Day After Day #247: Born to Lose

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

Born to Lose (1977)

The history of rock and roll is full of tragic figures who died young. While a lot of attention was paid to the "27 Club" of major artists who died at that age, there are plenty of talented but less heralded musicians who went before their time. One of those is Johnny Thunders (born John Genzale), who rose to fame in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls before forging a solo career.

The Dolls were a huge influence on punk rock, both in sound and attitude, even as they pushed the envelope by cross dressing and wearing makeup. Thunders, originally recruited as a bassist, switched to guitar and played on the band's first two albums before leaving the group in 1975. Thunders then formed The Heartbreakers with Dolls drummer Jerry Nolan and former Television bassist Richard Hell; guitarist Walter Lure joined them soon afterward. Thunders and Hell clashed and Hell left to form Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and was replaced by Billy Rath. 

The Heartbreakers (not to be confused with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who began playing in 1976) became popular in New York City, headlining shows at now-iconic venues like CBGB and Max's Kansas City. The band played '50s-inspired punk rock and moved away from the glam look of the Dolls by getting their hair cut short and wearing '50s-style suits. The band also had a heroin problem, with Thunders, Nolan and Lure all becoming addicts. 

The Heartbreakers were on the ground for the U.K.'s early punk scene, opening for the Sex Pistols. They built a following in London even though most of the shows on tour got canceled. While in London, they recorded their first album, L.A.M.F. Thunders said the title came from New York gang graffiti; gangs would add "L.A.M.F.," or "like a mother fucker" after writing their gang name. Although the album was criticized for having a muddy mix, the Heartbreakers played with a ragged fury. They were proud scumbags, singing about drugs, sex and living in the gutter.

In addition to a searing cover of Dee Dee Ramone's ode to heroin, "Chinese Rocks," the album featured a mission statement of sorts in "Born to Lose." 

"That's the way it goes/This city is so cold/And I'm, I'm so slow/That's why I know/I said hit it!/Born to lose/Born to lose/Born to lose/Baby, I'm born to lose/Nothing to do/Nothing to say/Only one thing that I want/It's the only way."

The band was unhappy with the mixing on the album, so much so that Nolan quit over it. A cleaned-up version was released in 1994, highlighting the fuzz and crunch of Thunders' and Lure's guitars.

"Living in the jungle/It ain't so hard/But living in the city/It will eat out, eat out your heart/I said hit it!/Born to lose, I said hit it!/Born to lose, I said hit it!/Born to lose, oh/Baby, I'm born to lose."

After Nolan left, the band recruited Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols to play drums on a tour of the U.K., but later asked Nolan to return. He finished the tour and then left again to start a new band. They did another tour with Terry Chimes (the Clash) on drums. But then their label, Track Records, went bankrupt. Without a recording contract, Thunders went solo and the band split up in early 1978. 

The band played some farewell shows in New York and recorded a live album, Live at Max's Kansas City '79. Nolan returned to the band in March 1979 and they played in New York throughout '79 and '80. The Heartbreakers played a reunion tour of Europe in 1984; Rath left after the tour and was replaced by Tony Coiro. Thunders and Nolan continued their solo careers, and Lure formed his own band, the Waldos. The last Heartbreakers show was in November 1990 in New York City, with both Thunders and Nolan in poor health.

Thunders died in April 1991 at age 38, his body found in a New Orleans hotel room. Nolan died in 1992 after suffering a stroke while in the hospital, where he was being treated for meningitis and pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with HIV several years earlier. Lure worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street while also playing with the Waldos. He died from complications related to liver and lung cancer in 2020 at the age of 71. Rath left the music scene after quitting the Heartbreakers and eventually became a substance use disorder counselor. He died in 2014 at the age of 66.

Even though they only released on studio album, the Heartbreakers are one of the most influential early punk bands. They were born to lose, but they left behind a small but killer set of songs.

Day After Day #246: Paper Planes

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

Paper Planes (2007)

Sampling has been a big part of popular music for more than 40 years, but you need more than a great sample to make a great song. On "Paper Planes," British-Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. had both, using the intro to the Clash's "Straight to Hell" as her intro as well, providing a great fakeout (for Clash fans, anyway; now, people hear it and think of "Paper Planes"). But M.I.A.'s song stands on its own both as a political statement and a catchy-as-hell iconic jam.

Born in London, Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam moved to Sri Lanka with her family when she was six months old. The family returned to London when she was 11 as refugees after the Sri Lankan Civil War broke out. She began working as a visual artist, filmmaker and designer in 2000. 

After meeting Justine Frischmann of Elastica, Arulpragasam was hired to create the cover art for Elastica's 2000 album The Menace. She went on the road with the band to document their tour and was encouraged by opening act Peaches to start making music. She took the name M.I.A. (for Missing in Acton) and put together a demo tape that featured dancehall, electro, jungle and world music sounds. After uploading her music to MySpace in June 2004, the major labels started chasing her and she signed with XL Recordings. While she was working on her debut album Arular, she released a mashup mixtape called Piracy Funds Terrorism, which was produced by U.S. DJ Diplo; it mashed up vocal tracks from Arular with samples of other recordings like the Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian," Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'" and Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It."

