#104: When jazz kids form a rock band
I’m Going to Marry Your Dad; Sorry Mom; My Mom is Here; Dad Brains; Party Dad; Real MILFs Not a Scam
I’m Going to Marry Your Dad
Hey sweetheart, take a seat. How’s your boba? Did they give you enough tapioca? Amazing! Hmm? No, no iPad right now. Why? Because we’re spending time together! I want to talk to you, just the two of us. No, you can’t play on my phone. No screens for a while, okay? You can play Roblox later. Right now I want to tell you something important. Are you listening? Look at me for a sec. I’m going to marry your dad.
Does that feel like a surprise? Your dad and I have been spending a lot of time together since he came to see me perform last spring. He was there when I debuted my song “Friendship.” Do you remember how that one goes? Here, let me sing for you—oh hush, no one’s gonna hear me. I’ll do it quietly.
Friendship is the greatest
If they can further your career
Friendship is an endship
If they can’t further your career
I’ll explain what all that means when you’re older. Oh, have I played you my new song yet? It’s called “I’m the Victim,” and it’s really long. Like, if you played “HOT TO GO!” two times in a row, it’d still be longer than that! Crazy, right? Here’s something funny: I even sing about screens in the song!
Funny all the things that the children say
All the Gen Z kids being cringe and fey
As they dance on their little screens, it’s ok
They’re all gonna grow up to be gay
Okay, okay, no more singing. I won’t embarrass you anymore. I promise once your dad and I are married, I’ll won’t sing in public. As much. But you’ll have to get used to my makeup.
Sorry Mom
Way back in 2007, for one of the earliest versions of the Year in Band Names, I wrote about a Milwaukee group called Brutal Dildos. They titled their 2007 EP Sorry Mom, because calling your band Brutal Dildos warrants an apology to your parents.
But who among us hasn’t felt obliged to apologize to our parents for our art? My first “band” was called 12 Inch Breath Mint, and we had a “song” called “Gimme That Whip” that was basically me screaming nonsense over subpar Skinny Puppy mimicry.
“We sort of had the vibe of our band first, and the name was actually one of the things we had before any of our current members or any of our original songs,” drummer Taryn Gangi told the Hartford Courant in 2023. “We kind of had that ‘Sorry Mom, I’m in a band,’ or in this situation ‘Sorry Mom I’m in a loud craft punk band’1 so there are especially more apologies to go around.”
Presumably lots more once the NYC-based queer-punk duo released its debut EP, which opens with a song called “I Fucked Yr Mom.” Four years later, it is the group’s most-streamed track by several orders of magnitude (23.7 million and counting on Spotify). That is a lot of streams for a small band, though perhaps it’s cold comfort to Sorry Mom’s parents.
They probably haven’t been excited about subsequent songs like “Molly Sells Molly By the Seashore,” “I Saw Jesus Hanging on a Basketball Hoop,” “Enema,” and “Hit the Back.”
Sorry Mom’s music is a lot more nuanced than those jokey-titled outliers would imply, but try explaining that to mom and dad. And nuance doesn’t go viral, now does it? Who’s ready for “I Fucked Yr Mom AGAIN”?!
My Mom is Here
The sentiments behind Sorry Mom and My Mom is Here couldn’t be further apart. In the former, mom is presumably displeased and demands an apology. In the latter, mom has shown up to lend her support. It’s easy to picture parents coming to see My Mom is Here, and not just because that is literally on their Instagram.
No, My Mom is Here play nice music for nice people, or as they describe it on their YouTube channel, “rock fusion music.” This is more proof that bands aren’t always the best at describing their music, because “rock fusion music” sounds way too proggy for My Mom is Here’s easygoing soul. Better to go with Glide magazine’s writeup of their song “Didn’t Sleep Tonight,” which throws around words like neo-soul, jazz, cabaret-style vocals, warm horns, and funky keys.
My Mom is Here’s press kit explains the disconnect though, saying, “My Mom is Here is what happens when jazz kids form a rock band.”
There we go: jazz kids. It all makes sense now, because only jazz kids would a) use the word “fusion” and b) consider My Mom is Here a rock band. Listen, I know I’m a Gen Xer who grew up with genres informing way too much of my identity, but My Mom is Here feels rock-adjacent at best.
