Well, friends, our monthlong rocking musical journey through the U S of A has come to an end. Be sure to tune in Monday, as we start GoProvember, a daily look at the most hilarious first-person-filmed biking, skiing, surfing, parkour, and skateboarding mishaps.
But before then, we have one last America 250 Rocktober song, and because it's Hair Band Friday, we're obviously going with a song by a hair band. Formed in Boston in 1985, Extreme is best known for their acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted," which respectively went to #1 and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Like many hair bands who fell into the ballad/power ballad trap, many unfamiliar with their whole catalog assume that's the only type of music they play. Well, they don't. They can actually rock quite hard.
"It ('s A Monster)" -- with its awkward and seemingly unnecessary parentheses -- was a track on the band's second studio album, 1990's Extreme II: Pornograffitti, the very same album that featured the aforementioned massive hits. The song is an uptempo, rollicking fun song that I could see being a show closer. From what I can tell, the song appears to be about identifying a being as a monster.
Somehow I haven't featured a song from a New York artist in this America 250 Rocktober. So let's do it. Brooklyn's Type O Negative was one of the premier American goth/doom metal bands in the '90s.
"Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)," off of the band's third album, 1993's Bloody Kisses, is an 11-minute musical and emotional journey. There are slow parts, creepy parts, rocking parts, wicked solos, and two choruses, one of which anthemically shouts "Loving you was like loving the dead!" The song is supposedly a facetious take on dating a goth chick, with references to various horror characters, and if you know that and listen to the lyrics, the song is pure satire about goth culture. My favorite anecdote about the song -- and I say that like I know more than one anecdote about the song -- is how it was written. Lead singer, songwriter, and one-time Playgirl centerfold Peter Steele drove a garbage truck before he was able to become a full-time musician, and he said this about writing the song: "I was waiting in line for three hours to dump 40 cubic yards of human waste at the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, and I wrote the song in my head. I'm not kidding you." More like Brown No. 2, am I right? But seriously, it's a great song, all 11 minutes and 14 seconds of it, and a great addition to any Halloween playlist. Oh, and Rolling Stone ranked it #64 on its 2023 list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs.
Thanks to a combination of work and watching the Brewers win their first-ever World Series last night, I didn't have time to post a Rocktober song yesterday. But alas, I will make it up to you, dear readers, by posting two today.
The first comes from Detroit, Michigan and my favorite American band of all-time, The White Stripes. There were several options for a spooky or Halloween-appropriate song -- "Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground," "Bone Broke," "Death Letter," "Little Ghost" (though that's not necessarily rocking)," Rag & Bone," "Walking With a Ghost," and "Red Death at 6:14," for example.
I decided to go with what I consider the most "American" of the options, "Death Letter," off of the band's sophomore album, 2000's De Stijl. Originally recorded by Delta Blues legend Son House, I was shocked to learn it was recorded in 1965, as House was party of the early wave of Delta Blues in the '30s and, well, the original sounds like it was recorded much earlier than 1965. The song is about a guy who gets a letter telling him his special ladyfriend had died -- a death letter, if you will -- and he even goes to the morgue to see her laying on the cooling board. Then the rest of the song is about his mental anguish. They don't call it "the blues" for nothing, am I right?
Anyway, The White Stripes electrified the song, paying homage to the original while also making it their own. And they even give it a little Detroit feel with a nice revving guitar solo.
Our next Halloween Week America 250 Rocktober song takes us to Macon, Georgia, which has given the world many great musicians across genres, but none of them is more important to the history of rock and roll music than Little Richard.
Born Richard Penniman, he got the nickname "Lil' Richard" as a child. Discovered by gospel legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe when he was only 14, Little Richard signed his first record deal a few years later and released his first single in 1951.
After a few record label switches, he found a home at Specialty Records, where he released a string of hits in the '50s, starting with 1955's "Tutti Frutti," which was his first of nine Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the latter half of the decade (four of which reached the Top 10). On top of that, he built himself into one of rock and roll's great showman and most flaboyant early ambassadors.
Because it's Halloween week, I'm going with his 1956 single "Heeby-Jeebies" -- delightful little early rock and roll ditty that's apparently about an overaggressive scorned lover who's knocking on his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's door to figure out if she wants to be with him. This apparently gives him the heeby-jeebies. The song went to #7 on the Billboard R&B singles chart, his sixth of what would eventually be 13 Top 10 hits on that chart.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Thus far, we've had some blues rock and hair metal, so for song #3 on this celebration of American music, we'll go with some '80s alternative rock -- or as the kids used to call it, college rock.
Hailing from Wayne, New Jersey, Dramarama was formed in the early '80s in the basement of a record store owned by founding member and bassist Chris Carter. For those fellow SiriusXM subscribers, you'll recognize him as the calm-voiced DJ on The Underground Garage's "Chris Carter's British Invasion." But before he got into the disc jockeying game, his band Dramarama was making power pop and alternative rock in the mid '80s to early '90s. In the early 2000s, they were featured on VH1's Bands Reunited show, and they got back together and put out another album in 2005 (and then another one in 2020).
