Straight Outta the Buzz Bin #2: Toadies and a rant on post-grunge

In the wake of Nirvana's success, tons of bands deemed "grunge" got signed to major labels. I'm not talking about the indie, alternative bands that majors raided to fill up their rosters in a vain attempt to discover the next Nirvana. No, I'm talking about the bands that were heavily mining Nevermind for how to construct this new sound even before Nirvana's tragic end.

Around the same time, a young, unknown comic progeny named Ben Stiller had a short-lived show on the Fox network entitled, The Ben Stiller Show, featuring Andy Dick, Janeane Garafalo and Bob Odenkirk and written by some dude named Judd Apatow.

Anyways, the show featured skits mostly making fun of movies or TV shows, and a whole lot laughing at the self-seriousness of the Gen-X movement. One of the best was a parody of the '60s live-action cartoon show The Monkees--The Grungies.

The Grungies

Ahead of its time, if you ask me.

Grunge was still cool at the time of Stiller's show and the genre hadn't yet given way to the awful crap that was to come--a type of music that essentially was a parody of the Seattle scene. Indeed, this genre continues to plague us almost 15 years later. You hear it any time you turn your dial to the modern rock station, under the guises of bands with nonsensical names like Hoobastank and Nickleback. It spills out of the car windows of teenagers driving their grandma's car while they sit bobbing their head in the driver's seat wearing their backwards hats and black t-shirts they bought at Sam Goody. That's right, it's POST-GRUNGE!

I will give you a minute to clean up, because you no doubt just shit yourself at the very mention of that name. Now, what is the difference between grunge and post-grunge? Funny you should ask.

Grunge - adopting the sludgy sounds of metal gods Black Sabbath and the lyrical and musical attack of punk godfathers like The Stooges, grunge conveyed elements of heavy metal and punk with loud, distorted guitars, apathetic lyrics, and loud-soft dynamics. Hardcore punk/sludge metal bands like Black Flag and the Melvins--from nearby Montesano, Washington--were often name checked as huge sources of inspiration. However, there was also a notable influence from indie-rock, an influence which grew after heavier grunge bands like Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Green River gave way to more melodically inclined bands like Nirvana, who were as influenced by indie-rockers like R.E.M., the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr as they were hardcore and metal. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and their hybrid, Temple of the Dog, also show a large classic rock influence--namely that of Led Zeppelin.
Other grunge bands of note: Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains.

Post-grunge - (with help from allmusic.com) a subgenre of alternative rock and a derivative of grunge music that began after the mainstream success of bands out of Washington like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam around 1994. Post-grunge incorporates many of the features of grunge music: loud-quiet dynamics, distorted guitars, angst-ridden lyrics, lead singers with scratchy, angsty voices or voices that flat out rip-off Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder, BUT, the music is generally more slickly produced, radio-friendly and without the idiosyncrasies and nuances of the bands that influenced them. Post-grunge bands generally took the loud guitars, angsty singers, perceived self-seriousness, and of course, the long, greasy hair and flannel shirts, and homogenized it into faceless commercial radio-rock. Also note that post-grunge started off okay, quickly became mediocre and now is the scourge of the music world.
See: Days of the New, Bush, Live, Collective Soul* and later Creed, Hinder, Seether, Staind, etc. As of 2009, post-grunge has gone from being "alternative rock" in the mid-90s to taking over modern rock radio almost entirely.

That's not to suggest that all post-grunge bands were bad and all grunge bands were good. Post-grunge had some great acts like Local H, and grunge had its fair share of crappy acts, one of which I choose not to name for fear of an enormous backlash from their rabid fanbase.

One of the bands who came straight out of the gates following the success of Nevermind--and happened to be actually decent--was the Ft. Worth, Texas band, Toadies. Clearly influenced by the Pixies as much as Nirvana and grunge, the band mixed their post-grunge sounds with a menacing psychedelic influence and an occasional touch of southern blues rock (think a hard-edged ZZ Top).

Started in 1989 by head songwriter/lead vocalist Todd Lewis, the band issued a series of self-released cassette singles before releasing an EP titled Pleather in 1993. The EP--which featured an early version of the soon-to-be-classic "Possum Kingdom"--gained the attention of major record labels and after singing to Interscope, the band released their first full-length, Rubberneck, in 1995.

