Day After Day #174: I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

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

I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2005)

In the post-Napster era of the early 2000s, young bands were figuring out new ways to get noticed. The traditional method of getting a song on the radio or even MTV was no longer the only path to stardom. In the case of Arctic Monkeys, it was MySpace.

The band was formed in 2002 by friends Alex Turner (vocals/guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and Andy Nicholson (bass). They soon added Jamie Cook as a second guitarist. An early set of 18 garage-rocking demos (now known as Beneath the Boardwalk) was burned onto CDs to give away at gigs and fans uploaded them to file-sharing services. They started to get attention from BBC Radio and the tabloid press in the U.K.

It was actually a fan-created MySpace page that created the buzz for the band, especially in northern England, and the group was fine with the extra publicity. An EP called Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys was self-released as CDs and 7-inch records, but also as downloads on the iTunes Music Store, which had just opened in the U.K. in 2004. Soon the band was playing at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and then they signed with Domino Records in 2005.

The Monkeys (named after a band that Helders' dad played in during the '70s) released their first single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" in October 2005 and it went straight to #1 on the U.K. Singles Chart, as did the second single "When the Sun Goes Down" in January 2006. The band's first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, came out in January and became the fastest-selling debut album in U.K. history, selling 363,735 copies in the first week.

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Arctic Monkeys were getting attention on the many MP3 blogs that were posting new music. The band was credited with being one of the first to become famous totally via the internet. 

"I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" is a great introduction to the band, an unpretentious bunch of lads in their early 20s. The Monkeys just explode right out of the gate.

"Stop making the eyes at me/I'll stop making the eyes at you/What it is that surprises me/Is that I don't really want you to/And your shoulders are frozen (cold as the night)/Oh, but you're an explosion (you're dynamite)/Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand/And lighting the fuse might result in a bang/I bet that you look good on the dance floor/I don't know if you're looking for romance or/I don't know what you're looking for/I said, I bet that you look good on the dance floor/Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984/Well, from 1984."

Helders is a powerhouse on the drums, pounding away while Turner absolutely rips hot guitar solos and lyrically, captures the mindset of young Brits who were out clubbing and scoping out potential partners on the dance floor. 

"Oh, there ain't no love, no Montagues or Capulets/Just banging tunes and DJ sets/Dirty dance floors and dreams of naughtiness/Well, I bet that you look good on the dance floor."

The album wasn't just a hit in the U.K. It became the second-fastest selling independent debut album in the U.S. and went platinum. Nicholson left the band after the album came out, replaced by Nick O'Malley. I saw them play at Avalon in June 2006 and it was a killer show; sadly, it was the last time I've seen them.

The band's second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, came out in April 2007 and was a similarly huge success, going to #1 in the U.K. again. Their third and fourth albums were more successful in the U.K., but it was 2013's AM that was the Monkeys' big breakthrough, debuting at #6 on the Billboard 200. The group combined hip hop beats with heavy guitar and had big hits with "R U Mine?" and "Do I Wanna Know?"

After a five-year hiatus, the Arctic Monkeys returned with their sixth album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, which found the band moving away from the indie rock song that made them popular. It was an exploration into loungier sounds with more keyboards and varied instrumentation. The next album, 2022's The Car, followed a similar path. I have to admit I haven't really listened to these, so I have no official opinion on them as of yet. But the band received critical acclaim for both albums and their last tour was filling up arenas, so clearly they're doing something right.

What I didn't realize was the band has appealed to a much younger audience, as my daughter Lily informed me. Apparently, the Monkeys are big on TikTok and have built a new Gen Z audience that is filling these shows even as their older fans are checking out. They were kids when they started and now they're older but appealing to kids at the same time. I had no idea, but good for them. 

Day After Day #173: Neat Neat Neat

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

Neat Neat Neat (1977)

Early punk rock was all about the idea that anyone can do it, but man, the Damned could really play. The band formed in London in 1976, with lead singer Dave Vanian, guitarist Brian James, bassist Captain Sensible and drummer Rat Scabies. The Damned were punk pioneers, becoming the first U.K. punk act to release a single ("New Rose"), an album (1977's Damned Damned Damned) and tour the U.S. 

"Neat Neat Neat" was the band's second single, released in February 1977, as was their debut album. It was produced by Nick Lowe, who was the in-house producer for Stiff Records at the time. The band opened for the Sex Pistols in the U.K. along with the Clash and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, but only seven of the 20 dates actually took place because of cancellations by organizers or local authorities. The Damned ended up getting kicked off the tour by Malcolm McLaren,

"Neat Neat Neat" was a blistering anthem, kicked off by a killer Capt. Sensible bass line and then Vanian's urgent vocals.

"Be a man, can a mystery man/Be a doll, be a baby doll/It can't be fun, not anyway/It can't be found no way at all/A distant man can't sympathize/He can't uphold his distant laws/Due to form on that today/I got a feeling then I hear that call/I said/Neat neat neat/She can't afford no cannon/Neat neat neat/She can't afford no gun at all/Neat neat neat/She can't afford no cannon/Neat neat neat/She ain't got no name to call/Neat neat neat."

In direct response to the bloated prog and hard rock acts filling arenas at the time, the Damned just blast their way through the song with speed and piss and vinegar.

"No crime if there ain't no law/No cops left to mess you around/No more dreams of mystery chords/No more sight to bring you down/I got a crazy, got a thought in my mind/My mind's on when she falls asleep/Feelin' time in her restless time/Then these words up on me creep/I said/Neat neat neat."

The band whips through the song in a compact 2:40. The cover to the single features the band with bags over their heads, while the album cover shows them after getting pelted with cream pies.

"Neat Neat Neat" didn't chart but it was very influential; the album hit #34 on the U.K. albums chart. The Damned went on to open for T. Rex in March 1977, and later that spring they went on their first U.S. tour; the speed at which they played helped inspire the West Coast hardcore scene. The song was also covered by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, who reworked it in an interesting way (see below).

The band worked with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason on their second album Music for Pleasure, but the album was slagged off by critics and didn't chart. Drummer Rat Scabies left the band after recording was completed; he was replaced by future Culture Club drummer Jon Moss until the band split up in February 1978. Vanian, Sensible, Scabies and Lemmy of Motorhead teamed up in late 1978 for a one-off gig going by the name Les Punks; they then reformed the Damned with Lemmy but called it the Doomed to avoid trademark issues. Lemmy eventually left to focus on Motorhead and the band settled on Algy Ward of the Saints to play bass after Sensible switched to guitar. 

The Damned's sound was changing, moving towards goth rock as the '80s progressed. Sensible left in 1984 to pursue a solo career. The band released four albums in the '80s with a revolving cast of characters. They played a few shows in 1988 and 1989 with James and Sensible and then went on hiatus until 1993, when Vanian and Scabies reformed the group with three new members. The Damned had a little buzz at that time when Guns N' Roses covered "New Rose" and the Offspring covered "Smash It Up." They toured for a few years and released a new album in 1995, but by the time it came out, the band had split up once again.