The MP3 blog era of the early 2000s brought her to my attention in 2004, when her songs "Sunflowers" and "Galang" were featured heavily, and then the mixtape made the rounds. Arular came out in March 2005 and was a critical success; it only hit #198 on the Billboard 200 but it got up to #3 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums. And in the post-Napster world, albums weren't what they once were, anyways.

M.I.A. played a bunch of festival and club dates, toured with LCD Soundsystem and Gwen Stefani and built up a ton of buzz for her next album, 2007's Kala. She continued mixing in different styles of music, from Bollywood and Tamil film music to Brazilian funk to African folk and it all worked. She had planned to work with producer Timbaland for most of the album, but couldn't get a long-term work visa to enter the U.S. The holdup was likely due to government concern over her support for the pro-secession Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka (which her father had been involved with), which led some to label her a terrorist. 

She recorded "Paper Planes" in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, which gave her the inspiration for the lyrics. "I was thinking about living there, waking up every morning--it's such an African neighborhood," she told The Fader in 2007. "I was going to get patties at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like 'What I wanna do is come and get your money.' People don't really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they're just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song, I say 'All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money.' I did it in sound effects. It's up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I'm sure they'll get it."

Instead of paying tribute to making money like a gangster, the song pokes fun at the post-9/11 paranoia in the U.S. at the time that had people here believing immigrants were here to destroy us all. (And as I write this 17 years later, things haven't gotten any better, if the idiotic claims about immigrants eating pets are any indication.) The "paper planes" of the title refer to counterfeit visa documents, which the song's protagonist can hook you up with. 

"I fly like paper, get high like planes/If you catch me at the border, I got visas in my name/If you come around here, I make 'em all day/I get one done in a second if you wait/Sometimes I think sittin' on trains/Every stop I get to, I'm clocking that game/Everyone's a winner, we're making our fame/Bona fide hustler making my name."

The chorus sounds like a call back from the 1992 Wreckx-N-Effect jam "Rump Shaker": "All I wanna do is [gun noises]/And a- [cash register noise]/And take your money/All I wanna do is- [gun noises]/And a- [cash register]/And take your money."

The song wasn't an immediate hit, but once it was used in the trailer of the movie Pineapple Express and then featured in the Oscar darling Slumdog Millionaire, "Paper Planes" totally blew up, going to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. The video featured M.I.A. working on a food truck and dancing through the streets of Bed-Stuy, but MTV censored the song's cannabis reference and the gunshot sound effects.

"Pirate skull and bones/Sticks and stones and weed and bongs/Running when we hit 'em/Lethal poison for the system/No one on the corner has swagger like us/Hit me on my burner prepaid wireless/We pack and deliver like UPS trucks/Already going to hell, just pumping that gas."

The song was remixed by 50 Cent, covered in concert by Rihanna and Dizzee Rascal and the line "No one on the corner has swagger like us" was turned into a new song by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and T.I. At the 2009 Grammys, an extremely pregnant M.I.A. joined the group to perform "Swagga Like Us/Paper Planes." She also worked with A.R. Rahman on the song "O...Saya" for Slumdog Millionaire, which was nominated for an Academy Award. She became the first person of Asian descent to be nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy in the same year.

Since then, she's had an interesting 15 years or so, releasing four studio albums but also stirring up plenty of controversy with her political views. She was a supporter of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, has come out against the COVID-19 vaccine and 5G and most recently, endorsed Donald Trump after RFK Jr. dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. Oh, and this year she launched her own fashion line, which includes a "tin foil hat" that supposedly blocks 99.99% of WiFi, 4G and 5G from the brain. 

So there's that. But all that wackadoo shit doesn't change the fact that M.I.A. released some truly brilliant music over the years. Right? Right.

Day After Day #245: Pat's Trick

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

Pat's Trick (1995)

When it comes to underrated guitar gods, Mary Timony has to be on the list. She definitely doesn't get enough respect, despite putting together a near 30-year career. Granted, she's never been a mainstream artist, but give the woman her props. Timony can shred. Not in an Yngwie Malmsteen or Eddie Van Halen way, but in a confident and cool indie rock way.

Timony grew up in Washington, D.C. and started playing in the band Autoclave in 1990 before she went to Boston University.  Timony replaced Mary Lou Lord on vocals and guitar in the band Chupa because Lord didn't want to use electric instruments. After releasing a cassette, guitarist Jason Hatfield (Juliana's brother) left the band and the group changed its name to Helium, with Timony, bassist Brian Dunton and drummer Shawn King Devlin. The group released an EP called Pirate Prude in 1994, after which Dunton left and was replaced by Polvo guitarist Ash Bowie on bass.  

The new lineup released its full-length debut, The Dirt of Luck, in April 1995 on Matador. Timony's vocal delivery was monotone and '90s-cool, but it was her noisy guitar playing that really made the band stand out. It was a good time for rock bands with strong female vocalists: PJ Harvey, Bjork, Courtney Love, Alanis Morissette, Shirley Manson, et al. Timony had a quieter vocal presence, but it was offset by her guitar prowess. 