The first single, "Possum Kingdom" (or as it was listed on Napster back in the day, "Do You Wanna Die?") is one of the best and best-known hard rock singles of the post-Nirvana era. It's one of the few classics to come from this period, and one listen to the song shows why. Something of a grunge epic, the tune features a crushing riff, three distinct (and equally ass kicking) sections, a time signature change, and tells a strange story that--depending on whom you ask--is either about vampires, the Zodiac killer, a girl losing her virginity, a rape, or some kind of ghost story. Taking a cue from Phil Collins, whose "In the Air Tonight' has experienced years of success based on its creepy plot, Lewis never gave a straight answer to the press or fans, but did explain his inspirations. The song is named after Possum Kingdom State Park and Lewis claimed at the time that it was inspired by stories he'd heard concerning the park's "eerie lake" where he and his family used to barbecue. Nevertheless, the group reportedly gained a large vampire following--that is to say, lame Buffy fans in Tampa liked to put in fake teeth and dress like Dracula and come to Toadies shows and sing along. Think of the old SNL skit, "Goth Talk" with Molly Shannon and Chris Kataan and you've got a good idea of this fanbase. Don't get any ideas, Twilight fans.

The supremely creepy music video--which opens with a body bag being pulled from a lake--did nothing to dissuade any creepy interpretations of the song. (Oh yeah, and that is a chick bass player--the ultimate sign of a good alternative rock band. Or at least a sign that you like the Pixies and/or Sonic Youth.)

The song was a smash hit, charting high on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts and even cracked the Hot 100. Not bad for a song that repeatedly asks the listener if they would like to die.

"Possum Kingdom" was one of five singles off Rubberneck released by the label, which may sound like overkill, considering that means nearly half the album being played on rock radio--not a common occurence unless you're Red Hot Chili Peppers. Despite the airplay, "Mister Love," "Backslider" and "Tyler" all failed to chart, even though the latter even featured its own video. The only one that had any staying power was "Away"--the direct follow-up to "Possum Kingdom."

"Away" starts out like a Nirvana deep cut with its soft-loud-soft dynamics and guitarist Darrell Herbert's snakey lead fills which sound possessed by the Pixies Joey Santiago. But once you get past the obvious influences and realize that the Toadies concern themselves more with crafting great riffs and writing above average lyrics than creating something original, you start to realize just how good the song is. It's not quite as epically awesome as "Possum Kingdom"--though it does feature a similar, truncated structure--but it's got that same underlying creepiness, a bone-crushing riff and a good level of head-bangability. When Nirvana has ended prematurely and the Pixies have folded, and you're still yearning for some heavy, well constructed rock, the Toadies--and "Away" especially--fit the bill.



"Away" went to #23 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #28 on the Modern chart.

I also have to include "Tyler," just because it's a great rock song. Talk about unoriginal--I'm fairly certain this song is on Doolittle by the Pixies. But guess what? I don't care, cause the song is so goddamn hooky and fun. If you're going to steal, do it well, and steal from the best (but maybe don't let Frank Black hear you, he might start asking for royalties). While it wasn't a hit, it became a favorite at Toadies shows and still received tons of airplay.

So now then. With a hit album that went gold immediately and platinum a year later, the Toadies were primed to be a successful band, and not just a one-hit wonder. So what the hell happened?

Like with most of these bands, their label screwed them. After touring for two years with bands like Butthole Surfers and Red Hot Chili Peppers, the band eventually headed back into the studio. After recording a full album titled Feeler, which was being eyed for a 1998 release, the band handed the finished recordings to Interscope--but the label rejected them. After the rejection, the band, worn out from the road and without an album to promote, decided to take a break to write new songs and didn't reconvene until 2000. Salvaging some of the Feeler songs, the band finally went back into the studio with Rubberneck producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, and came out with Hell Below/Stars Above. The album was a commercial failure

That's when the real trouble began. The album was released in spring 2001, seven years after their debut and things had changed. Five months after the album's release, Lewis called the Dallas Observer to announce that bassist Lisa Umbarger had quit and that the rest of the band would not be continuing on as the Toadies. The band would reconvene sporadically to play a few dates in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area but did not officially reunite until 2007.

During the interim, Todd Lewis began a new band, Burden Brothers, with Reverend Horton Heat drummer Taz Bentley. The band released a full-length in 2006, but a funny thing happened with the Toadies. The band released a couple of live albums in 2002 and 2006, and sales were enough to suggest to Lewis that maybe the Toadies weren't dead after all. With some old members and new bassist Doni Blair, Lewis brought the Toadies back for a couple of local festival shows in 2006, and a year later, the Toadies hit the road for a small tour around Texas, hitting spots in Houston, Austin and Dallas.