Of course, they reformed again the following year and have continued to play in various formations since. This year, the '80s Damned lineup of Vanian, Sensible, Scabies and Paul Gray played a 10-date tour of North America and have announced a U.K. tour for later in the year. You can't keep a good Damned down.

Day After Day #172: Which Way to America?

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

Which Way to America? (1988)

The downside of being a band that's primarily known for one song is it tends to overshadow everything else they've done. Living Colour has dealt with that for decades after rising to fame with the song "Cult of Personality" off their debut album Vivid. 

Formed in 1984 in New York City by guitarist Vernon Reid, the band had several lineups from 1984-1986 until Reid teamed up with singer Corey Glover, bassist Muzz Skillings and drummer Will Calhoun. Reid came from a jazz background, but the band also incorporated influences including Bad Brains, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Chic and many others into their sound. They eventually caught the attention of Mick Jagger, who helped them get a deal with Epic Records. 

Vivid came out in May 1988, but it took a while for it get some momentum. There was the novelty of four black men playing hard rock, but the success didn't come right away. I actually remember seeing the video for the album's first single "Middle Man" late night on MTV not long after it came out and being impressed and bought the album soon afterward. Then they did a show at TT the Bear's in Cambridge that was simulcast on WBCN; I had to work at Market Basket that night, so I had my brother record it for me. That bootleg was a mindblower; the sheer power and virtuosity exploding off the tape. I was a fan for life.

Then "Cult of Personality" was released as the second single and it totally blew up. The video got heavy airplay, thanks to Glover's dynamic stage presence and Reid's monster Zeppelinesque riff and screaming solos. The song went to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the Album Rock Tracks chart. It also won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance and the video won a few MTV Video Music awards. 

The great thing about Living Colour was they weren't just a hard rock band. They could play any style. Vivid has the band playing funk, pop, gospel, country, funk and hip hop (with Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy guesting on "Funny Vibe"). They also didn't shy away from social issues. The band's look at politics and celebrity in "Cult of Personality" has never been more insightful than right now. And of course, Reid and company wrote about the realities of being black in America on a few songs on the album, including "Funny Vibe" and "Which Way to America?"

The latter song closes the album with furious energy as Glover examines the two Americas he sees.

"I look at the TV/Your America's doing well/I look out the window/My America's catching hell/I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?/I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?/I change the channel/Your American's doing fine/I read the headlines/My America's doing time."

The song was one of two that Jagger produced (along with "Funny Vibe") for a demo the band sent to the labels when looking for a deal. It became one of the staples of the group's live show.

"Where's my picket fence?/My long, tall glass of lemonade?/Where's my VCR, my stereo, my TV show? I look at the TV/I don't see your America/I look out the window/I don't see your America/I want to know how to get to your America/I want to know how to get to your America."

Glover screeches those last lines as the band careens towards the end of the song, raging against the seemingly ideal life on television that is out of reach.

In a 2019 Kerrang interview, Reid explained his rationale behind the song. "It's about the distance between the idealized America of home and hearth and the reality of life on the streets. It's a song about the schism and the idea of where does that highway go to? Where's the Yellow Brick Road for me? Where are these totemic symbols that we've arrived that are wrapped up in products and consumption? Certain references in the song have dated, like stereos and VCRs, but the materialism that those objects represent is more ferocious and consumptive than ever before. It's the haves and have-nots, it's divisions on racial lines and the difference between aspiration and reality is wider than it's ever been."

The band was able to follow up Vivid with 1990's Time's Up, which was equally successful and even more diverse musically, with thrash metal, Afro-pop, jazz fusion and Delta blues represented. Living Colour played on the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991 and released an outtakes EP called Biscuits. Skillings left the band in 1992 and was replaced by Doug Wimbish; the new lineup released Stain in 1993, which introduced an angrier, more industrial sound that went over the heads of much of the fan base. It didn't sell as well as the previous two releases and the band split up in 1995 over musical differences. 

Living Colour reunited in 2000 to play a surprise show at CBGB. A new album was released in 2003 and another in 2009. The band caught a new wave of popularity with WWE wrestler CM Punk started using "Cult of Personality" as his entrance song. The band's most recent album, Shade, was released in 2017, featuring an amazing cover of the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who Shot Ya?" 

I saw the band three time in the early '90s, twice on the Time's Up tour and once on the Stain tour, and then saw them 20 years later at the Paradise during a 25th anniversary tour for Vivid. And then I caught them in a tiny club in Hampton Beach last summer and they absolutely tore the place up. They were opening on a tour for Extreme, but I was happy to see them headline and kick total arse.

Day After Day #171: Unsung

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

Unsung (1992)

In the early '90s as bands like Nirvana were ushering so-called hair metal bands into early retirement, other newer bands were embracing other forms of metal. Specifically, even if Black Sabbath (which had reunited with Ronnie James Dio around that time) wasn't getting the buzz it used to, bands like Soundgarden were clearly inspired by them. And then there was Helmet, which combined noise rock with metal and came up with a sound that influenced many bands after them.

Helmet was formed in 1989 in New York City by Page Hamilton, who had just left Band of Susans. The band signed to Amphetamine Reptile Records, releasing several singles and then its debut, 1990's Strap It On, which was well-received for its raw and relentless power riffage. Helmet was no nonsense, with Hamilton bellowing the lyrics like a drill sergeant.

The resultant buzz combined with the major labels' sudden hunger for guitar bands after Nirvana and Soundgarden broke led to a bidding war for Helmet. The band signed with Interscope and was touted by some as the next Nirvana, although Hamilton would later note that labels were circling around them even before Nirvana broke; he also said an A&R rep at one label called Helmet the next U2. This was hilarious because Helmet wasn't in the practice of writing anthemic radio-friendly music, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Helmet's major-label debut, Meantime, came out in June 1992 and its lead single showed that the band meant business. "Unsung" had actually come out a year earlier on Amphetamine Reptile as a single but was re-recorded for Meantime. The song is propelled by a chugging Sabbath-esque main riff, the pummeling bass of Henry Bogdan and the titanic drumming of powerhouse John Stanier. Hamilton's vocals on the song even bear a slight resemblance to a certain Mr. Osbourne.

"Your contribution left unnoticed some/Association with an image/Just credit time for showing up again/Attention wandered I'm left with it/Gone by sin too slowly/Can't pass it up/Then I thought nothing is right/I turned it off."

MTV started playing the video a lot on both 120 Minutes and Headbanger's Ball, illustrating the song's crossover appeal to both audiences. "Unsung" even got raves from influential rock critics Beavis and Butt-head. "If you, like, saw these guys on the street, you wouldn't even know that they're cool," says Butt-head.

