Day After Day #114: Alcoholics Unanimous

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

Alcoholics Unanimous (2009)

Let's face it, alcohol and good decisions don't really go together. This is a lesson many of us have learned over the years. The English indie rock act Art Brut also learned it and put it into practice with the 2009 song "Alcoholics Unanimous," of their 2009 album Art Brut. vs. Satan. 

The band recruited none other than Frank Black to produce the album and he got an excellent performance out of Art Brut. Led by singer Eddie Argos, the group went back to basics and delivered an art punk classic. On their third album, the band kept things basic, raw and raucous. 

The lead single, "Alcoholics Anonymous," details a rough night out and a rougher morning after.

"Slept on my face, and woke up confused/A bit concerned about what I've been up to/There's so many people I might have upset/I apologize to them all with the same pretext/Bring me tea!/Bring me coffee!/I was up all night/(He's been up all night)/I've been making mistakes/(Lots of mistakes)/I'm hiding it well/(Not that well)/But I don't feel great."

Hangovers are no fun, but they're entirely self-induced. And nobody feels bad for you when you have one.

"Bring me tea/That looks like it really hurts/Bring me coffee/Should've taken the day off from work.

Argos wrote the song about drummer Mikey Breyer, who going through a particularly nasty hangover, as was Argos himself.

The song's chugging rhythm keeps you interested, while Argos frantically looks for something to ease his hangover. Ultimately, Argos refers back to English remedies.

"Bring me tea (Monday morning)/Bring me coffee (Tuesday morning)/Bring me coffee (Wednesday morning, etc.)"

The album had other singles, like "DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake" and "Slap Dash for No Cash'," and still, it didn't sell well in the U.S. But Art Brut was forging its own way as an English parallel to the Hold Steady, with both bands featuring verbose frontmen who were adept at talk-singing while backed by killer bands. 

Art Brut has only released two albums since '09, the most recent being 2018's Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out! But if you're looking for hard-drinking anthems by verbose nerds, they've got you covered.

Ye Olde Hit Parade: Alcoholics Unanimous

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

2009: Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous

The first decade of the new millennium came to a close with a global pandemic of all things. The H1N1 swine flu caused more than 12,000 deaths in the U.S. and about 284,000 worldwide. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the same day (June 25). And the biggest-selling album in the world was by...Susan Boyle?

It was also a strange year for late night TV. NBC announced that Conan O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, only to pull the rug out from under O'Brien after seven months. Jimmy Fallon ended up getting the gig and O'Brien got a show over at TBS.  


It was a decent year for me personally. I ran the Boston Marathon for the third and last time in the spring, finishing in just under 3:57. We drove up to Toronto for a vacation for the first time in several years. Got to see a great Roy Halladay start for the Jays vs. the Red Sox. I didn't end up doing a fall marathon, but I did my first Reach the Beach relay in the NH (which I continued for the next 10 years; we'll see if they hold it this fall).


Musically, there was a lot of good stuff as usual. I was on an MP3-heavy diet of indie rock: Mission of Burma, Jarvis Cocker, Johnny Foreigner, Dead Weather, Dinosaur Jr., St. Vincent, Metric, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Arctic Monkeys and more. My music discovery was done primarily via blogs and podcasts.

Concerts attended: Jason Isbell/Deer Tick, The Tragically Hip, The WMBR Breakfast of Champions 25th birthday show (Condo Fucks/Bevis Frond/Sleepyhead), Destroyer, Eagles of Death Metal, Dinosaur Jr., Them Crooked Vultures, Sonic Youth/Feelies, Ted Leo/Titus Andronicus and Sloan.



My favorite song of '09 was a fun ripper from Art Brut called "Alcoholics Unanimous" off their Art Brut Vs. Satan album. I had their previous two albums, which were good, but this record (produced by Frank Black) was a lot more raw and immediate, echoing the sound Black was accustomed to getting from his solo projects. Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos is more of a shouter than a singer, kind of the British equivalent to the Hold Steady's Craig Finn (see yesterday's post). The song details a wild night out and the resulting after-effects, which is something I didn't really do anymore, but it definitely took me back to my 20s.


Honorable mentions: Mission of Burma - "1, 2, 3, Partyy!"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Mind Eraser, No Chaser"; Them Crooked Vultures - "Elephants"; Mastodon - "Oblivion"; Jarvis Cocker - "Angela"; Art Brut - "Slap Dash for No Cash"; Art Brut - "Alcoholics Unanimous"; Arctic Monkeys - "Crying Lightning"; The Dead Weather - "Treat Me Like Your Mother"; Japandroids - "Rockers East Vancouver"; Johnny Foreigner - "Ghost the Festivals"; Danananananaykroyd - "Watch This"; Patterson Hood - "Heavy and Hanging"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Over It"; The Von Bondies - "Pale Bride"; Metric - "Gimme Sympathy"; St. Vincent - "Actor Out of Work"; The Raveonettes - "Bang"; Sonic Youth - "Sacred Trickster"; Obits - "Two-Headed Coin"; Pearl Jam - "The Fixer"; Alice in Chains - "Check My Brain"; Brendan Benson - "A Whole Lot Better"; The Gaslight Anthem - "Great Expectations"; Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - "Soldiers Get Strange"; The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction"; Neko Case - "People Got a Lotta Nerve"; Riverboat Gamblers - "A Choppy, Yet Sincere Apology"; The Tragically Hip - "Love is a First"; We Were Promised Jetpacks - "Ships With Holes Will Sink"; Wilco - "Bull Black Nova"; Jay Reatard - "I'm Watching You"; Yo La Tengo - "Here to Fall"; Condo Fucks - "What'cha Gonna Do About It"  