After a couple of years of activity on their MySpace page, in May 2008, the group announced the release of their third album of all new material, No Deliverance. The album was released in August 2008 and received a big promotional push from the Toadies new label, Kirtland Records. The single "Song I Hate" shows the Toadies back to doing what they do best--hard, catchy rock that's derivative as hell, but still damn good.

So for all my blathering about post-grunge (and really, there is some horrendous crap out there), there are a lot of worse things in music than being unoriginal. If you're looking for a solid rock band that will bring to mind the greats of '80s indie rock/grunge, check out Rubberneck or Hell Below/Stars Above next time you're in a a CD store with a cutout bin or used section. And catch these guys on tour this year, their live show will melt your sneakers.

Download: Toadies - Possum Kingdom
Download: Toadies - Away
Download: Toadies - Tyler
Download: Toadies - Possum Kingdom (live)

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*Collective Soul was really more of a pop-rock band that had been marketed and styled as grunge, but had no real connection to the genre and are unfairly labeled "post-grunge," even by assholes like me

Straight Outta the Buzz Bin, #1: Superdrag - Sucked Out

SPECIAL NOTE: "Straight Outta the Buzz Bin" posts will be reserved for hit rock singles that were huge on Modern Rock radio and especially MTV, but may not have achieved the Top 40 or Top 100 status that might normally be required to make them a one-hit wonder. Future installments may include (but are not limited to) Wax, The Refreshments, and others.

Superdrag have a similar story to many other alternative rock bands in the mid-90s. It's so similar that--sadly--it became something of a cliche: After some initial success as an indie band, band gets noticed by a major label during the post-Nirvana indie boom. They soon sign to a major label, release an album and have one major (or minor) hit on radio and MTV. But when second single/album comes around and fails to hit, band gets its funding cut and/or get dropped. I'd guess a lot of bands got cut from the label rosters when alternative/indie rock gave way to nu-metal and rap/rock in about 1997-1998.

Some bands collapsed from the fallout--unable to continue--but Superdrag managed to persevere.

Superdrag were formed in 1992 in Knoxville, TN when the band The Used (not the emo band) started playing songs demoed by their teenaged former drummer, John Davis (Davis played all the instruments himself on the demos). Because Davis' songs were stronger than their own material, The Used fell to the wayside in favor of Superdrag.

By 1995, the band had released three vinyl singles and an EP, The Fabulous 8-track Sound of Superdrag o the Darla Records label (historical fact for the kiddies: people in the '90s loved absolutely anything having to do with the '70s, much like people enjoy '80s kitsch and fashion in the '00s, hence the 8-track reference).

Thanks to rave reviews in various publications, the EP started a major label bidding war. Elektra Records eventually won out and the band recorded and released Regretfully Yours in 1996. The sound was a perfect combination of Weezer-esque power pop (hard guitars mixed with catchy melodies) and classic rock (a strong emphasis on riffage and solos; Davis' throaty vocals).

"Sucked Out" was the first released single. While not quite a novelty song in the sense that label mates' Nada Surf's "Popular" was, the song's chorus in which Davis screams, "Who sucked out the feeling?" made it into something of a slacker anthem; something the always cynical youth of America could relate to. Problem was, Superdrag weren't grungy slackers. Davis wrote what were essentially pop songs. "Sucked Out" may have struck a chord with the slackers, but it was far different than the grunge clones (Collective Soul, Bush) that had become the sound du jour of alternative rock; there was more far more Husker Du in their songs than the sludgy Seattle sound started by bands like Mudhoney and Soundgarden.

The tightly constructed single is built around a killer chorus where everything drops out but the bass and Davis' scream. And yes, like so many '90s rock hits, the chorus utilizes the Pixies' soft-loud-soft dynamic, but the verses are straight out of a hit single by a '60s British Invasion band. Because labels and sometimes fans seemed to miss the pop influences inherent in Nirvana (the barometer by which all alternative rock bands were gauged), the pop-centric Superdrag would not be long for the Hollywood music world. Incidentally, the song's lyrics seem to be a cynical take on the music industry. When Davis sings, "This is my dream - playing out rocking routine/Who sucked out the feeling?" you wonder if he even wants the success. Still, the track is a knock-out, and clearly hit single material.

"Sucked Out" only reached #17 on the Modern Rock Charts, but its placement in MTV's "Buzz Bin"--a status designated to videos deemed "cutting edge" by the network--helped put the Chris Applebaum-directed video in heavy rotation. The "Buzz Bin" status--along with an extended tour in which the band played hundreds of dates--helped push 300,000 units of the album. With all the play on MTV, radio was practically an afterthought.