"To die unsung would really bring you down/Although wet eyes would never suit you/Walk through no archetypal suicide to/Die young is far too boring these days/Your will to speak clearly/Exposed too much/Unsung once too often/Could not rub off."

The band's use of drop D tuning on both guitars and bass proved to be influential for the alt-metal scene that sprung up in the '90s, and the precision riffing of Hamilton and Peter Mengede was powerful and memorable. And the last 90 seconds of the song features the band just pounding away, with Stanier leading the charge. 

"Unsung" reached #298 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and #32 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart; Meantime would hit #68 on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually selling over 2 million copies worldwide.

Mengede would leave the band in early 1993 after a contract dispute and was replaced by Rob Echeverria. The band teamed up with House of Pain for a single off the rap-rock soundtrack to the movie Judgment Night (the soundtrack was much more successful than the movie itself) and then released the album Betty in 1994. The album was still heavy and rifftastic, but it also included jazz and blues songs, and it didn't sell as well as Meantime. Echeverria left after the tour to join Biohazard.

Helmet made 1997's Aftertaste as a trio, but it sold poorly and the band split up after the tour ended. Bogdan played in the Moonlighters and the Midnight Serenaders, while Battles played in Tomahawk, the Mark of Cain, Battles and Primer 55. Hamilton moved to Los Angeles and worked on movie soundtracks (In Dreams and Titus) as well as playing lead guitar on David Bowie's Hours tour in 1999. He also dated actress Winona Ryder for a year.

In 2003, Hamilton began working on a new project with drummer John Tempesta and guitarist Chris Traynor, who played in Helmet on the Aftertaste tour. Interscope label head Jimmy Iovine convinced Hamilton to make an album as Helmet; he still wasn't friendly with Bogdan or Stanier, so the new project became the new Helmet. Five albums have been released by Helmet in the last 20 years, with Hamilton as the only constant in the band.

I've never seen Helmet live but it seems like they're constantly touring. I still love listening to those early '90s Helmet albums, especially when I'm pushing through a workout. They locked into something timeless and powerful, and "Unsung" is the best example of it.

Stuck In Thee Garage #533: June 21, 2024

When you live in a four-season climate like New England, you know that during the winter when things are cold and gross, we grumble about how we wish it was hot. And conversely, when things get a little toasty in the summer, we grumble about how much heat sucks and how we wish it was colder. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about heat in hour 2. Perfect for a beach day...unless there's a special guest.

This playlist won't get out of the water:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Redd Kross - Candy Coloured Catastrope/Redd Kross

Johnny Foreigner - if you ain't at the table, yr on the menu/The Sky and the Sea Were Part of Me (Or I Was Part of Them)

Osees - Cassius, Brutus & Judas/SORCS 80

Islands - Drown a Fish/What Occurs

Ghost Party - Severed Hands/Ghost Moves

Clone - Dividing Line/CL.1

The Fall - Prole Art Threat/Slates (Live)

SWIFTUMZ - Almost Through/Simply the Best

DIIV - Somber the Drums/Frog in Boiling Water

Neutrals - Stop the Bypass/New Town Dream

Pedro the Lion - Spend Time/Santa Cruz

Plus/Minus - Driving Aimlessly (Redux)/Further Afield

Buffalo Tom - Come Closer/Jump Rope

Sharp Pins - When You Know/Radio DDR

The Lemon Twigs - They Don't Know How to Fall in Place/A Dream is All We Know

Lunchbox - This World/Pop and Circumstance

Hour 2: Hotness

The Cure - Hot Hot Hot!!!/Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

Johnny Foreigner - Feels Like Summer/Grace and the Bigger Picture

Chandos - Feel My Heat/Rats in Your Bed

Bambara - Heat Lightning/Stray

Deeper - This Heat/Auto-Pain

Pottery - Hot Heater/Welcome to Bobby's Motel

Sports Team - Long Hot Summer/Deep Down Happy

Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance/Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance

Snail Mail - Heat Wave/Lush

LVL Up - Primordial Heat/Hoodwink'd

Suedehead - Long Hot Summer/Constant Frantic Motion

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat / White Light/White Heat

David Bowie - Heat/The Next Day

Peter Gabriel - The Rhythm and the Heat/Security

The Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot/1965

The Flaming Lips - Hot Day/Suburbia soundtrack

X - Hot House/More Fun in the New World

Crank up the hot tuneage HERE!

Day After Day #170: Under the Milky Way

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

Under the Milky Way (1988)

Every once in a while, a band writes a song that becomes so ubiquitous that it threatens to overwhelm everything else they do. That happened to Australian alt-rockers the Church with their song "Under the Milky Way." It was almost a throwaway song written by singer-bassist Steve Kilbey and the band didn't even like it. Then it blew up.

The band was formed in Sydney in 1980 by Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes on guitar and Nick Ward on drums. Ward played on the band's debut album and then was replaced by Richard Ploog. The band started off playing neo-psychedelic indie rock. The second single off that first album, "The Unguarded Moment," was a hit in Australia and New Zealand, but the band's label, Capitol, refused to release their second album in the U.S. because it felt there was a lack of radio-friendly songs. The band recorded five new songs but the label dropped them anyway. 

After an album and two EPs, the Church signed with Warner Bros. and released Heyday in 1985, which was well-received, although sales in Australia were flagging. The band signed a four-album deal with Arista Records in the U.S. in 1987 and flew to Los Angeles to make the follow up to Heyday. They worked and clashed with producers Waddy Wachtel (known as the long-haired guitarist in Stevie Nicks' and Keith Richards' bands) and Greg Ladanyi. The experience was not fun for the Church, but the resulting album Starfish ended up becoming the band's biggest, hitting the top 50 on the Billboard 200.

And it was mainly because of "Under the Milky Way," a beautiful jangle-rock masterpiece that Kilbey wrote with his partner Karin Jansson, a songwriter and guitarist who was in the punk band Pink Champagne. Kilbey put it on a cassette with a bunch of other songs and gave it to the band's manager, who asked the band to record it.

"Sometimes, when this place gets kind of empty/Sound of their breath fades with the light/I think about the loveless fascination/Under the Milky Way tonight/Lower the curtain down on Memphis/Lower the curtain down, all right/I got no time for private consultation/Under the Milky Way tonight."

Then the chorus sweeps in.

"Wish I knew what you were looking for/Might have known what you would find/And it's something quite peculiar/Something shimmering and white/It leads you here, despite your destination/Under the Milky Way tonight."

The song begins with a 12-string acoustic guitar, while the solo was played with an E-Bow on a guitar that was played through a Synclavier to give it a bagpipe sound. 

