And for the whitest version ever of a James Brown song–or any other song–the award goes to…
1990’s Brooklyn duo Drink Me created some of the most endearingly quirky and humorous folk music I’ve ever had the pleasure to come across. But a look beneath the layer of quirk always revealed a genius for a remarkably economical brand of song craftsmanship not seen perhaps since Roger Miller.
They covered other artists rarely, but in this case they picked the perfect song to demonstrate how strikingly un-mainstream an act they were. In a great way.
If Roger Daltrey’s hair-raising scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is one of rock’s great moments, the pitiful yelp that falls at the end of this song is its perfect antithesis–an equally definitive moment. Of some sort.
Drink Me, a Brooklyn duo who produced two albums in the first half of the 90’s, were quite simply genius. With a degree of musical economy to match the great Roger Miller or the early Beach Boys, their concise songs could nevertheless pack a lyrical wallop.
One of the problems I’ve always had with the nebulous label of “Alternative Music”, which has been applied to everyone from R.E.M. to Jason Mraz, is that it mostly describes mainstream music. If your albums sell gold and platinum and chart in the top 5, what are you the alternative to?
Just as the word “awesome”, applied to double cheeseburger, leaves one little verbal ammunition for describing the birth of a child, the term “Alternative” leaves us lacking a useful label for music that is truly unlike any you’ve heard before. I would call Brave Combo and King Missile and the early work of They Might Be Giants “Alternative”. And I’d put Drink Me in that category–if the category didn’t include Oasis.
Imagine if Simon & Garfunkel had a sense of humor. And maybe a drinking problem–or possibly bipolar disorder. And a tendency to experiment with hallucinogenics. On second thought: don’t imagine, just listen. Really, there’s nothing like these guys.
The world’s a waterbed
A swaying plastic field of yielding limbs and idleness
A troubled bubble pipe of love but I can’t deny
The pie-eyed piper’s cry
The marriage bed’s a boat
Of sound design and lines beyond reproach
And lashed to the Missus’ mast one could defy
The siren’s sultry sighs
And if youth is a bathtub
Filled with bubbles and toys
Then the water gets cold as you start getting old
And my skin’s getting wrinkled but I’m still lingering
In Time’s untiring car
We sat in back with a flask and clasped beneath the stars
And watched out loose and useless youth go rolling by
Listen to NPR’s “Dust-bin Bands” segment on 90’s Brooklyn duo Drink Me, the “dust-bin band” closest to my heart as well as my all-time favorite guitar-and-Fanta-bottle duo.
I consider myself fortunate to have seen them twice: first at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern in Pittsburgh and once more in a place called The Fez in Manhattan, where Jeff Buckley opened for them (I know). Mark Amft is alive and well and a high school teacher last I heard. Drink Me’s shtick is hard to describe but they sounded a little like Simon & Garfunkel with a sense of humor.
The term “Alternative” has never been properly applied in popular music. It should have been used to describe truly original artists like Drink Me.
“Ines” music video (most likely the only one they made):
Every Moment Has A Song 