America 250 Rocktober Song #14: "American Music" by Violent Femmes

As you may know, the Milwaukee Brewers are in the World Series for only the second time in franchise history and the first time since 1982.  As you may not know, Violent Femmes are playing a pregame concert at American Family Field prior to Game 1 on the World Series on Friday night.

One of the stalwarts of the American underground alternative rock scene in the '80s, Violent Femmes formed in Milwaukee in 1981.  In August of that year, they got a pretty big break.  The Pretenders were playing a show at Milwaukee's Oriental Theatre, and Violent Femmes were busking in front of the theater earlier in the day.  Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott heard them, and then lead singer Chrissie Hynde asked the band to play a short acoustic set in between the opening band and The Pretenders' set.

The band released their self-titled debut album in April 1983, and it contained several of what would become the band's most well-known songs, such as "Blister in the Sun," "Kiss Off," "Add It Up," and "Gone Daddy Gone."  I was going to go with "Kiss Off" as my selection, but given that this Rocktober is a celebration of American music, how could I not go with "American Music"?

"American Music" was the first track off of the band's fifth studio album, 1991's Why Do Birds Sing?  The song starts out with the spoken-word line, "Do you like American music? / I like American music / Don't you like American music, baby?" before kicking into a foot-stomping shuffle that begs you to sing along with the entire song, before the song whips into a frenzy at the end, complete with the backing vocals singing excerpts of The Ronettes' song "I Can Hear Music" (more famously covered by The Beach Boys).  It's not hard to see why the song became a concert staple for the band.  "American Music" would reach #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, making it the band's highest-charting single on that or any other chart.

America 250 Rocktober Song #13: "I Wanna Be With You" by The Raspberries

The next stop on our cross-country aural journey takes us to Cleveland, Ohio, where The Raspberries formed in 1970.  Along with the likes of Badfinger, Big Star, and Todd Rundgren, The Raspberries were one of the bands that pioneered the power pop genre in the early '70s.

The band released four albums between 1972 and 1974, before breaking up in 1975.  During their run, they had four Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the 1972 #5 hit "Go All the Way," which some credit as being the first hit power pop song.

I decided to go with their second-biggest single, "I Wanna Be With You," which was released in late 1972.  It doesn't get any more power pop than this, with its combination of guitar-driven rock, harmonies, and a hooky sing-along chorus, wearing its Beatles influences on its sleeve.  The song reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #17 on the Canadian pop chart.  The video I'm including is the band's performance of the song on a May 1973 episode of Midnight Special, though it's actually just the recorded version with them lip syncing, as was the style at the time.

After the band broke up, lead singer Eric Carmen went on to have a very successful solo career, charting eight Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including three Top 5 songs:  1975's "All By Myself" (#2), 1987's "Hungry Eyes" (#3), and 1988's "Make Me Lose Control" (#4).

America 250 Rocktober Song #12: "Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf

I was in North Carolina this weekend, so let's go with a song by a band from The Tarheel State.

Indie/alt rockers Archers of Loaf formed in Chapel Hill in 1991.  They put our four studio albums between 1993 and 1998, before breaking up (and then reuniting decades later, putting out another album in 2002).

They're probably best known for their 1993 song "Web in Front," which was both released as a single and as a track on their debut album, Icky Mettle.  It's a catchy alt rock song that was featured both in an episode of Beavis and Butthead and in one of my favorite movies of all-time, Mallrats.  It's pure early '90s alternative with some new wave influences, and there's a smidgen of pop punk foreshadowing under all the '90s angst.  The song didn't chart on any of the Billboard charts, but the video got decent play on MTV.  Since its release, the song has been well regarded.  In its 2010 list of the 200 best songs from the '90s, Pitchfork ranked "Web in Front" #77.

America 250 Rocktober Song #11: "Corn Dog Sonnet #7" by Sincere Engineer

We're heading back to the Midwest for the eleventh song of this Rocktober.  Chicago's Sincere Engineer has been putting out music for about ten years now.  I've had the pleasure of seeing them four or five times, and they put on a great show.  They always seem like they're (a) having fun and (b) grateful to be there -- which are two of the best qualities a band can have while onstage.

Musically, they straddle the line between punk, pop punk, and indie rock, whatever that means.  I think I would classify their songs as being observational, introspective, and/or somewhat self-deprecating.  And my selection probably falls within all everything I've just mentioned.

"Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7" is a song off the band's debut album, 2017's Rhombithian.  It doesn't get more American or more Midwestern than encased meat encased in cornmeal and deep fried -- and then writing and recording a song about it.  Well, more specifically, it's about lying on the couch all day and eating corn dogs.  The video, which was made by lead singer Deanna Belos, has various scenes of the songs lyrics written on things in mustard -- and as the liner notes to the YouTube video say, "probably ruined a lot of stuff in the process."  It doesn't get more Chicago than mustard and hot dogs.  Frankly, people who put ketchup on hot dogs are untrustworthy as humans.  There, I said it.

I'm going to be returning some videotapes tomorrow, but I'll be back on Monday for another exciting week of America 250 Rocktober.

America 250 Rocktober Song #10: "Renegades of Funk" by Rage Against the Machine

With the thousands of bands and artists from California, it was tough figuring out which one would be my choice for the Golden State's inclusion in this Rocktober celebration of American music.  But then I looked back though my detailed Rocktober records and realized I have never featured a song by Rage Against the Machine during Rocktober, and that made the choice easy.

Rage Against the Machine was formed in LA in the early '90s, and the band soon established itself as a unique force in the rock world.  Melding politically tinged lyrics with music grounded in metal, funk, and rap, all from a multi-racial band, Rage's music is as American as apple pie, you dirty capitalist.

Of all the Rage songs out there, I decided to go with one I could have included in last year's Coverocktober:  their 2000 cover of hip hop/rap pioneers Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force's 1983 song "Renegades of Funk."  And my choice is somewhat timely, as Bambaataa died earlier this year at the age of 68.

The song is about "renegades" and revolutionary figures throughout history, in thought, politics, civil rights, and the like.  So it was a perfect song for Rage to cover, and they did a hell of a job making it their own.  Rage transformed the song from a electronic hip hop song into a raging (pun intended) funk/rap metal song.  The video is also a nice homage to dozens of funk and hip-hop musicians, as well as the Civil Rights movement.  This is a song that requires you to roll the windows down and crank it when it comes on the radio.  And then jam, sucka.

Tuesday Top Ten: Rocking Songs with "America" in the Title

I forgot to do an America 250 Rocktober-themed Tuesday Top Ten last week, and frankly, we both deserve better.  But if I had done one last week, it would have been songs that contain the word "America" in the title, so let's do it now.  To keep things in line with the America 250 Rocktober parameters, I'm only going with songs from American artists.  I'm also going strictly with "America," rather than expanding it to "American," "Americana," "American't," etc.

And by Jove, remember, this is Rocktober, so this isn't mean to be some "best of" list of songs with "America" in the title, but rather ten songs that rock that have "America" in the title and are maybe from varying genres.  I'm just going in alphabetical order by artist, and I'll put the state where they're from in parentheses after the name).

1.  "New America" by Bad Religion (CA)

The title track to punk rockers Bad Religion's 2000 album has a nice sing-along chorus.

2.  "In America" by Britny Fox (PA)

Britny Fox put out this screamy hair metal song on their self-titled 1988 album.

3.  "Which Way to America" by Living Colour (NY)

Funk rockers Living Colour crush it on this frenetic funk rock song with a message.

4.  "America" by Neil Diamond (NY)

This was the first song I thought of when I started making this list, and then I thought "does this song rock hard enough to be included in Rocktober?"  The answer is yes, it does.

5.  "(You Can Still) Rock in America" by Night Ranger (CA)

Though best known for their sublime power ballad "Sister Christian," Night Ranger could rock with the best of 'em.

6.  "Little America" by REM (GA)

From their 1984 sophomore album, Reckoning, "Little America" is a great, fast-paced, new wavy college rock song.

7.  "Son of An America" by The So So Glos (NY)

You may not have heard of New York punk band The So So Glos, but I saw them years ago at Lollapalooza and then again at a small club here in Chicago.  "Son of An America" is a nice example of their catchy punk style.

8.  "Miss America" by Styx (IL)

"Miss America" is off of Styx's 1977 Grand Illusion album.  It starts out slow and orchestral, but then it kicks into the real song, a gritty rock song with some soulful vocals from James Young.

9.  "Somewhere in America" by Survivor (IL)

"Somewhere in America" is a bluesy, snarly rock song from the western suburbs' own Survivor, kind of like a nod to The Faces.

10.  "Surf Wax America" by Weezer (CA)

Among the many amazing songs on Weezer's iconic 1994 debut album ("The Blue Album"), perhaps "Surf Wax America" may get lost in the mix.  But this is a 

America 250 Rocktober Song #9: "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry

We're sticking in the Midwest for today's America 250 Rocktober selection.  I also realized that all the songs so far have been from the '80s or later, with the exception of ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid."  So I'm going even further back, to the nascent years of rock and roll.

