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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
We've dabbled in the South, the Northeast, and the Midwest, but I haven't yet featured a band or artist from the West Coast. The State of Washington has given us many great bands and artists over the years, including Jimi Hendrix, The Sonics, Heart, and many many grunge bands.
But grunge wasn't the only genre to come out of the state in the early '90s. A little more than an hour down I-5 from Seattle is the state capital, Olympia and Evergreen State College, a bastion of liberal thinking and creativity. Out of Olympia came the riot grrrl scene, a DIY feminist punk genre spearheaded by bands like Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, Excuse 17, and Sleater-Kinney.
I've already featured songs by Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney in prior Rocktobers, so I'm going with Bratmobile, who I just saw put on a great show at Riot Fest a few weeks ago. While two of the band's founding members, Allison Wolfe (who is from Olympia) and Molly Neuman met as students at the University of Oregon, the band played their first gig and recorded their first songs in Olympia. They also played at the now-legendary International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia in August 1991.
Between 1993 and 1994, the band released a full-length album, an EP, and a live album, but then broke up on stage at a show in New York in May 1994. They reunited just before the dawn of the new millennium and released two more albums, one in 2000 and another in 2002, before going their separate ways again. But they reunited again a few years ago, which means a new generation (or Gen Xers who didn't really know about them the first time around) get a chance to see them.
Anyway, I'm going with "Cool Schmool," off of the band's debut album, 1993's Pottymouth. It's a frantic, surf-rock-tinged punk song mostly about not being concerned about being cool, but also partly about hating dogs and loving cats. So they got that part wrong.
For out fifth America 250 Rocktober song, we travel to America's smallest state, Rhode Island. John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band formed in Narragansett -- which is not where Narragansett Brewing Company is located -- in the early '70s.
They achieved fame as the band behind the fictional band Eddie and The Cruisers in the 1983 film of the same name, where John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band played all of the original songs that were featured in the movie, though saxophonist Michael Antunes is the only member of the band who actually appears in the film.
John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band/Eddie and The Cruisers' biggest hit was "On the Dark Side," a bar band rocker that could have seamlessly fit onto any of Bruce Springsteen's albums in the '80s (other than maybe Nebraska). When the song was originally released in September 1983 (at the same time the movie was released), it didn't fare too well, only reaching #64 on the Billboard Hot 100. It probably didn't help that the movie was pulled from theaters after three weeks because of poor ticket sales.
However, the movie found new life a year later on HBO and through video sales. In fact, the movie did so well on HBO and in video sales that the studio re-released the soundtrack in 1984, and it reached #9 on the Billboard album chart and eventually went multi-platinum. "On the Dark Side" was re-released as well, in August 1984, and it shot up to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (where it stayed at the top for five weeks).
The band continued to put out music for the rest of the decade and had another four Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. John Cafferty also contributed a solo song, "Heart's On Fire," to the Rocky IV soundtrack. In April 2025, they released their first studio album in 36 years, though unfortunately, Antunes died a few months later at 85. Sorry, but I guess I just had to end on the -- wait for it -- dark side.
I've never featured a Slipknot song on Rocktober before, and now's as good a time as any, since I'm trying not to repeat bands/artists from the same state, and there aren't a ton of hard rock bands from Iowa.
Formed in 1995 in Des Moines -- which a lot of people don't realize is French for "the moines" -- Slipknot has like six dozen members, all of whom wear a unique creepy mask and jumpsuit. They also play heavy metal music, and quite successfully at that. Of the band's six studio albums, only their debut album didn't reach the Top 3 on the Billboard album chart, and three of their albums went to #1.
Released off of the band's third studio album, 2004's platinum-selling Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), "Duality" was one of the band's biggest hits, reaching #5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, #6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, #15 on the UK pop chart, and the Top 40 on the pop charts in Germany and Sweden.
The song is mostly a pretty hard metal song, with Corey Taylor kind of speed-talking the verses before the choruses explode with "I push my fingers into my EEEYYYYYEEEESSSS." But what I've always liked about the song is that behind the brutal riffs and general hardcore nature of the song, the chorus is pretty damn melodic and hooky. A duality, if you will.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the song is the video. It was filmed at a fan's house in West Des Moines. Apparently, the house was soon going to be renovated. The band plays inside the house, while dozens of fans descend upon the house in what looks like a scene from Cornheart. (I assume Cornheart would be the name of a Braveheart-style movie set in Iowa.) They basically destroy the house in the process, breaking windows, plowing through walls, bustin pipes, and the like. Hopefully, the renovations went swimmingly.
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