We'll Go Through The Windshield Together

No doubt I spent most of the late '80s listening to straight-edge hardcore all day in between whatever Oi!-metal records that Homestead and Touch and Go were putting out, but besides that, I used to listen to a lot of Couch Flambeau, also. Not as if that should be too hard to understand, since anyone with even a mild appreciation of Billy Squier riffs (posited as non-ironically as possible, of course) to go with a smart-assed sense of humor should find something to like about Couch Flambeau; not that Couch Flambeau sold one-tenth as many records during the '80s as Billy Squier, or even Bertie Higgins for that matter.

"The Day The Music Died", the second Couch Flambeau LP, has "Mobile Home", which is perhaps my third-favorite Couch Flambeau song ever, though that's partly because I grew up at a time when there actually was a broken Big Wheel in front of every trailer park. There's also my second- or third-favorite Christmas song ever, "Santa Claus Skips Cudahay" ("When he finds out you live in Cudahay, he'll fly right past your house"). Why this album wasn't bigger than Huey Lewis and the News "Sports", I'll never know; really, Ray Parker Jr. shoulda ripped off the "Ghostbusters" theme from Couch Flambeau instead, because then he probably wouldn't have gotten sued and he definitely would've ended up with a better song.




Couch Flambeau -

(these files are now listen-only)

"The Day The Music Died"

"Mobile Home"

"Santa Claus Skips Cudahay"

"We'll Go Through the Windshield Together"

"Satan's School for Girls"

Maybe I Can Get On The Letterman Show

If you passed on "We're Not So Smart" when I posted it back in February, here's one more chance to check out the greatness that is Couch Flambeau. And it's not just "They rock!!" or "They have a song called 'Satan's Buddies'!!", it's "They rock and they have a song called 'Satan's Buddies'!!" Or something like that.

I know, a band from a Midwestern cow town overrun by Norwegians, playing non-ironic hard rock behind a guy with an annoying voice half-speaking instead of singing really does sound like a misplaced concept, but "Models" is ten times better than "Slapped Actress" and "Song With a Message" is way better at name dropping. I mean, when it gets to the part about the Dummy Club ("they're good, though-- best demo we got this fall, or whatever") and the guy named Gerard, I'm totally mesmerized, really. Plus Jay Tiller is on speaking terms with Satan! Stick that, Sonic Youth Craig Finn!!

This record originally came with a sticker on the front of some blurbs from sub-par mags like Forced Exposure, Wam, and Sound Choice ("How it must perturb them to see Couch Flambeau take the music they take so seriously and toss it around like a psychopathic kitten with a ball of Play-Doh"), which must've fallen off my copy.




Couch Flambeau -

"Models"

"Satan's Buddies"

"Song With a Message"

(these files are now listen-only)

We're Not So Smart

Milwaukee's Couch Flambeau were putting wry, deadpan lyrics over hard rock riffs about two decades before Craig Finn started getting all the credit for it, and that's not to say that Couch Flambeau sound at all like the Hold Steady, mostly because the Hold Steady kinda suck and Couch Flambeau definitely don't.

"We're Not So Smart" nailed the indie rock scene at that time better than just about anything else, outside of perhaps Great Plains' "Letter to a Fanzine", and if you don't know what a fanzine is, try picturing a blog only a lot dumber and on paper.

Hey, we're starting a fanzine... uhhh, we don't have a name for it yet, but could you send us a few copies of your album?

We're not so smart.

I'm not sure anyone really wants to hear Jay Tiller singing "Mississippi Queen", but here it is anyway. Hey, cowbell!!



Couch Flambeau -

"We're Not So Smart"

"Mississippi Queen"

(these files are now listen-only)