The opening track on The Dirt of Luck was "Pat's Trick," which got some buzz courtesy of its video being featured on Beavis and Butt-head. That's where I first saw it, but later it was included on the What's Up, Matador? compilation, which I picked up in the late '90s and really enjoyed. 

"Creepy and sullen and running out of room/In my little tomb, my little tomb/I'll plant a seed there to remember you/At the may fair with your long-ass curly hair/We had a pirate band, a tear for every grain of sand/And I was fighting with my hands/This one is wilted and looks like you/'Cause it never grew, it never grew/This one is scrawny, it looks like me/'Cause it's dirty and I'm so dirty too."

The song chugs along with a fuzzy guitar/bass riff that just grabs your attention.

"We had a pirate band, a tear for every grain of sand/And I was fighting with my hands...over you/Beautiful thing, you are the most beautiful thing/Flower of life, bird of spring, you are the most beautiful thing/Locus flower, locus flower, out of bounds, out of bounds/Locus flower, locus flower, out of ground, out of ground."

Timony's laconic delivery and guitar-driven gave Helium a sound that ventured into Sonic Youth and Pavement territory, which was right in the sweet spot of what I was digging in 1995 (and now, really). I saw Helium open for Hole in 1995 at the Orpheum in Boston.

"Some say it's like a beautiful flower/Some say it's a terrible power/I'll meet you at the ending hour/I want to use, I want to use that power/Feed me, feed me, feed me/You are the most beautiful thing/You are the most beautiful thing/Flower of life, bird of spring/You are the most beautiful thing."

For Helium's second album, 1997's The Magic City, the band leaned on an electronic sound with synths and drum machines, a 180 from their previous album. Helium split up after a 1998 tour. Timony moved back to D.C. and began a solo career, releasing four solo albums over the next decade. In 2009, she formed a band called Pow Wow, which later changed its name to Soft Power. 

Then in 2010, she teamed up with Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney (which was on hiatus at the time) and Rebecca Cole of the Minders to form Wild Flag. The group released a kickass self-titled album on Merge in 2011 and toured shortly afterward. I saw them at the Paradise and the show was great. After that group split up, Timony formed Ex Hex with Betsy Wright and Laura Harris and released Rips, a 2014 album that was full of power pop rippers that recalled late '70s garage rock. I saw them open for Rocket from the Crypt in 2014 and then later as a headliner. A second album, It's Real, followed in 2019. That group has been on hold lately as Wright has been touring with Superchunk and Timony has played bass with D.C. post-punk act Hammered Hulls and released an excellent solo album, Untame the Tiger, earlier this year. 

Timony continues to make great music and has inspired a new generation of excellent female guitarists including Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Lindsay Jordan of Snail Mail. 

Day After Day #244: Eighties

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

Eighties (1984)

When you hear a song with a similar riff as another one, is it plagiarism or homage? Nirvana was slammed in 1992 when "Come as You Are" bore a strong resemblance to Killing Joke's "Eighties," which came out seven years earlier. And indeed, Killing Joke considered filing a copyright infringement lawsuit, but it's unclear whether a suit was filed or if it was abandoned after Kurt Cobain's suicide.

And no doubt, the two songs have similar riffs. But then, one doesn't have to go back too far to find similar riffs to "Eighties": Garden of Delight's "22 Faces" (1984), the Damned's "Life Goes On" (1982) and Bauhaus' "Hollow Hills" (1981). And you could even say that 1968's "Baby Come Back" by the Equals (featuring a very young Eddy Grant) is also in the ballpark. I'd argue that while they're all similar, they all stand on their own as original and interesting songs. 

For now, let's focus on Killing Joke's song, which provided a stinging critique of a decade that wasn't even half over. Guitarist Geordie Walker shimmering guitar work drives the song along as singer Jaz Coleman spits out the repetitive but effective lyrics.

"Ah, Eighties/I'm living in the eighties/Eighties/I have to push, I have to struggle/Eighties/Get out of my way, I'm not for sale no more/Eighties/Let's kamikaze til we get there/And we sang/You do it this way."

The song's video features Coleman as a fascistic speaker at a podium while footage of world leaders like Reagan, Brezhnev, Thatcher, Anwar Sadat and Ayatollah Khomeini is intercut. 

"Eighties/By day we run, by night we dance, we do/Eighties/I'm in love with the coming race, oh/Eighties/I've got the best, I'll take all I can get/Eighties/I'm living for the eighties."

Coleman sings of the excess of the decade, but also the struggle of common people to keep up with everything going on in pop culture and global politics. 

"Eighties/I'm living, oh/Eighties/I'm living in the eighties, oh oh oh/Eighties/I'm living in the eighties, I push/Eighties/Push, push, struggle."

Killing Joke had been around since 1979 and quickly became one of the premier post-punk acts, balancing electronic and synth pop elements with heavier, guitar-oriented rock. In addition to Nirvana, the band was a big influence on other major acts to come including Nine Inch Nails, Metallica and Soundgarden. 