Sidenote: Just how '90s is this video? On a scale from 1-10, I give it a high 8. We've got the retro '70s diner/coffeeshop--made chic by Seattle, Starbucks and iconic '90s films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Swingers--the young slacker working his minimum wage job (shades of Clerks) and dreaming about quitting and fulfilling his lifelong dream of rocking out (Singles, anyone?). While it may seem fairly generic at first glance, you can soon tell why it couldn't have been made in any other decade.

Their second single, "Destination Ursa Major" failed miserably on the charts. Ironically, it's probably the song on the album that best defines the band's sound. Led by a building riff consisting of a series of bent notes that give way to jangly bridges and sing along verses, the song is a marvel of song construction and undeniably catchy, but the song's appeal is far closer to something by lo-fi stadium rockers Guided By Voices than anything that might appeal to the MTV crowd. It's still a hell of a song, and is regarded as one of the band's classics.



Still, thanks to the success of Regretfully Yours, Elektra allowed the group a shot at another album. Silly record labels--when will they learn you never give a second record to a songwriter who is both talented and ambitious? Head Trip in Every Key was the follow-up, an ambitious semi-concept album featuring a broader sonic pallet--besides guitar and piano, Davis plays theremin, organ and a freaking sitar--longer songs and fewer radio-friendly singles. The album was well receieved by critics, but the label was unhappy with Superdrag's direction and cut their funding, leaving them unable to make a video for the single "Do the Vampire" and without any support for a full-fledged tour.

Upset about what was happening with their label, the group decided to release their odds and sods compilation Stereo 360 Sound independently, and experienced a minor success. After signing a two album extension deal with Elektra, the band headed to Woodland Studios in Nashville to begin work on their third album, but were bothered by the label's insistence that they write "hit songs" (yes, this happens in real life, not just That Thing You Do!) and soon demanded the label drop them. This was a most unusual move, especially for a group who had been relegated to "one-hit wonder" status, but, as the kids say, Superdrag didn't give a care, and the group continued on independently, recording and releasing their third album, In the Valley of the Dying Stars in 2000 on Arena Rock Recording Co. Ironically, the album was a combination of the radio-friendly hits of Regretfully Yours and the experimentation of Head Trip.

By the time Superdrag began recording their fourth album, Last Call for Vitriol, John Davis had become an alcoholic, later remarking that he had a "charter membership in the Bon Scott Club," referring to the original AC/DC frontman who drank himself to death in 1980.

However, Davis claims that, while driving in his car one night, he had an experience that he described as "a combination of being struck by lightening, getting hit by a cannonball and having a piano dropped on your head." The feeling was overwhelming, and Davis took it as a sign from God that his life could not be filled with alcohol, but rather by "the power of the Lord." Davis soon gave up alcohol and became a Christian. Davis finished recording the album and completed a tour with Guided By Voices, but soon after decided to leave the band, saying his "heart wasn't in it anymore." The group disbanded in 2003. (read Davis' thoughts about his conversion here)

In 2005, David released a self-titled Christian-oriented album. Playing all of the instruments himself, Davis broadened his palette even more with this release, displaying a range of influences from country and folk to gospel and R&B--not to mention a heaping glob of '60s rock. The heaviest influence is Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds in particular--for instance, "Salvation" does what R.E.M.'s recent Beach Boys tributes could only attempt. (Honestly, if you've ever wanted to know if Christian themed music can be any good, pick this one up. It's great, and doesn't preach or beat you over the head with any message--ed.) In 2007, Davis released a follow up, Arigato! and joined the Christian rock band My Red Hot Nightmare as guitarist, back up vocalist and part-time drummer.

Since then, Davis and the other guys in Superdrag have served as studio musicians in Nashville, Knoxville and L.A. not to mention some production work and a few side projects. But in 2007, the original lineup reuinited for a few shows, followed by a full-fledged tour in 2008. The band even has a new album recorded called Industry Giants that will be released this Tuesday (March 17, 2009). Yet again, the guys are self-releasing and you know they wouldn't have it any other way (read more about it here).


FIRST SINGLE: A
SECOND SINGLE: A

Download: Superdrag - Sucked Out
Download: Superdrag - Destination Ursa Major

BONUS DOWNLOADS!
Download: Superdrag - Do the Vampire
Download: John Davis - Salvation

Go see Superdrag on tour!
Go buy their albums!

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