) it makes no sense/(Punk rock girl) your dad is the vice president/Rich as the Duke of Earl/Yeah, you're for me, punk rock girl/We went to a shopping mall/And laughed at the shoppers/And security guards trailed us/To a record shop/We asked for Mojo Nixon/They said, 'He don't work here'/We said, 'If you don't got Mojo Nixon/Then your store could use some fixin'.'"

The song is fun and infectious and kinda reminds me of Camper Van Beethoven's "Take the Skinheads Bowling" from a few years earlier. Of course, the band's label wanted Genaro to sing more songs on the next album, but the Milkmen resisted. The album, 1990's Metaphysical Graffiti, didn't perform as well. The next year, the band left Restless and signed with Disney-owned Hollywood Records. The first Hollywood album, Soul Rotation, was poppier and featured more Genaro lead vocals, but it didn't do well. Another album also flopped and the Milkmen broke up in 1994.

The Milkmen got a boost in the early '90s when Beavis and Butt-Head featured "Punk Rock Girl."

Linderman played with the Celtic punk act Burn Witch Burn while Genaro played with several bands, including Butterfly Joe and the Low Budgets. Schulthise went to Indiana University to study Serbo-Croatian language and culture, and Sabatino played with a few bands, including Butterfly Joe. 

The Milkmen began discussing a reunion after releasing a compilation and DVD in 2003, but ended after Schulthise died by suicide in 2004. The surviving members played two tribute shows to Schulthise in November 2004 with Dan Stevens on bass. That lineup reunited in 2008 to play a few shows, including the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin. They've released three albums over the last 13 years, including 2023's Quaker City Quiet Pills.

"Punk Rock Girl" has been covered by many artists, including Ben Gibbard, MxPx, Diesel Boy and Streetlight Manifesto. In 2022, a stage musical called Punk Rock Girl premiered in Long Island, New York.

Day After Day #271: (I'm) Stranded

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

(I'm) Stranded (1976)

When you think of punk pioneers, you might think of bands like the Ramones, Sex Pistols and the Damned. But there were others making similar sounds around the same time, such as the Australian band The Saints. 

Formed in 1973 as Kid Galahad in Brisbane by singer Chris Bailey, guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay, the band was inspired by '50s rockers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley and proto-punk acts like the Stooges and MC5. Renamed the Saints in 1974, they played sped-up versions of covers by Del Shannon and Ike and Tina Turner and would often have their gigs raided by police in their very conservative state. Eventually, Bailey and Hay converted the house they lived in to a club so they had a venue they could play shows in. 

In June 1976, the band recorded two self-produced songs, "(I'm) Stranded" and "No Time," but couldn't find a label to release them so they created their own label. The song was the first independently produced rock single in Australia, and it beat all the English punk acts to the market, although the Ramones released their first album a few months earlier. 

They sent the single to radio stations and magazines in Australia and the U.K., and Sounds magazine's reviewer raved about the song, calling it the "single of this and every week." EMI reached out to its Sydney office and ordered that the Saints be signed to a three-album deal. 

There's a reason that reviewer went nuts over "(I'm) Stranded)": It's a bona fide ripper, complete with buzzsaw guitars and Bailey's sneering delivery. Kuepper wrote the song while taking a midnight train ride home.

"Like a snake callin' on the phone/I've got no time to be alone/There is someone comin' at me all the time/Yeah babe, I think I'll lose my mind/'Cause I'm stranded on my own/Stranded far from home, all right."

The Saints recorded an iconic video that shows them playing in an abandoned building, in front of a fireplace that says "(I'm) Stranded" in red letters; the band would pose in front of the same fireplace for the cover of their 1977 debut album of the same name.

"I'm ridin' on a midnight train/But everybody just looks the same/A subway light, its dirty reflection/I'm lost babe, I got no direction/And I'm stranded on my own/Stranded far from home, all right/Stranded, I'm so far from home/Stranded, yeah I'm on my own/Stranded, you gotta leave me alone/'Cause I'm stranded on my own/Stranded far from home/Come on!"

After signing to EMI, the Saints opened for AC/DC in late '76 before relocating to Sydney and then to London. The label wanted them to dress "more punk," with spiky hair and ripped clothes, but the Saints refused. The band's second album, 1978's Eternally Yours, found them moving into R&B-influenced rock, and then their 1979 album Prehistoric Sounds was jazz-blues, which didn't sell well at all. EMI dropped the band, which was already splintering as Kuepper and Bailey were at odds over the group's sound; Bailey wanted to play rock and pop and Kuepper was interested in avant-garde music. 

Kuepper, Hay and bassist Algy Ward left the Saints in early 1979. Bailey continued on with new members, while Kuepper played with Laughing Clowns and later, the punk-sounding Aints. Hay played in the Sydney-based the Hitmen before rejoining Bailey in the Saints. The Saints released five albums in the '80s, focusing on Australia, although the 1988 single "Grain of Sand" hit #11 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. The group went on hiatus in the '90s while Bailey released solo albums. The Saints released more albums over the years, but the original lineup reunited for occasional gigs as well. Bailey died in 2022 at the age of 65. 

After announcing a box set of the first Saints album, Kuepper and Hay reformed the band for an Australian tour next month for the band's 50th anniversary with Mudhoney's Mark Arm on vocals and Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party/Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) on guitar. 

Day After Day #270: Teenage Kicks

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Teenage Kicks (1978)

The Undertones fell into their best-known song almost by accident. Slapped onto an EP that was recorded only after the Northern Ireland-based band persuaded their singer to rejoin the group, "Teenage Kicks" was a Ramonesy ripper that caught fire after BBC DJ John Peel heard it and began championing it. 