"Eighties" was released as a single in April 1984 (premiering it on The Tube in December 1983, see below), but later included on the 1985 album Night Time, which became the band's biggest album, getting to #11 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Killing Joke's next album was remixed by the label against the band's wishes to make it more commercial, but in the end it was a flop. In 1987, Coleman and Walker began working on a new album, but bassist Paul Raven and drummer Paul Ferguson ended up quitting the band after session players were brought in. The finished album, Outside the Gate, was controversial because of its extensive use of synths and diminished use of guitar. It was panned by critics, wasn't supported by any touring and was not released in the U.S.

Coleman and Walker put together a new lineup in 1988 with Martin Atkins (PiL) on drums and Dave Ball on bass (after trying out ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and firing him after three days). After a tour, Ball left and Raven returned; a heavier album was released in 1990 and the band toured Europe and North America before splitting up again in 1991. The band has been on and off over the last three decades, releasing seven albums and touring. Raven died in 2007, and the original lineup of Coleman, Walker, Ferguson and Youth reunited. The band's most recent album was 2015's Pylon. Walker died last November at age 64 after suffering a stroke.

"Eighties" is one of Killing Joke's signature songs. It has been used by a number of TV shows and in a party scene in the 1985 movie Weird Science. Wherever the band came up with the riff, it has certainly served them well.

Day After Day #243: There She Goes

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

There She Goes (1988)

Sometimes a song just hits. An artist figures it out and nails it right out of the gate. The La's captured a perfect piece of dream pop heaven on their first album and were poised to do big things. And then they just didn't.

The La's were formed in Liverpool, England, in 1983, as a skiffle outfit. Lee Mavers joined the group a year later as rhythm guitarist and eventually started doing more of the songwriting and become the frontman. The band caught the attention of some local labels and in 1987 released its first single, "Way Out," which hit the top 100. Their Liverpool origins and pure pop sound drew comparisons to the Beatles.

"There She Goes" was released in 1988 and didn't fare well in the charts. After a few years of recording and re-recording their debut album, with a rotating group of musicians, Mavers and bassist John Power settled on a lineup with Lee's brother Neil on drums and Peter Cammell on lead guitar. They went into the studio in December 1989 with producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Simple Minds) and recorded what would become their debut, but Lee Mavers was not satisfied with the sound. Lillywhite eventually put together what the band had recorded into 1990's The La's and the band, especially Mavers, complained about the finished product. 

Still, when it came out, the album went to #30 on the U.K. album chart, although it barely cracked the Billboard 200 in the U.S. A remixed version of "There She Goes" was released as a single and it became a hit, going to #13 in the U.K. in 1990. In the U.S., it went to #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

The song's gentle lilt makes it sound like it's straight out of the mid-'60s. It's a jangly love song, although some believe it was about a love affair with heroin, something Mavers has always denied.

"There she goes/There she goes again/Racing through my brain/And I just can't contain/This feelin' that remains/There she blows/There she blows again/Pulsing through my vein/And I just can't contain/This feelin' that remains."

There have also been comparisons of the song to the Velvet Underground's "There She Goes Again," which isn't explicitly about drugs, either. Mavers was steadfast that it was a love song about a girl, although he did admit to taking heroin around 1990, which was two years after the song was written. 

"There she goes/There she goes again/She calls my name, pulls my train/No one else could heal my pain/But I just can't contain/This feelin' that remains/There she goes/There she goes again/Chasing down my lane/And I just can't contain/This feelin' that remains."

Whatever it's about, the song has had staying power. It's been used in several movies and TV shows, including The Parent Trap, Fever Pitch, The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Gilmore Girls. "There She Goes" is used throughout Mike Myers' 1993 movie So I Married an Axe Murderer, both the La's version and a rocked-up cover by the Boo Radleys.

Nearly a decade later, the American Christian alt-rock act Sixpence None the Richer released a cover of "There She Goes" in July 1999 that went to #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

As for the La's, they never made another album. The band stopped touring and rehearsing in 1992, but would reunite occasionally for shows, supporting artists like Oasis and Paul Weller in the mid-'90s. The band released some compilations of early recordings and live radio sessions. Mavers began jamming with Pete Doherty in 2008 and there were rumors that Doherty's band Babyshambles was going to back up Mavers on the second La's album, but it never happened. Mavers reformed the La's in 2011 for some shows in Europe, but that was the last public La's activity. 

In an interview for the 2013 book Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters, Mavers said he's a father of four and hasn't done drugs for decades. 

Original La's guitarist Mike Badger said in a 2021 interview about the song that "There She Goes" has been a blessing and a curse for Mavers. "It's the best thing that's happened to Lee but also the worst. He wrote this perfect song, but it's meant he hasn't had to do anything because he has a constant source of income."

Stuck In Thee Garage #544: September 6, 2024

Some people dread birthdays. I'm not one of them. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I celebrated the show's (and the station's) 11th birthday with two hours of songs that go to 11. It's been a fun run and I'm still having a blast doing it. Here's to 11 more!