Completely Conspicuous 171: Right Turn

Part 1 of my podcast conversation with special guest Tom Salemi as we discuss what happens when your career takes a different turn. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

- Recorded at Choate Bridge Pub in Ipswich, Mass.

- Old newspaper reporters from back in the day

- Tom toured the Boston Herald newsroom as a high schooler

- Went to BU, worked at the Daily Free Press

- Saw journalism as a public service/crusade

- Looked down on journalists who left the fold

- When you're a young reporter, you work crazy hours and don't mind

- Tom started working at small weekly on Cape Cod

- Jay and Tom worked for daily papers in the same chain

- Tom worked at three papers before arriving at Newburyport Daily News

- Eventually, Tom burned out on community journalism

- Jay: Similar burnout story happened a few years earlier

- Weird adjustment to 9 to 5 gig

- Tom was miserable at first non-newspaper job

- Some reporters can't handle the transition to a "regular" job

- Enjoying the casual aspects of the job

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Art Brut - Lost Weekend

Sloan - Unkind

Low - Especially Me

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The show is sponsored by Eastbay/Footlocker.com. Use the following codes to get athletic gear from Nike, Adidas, Asics and more. AFCOMP15 will get you 10% off any order of $50 at Eastbay.com, AFCOMP20 will get you 15% off any order of $75 at Eastbay.com and AFCOMPFL will get you 10% off any order of $50 or more at Footlocker.com.

The Art Brut song is on the forthcoming album Brilliant! Tragic! on Cooking Vinyl Records. Download the song for free at Pitchfork.

The Sloan song is on the forthcoming album The Double Cross on Yep Roc Records. Download the song for free at Epitonic (right click and "save as").

The Low song is from the album C'mon on Sub Pop Records, where you can download the song for free.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian; check out his new site PodGeek. Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Completely Conspicuous 166: The Future is Unwritten

Check out part 2 of my podcast conversation with special guest Eric Convey as we discuss the current state of journalism. Listen to the show below or download it directly (right click and "save as").



The show notes...

Topics:

- Eric's Managing Editor of the Boston Business Journal

- Nobody knows where journalism is going

- Rupert Murdock may have the answer with The Daily, designed for the iPad

- Local news could survive through iPad, smartphone apps

- Local news is the only niche left

- AOL bought Huffington Post for big bucks

- Eric: AOL's Politics Daily is most interesting news site

- AOL's Patch doesn't need local advertisers, it needs clicks

- Eric's food adventures at the Peabody International Festival

- Eric: BBJ uses print and web to thrive

- Worked at Boston Herald for 11 years

- Tales of covering overnight accidents

- Eric: Print papers aren't economically sustainable long-term

- Papers are moving towards charging for online access

- When Boston Globe starts charging, the Herald will follow

- When you're forced for everything, where will traffic go?

- From the start, Wall Street Journal was saying papers should charge

- Nobody really understood online commerce in the '90s

- Jay: Used to buy Globe and Herald every day; now just read them online for free

- Similar parallel to music industry

- Music sales are an all-time low

- Eric: Print is still in the picture at BBJ

- Eric teaches a college journalism class

- Helps students think like journalists

- Some are still looking for newspaper jobs

- Students all have laptops or iPads now

- The future is scary

- Bonehead of the Week

Music:

Art Brut - Unprofessional Wrestling

Black Francis - Bad News

Robert Pollard - Touch Me in the Right Place at the Right Time

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The show is sponsored by Budget, the country's premier car rental service with 900 locations. Go to Budget.com/CompCon and save 10% off any reservation or $30 off a weekly rental.

The Art Brut song is a B-side from the forthcoming album Brilliant! Tragic! on Cooking Vinyl Records. Download the song for free (in exchange for your e-mail address) at PledgeMusic (via Stereogum).

The Black Francis song is on the album The Golem on The Bureau Records. Download the song for free courtesy of IODA Promonet:

Black Francis
"Bad News" (mp3)
from "The Golem"
(The Bureau)

More On This Album



The Robert Pollard song is from the album Space City Kicks on Guided by Voices Records. Download the song for free at Spinner.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell. Thanks to Bob Durling for the album art; find out more about his photography at his blog. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Mixology: Lighten Up, Francis

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

Lighten Up, Francis (April 2009)

Sometimes an old mix can really pick you up. Tuesday night, I had to go pick up my mom from the airport because her flight had been canceled due to the impending snowmageddon. It was 9:30 p.m. and I had been looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, but had to jump in the van and head to the airport.