The band was formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1974 by five friends: brothers and guitarists John and Vincent O'Neill (the latter was replaced by younger brother Damian), singer Feargal Sharkey, bassist Michael Bradley and drummer Billy Doherty. When punk hit in late 1976, the Undertones went in that direction, inspired by the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and others.

Written by rhythm guitarist John O'Neill, "Teenage Kicks" song was slapped together quickly once singer Feargal Sharkey agreed to record four songs for an EP. Inspired by the MC5 and the Ramones, the song was 2:28 of teen angst and it connected with Peel immediately. On his rating system of 1 to 5, Peel gave the song a 28.

"Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?/Everytime she walks down the street/Another girl in the neighborhood/Wish she was mine, she looks so good/I wanna hold her wanna hold her tight/Get teenage kicks right through the night."

Peel loved the song so much he said it was his favorite of all time, and he requested that lyrics from the song be engraved on his tombstone (he died in 2004).

"I'm gonna call her on the telephone/Have her over 'cause I'm all alone/I need excitement oh I need it bad/And it's the best I've ever had/I wanna hold her wanna hold her tight/Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right."

Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records, was in London on business when he heard Peel play the song on BBC Radio 1 and was interested in the Undertones. They signed a five-year contract and the single was re-released on Sire two weeks later. After making TV appearances and doing a Peel session on the radio, the Undertones saw "Teenage Kicks" go to #31 on the U.K. singles chart. 

They released their self-titled debut in 1979 and toured the U.S. for the first time, opening for the Clash. The Undertones had a successful 1980 touring behind their second album Hypnotised, but felt Sire wasn't promoting them enough and jumped ship to EMI the following year. The band released two more albums over the next two years, but after seeing sales drop on their last album, 1983's The Sin of Pride, the band split up in mid-'83. 

Sharkey had a successful solo career until the mid-'90s, while John and Damian O'Neill formed That Petrol Emotion in 1984. The Undertones reformed in 1999, but without Sharkey, who had been working as a music industry executive. The band went with singer Paul McLoone instead and have toured periodically over the last 25 years; they've also released two albums with McLoone.

Although it must be strange to be in their 60s singing about teenage kicks, the Undertones definitely owe their career to that song and the impact it had on one influential DJ.

Day After Day #269: Another Morning Stoner

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Another Morning Stoner (2002)

With some artists, the hype that precedes them can be too much. They get so built up that you're bound to be disappointed when you actually hear the music in question. This was not the case with ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, the Austin post-punk act with the unwieldly name. I didn't know much about them in early 2002 when my friend and former co-worker Dave Brigham raved about seeing the band at TT the Bears in Cambridge opening for Explosions in the Sky and blowing the roof off the place. And once I finally checked Trail of Dead out, I got it.

The band was formed in 1994 by childhood friends Conrad Keely (vocals, guitars) and Jason Reece (drums, vocals), who each formed bands in Olympia, Washington, where Kelly was attending Evergreen State College. Keely and Reece later moved to Austin and started playing as a duo called You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. They added guitarist Kevin Allen and bassist Neil Busch and then lengthened their name to ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, which may or may not have been taken from an ancient Mayan ritual chant.

Trail of Dead released a self-titled album in 1998 on Trance Syndicate, and later signed to Merge after Trance Syndicate folded. They released Madonna in 1999 and opened for Superchunk on tour. In 2001, they signed to major label Interscope Records, releasing an EP called Relative Ways in 2001 and their major-label debut album, Source Tags & Codes in 2002. A big part of the hype machine was generated by a Pitchfork review, which gave the album a 10.0 score. At the time Pitchfork reviews were very influential and it gave the band a huge boost, although maybe too much of one; Keely called the rating "preposterous."

Whatever the case, between that and Briggy's enthusiasm about the band's performance (which reportedly included the band throwing their guitars into the club's low ceiling), I was interested. After hearing "Another Morning Stoner," I was hooked. 

The song is melodic but verging on the edge of exploding, building up in intensity with Reece's explosive drumming and outbursts of guitar. 

"Are you asleep, are you in a dream/The copper shades of morning/Distant lights beckon and fade/Unwritten songs of another day/I fear that you would never be/Every song in the world for me/I took your hand, led you astray/You cursed the worlds I longed to save/Is heaven to you a perfect place/The look of sorrow on a sufferer's face/A field of lives to sow, are you in a dream?/And to reap/That some of us will never see?"

Trail of Dead's energy mirrors that of its Texas counterparts At the Drive-In, albeit with a different sound. "Another Morning Stoner" builds majestically with a string section as Keely pushes his voice to its limits.

"Why is it I don't feel the same?/Are my longings to be blamed?/For not seeing heaven like you would see/Why is a song the world for me?/What is forgiveness?/It's just a dream/What is forgiveness?/It's everything."

Not everyone felt the same way about Source Tags & Codes. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave it a "dud" rating, but that fucking guy hates everything. Seriously, in researching the 269 songs I've written about for this feature, so many of them were trashed by Christgau, which honestly made me like them more. 

The entire album is a masterpiece, with classics like "It Was There That I Saw You," "Relative Ways" and "Homage" among the standout tracks. The problem with making a classic album so early in your career is the pressure to top it, and Trail of Dead have never been able to. That's not a criticism. Everything came together for them on Source Tags & Codes. In the 22 years since, they've released eight more albums that have all been good to very good, but none have reached the transcendent level that Source Tags did. It's nothing to be ashamed of; many bands never reach those heights at all. 

Trail of Dead's most recent album was 2022's XI:  Bleed Here Now, which was released with quadraphonic mixing. The band had posted on its Instagram page "Trail closed," which led people to think the band may have broken up. But the band recently announced that it's opening a November date in Austin for Interpol, the first Trail of Dead performance in two years. So that's something.