This playlist says "Happy birthday to me":

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Run the Jewels - Lie, Cheat, Steal/Run the Jewels 2

Living Colour - Who Shot Ya/Shade

Peeping Tom - Sucker (feat. Norah Jones)/Peeping Tom

The Afghan Whigs - Miles iz Ded/Congregation

The Pretenders - The Wait/Pretenders

Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl/The Singles

Palehound - Molly/Dry Food

Boss Hog - Black Eyes/Brood X

At the Drive-In - Pattern Against User/Relationship of Command

McLusky - Alan is a Cowboy Killer/McLusky Do Dallas

Queens of the Stone Age - In My Head/Lullabies to Paralyze

Big Chief - Armed Love/Platinum Jive

Lump - Thirteen/Live on Pipeline! 3/2/93

The Black Angels - Black Grease/Passover

AC/DC - Dog Eat Dog/Let There Be Rock

Spinal Tap - Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight/This is Spinal Tap

Hour 2

Blondie - Dreaming/Eat to the Beat

Swirlies - Jeremy Parker/Blonder Tongue Audio Baton

Turnstile - Holiday/Glow On

Urge Overkill - (Now That's) The Barclords/Stull

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists -  Suspect Device/Live at Touch and Go's 25th 9/8/06

Earth, Wind & Fire - Mighty Mighty/Open Our Eyes

Funkadelic - Hit It and Quit It/Maggot Brain

War - Me and Baby Brother/Deliver the Word

Death Lurks - Some Days It's Dark/Kids in the Hall Brain Candy

Max Webster - Check/Universal Juveniles

April Wine - All Over Town/Nature of the Beast

The English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom/I Just Can't Help It

The Specials - Rat Race/More Specials

Jeff Rosenstock - Checkerboard Ashtray/Ska Dream

Fu Manchu - The Action is Go/The Action is Go!

Mudhoney - Let It Slide/Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

The Stooges - Loose/Fun House

Open the birthday present playlist HERE!

 

Day After Day #242: Valerie Loves Me

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

Valerie Loves Me (1991)

Unrequited love is a fairly common topic in rock songs (and movies and books and TV shows and). How many times have you had unfulfilled crushes on people over a lifetime? Usually those thoughts are forgotten after a while, but every so often a great song emerges on the topic. One of the great songs about an unrequited crush is "Valerie Loves Me" by Material Issue, the great Chicago power pop act from the late '80s/early '90s.

The band was formed by Jim Ellison (vocals, guitar). He met Ted Ansani (bass) when both were students at Columbia College Chicago in '86 and found drummer Mike Zelenko through an ad later that year. Material Issue released an EP in 1987 on their own label Big Block and got some attention in the Chicago area over the new few years with their power pop singles "Sixteen Tambourines" and "Renee Remains the Same." 

They signed to Mercury Records and released their debut album, International Pop Overthrow, in 1991. Steeped in the tradition of Cheap Trick, Big Star and the Raspberries, the band packed every song full of killer hooks and sharp riffs, singing about girls and cars. "Diane" got some attention on MTV's 120 Minutes, but "Valerie Loves Me" was the group's breakout song.

Ellison wrote the song about a neighbor girl he had a crush on when he was 11.

"Valerie's dancing on the room above my bed, you know/For all the world below to see/Valerie's leaving in a car outside my house, you know/Such a shame she's not with me and all the pretty things/And all the love my heart would bring/I would give my whole life to her/Valerie loves me."

Unable to get her attention, the protagonist watches with envy as Valerie lives what he imagines to be a glamorous life.

"Valerie's riding in a car around my neighborhood/She's thinking of all the men she'll meet/I could only hope for a stolen moment of her thoughts/Between the walk to the club and all the drinks she'll have in a crowded room/Where everybody leaves too soon/I only hope that she remembers me/Valerie loves me."

The song then imagines Valerie as an older woman, living alone while the protagonist has moved on.

"Valerie's lonely in an apartment down the street, you know/And her hair has turned so gray/But she's so happy for the memories she has, you know/She can believe in the day when love was on a string/And she could have had anything she ever wanted/But she can't have me."

The song hit #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and International Pop Overthrow ended up selling over 300,000 copies and hitting #86 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Material Issue followed it up with 1992's Destination Universe, scoring another radio hit with "What Girls Want." But it didn't perform as well as the first album, no doubt overshadowed by the popularity of a different type of guitar rock. After 1994's Freak City Soundtrack, which only sold less than 50,000 copies, the band left Mercury.

Material Issue continued touring in the Midwest and recorded songs for a forthcoming album that they were shopping to labels. But in June 1996, Ellison died by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage, leaving behind a suicide note. The band's final recordings were released posthumously on Telecommando Americano in 1997 by Rykodisc.

An annual power pop festival was renamed International Pop Overthrow in the band's honor. Ansani and Zelenko have continued to play in bands in the Chicago area; for the 20th anniversary of International Pop Overthrow, they reformed the band under the name Material Reissue with singer Phil Angotti filling in for Ellison; they played a few shows in 2011 and have performed occasionally since.

Even though they weren't a big act, Material Issue had plenty of fans. A documentary, Out of Time: The Material Issue Story, came out in 2021. "Valerie Loves Me" was covered a few times in concert by Hole, and the Tragically Hip dedicated their 1998 song "Escape is at Hand for the Traveling Man" to Ellison, who singer Gord Downie had met in passing years earlier. 