"Under the Milky Way" hit #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, going to #22 in Australia and #25 in New Zealand; the video got plenty of play on MTV. The song "Reptile" was also a hit on rock radio and Starfish got up to #41 on the Billboard 200 and went gold.

In a 2016 interview with RBMA Radio, Kilbey said the band had no idea the song would become a hit. "...strange enough, 'Under the Milky Way' was the black sheep of that record. The producers didn't like it, the band didn't like it and I didn't really like it, either. We did [it] and then we only discovered it was a hit single when Arista came into the listening party."

After label head Clive Davis heard the song at the listening party, he declared that it was a hit, Kilbey said. "It was half a hit already, and then Arista made it a hit. They fucking pulled out every stop they had to make it a hit. I didn't spot that one coming. No one did."

The song was featured on Miami Vice in early '89 and also in the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, and it has been covered by Sia and Metric.

The Church followed Starfish up with 1990's Gold Afternoon Fix, which did not perform as well as its predecessor. Ploog was struggling with a drug problem and his drums were replaced on most of the album by a drum machine. He was replaced by Jay Dee Daugherty of Patti Smith's band for the tour. The band saw diminishing returns for its next few albums and lineup changes as Koppes left and then returned. Kilbey battled a heroin problem throughout the '90s before getting clean in the early 2000s. Willson-Piper left the band in 2013 and Koppes left again in 2020. The band has remained busy over the years, with 19 albums released in the last 30 years. 

I've never seen the Church live but I'm actually rectifying that tonight when they play the Royale in Boston with the Afghan Whigs.

 

 

Day After Day #169: Fix Up, Look Sharp

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

Fix Up, Look Sharp (2003)

Kids, gather round and hear the tale of how Billy Squier became a hip hop icon. By 1980, Squier had already been around for a few years fronting the band Piper, which released two albums and opened for KISS in 1977 (they shared the same management company). 

Squier released his solo debut The Tale of the Tape in the spring of 1980 and although it barely made a dent in the Billboard 200 (hitting #169), it has become legendary thanks to the song "The Big Beat." It's a straightahead rocker that didn't chart, but it features one of the most famous drum sounds in music history. Recorded in Levon Helm's (yes, that Levon Helm) barn in Woodstock, the drums were played by Bobby Chouinard with overdubs from Squier hitting a snare case with his hands. 

Rap producers liked the sound and sampled or recreated it in many songs, most notably U.T.F.O.'s "Roxanne, Roxanne," which came out in 1984. When the group blew off a promotional appearance on a radio show, 14-year-old Lolita Shante Gooden was enlisted to make an answer song called "Roxanne's Revenge," which also featured the Squier beat. U.T.F.O. and their producers Full Force then released another answer song by The Real Roxanne, which led to a cottage industry of Roxanne answer songs over the next year.

Meanwhile, Squier was enjoying the early '80s himself, having blown up with his 1981 hard rock album Don't Say No and the big hit "The Stroke." The newly launched MTV played his performance-based videos constantly and Squier became an arena rock staple, opening for Queen and later headlining shows with Def Leppard opening for him. But even as his fourth album Signs of Life was becoming a hit in 1984, Squier's success was derailed by the Kenny Ortega-directed video for "Rock Me Tonite," which featured Squier dancing around a bedroom in a pink tank top. Almost immediately, Squier's shows stopped selling out and his popularity took a nosedive. He released four more albums with some modest radio hits, but by 1993, Squier walked away from music. He released one more album, 1998's acoustic blues release Happy Blue.

Fast forward five years and U.K. rapper Dizzee Rascal is preparing his debut album when his producer played him "The Big Beat." The booming drum beat and Squier's vocals were sampled into "Fix Up, Look Sharp" and a hit was born. Well, in the U.K., anyway, where it went to #17 on the singles chart. It didn't chart in the U.S. but it caught a lot of buzz thanks to the nascent indie rock MP3 blog scene, where bloggers became tastemakers for folks like me. I'm pretty sure I've never heard "Fix Up, Look Sharp" on the radio, but I downloaded Dizzee Rascal's album Boy in Da Corner off eMusic and played the hell out of it on my iPod.

"Fix up, look sharp/Don't make me pick up with sign get park/Hear the bang, see the spark/Duck down, lay down just/Fix up, look sharp."

Squier is prominently featured in the song with the chorus from "The Big Beat": "I got the big beat/I hear the sound/I got the big beat/I get on down."

Surrounded by Chouinard's thundering drums, a brash Dizzee really rips it up.

"I've heard the gossip from the street to the slammer/They're tryin' to see if Dizzee stays true to his grammar/Being a celebrity don't mean shit to me/Fuck the glitz and the glamour, hey I'm with the blicks and gamma/Because they're talkin' 'bout rushin'/Talk behind my back but to my face they say nothin'/Stand up in the parks, keep a firm, steady stance/Keep the beanies touchin', keep the beanies hot flushin'."

The album ended up winning the Mercury Prize for best album from the U.K. and Ireland, peaked at #23 on the album chart and sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide by 2004. Dizzee Rascal singlehandedly brought grime music to the forefront and became the U.K.'s first internationally recognized rap star.

"Fix Up, Look Sharp" led to another hip hop rejuvenation for Squier, with "The Big Beat" sample showing up in Jay-Z's "99 Problems," Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire" and Kanye and Pusha T's "Looking for Trouble." In truth, the sample had already been showing up in varied songs including Beck's "Soul Suckin' Jerk," Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again," A Tribe Called Quest's "We Can Get Down" and Alessia Cara's "Scars to Your Beautiful." The song has been sampled around 300 times, reportedly earning Squier millions in royalties. "The Stroke" has also been sampled in many songs, including Eminem's "Berserk" and Mickey Avalon's "Stroke Me." Sadly, Chouinard died in 1997 at age 44 of a massive heart attack.

Meanwhile, Dizzee Rascal has released seven more albums, including Don't Take It Personal earlier this year. He remains a U.K. phenomenon, but he's done well for himself. Not as well as Squier, who spends most of his time volunteering for the Central Park Conservancy in New York while the royalty checks keep rolling in.