If you've heard only one song by Dramarama, it's probably "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)." Originally released on the band's 1985 debut album Cinema Verite, the song was then re-released a few years later, when it was featured on the soundtrack to A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
I don't recall ever hearing this song until sometime in the last ten years, when I was watching VH1 Classic late at night and the video for this song came on (though it's a different video than the one embedded below, as there were apparently two videos made). I thought the song was awesome, even if the video I saw looked like it was recorded on a camcorder. Maybe that added to the song's mysterious charm. I remember thinking "what is this homemade video I'm seeing of this unknown band singing this fantastic song from a bygone era that I've somehow never heard before?" It's a frenetically paced song, written by lead singer John Easdale, inspired by his marriage that was falling apart. His desperation comes through in his impassioned vocals, over the top of a catchy repeating guitar riff. When I hear the term "college rock," this is exactly the kind of song I think of. It doesn't fit squarely into any genre that was popular in the late '80s, but it's catchy and it rocks.
Listening to the song, it was certainly ahead of its time. The song didn't chart in the U.S. (on any chart) either time it was released, and it was a very minor hit in Australia (#85) in 1989 after it was re-released. I feel like if this song had been released between 1992 and 1994, it would have been a massive hit.
Our first Hair Band Friday of this America 250 Rocktober comes from a band that I have only featured once previously during Rocktober -- way back in 2017, when the whole Rocktober was dedicated to hair bands. Man, that was a blurry month.
Poison was formed in Mechanicburg, Pennsylvania, before moving to Los Angeles in 1985. Despite their hair and makeup, I've always considered them a working-class band, which I very much mean as a compliment. If you've ever seen them live, they put on a great show, and they always come across as very down to earth and accessible -- well, maybe not CC DeVille, but every band needs a wild card.
Their 1986 debut album Look What the Cat Dragged In was a smash, reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart and eventually going triple platinum. There was no sophomore slump, as their follow-up, 1988's Open Up and Say . . . Ahh! hit #2 on the Billboard album chart and eventually went quintuple platinum. The original album cover featured a demonic cat woman with a super long pointy tongue sticking out of her mouth -- which you see on the YouTube video below. In the era of the PMRC and the "Satanic Panic," such an album cover drew the ire of parents' groups, so they had to change it to a redacted cover that only showed the woman's eyes. It doesn't get more American than censoring album covers for the sake of the children.
The album featured four songs that charted in the Top 12 of the Billboard Hot 100, including the band's only #1, the iconic power ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." The others were "Nothin' But a Good Time" (#6), "Fallen Angel" (#12)," and their cover of Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" (#10).
I'm going with a deep cut, but a good one: "Look But You Can't Touch." It's a balls-forward rocker that starts with a crunchy guitar riff, and the chorus is catchy as hell. But the song is not your usual Decade of Decadence fare about getting laid. It's quite the opposite. The girl is chaste, and she staves off the narrator's advances, saying "you can look, but you can't touch, 'cause the best things in life ain't cheap" implying she's not going to do a damn thing with him absent some sort of long-term meaningful relationship, even after she chugs a beer in Bret's hotel room.
The first song in this year's America 250 Rocktober is from a band that I have somehow never featured during Rocktober: the legendary Texas trio ZZ Top. It's somewhat bittersweet, as earlier this year, we lost drummer Frank Beard -- who was the only member of the band who didn't sport a beard -- leaving guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons as the only surviving member (bassist/singer Dusty Hill died in 2021).
"Just Got Paid" is the second song off of the band's sophomore album, 1972's Rio Grande Mud, and it is probably my favorite ZZ Top song. This is just a badass blues rock song that should be played at maximum volume with all the windows rolled down while cruising around town in your 1977 Trans Am. Or in your late-model minivan, for that matter. Gibbons's opening riff is infectious, Hill holds down the bottom with aplomb, and Beard gives us a few delicious fills.
I always imagine this song being played during a scene in a movie when our protagonist is triumphantly walking away from a situation where he or she crushed it when not expected to succeed, maybe throwing on a pair of sunglasses and cracking a wry "I can't believe I did it" smirk. And yes, Hollywood, I am very open to talking about positions for whatever you might call someone who picks music for movies and/or TV shows.
Dear readers, while I have admittedly shat the bed on posting for most of this year, there is one month that will bring me back into your lives: Rocktober!
A few months ago, America celebrated is 250th birthday. I was still dead and there were no blogs when the bicentennial came and went, and I probably won't still be blogging when the tricentennial comes along, so to celebrate the semiquincentennial, this year's Rocktober theme will be America 250.
All of the songs will be from American bands or artists. For band to qualify, more than 50% of the band must be American. For example, the Jimi Hendrix Experience doesn't count because of the three members, only Jimi Hendrix himself was American. And while Crosby, Stills & Nash would count (as Graham Nash was the only non-American), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young would not count (because Neil Young is Canadian).
And just to make it significantly more difficult on myself, each band or artist I feature will be from a different state. That way, we can truly experience music from across our nation, rather than just a bunch of songs by bands or artists from California or New York. I'm not going to limit myself for any Tuesday Top Tens, as even I have limits.
As I do every October, I'm gonna give you a daily dose of rock, at least on the weekdays when I'm not out of town. There will be no repeated artists during the course of the month. I'm going to try my best not to repeat songs that I have featured in prior Rocktobers, but I make no promises. As always, the week leading up to Halloween will feature songs with dark, evil, or macabre themes. And my Friday choices will, of course, be from hair bands. Retro Video of the Week will be suspended during Rocktober (not that I've been posting those recently anyway), but Hair Band Friday will continue because Hair Band Friday cannot be killed.
As always, remember that this is Rocktober, so these will all be bands, artists, and songs that rock, even though they may not always be from genres or artists that you would consider "rocking" or "rockers." There will be popular songs, songs that you may never had heard before, and maybe even some bands and artists you've never heard of. But for the sake of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, everything will rock.
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