Although their power pop was a little misplaced in the grunge era, Material Issue was a great band (see the live clip from '92 below) that was gone too soon.

Day After Day #241: Candy's Room

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

Candy's Room (1978)

Bruce Springsteen is an American phenomenon. For nearly 50 years, he's been massively popular with his tales of working class life. I appreciate his body of work, but I've never been a huge fan. That said, I know a large number of his songs by virtue of hearing them on the radio constantly and by and large, I like them. But I never felt the need to buy a Springsteen album (I've taped or burned a few over the years). I even saw Springsteen when he got the E Street Band back together for a tour in 1999 and it was a fun show (again, somebody offered me a ticket). It's just that he's never been an essential artist for me.

Coming off the breakthrough success of 1975's Born to Run, Springsteen was embroiled in a series of legal disputes with former manager Mike Appel and wasn't able to release another album for three years. But instead of making another Born to Run, he opted for a darker look at suburban life. Springsteen was inspired by Steinbeck novels, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie, and newer, rawer artists like the Sex Pistols, Clash and Elvis Costello. The sound leaned more into hard rock guitar and away from the sweeping sound of Born to Run.

Darkness on the Edge of Town didn't sell as well as Born to Run, but it hit #5 on the Billboard album chart and had some singles that did okay: "Prove It All Night," "Badlands" and "The Promised Land." But the song that I immediately was drawn to was "Candy's Room." It wasn't a big single for him, so I probably didn't hear it until a few years later on a rock block weekend or something. 

"Candy's Room" is the result of two songs, "Candy's Boy" and "The Fast Song," being combined into one; it's the tale of a prostitute and one of her jealous clients, who feels he has more to offer her than the rest of her well-off johns. It's very unlike one of Bruce's bombastic hits like "Born to Run" or "Jungleland," instead beginning quietly with just piano and Max Weinberg lightly tapping his hi-hats as Springsteen numbly intones the first verse. 

"In Candy's room, there are pictures of her heroes on the wall/But to get to Candy's room, you gotta walk the darkness of Candy's hall/Strangers from the city call my baby's number and they bring her toys/When I come knocking, she smiles pretty, she knows I wanna be Candy's boy/There's a sadness hidden in that pretty face/A sadness all her own from which no man can keep Candy safe."

The band fully kicks in as the narrator describes when he's alone with her.

"We kiss, my heart rushes through my brain/And the blood rushes in my veins/The fire rushes towards the sky/And we go driving, driving deep into the night/I go driving deep into the light in Candy's eyes/She says, 'Baby, if you wanna be wild/You got a lot to learn, close your eyes/Let them melt, let them fire, let them burn'/'Cause in the darkness, there'll be hidden worlds that shine/When I hold Candy close, she makes those hidden worlds mine."

Springsteen provides hot lead guitar, which is unusual for a Bruce song, as Candy speaks. But he soon realizes that even though he can't give her expensive gifts, he has a special connection with her. Or so he believes.

"She has fancy clothes and diamond rings/She has men who give her anything she wants/But they don't see/That what she wants is me/Oh, and I want her so/I'll never let her go, no no no/She knows that I'd give/All that I've got to give/All that I want, all that I live/To make Candy mine/Tonight."

There are other interpretations of the song, that it's just a poor guy trying to win the affections of a rich girl, but the "john in love with a hooker" angle makes more sense to me. Whatever the case, it's a stirring song both lyrically and musically, and it's all wrapped up in under 3 minutes. 

The rest of the album is strong as well, with standouts including "Adam Raised a Cain," "Prove It All Night" and the title track. It's my favorite Springsteen album by far.

After a successful tour that included three-hour shows and different setlists, the band established itself as one of the premier live acts in rock. Springsteen followed it up with The River, a double album that went to #1. He then went in another direction with 1982's Nebraska, a stark, mostly acoustic folk album. And then came Born in the USA, which made Springsteen a megastar.

Springsteen turns 74 in a few weeks and he's still touring with the E Street Band, playing to sold out arenas all around the world. His recorded output since the '90s has been a mixed bag, but he continues to be one of the biggest artists going. I've got nothing but respect for the guy, but I prefer scruffy efforts like Darkness and Nebraska to his big albums. 

 

Day After Day #240: Ex Lion Tamer

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

Ex Lion Tamer (1977)

There are plenty of bands throughout the history of rock music that haven't received the appropriate amount of credit. Wire is one of those bands. They emerged in 1977 during the first wave of British punk, but they were already so different from all the bands around them, evolving into one of the premier post-punk acts. They influenced a lot of artists who came after them, even as they experimented and returned from multiple breaks.

Wire was formed in 1976 in London by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert and George Gill (guitar) and Robert "Gotobed" Grey (drums). 

On their 1977 debut album Pink Flag, the band defied convention with 21 songs of varying lengths, pushing the envelope about what punk should sound like. Only six of the album's songs are longer than 2 minutes, opting for brevity and punch even as the band works in a variety of ideas and styles that would inspire post-punk, alt-rock, hardcore and many other genres.