Completely Conspicuous 638: Le Noise

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about the music of 2010. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

• Black Keys cancel arena tour after way overestimating their popularity
• Phil's #5: Black Keys establish their popularity with poppier blues sound
• Phil's and Jay's #4: Superchunk returns after a nine-year break with an energetic pop-punk ripper
• Phil's #3: Lo-fi psych from Philly duo Reading Rainbow (now called Bleeding Rainbow)
• Jay's #3: Nick Cave returns with his harder rocking Grinderman project
• Phil's #2 and Jay's #5: More rock-oriented album from Drive-By Truckers
• Jay's #2: Politically-driven melodic punk from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 
• Phil's #1: Neil Young with a solo effort with a lot of guitar effects
• Jay's #1: Titus Andronicus with your typical epic Civil War-meets-modern-day NJ concept album 
• Jay: Titus Andronicus is one of my favorite current bands 
• Favorite songs: "Hitchhiker" (Phil), "Theme from Cheers" (Jay)
• Next time we get together, we'll sum up the decade of the 2010s

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Day After Day #168: Fire

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

Fire (1974)

When people tend to think of the pre-eminent funk bands of the '70s, they list off Parliament/Funkadelic (George Clinton's simultaneous bands), Kool and the Gang, Sly and the Family Stone and Earth, Wind and Fire (and of course the supreme funkiness of folks like James Brown and Stevie Wonder). But Ohio Players deserve to be on that roll call as well. They brought the heat in more ways than one.

The band started in Dayton in 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables with Robert Ward on vocals and guitar, Marshall "Rock" Jones on bass, Clarence "Satch" Satchell on sax and guitar, Cornelius Johnson on drums and Ralph "Pee Wee" Middlebrooks on trumpet and trombone. 

After a lot of infighting, the group split up in 1964. Ward found new backup musicians, while the rest of the band went back to Dayton and brought in Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner on guitar and Greg Webster on drums, changing their name to Ohio Players. They played for a few years before disbanding again in 1970 and then reforming a while later. They landed a contract on Westbound Records and released two albums, scoring a hit with "Funky Worm" in 1973. 

This led to the Players getting signed by Mercury Records and releasing two albums in 1974, Skin Tight and Fire. Skin Tight came out in April and was considered the band's commercial breakthrough, going to #11 on the Billboard album chart. Fire was released in November and the title track was an immediate hit.

A fire truck siren opens the song and the Players launch into a serious funk vamp that's, let's face it, about being an unrelenting horndog.

"The way you walk and talk/Really sets me off to a four-alarm, child/The way you squeeze and tease knocks me to my knees/'Cause you're smokin', baby baby."

Hey, I didn't say it was subtle. But damn, was it funky, with horns, guitar riffage and a slammin' bass line and of course, the refrain of "Fire."

"The way you swerve and curve really wracks my nerves/And I'm so excited, child, woo woo/The way you push, push lets me know that you're gonna get your wish/Fire/Fire/Got me burnin', got me burnin'."

The Ohio Players didn't hide their horniness. Their album covers featured models in various sexy poses; Fire's cover model was augmented with a fire chief's helmet and a fire hose.

The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1975, which was really interesting considering it followed number ones by Barry Manilow ("Mandy"), The Carpenters ("Please Mr. Postman") and Neil Sedaka ("Laughter in the Rain"). Those are three decidedly UN-funky songs. "Fire" only stayed at #1 for a week, but it's one of the biggest funk hits ever. Their funk contemporaries didn't top the charts; the closest was War's "Cisco Kid" at #2 and the Commodores' "Brick House" at #5. Kool and the Gang and EWF eventually hit the top spot, but with songs that were more pop than pure funk.

The album Fire went to #1 on the pop and R&B album charts. Ohio Players continued rolling along, with their next album, 1975's Honey, going to #2 and featuring the hit "Love Rollercoaster," which also went to #1 on the pop chart. As disco took hold, the Players saw their success diminish, with each of their next seven albums through 1981 selling less than the one before it. Two more albums followed in 1984 and 1988 that didn't even hit the Billboard 200.

Various incarnations of the band have continued to play live shows over the years. Their songs have been sampled and covered many times; the Red Hot Chili Peppers had a hit with "Love Rollercoaster" in the '90s, a young Soundgarden covered "Fopp" and even R.E.M. did a live instrumental cover of "Skin Tight." But ultimately, the band's story was in their live performances, as you can see in the clip from the Midnight Special below. Ohio Players were definitely a hot act in the '70s.

Day After Day #167: The Rover

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

The Rover (1975)

When you're a band as big as Led Zeppelin, it's only natural that you'll have songs that get overplayed. Zep is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. As such, there are certain songs they have that, while inarguably great, I never need to hear again. It's just the nature of growing up listening to rock radio. Songs like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love" just get played to death. 

But fortunately, Zep still has albums that aren't overplayed. One of them is 1975's Physical Graffiti, a double album that featured new music and songs that were recorded for previous releases but not used. "Kashmir" has gotten a lot of play on FM stations, but the other 14 songs still remain fresh, or at least not beaten to death. 

"The Rover" was originally an acoustic instrumental when it was first written in 1970 and later was recorded in 1972 as an electric version during the Houses of the Holy sessions. Guitarist Jimmy Page added guitar overdubs before the song was included on Physical Graffiti. 

The song starts with a killer riff (one of Page's best) and John Bonham absolutely pounding the crap out of his drums (as he was wont to do) before Robert Plant launches in.

"I've been to London, seen seven wonders, I know to trip is just to fall/I used to rock it, sometimes I'd roll it/I always knew what it was for/There can be no denying, that the wind'll shake 'em down/And the flat world's flying, and there's a new plague on the land/Traversed the planet, when heaven sent me/I saw the kings who rule them all/Still by the firelight and purple moonlight I hear the rested rivers call/And the wind is crying, from a love that won't grow cold/My lover she is lying on the dark side of the globe. If we could just join hands, if we could just join hands, if we could just join hands."

Zeppelin never played "The Rover" live in their career (which was only parts of four years after its release), but a few bars were played as the introduction to "Sick Again" on the 1977 North American tour.

"You got me rocking when I ought to be a-rolling/Darling, tell me, darling, which way to go/You keep me rocking, baby, then you keep me stolen/Won't you tell me darling which way to go, that's right." 

Page then rips an amazing solo, which is only topped by the phased solo that closes out the song.

"Oh how I wonder, oh how I worry, and I would dearly like to know/Of all this wonder, of earthly plunder/Will it leave us anything to show?"

Physical Graffiti was the band's sixth album and the first on its Swan Song label. It went to #1 on the U.S. and U.K. album charts and has sold 8 million copies in the U.S. alone. Zeppelin would only release two more studio albums before Bonham's untimely death in 1980 led the band to break up.

I still like to listen to Physical Graffiti every so often. It covers so much ground and represents the band at the peak of its powers.

Day After Day #166: (Wearing Down) Like a Wheel

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

(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel (1985)

Every rock band has its unsung members, the ones who are essential to the group's sound but don't get much of the limelight. In the case of the Cars, Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr got most of the attention because they sang the songs, but a guy who was a huge part of that band was guitarist Elliot Easton, who played perfectly concise and ripping solos. 

The Cars had just come off their biggest album, 1984's Heartbeat City; in fact, singles were still being released from it in 1985 when Easton's first solo album Change No Change came out on Elektra. I can't find the exact release date, but I remember seeing the video for "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel" on V66, the Boston music video channel, and hearing it on local radio during my senior year of high school in the first half of 1985. 