I grabbed this mix randomly as I was running out the door, with no idea of what was on it because I never took the time to print out a track listing. One of the opening songs, Art Brut's "Alcoholics Unanimous," was my favorite song of that year. And it was a good year for music, indeed. It was nice to be greeted with one kickass song after another, all collected during April of '09.

Contrast this with last weekend, when we drove up to my mom's place. I didn't grab any CDs, opting instead to just listen to the radio. Problem is, between commercials and crappy songs, I tend to do a lot of jumping around with the radio dial. This, of course, drives my wife nuts. But I have no patience for ads and crap anymore. Why do you think I started making mixes all those years ago?

Easy - Deer Tick
Angela - Jarvis Cocker
Alcoholics Unanimous - Art Brut
Son of a Gun - The Vaselines
Watch This! - Dananananaykroyd
Prophets - A.C. Newman
Gauze - Red Red Meat
Vampire - The Pink Mountaintops
Idiot Heart - Sunset Rubdown
Black Hearted Love - PJ Harvey and John Parish
Halfmast - The Dears
Frozen in My Tracks - The Tragically Hip
I'm Sorry, Baby, but You Can't Stand in My Light Anymore - Bob Mould
Sacred Trickster - Sonic Youth
Fate to Fatal - The Breeders
I Want You to Know - Dinosaur Jr.
Divinations - Mastodon
Halcyon Days - And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead


Alcoholics:


Black Hearted:

Completely Conspicuous 82: Burn Hollywood Burn

Here's the conclusion of my conversation with Ric Dube about movies. Click here to listen in streaming audio or download the episode directly here (right click and "save as").

The show notes...

Topics:
- Why Grindhouse bombed
- Ric's Tarantino fandom
- The Brolin connection
- Sex comedies
- Hollywood fat
- Disaster movies
- In praise of Jacqueline Bisset
- Movie trailers
- Superhero movies
- Ric's baseball movie pitch: MVP
- Corrections and clarifications
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- Art Brut - Weird Science
- Andrew Bird - Oh No

Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!

The Art Brut song is a b-side from the band's album Art Brut vs. Satan on Downtown Records. Find out more at . The song is courtesy of RCRDLBL, where you can download the song.

The Andrew Bird song is on the album Noble Beast on Fat Possum Records, where you can download the song.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his fine music blogs Clicky Clicky and Keeping Some Dark Secrets. Additional music used in the show is by Me and Boris the Bull, which is the brainchild of the mighty Mark Campbell.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Word.

Slap Dash for No Cash

Another long weekend is over, just like that. We've been enjoying some sweltering 80 to 85-degree temps the last few days, although it dropped down into the 60s rather suddenly this afternoon. Supposed to be back into the 70s tomorrow. The girls are already whining about how hot it is, but I'll take it.

I took Friday off to spend with the girls. Went out for my first run since the marathon and felt pretty good doing 5 miles, although my legs were really sore afterward. I spent the rest of the day running errands before Hannah's 7th birthday party, which was a "chef party" with her and nine friends. They put toppings on pizzas, decorated mini-cakes, and did crafts. A bit messy, but they had a lot of fun. Hannah's actual birthday is next Wednesday.

On Saturday, I managed to score a ticket to the Sox-Yankees game, so I drove into the city to meet my buddies Gary and Brad and their friend Tim. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and 85. We had tickets for the right field roof, a standing-room only area that Deb and I went to a few years ago. It ended up being a great spot because the breeze off the harbor made it really comfortable. The game itself was insane, a 16-11 marathon victory for the Red Sox. Good times. Got home at 10 and ended up watching the Ducks-Sharks game until 1 a.m.; Sharks won in OT to force the series to a game 6.

Today I ran the Ring Around the Neck 5-miler in Marblehead. It was another hot day and being on the water didn't cool the race down any. I ran it in 40:18 (40:09 by my watch), which wasn't bad considering the heat, hills and the fact it had been six days since the marathon.

I've been pretty good about eating smaller portions since I started paying attention to that on Thursday. Although we went to a goodbye party this afternoon and I ate a lot of junk. But on the whole, I've lost about five pounds so far.

Sweating bullets:

• It has been interesting the last few days to watch the furor over a possible swine flu epidemic sweeping the continent. It started in Mexico and now some cases have reportedly been found in Texas and New York. The tricky thing is keeping people from panicking, because the symptoms are pretty similar to the regular flu. The CDC announced a public health emergency to warn the public about it, but I wonder what, if anything, we can do about it.
• Showbiz legend Bea Arthur is dead at 86. But not to worry: Bea Arthur's Revenge lives on. And holy crap, this 1988 Canuckian PSA with Mario Lemeiux and Tony Fernandez is just plain awesome.
• I've been digging the new Art Brut album, Art Brut vs. Satan. Good, punchy Britrock produced by Frank Black. The singer, Eddie Argos, rants and raves much like a UK version of Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. Makes sense that those bands toured together.