"Ex Lion Tamer" is a raw ripper that satirizes a generation stuck inside watching action shows on TV while their lives waste away.

"There's great danger/For the loneliest ranger in town/No silver bullets/Tonto's split the scene/Next week will solve your problems/But now/Fish fingers all in a line/The milk bottles stand empty/Stay glued to your TV set."

Guilty as charged, although the irony was as much time as my generation spent watching TV as kids, it pales in comparison to the screen time (TV and otherwise) that pretty much all generations rack up nowadays. 

"There's great danger/At hand, most caped crusader of all/No cloak of justice/Robin's quit the scene/Next week will solve your problems/But now/Fish fingers all in a line/The milk bottles stand empty/Stay glued to your TV set."

Pink Flag was critically lauded at the time and has made many best album lists, even though it didn't sell much at the time. On their second album, 1978's Chairs Missing, Wire went with longer, more experimental songs, adding more synthesizers. Their third album, 1979's 154, took that sound even farther and hit #39 on the U.K. Albums Chart, but Wire's unusual promotional ideas (videos, weeklong residencies at theaters, TV ads) led to their label EMI eventually dropping the band in 1980.

Wire returned in 1985, announcing they would no longer play their old songs, instead hiring a Wire cover band called the Ex-Lion Tamers as their opening act, while Wire played newer material. They released an album each year through 1991 before splitting again (after a year of going as "Wir" after Grey left the band). The band reformed again in 1999, with Grey back in the fold and released two EPs in 2002. Wire has continued on in various formations since then, releasing seven albums. 

But those first three albums remain unimpeachable. The band influenced acts including Minor Threat, Black Flag, Boss Hog, Soundgarden, Manic Street Preachers, Husker Du, Quicksand, Mary Timony, Mission of Burma, Big Black, R.E.M. (who covered "Strange"), Low, New Bomb Turks and, of course, Elastica. The similarities between Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba" and Elastica's "Connection" famously led to an out-of-court settlement. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but sometimes too much flattery can get expensive.

Day After Day #239: One Armed Scissor

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

One Armed Scissor (2000)

Is it possible for a band to have too much energy? Probably not, but if you ever saw an At the Drive-In performance, you might wonder. I've only seen footage of them on YouTube, but man, they went all out all the time on stage. Just off the charts insanity and awesomeness.

In 2000, the music scene was pretty strange. Napster was blowing up, the recording industry was filing lawsuits to stop file-sharing sites like Napster, nu metal acts like Limp Bizkit were all the rage and pop and hip hop were also thriving. 

By this point, post-hardcore act At the Drive-In had been together for six years, formed in El Paso by guitarist Jim Ward and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala, with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez joining in 1995 as bassist. The band released their debut album, Acrobatic Tenement, on Flipside in 1996. Shortly after recording that album, ATDI added Tony Hajjar on drums and Paul Hinojos on bass, with Rodriguez-Lopez switching to guitar. After switching labels to Fearless Records, the band released In/Casino/Out in August 1998. 

Buzz had been building about ATDI's incendiary live performances and eventually the group signed with G.A.S. Entertainment, a label founded by record company exec Gary Gersh and artist manager John Silva. But while the band was recording its third album, Relationship of Command with producer Ross Robinson, G.A.S.'s parent company, Digital Entertainment Network, dissolved and Gersh and Silva merged their label with Grand Royal (founded by the Beastie Boys in conjunction with Capitol Records). 

Any fears that ATDI would water down their sound after signing to a major were unfounded. Relationship of Command came out in September 2000 and was a ripper of an album, cementing the band as the premier "screamo" act of the moment. I was working for Webnoize and we attended South by Southwest in March 2000, where ATDI played a hot set; unfortunately, I was unaware of it and missed it. But thanks to our office "research" on Napster, I was able to hear some of the new stuff early and picked up the CD when it came out. "Pattern Against User," "Arcarsenal" and "Rolodex Propaganda" (featuring Iggy Pop) are all standouts. The energy is palpable, with Bixler-Zavala screaming while Ward and Rodriguez-Lopez riff furiously and the rhythm section thunders along. 

"One Armed Scissor" was an early favorite, although I have to admit I didn't know what the hell they were singing about most of the time. According to the Wikipedia page for the song, the band said in an interview that a one-armed scissor is a mixture of Red Bull and vodka, and that the song is about their tours told from the point of view of "an omniscient character named the one-armed scissor who sees their hardships they deal with while on tour." Okay, that still doesn't make much sense. But neither do these lyrics, which center on something bad happening on a spaceship (I think).

"Yes, this is the campaign/Slithered entrails in the cargo bay/Neutered is the vastness/They hibernate, but have they kissed the ground?/Pucker up and kiss the asphalt now/Tease this amputation/Splintered larynx, it has access now/Cut away, cut away/Send transmission to the one-armed scissor/Cut away, cut away/Send transmission from the one-armed scissor/Cut away, cut away/Send transmission to the one-armed scissor/Cut away, cut away."

