America 250 Rocktober Song #17: "Ghost With a Boner" by Diarrhea Planet

Our first song of Halloween week in this celebration of American music comes from a band with one of the most ridiculous names ever:  Diarrhea Planet.  Formed in Nashville in 2009, the band purposely chose an outlandish name to be "irritating."  And the name was somewhat appropriate because these guys were the shit.

I've sung their praises over the years here on GMYH, and I'll sing them again.  I had the pleasure of seeing them live multiple times, and their shows were amazing.  They had four -- yes, four -- guitarists, all of whom could shred, trading off solos, but also talking to each other through their instruments, sometimes going quad lead guitar (like a double Thin Lizzy).  They were a sight to see and a noise to hear.  I'm not sure they fit within a specific genre.  With the raw energy of punk, the DIY ethos of garage rock, the technical proficiency and guitar solos of metal, and the aural assault of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, Diarrhea Planet combined influences from everywhere into a sonic stew of awesomeness.  

Between 2009 and 2016, they released three EPs and three full-length albums.  Like Bob Slydell with Michael Bolton, I celebrate their entire catalog.  Unfortunately, the band broke up in 2018, though they briefly reunited for some shows in 2022 and 2023.  I'm holding out hope that they'll get back together again and tour.

Since it's Halloween week, I'm going with "Ghost With a Boner" from their self-released 2009 debut EP Aloha.  It's a song about a male apparition with a fully erect member, or so I assume.  Rather than post the studio version of the song, I'm posting a video of their performance of the song at South By Southwest in 2016, so you can get a flavor for their shredding live shows.

America 250 Rocktober Song #16: "Streets In Paradise" by Vixen

It's hard to believe we only have a week left in Rocktober.  But I suppose that's an expected consequence of the wrenched, unforgiving hands of time.  As always, because next week is Halloween week, all the songs will be about death, monsters, demons, daemons, or devils, or will otherwise have some sort of dark theme.

But before we get there, we have another Hair Band Friday in Rocktober.  We're going back to the Midwest, to the frosty, mosquito ridden capital of Minnesota, St. Paul, where Vixen formed in 1980.  In a male-dominated genre like hair band music, the all-female Vixen was a unique and inspirational band.  They released their self-titled debut in 1988, and a year before that, they appeared in the legendary documentary The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years.  Their first album featured their two biggest hits on the Billboard Hot 100:  "Edge of a Broken Heart" (#24) (co-written and produced by Richard Marx) and "Cryin'" (#22).

But I'm going with a deep cut from the band's second album, 1990's Rev It Up.  While their more popular songs are more on the pop metal side, they could rock out too.  "Streets In Paradise" is hot from the get-go, with a great riff and driving beat.  And the song keeps up the energy the whole time.  Parts of the song would have been fantastic in movie training montage or a montage where the gang is working together to build something that naysayers said they couldn't build.

Unfortunately, Rev It Up didn't perform as well as the first album, so their record label dropped them, and then they broke up in 1992, before reforming a few years later and releasing an album in 1998.  They have disbanded and reunited several times, including in 2004 to be on VH1's Band Reunited, putting out their last studio album in 2006 -- though they have remained together (in different iterations) and touring pretty much since then.

Hair Band Friday - 10/23/26

1.  "Love Song" (live) by Tesla

2.  "Squeeze Box" by Roxy Blue

3.  "Somebody Get Me a Doctor" by Van Halen

4.  "Fool's Paradise" by Lillian Axe

5.  "Rock & Roll's Gonna Save the World" by Y&T

6.  "Boomerang" by Kix

7.  "Cold is the Heart" by Lynch Mob

8.  "Twisted" by Dio

9.  "Bad Blood" by Europe

10.  "Sticky Sweet" by Mötley Crüe

America 250 Rocktober Song #15: "The Taste of Ink" by The Used

Before doing my research for this Rocktober, off the top of my head, I would not have been able to tell you any rock band from Utah or where The Used was from.  Now I can tell you both.  The Used are from Utah.

Formed in 2000 in Orem, and their music is a mix of emo, post-hardcore, pop punk, and alt rock.  Between 2002 and 2023, the band has released nine studio albums, four of which have cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard album charts.  And while they have gone through a couple lineup changes, they have never broken up in the 27 years since they formed, which is a pretty solid accomplishment.

The first song I remember hearing by the band was, coincidentally, their debut single, "The Taste of Ink," from their 2002 self-titled debut album.  The song was an instant earworm for me, thanks to its hypnotic staccato verses, followed by its pop-punky sing-along chorus.  And it's after midnight, so I'm going to bed now.

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