Easton wasn't the first Car to go solo. Ocasek and keyboardist Greg Hawkes both released solo albums earlier in the '80s and Orr and Ocasek both released albums in 1986 that Easton played on. Easton provided lead guitar and backing vocals on every Cars album, but he had zero writing credits with the group. For Change No Change, he worked with songwriter Jules Shear and co-wrote all 10 songs. The album starts out strong with quality power pop, but has a few missteps, including "I Want You," which features Easton half-rapping over a funky beat. No bueno. 

But the lead single, "(Wearing Down) Like a Wheel" is the real prize here. The song chugs out of the gate with a pissed-off Easton singing about a relationship going bad.

"Oh what can be done about you?/You look so at home in blue/It's easy to see what we're coming through/Now you say you want to be alone/And you talk in a funny tone/But the humor escapes/Oh I see us wearing down like a wheel/Do you think it's time to stop?/And I can promise your friends don't know how this feels/I don't care the way they talk."

I didn't realize it at the time, but the song reuses a riff from the deep cut "Getting Through" off the Cars' Panorama album. Hey, if you're gonna steal something, might as well as steal from yourself. And it's much fully realized on the solo Easton song.

Easton's vocals were surprisingly decent, especially on the more rocking songs.

"So believe the life that you hated/With your wheel alleviated/Resigned that your life was so faded/How could you hold back from me?/And how could you act to me?/And how many times/Oh I see us wearing down like a wheel/Do you think it's time to stop?/And I can promise your friends don't know how this feels/I don't care, the way they talk." 

As you would expect, Easton delivers a brilliant guitar solo that fits the psychedelic power pop feel of the song. It's a punchy slice of excellence. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to maintain that level throughout the album, but I think it still has some gems, including "Tools of Your Labor," "Change" and "Shayla." 

The album didn't chart, but it did get some love in New England, where the Cars hailed from. Easton played a short tour for the album and then returned to the Cars, who released their sixth album Door to Door in 1987. Surprisingly, the album was a dud and the group split up in 1988. Easton produced and played on the first two albums by Amy Rigby in the mid-'90s. In 1995, Easton teamed up with bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford of Creedence Clearwater Revival to form the CCR covers band Creedence Clearwater Revisited. They played nearly 200 shows in their first year before CCR frontman John Fogerty sued them, claiming the name was confusing to fans who might think Fogerty was involved. A court agreed and issued an injunction preventing the use of the Creedence Clearwater Revisited name, so the band changed their name to Cosmo's Factory. But after an appeal, the U.S. Ninth Court of Appeals overturned the injunction and the band immediately changed its name back to Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Easton played with the group until 2004.

In 2005, Easton and Hawkes formed the New Cars along with Todd Rundgren, bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince. By this point, Ben Orr had passed away in 2000 after a battle with cancer and Cars drummer David Robinson declined to participate; Ocasek gave his blessing to the endeavor. The group played Cars songs and selections from Rundgren's career and released a new single along with a live album in 2006. In 2010, the four surviving original Cars reunited for a new album and tour. 

Since then, Easton released an album as Elliot Easton's Tiki Gods in 2013 and has played with the Empty Hearts since that year, releasing two albums. The group includes Clem Burke of Blondie, Wally Palmar of the Romantics and Ian McLagan of the Faces (until his death in 2014). 

The Cars were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, playing a short set with Weezer's Scott Shriner on bass. Ocasek died in September 2019. 

Day After Day #165: Papa Was a Rolling Stone

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

Papa Was a Rolling Stone (1972)

It's Father's Day and you're probably hearing a lot of nice platitudes about how great dads are, etc. But of course, not everyone's experience with their dad was heartwarming. Dads, after all, are human and some of them are definitely better than others. There are a lot of sappy songs about dads, but my favorite is a stone-cold classic about a terrible dad.

The Temptations had been around since 1960 in various formations, churning out classic Motown hits like "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Ball of Confusion." The group featured great vocalists like David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, but by 1972, it was Dennis Edwards, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams. Producer Norman Whitfield, who had started working with the Temptations in 1968, had helped the group develop its psychedelic soul sound. He wrote "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" with Barrett Strong for a group called the Undisputed Truth, which had a minor hit with it in early 1972. 

But when Whitfield brought the song to the Temptations, he turned it into an epic 12-minute psychedelic jam featuring a fair amount of instrumental sections performed by the Funk Brothers, including the first four minutes of the song. When the vocals finally kick in, the group's singers are portraying siblings asking their mother about their dead father, who disappeared when they were young.

"It was the third of September/That day I'll always remember, yes I will/'Cause that was the day that my daddy died/I never got a chance to see him/Never heard nothing but bad things about him/Momma, I'm depending on you to tell me the truth/Momma just hung her head and said, 'Son'/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was his home/And when he died, all he left us was alone/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was his home/And when he died, all he left us was alone."

Even the single edit of the song was epic, clocking in at 7 minutes. There was a lot of tension at the recording session, with Whitfield forcing Edwards to re-record his parts dozens of times before Whitfield was satisfied.

"Hey Momma/I heard Papa called himself a jack-of-all-trades/Tell me, is that what sent Papa to an early grave?/Folks say Papa would beg, borrow, steal/To pay his bills/Hey Momma/Folks say Papa was never much on thinking/Spent most of his time chasing women and drinking/Momma, I'm depending on you to tell the truth/Momma looked up with a tear in her eye and said, 'Son'/Papa was a rolling stone/Wherever he laid his hat was home/And when he died, all he left us was alone."

The Temptations weren't thrilled by Whitfield's creative vision, and eventually would stop working with him. But not before "Papa" went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won three Grammy awards (Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group, Best R&B Instrumental for the B-side and Best R&B Song to composers Whitfield and Strong). The 12-minute version was the anchor of the group's album All Directions, which went to #2 on the Billboard 200.

The Temptations made one more album with Whitfield before parting ways but have continued to record with varying lineups over the years, with their most recent album coming out in 2022.

The song was covered several times, including by Was (Not Was) in 1990, George Michael in 1993 and Slash (with Demi Lovato on vocals) last month.

"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" resonated with so many families that had dealt with dads who skipped out on them. This song gave a voice to some of those who haven't had great experiences with their dads.

 

Day After Day #164: Take It or Leave It

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

Take It or Leave It (2001)

It's not easy to be The Next Big Thing. Some artists can handle it, but others end up never living up to the hype. 

In 2001, the Strokes were hailed by some as the saviors of rock music. In the years following the grunge/alt-rock explosion of the early '90s, popular music was dominated by pop from the likes of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys and hip hop, although nu-metal from Korn and Limp Bizkit was hitting with a certain segment of JNCO-wearing high school kids. But the Strokes made it cool to listen to guitar music again.