The song began getting play on college radio stations like WMBR, which we were listening to in our Cambridge office at the time, but also on more mainstream rock stations. And the band was going on talk shows like the Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien and just exploding on the stage, with Bixler-Zavala throwing himself into instruments and even Conan's guest couch (according to a YouTube viewer who was in the audience) while the band thrashed away. 

"Dissect a trillion sighs away/Will you get this letter? Jagged pulp sliced in my veins/I write to remember/'Cause I'm a million miles away/Will you get this letter?/Jagged pulp sliced in my veins/I write to remember/I write to remember/I write to remember."

So maybe the space station is a metaphor for life on the road, perhaps. That life was taking a toll on the band, for sure. In November 2000, ATDI's touring van skidded on ice and flipped onto its roof; the band escaped with only minor injuries to Hajjar and Bixler-Zavala. In January 2001, the band was playing the Big Day Out festival in Australia when the band grew upset at the crowd's moshing and left the stage after playing three songs. Two months later, about to begin a U.S. tour and at the peak of their popularity, ATDI split up. While exhaustion was given as a reason, both Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez were dealing with drug habits and the band members had different ideas about musical direction. 

Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez wanted to move into a prog-rock vein and formed the Mars Volta, while Ward, Hinojos and Hajjar formed the ATDI-adjacent Sparta. Both acts released albums that performed well. Hinojos left Sparta and joined the Mars Volta from 2005-2009. ATDI reunited in 2011 and played some festival shows the following year. The Mars Volta split up in 2013 and Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez stopped talking for a while before resolving their issues the following year.

ATDI reformed to make a new album in 2016, although Ward left after a few rehearsals and was replaced by former Sparta guitarist Keeley Davis. The album, in*ter*a*li*a, came out in 2017 and was pretty good. The band toured behind the album, but in November 2018 announced another hiatus. 

I still love watching those old videos of At the Drive-In, which remind me of similarly kickass acts like Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes and the Nation of Ulysses, all of which ATDI has cited as influences. Whether they're singing about spaceships, booze or scissors, ATDI was the real deal, man.

Day After Day #238: September

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

September (1978)

Hey, it's September 1 so I couldn't resist writing about Earth, Wind & Fire's signature song. I've always had a soft spot for the song because it mentions my birthday, but the fact remains it's a funky, joyous jam that never gets old. And it made EWF a ton of money to boot.

The group was formed in 1969 in Chicago by Maurice White and has had nearly 40 members in the decades since. Throughout the '70s, they cranked out funk-pop hits like "Serpentine Fire," "Mighty Mighty," "Shining Star," "Boogie Wonderland" and "After the Love Has Gone," but their biggest hit was a throwaway song added to a greatest hits comp in 1978.

Singer Maurice White and songwriter Allee Willis wrote the song using a chord progression developed by EWF guitarist Al McKay, coming up with a tribute to my birthday in the process.

"Do you remember/The 21st night of September?/Love was changing the minds of pretenders/While chasin' the clouds away/Our hearts were ringing/In the key that our souls were singing/As we danced in the night, remember/How the stars stole the night away, year/Hey, hey, hey/Ba-dee-ya, say do you remember?/Ba-dee-ya, dancing in September/Ba-dee-ya, never was a cloudy day."

During the recording process, Willis had concerns about White using "ba-dee-ya," which was a nonsense phrase he'd use when he didn't have lyrics, in the song's chorus. She said she had begged him not to use it, but White stuck to his guns.

Willis told NPR in 2014: "And finally when it was so obvious that he was not going to [rewrite the lyrics], I just said, 'What the fuck does ba-dee-ya mean?' And he essentially said, 'Who the fuck cares?' I learned my greatest lesson every in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."

And groove it did. Featuring EWF's Phenix Horns (who would later also show up on hits by Phil Collins and Genesis), "September" was a dance floor classic from day 1.

"My thoughts are with you/Holding hands with your heart to see you/Only blue talk and love, remember/How we knew love was here to stay/Now December/Found the love that we shared in September/Only blue talk and love, remember/The true love we share today."

As for why they referenced September 21, Willis said it was just based on the way it sounded.

"We went through all the dates: 'Do you remember the first, the second, the third, the fourth..." and the one that just felt the best was the 21st," she said. "I constantly have people coming up to me and they get so excited to know what the significance was. And there is no significance beyond it just sang better than any other days. So...sorry!"

Clearly, the choice was a good one because the song went to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Soul Charts. It's been featured in numerous movies and TV shows and has become a staple at wedding receptions and celebrations everywhere. Willis, who was a fledgling songwriter at the time she co-wrote "September," ended up also writing "Neutron Dance" for the Pointer Sisters and the Friends theme "I'll Be There for You," among others. She died in 2019. 

EWF continued having hits in the '80s with "Let's Groove" but then White put the group on hiatus in 1984. He released a solo album and worked as a producer, while singer Philip Bailey also made solo albums and had a huge with Phil Collins, "Easy Lover." The band reconvened in 1987 and continued making albums and touring right through 2016, when Maurice White died. EWF has continued on performing, with Bailey and bassist Verdine White still in the fold. They've sold over 90 million albums worldwide and have made the most of "September."