Chuck Berry -- from St. Louis -- is, of course, one of the early stars of rock and roll and one of the most famous and influential musicians in rock history.  His guitar playing and showmanship have influenced countless musicians, from George Harrison to Keith Richards to Angus Young to Marty McFly.

While Berry's catalog is vast and plentiful, I had to go with one of his classics, 1958's "Johnny B. Goode."  We take it for granted by now, but what a hell of a song for the tail-end of the stodgy '50s.  It was the first rock and roll song about being a rock and roll star.  More importantly, it told a rags-to-riches tale of an illiterate country boy with an innate talent for playing the guitar -- telling us that anyone can be a rock star, regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds.  Musically, the song kicks off with that famous opening riff, and it's all energy for the rest of the song.

"Johnny B. Goode" went to #8 on the pre-cursor to the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart.  In 1977, it was included as one of the 27 songs (and the only rock and roll song) on the Voyager Golden Record -- a record that was inserted into both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts, just in case aliens one day find either craft, figure out how to work the record player included in the craft, and then think, "man, that Earth place was super weird back at some point in time before it exploded several hundred thousand years ago."

My favorite sentence from the Wikipedia page about the Voyager Golden Record:  "Although neither Voyager spacecraft is heading toward any particular star, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light-years' distance of the star Gliese 445, currently in the constellation Camelopardalis, in about 40,000 years."  So the closest we're gonna come to any potential alien lifeform discovering this record will be in 40,000 years when Voyager 1 comes within approximately 9.4 trillion miles of some star with a stupid name.  To put that in perspective, you could go to and from Pluto over 1,200 times, and it still wouldn't be 1.6 light years.

But I digress.  I'm embedding a fan video of the song that features the studio recording, but with some Berry TV performances.

America 250 Rocktober Song #8: "Livin' in the '80s" by Zero Boys

First off, I want to wish you all a happy Canadian Thanksgiving.  Second, there will be no Canadian music for you to hear, since we're celebrating American music this Rocktober.  Our next song comes from the Crossroads of America.  Formed in Indianapolis in 1980, Zero Boys were one of the few hardcore punk bands that wasn't from one of the coasts.  I had the pleasure of seeing them at Riot Fest last year, and I'd be lying if I told you I had heard any of their music before making my Riot Fest playlists.  But I liked what I heard!

They put out their self-released debut single, "Livin' in the '80s" in late 1980, and it was also later included on the band's first full-length album, 1981's Vicious Circle.  It starts off with a nice fuzzy guitar riff, and the song is about not being dead in the penultimate decade of the last millennium.  It has a nice sing-along call-and-response chorus, and it also packs in a nice little guitar solo into the two minutes and ten seconds of song.

The band continued to make music throughout the '80s, though most of their output was on compilations.  They broke up in the late '80s, but then reunited shortly thereafter and released studio albums in 1991 and 1993, before breaking up again for another decade.  They reunited in the mid aughts and put out another record in 2014.  Apparently, lead singer Paul Mahern now lives in Bloomington, so that's cool.

America 250 Rocktober Song #7: "Chains Around Heaven" by Black 'N Blue

For our second Hair Band Friday of this Rocktober celebrating American rock and roll, we're going to stay in the Pacific Northwest.  Glam metal rockers Black 'N Blue formed in Portland, Oregon in the early '80s before moving to L.A., as was the style at the time.

They first received attention when their song "Chains Around Heaven" -- the very song I have embedded below -- was included on the now-legendary original Metal Massacre compilation in 1982.  That compilation also featured then-unknown bands Metallica and Ratt, among others.  After moving to L.A., they were soon signed by Geffen, and they put out four records between 1984 and 1988, though none cracked the top 100 of the Billboard album chart.  Their third and fourth albums were produced by Gene Simmons.

The band broke up in 1989, but has gotten back together at various points and in various iterations over the decades.  In 2002, lead guitarist Tommy Thayer became a member of his old producer's band, KISS, playing the role of Spaceman ever since.

But back to the song.  "Chains Around Heaven" is a nice, hard-driving early '80s hard rock song with a catchy sing-along chorus -- a harbinger of what was to become of rock over the next decade.

Hair Band Friday - 10/9/26

1.  "Madalaine" by Winger

2.  "Girl Gone Bad" by Van Halen

3.  "Read My Body" by KISS

4.  "City Boy Blues" by Mötley Crüe

5.  "Rock Your Heart Out" by AC/DC

6.  "I Don't Believe in Love" by Queensrÿche

7.  "I Said the Wrong Thing to the Right Girl" by Keel

8.  "Valley of the Kings" by Blue Murder

9.  "Mystery" by Dio

10.  "The Angel Song" by Great White