The NYC-based group released a debut EP, The Modern Age, in early 2001 and after a bidding war, signed with RCA Records. Their debut album, This Is It, came out in July '01 and critics were falling all over themselves to praise the group. The band, led by singer Julian Casablancas and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., deliberately emulated New York bands like the Velvet Underground, Television and the Feelies and had that gritty late '70s CBGB sound down pat. It was a winning formula, and the band is credited with leading the garage rock revival of the early '00s along with bands like the White Stripes and the Hives. 

It's also the sound of a band fully locked in together and delivering the goods. The timing was perfect for the Strokes because clearly the market was looking for guitar music to get behind. Of course, this was still a time when commercial radio, MTV and music magazines could still break bands, and all of them were hailing the greatness of the Strokes. They didn't bowl me over at first, but once I started listening more, I was sold. Same thing happened with Nirvana, tbh. 

There are many great songs on Is This It, but "Take It or Leave It" is the real grabber for me. It's the last track on the album and Casablancas, who typically has a laid-back vocal style, really goes for it here, pushing his raspy voice to the limit.

"Leave me alone/I'm in control/I'm in control/And girls lie too much/And boys act too tough/Enough is enough/Well, on the minds of other men/I know she was/I said just take it or leave it."

The upbeat riff chugs along as Casablancas warns about bad intentions.

"I say, oh he's gonna let you down/He's gonna let you down/He's gonna let you down/And gonna break your back for a chance/And gonna steal your friends if he can/He's gonna win someday/I fell off the track/Now I can't go back/I'm not like that/Boys lie too much/Girls act too tough/Enough is enough/Well, on the minds of other girls/I know he was/I said just take it or leave it."

It's the sound of a confident bunch of good musicians, those guys in skinny jeans with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, ending their debut album with a slice of excellence that leaves you excited for more. 

Of course, with that much hype (some outlets were calling them the new Rolling Stones and the new Velvet Underground), things were bound to disappoint eventually. Check out the great book Meet Me in the Bathroom for a look at the NYC rock scene at the time and how much the Strokes were swallowed up by that hype. They were on magazine covers (remember magazines?), with SPIN featuring an that had five different covers, one for each member of the Strokes. Drummer Fabio Moretti was dating Drew Barrymore. There were lots of drugs consumed. 

And they made more albums that sounded like the Strokes and sold OK but were somehow just uninspiring. There were releases in 2003 and 2006 followed by a five-year break, and then albums in 2011 and 2013. Their last album was in 2020, although reportedly they're working on a new release with Rick Rubin. Casablancas has released solo albums, as has Hammond (I really enjoyed his 2018 album Francis Trouble more than anything I've heard from the Strokes in the last 20 years). I will admit I haven't dug deep into the post-Is This It Strokes catalog, but I have heard most of the singles and they just didn't do it for me. 

Hey, sometimes a band's first album is their best. There's no shame in it. Is this it? Yeah.

Day After Day #163: Would That Not Be Nice

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

Would That Not Be Nice (2012) 

Side projects aren't always a lock to be good. A lot of artists branch out with side projects and solo albums, but some can be duds. Fortunately, when Spoon's Britt Daniel teamed up with Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks) and keyboardist Alex Fischel, it was a winner. 

Daniel and Boeckner started the group in late 2011 and they released their only album, A Thing Called Divine Fits, in August 2012 on Merge Records. It makes sense that it was a great album with the pedigrees of the band members: Spoon is one of the most consistently excellent indie rock bands of the last 25 years, while Boeckner is Canadian indie rock royalty and Brown was the drummer for one of the best garage rock bands going in New Bomb Turks. 

They managed to create something that sounded different from their other bands, fresh and vital but also reminiscent of their roots, combining guitar-driven indie rock with synth pop. The album has several standout tracks, but my favorite is "Would That Not Be Nice." Daniel sings lead on this one with his familiar rasp as he plays jagged chords.

"At night I wonder, how do I swing this?/I'm gonna be up for a long while/Cause I gotta know it/Know it tonight/Cause if I did, would that not be nice?/I wish that I was/In Minneapolis/Like Barbarita and Cleopatra/Up on her throne/Come Cleopatra/Come come back home/I'll be waiting here with basmati rice/And can you tell me now, would that not be nice?"

Boeckner's bass line propels the song along in a steady shuffle as Daniel wishes he was elsewhere.

"You're so destructive/Alien and deranged/Sometimes I wish that you were just strange/I must admit, that sounds alright/And if you were, would that not be nice?/You got a gothic candelabra/From California/And if you lit it/You set the room up with flickering light/And if you did, would that not be nice?"

The album performed fairly well, hitting #54 on the Billboard 200 and top 15 on three other Billboard album charts. Divine Fits toured through 2012 and into 2013. Afterwards, Daniel went back to Spoon and Fischel joined as an official member, while Boeckner returned to Wolf Parade and also formed the band Operators with Brown.

A decade later, there has been no more Divine Fits music, although earlier this week, Daniel and Brown joined Boeckner at the latter's solo show in Williamsburg to play three Divine Fits songs (including "Would That Not Be Nice"). And yeah, it was pretty nice.

Stuck In Thee Garage #532: June 14, 2024

There's something great about getting in your car and driving down the highway. Sure, sitting in traffic can be pretty brutal. But stepping on the gas and letting it rip can be amazing. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about driving in hour 2. 

 

This playlist has the ultimate set of tools:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

The Jesus Lizard - Hide and Seek/Rack

Shellac - Days Are Dogs/To All Trains

Les Savy Fav - What We Don't Want/OUI, LSF

Pedro the Lion - Santa Cruz/Santa Cruz

SWIFTUMZ - Demoralized/Simply the Best

Clone - Room of Tears/CL.1

Ghost Party - After Hours/Ghost Moves

Neutrals - Wish You Were Here/New Town Dream

DIIV - Reflected/Frog in Boiling Water

The Marias - Paranoia/Submarine

Buffalo Tom - Pine for You/Jump Rope

Plus/Minus - Borrowed Time/Further Afield

Sharp Pins - Circle All the Dots/Radio DDR

Pearl Jam - Running/Dark Matter

Mdou Moctar - Oh France/Funeral for Justice

Bodega - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Drum/Our Brand Could Be Yr Life

E - Ash/Living Waters

Gouge Away - Maybe Blue/Deep Sage

Hour 2: Driving

The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner/The Modern Lovers

The Feelies - The High Road/The Good Earth

XTC - Roads Girdle the Globe/Drums and Wires

Swervedriver - Son of Mustang Driver/Raise

Drive-By Truckers - Road Cases/Southern Rock Opera

Marnie Stern - Roads? Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads/This is It and I am It and You are It and So is That and He is It and She is It and It is It and That is That

Van Halen - Panama/1984

David Lee Roth - Tobacco Road/Eat 'Em and Smile

Fu Manchu - Burning Road/The Action is Go!

Mastodon - High Road/Once More 'Round the Sun

Cornershop - Good to Be on the Road Back Home/When I Was Born for the 7th Time

Smokescreens - Fork in the Road/A Strange Dream

Sloan - On the Road Again/Transona Five / Recorded Live at a Sloan Party

Ex Hex - Diamond Drive/It's Real

Get your motor running HERE, homeslice!

Day After Day #162: Band on the Run

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

Band on the Run (1973)

It must be tough to be an ex-Beatle. Everything you've done since 1970 has been compared to the greatness that came before. By 1973, Paul McCartney had already released four albums either solo or with Wings, but his most recent albums, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, hadn't performed well. 

Wings had just finished a U.K. tour in July '73 and McCartney decided he wanted to record somewhere overseas. He made the questionable choice of Lagos, Nigeria, where EMI had a studio, thinking it would be an exotic locale where the band could play during the day and record at night. Right before the band was to leave, after rehearsing in Scotland, guitarist Henry McCullough and drummer Denny Seiwell both quit the band. That left McCartney, his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine to record as a trio.

Unfortunately, when they got to Lagos, they realized it was under military rule and in pretty rough shape. The studio was a mess, with only one tape machine. One night, Paul and Linda were out walking and were robbed at knifepoint; among other possessions, the thieves made off with a bag containing lyrics and cassettes with demos. McCartney played bass, drums and lead guitar, with Laine playing rhythm guitar and Linda on keyboards.

Some of the songs on the album Band on the Run were about freedom and escape, including the title track, which was inspired by a comment George Harrison made during one of the Beatles' many business meetings because of problems with their Apple Records label. Harrison said the band were prisoners, so McCartney's song has a band escaping from prison and living on the run. McCartney has also said the song was a commentary on getting in trouble for pot possession.

The song, at 5 minutes one of McCartney's longer singles, has three distinct sections, starting with a slow lament.

"Stuck inside these four walls/Sent inside forever/Never seeing no one nice again/Like you/Mama, you/Mama, you." 

Then it kicks into gear.

"If I ever get out of here/Thought of giving it all away/To a registered charity/All I need is a pint a day/If I ever get out of here/If we ever get out of here."

The third part introduces the chorus.

"Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash/As we fell into the sun/And the first one said to the second one there/"I hope you're having fun."/Band on the run/Band on the run/And the jailer man and Sailor Sam/Were searching everyone/For the band on the run/Band on the run."

The song was released as a single in April 1974 and in the U.K. in June. It topped the U.S. charts and sold over 1 million copies, while it hit #3 on the U.K. Singles chart. The album was also a big hit, going to #1 in the U.S. and U.K.

It was some validation for McCartney, but of course his career would go through its ups and downs over the next 50 years (!). He's continued to tour and put on amazing shows; I finally saw him two years and it was awesome. 

Day After Day #161: A Million Miles Away

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

A Million Miles Away (1982)

Certain songs become inextricably linked to a certain time or place. In the case of the Plimsouls, their song "A Million Miles Away" will forever be remembered as representative of the early '80s, but it's so much more than that.

Formed in Paramount, California, in 1978 by singer-guitarist Peter Case (formerly of the Nerves), the Plimsouls started as a trio with Case, bassist Dave Pahoa and drummer Lou Ramirez. The Plimsouls played the kind of power pop that was all the rage in the late '70s/early '80s thanks to the success of the Knack. 

The band released a 5-song EP called Zero Hour in 1980, after which they were joined by guitarist Eddie Munoz. The title track was a radio hit in Los Angeles and the band signed to Planet Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1981. After the debut didn't sell well, the band left Planet and self-released "A Million Miles Away" as a single in 1982. It reached #11 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart and was featured in the 1983 movie Valley Girl, which also featured the band playing the song and parts of two other. 

The Plimsouls signed a deal with major label Geffen Records and included "A Million Miles Away" on their major-label debut Everywhere at Once, which came out in May 1983.

Immediately, the song has that classic Rickenbacker guitar sound that harks back to the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" and the Who's "I Can See for Miles." The intro leads into Case belting out the first verse.

"Friday night, I'd just got back/I had my eyes shut and dreaming about the past/I thought about you while the radio played/I should have got loaded, some reason I stayed/I started drifting to a different place/I realized I was falling off the face of the world/And there was nothing left to bring me back/I'm a million miles away/A million miles away/I'm just a million miles away/And there's nothing left to bring me back today."

In a post on his blog, Case writes about working on the song with his friends Joey Alkes and Chris Fradkin, who helped him write a bunch of songs that were on the Plimsouls' first album. Case Fradkin were sitting in a bar after seeing the Germs play and Case started writing some lyrics.

"We talked about the words, and each kicked in some lines. I was remembering something from a long time back and the feeling was pouring into the song. I'd been having an affair with a girl I really thought a lot of, and that had just broken off. Something of my childhood was in it, too. A lyric was taking shape based on all of this."

They went over to Alkes' place and he came up with the chorus. They taped it on a cassette and forgot about it until it later became a stone cold classic.

The song has so much angst about lost love, but it rocks furiously.

"Took a ride, I went downtown/The streets were empty, there was no one around/To a place that we used to know/Been to all the places that we used to go/I'm at the wrong end of your looking glass/Just trying to hold onto the hands of the past and you/And there was nothing left to bring me back/I was a million miles away."

The song's placement in Valley Girl was huge, with the film becoming a hit. It focused on a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance between a valley girl (the term was popularized by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa's song of the same name) and a punk played by a young Nicolas Cage. In addition to the Plimsouls, the soundtrack was full of new wave hits include Josie Cotton's "Johnny Are You Queer?", the Payolas' "Eyes of a Stranger," Modern English's "I Melt With You" and Men at Work's classic "Who Can It Be Now?"

"A Million Miles Away" was re-released as a single in 1983 and got up to #82 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album reached #186 on the Billboard 200 chart, which was 33 spots lower than the debut album. The band broke up in 1984, with Case pursuing a solo career. A young band called the Goo Goo Dolls covered "A Million Miles Away" on their 1990 album Hold Me Up and a re-recorded version ended up on the soundtrack to the movie Speed.

The Plimsouls reunited in 1986 without Ramirez and recorded an album called Kool Trash, with Blondie's Clem Burke on drums. It got decent reviews but didn't sell well. The band has reunited a few times to play shows since then. In 2016, Munoz registered a trademark for the band's name and toured as the Plimsouls without the other three members, who filed for trademark infringement against Munoz. Pahoa died last fall, but his family continued the case. Last month, a three-judge panel held that the Plimsouls partnership owned the band's name and Munoz didn't have an individual right to the trademark.