Counterpoint: Who cares?
Dad Brains
I don’t know why it took until seeing the artwork for me to get this.
According to their bio, Pat Pedraza would “shout out lyrics and thoughts that would swirl around” in his foggy dad brain while running errands shortly after his daughter was born in 2017. As a veteran of the irritatingly spelled early Vagrant Records band No Motiv, he knew lots of other punk dads, and soon Dad Brains was a thing.
Dad Brains’ bio was clearly written early in their lifespan, because it says the group will try to release an EP every Father’s Day. So far they’ve only managed 2019’s Dadditude and a couple of songs. Hey, fatherhood is demanding. They did manage to deliver a Christmas-set, parenthood-themed parody of Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized” last December, though.
While I am very much this band’s target demographic—I had a secret cassette dub of that Suicidal Tendencies album and remember when “Institutionalized” appeared in 21 Jump Street—you gotta appreciate their dadication dedication to a bit.
Party Dad
Hey, if you’re a guy who looks like this…
…and you’re a DJ who specializes in “cult and outsider disco and funk tunes,” you could do a lot worse than calling yourself Party Dad. It’s not as if Charleston City Paper bestows the title DJ of the Year on any rando who’s made the rounds at Faculty Lounge, Recovery Room, and Upper Deck. “Pfft, Upper Deck closed in 2018,” you scoff. THIS WAS BEFORE THAT, JERK. If Band Name Bureau knows anything, it’s the comings and goings of bars in Charleston, South Carolina.
And anyway, Tay McNabb, a.k.a. Party Dad, apparently lives in NYC now, far away from the cozy confines of Recovery Room and the PBR that flows like water therein. “The #1 seller of PBR in the WORLD” blares its Instagram bio. “Can I get that on merch?” you ask. Yes you can.
Recovery Room may claim PBR supremacy, but the Faculty Lounge boasts an “extensive selection of dad beer.” (Because who doesn’t want to pay too much to drink Coors Light ironically?)
Now that we’ve all come to know Party Dad through the old haunts, what would a three-hour Party Dad set sound and look like? Feast your eyes about, old boy.
Real MILFs Not a Scam
Not a scam, but if their Bandcamp were secretly installing malware on my computer, I wouldn’t be surprised. Unsurprisingly, that and a (less sketchy) Soundcloud are the extent of Real MILFs’ web presence.
The outfit’s ultra-processed, pitch-bending, mostly unintelligible hyperpop could soundtrack your local schizophrenic’s psychosis. When I want schizophrenic music, I’ll take Wesley Willis, thank you very much.
POST-SCRIPTS
The caption for the PBR underwear proves my bona fides as someone who spent way too much time with PBR cans in his 20s.
If someone asked me what the dudes from No Motiv were up to these days, I’d probably say something like, “Playing in other forgettable SoCal punk bands?” because I’m the worst. But Pedraza is a prolific voice actor, including the voice of Good Luck Bear in several Care Bears specials!
I checked in on Brutal Dildos in BNB #10, with fun results.
ALUMNI NEWS: Your Grandparents (BNB #30) have a new album, The Dial. The press release says, “Your Grandparents are fascinated with time. It can neither be created nor killed; there’s never enough of it, but it can stretch on forever. Time is a form of currency that can be saved, spent, and gambled away. It can be wasted. Wounds heal, the flocks march from field to fold, and, in the end, it makes fools of us all.” Track four is called “I Got High One Day.” You don’t say.
The first rule of Band Name Bureau, as I have often pointed out, is NEVER CHANGE YOUR (SILLY) NAME. Yet roughly 30 years in, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are now going by Spike and the Gimme Gimmes. I always liked the name Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and I’m puzzled why they’re deciding to foreground singer Spike Slawson now. I also didn’t realize the legendary John Reis of Rocket from the Crypt (and a million other bands) is playing with them now. Weird!
Here’s a name I’ve always loved: Tropical Fuck Storm. The Aussie psych band has a new album, Fairyland Codex, dropping next month, and I’ll be chatting with them for a future edition of BNB. In the meantime, here’s the bonkers album art.
I feel like “craft punk” is an interview-transcription error. I have no idea what that means, and searches only turned up results for The Eric Andre Show. No complaints.
I can only hope the first band listed took their name from this inspired Clickhole piece: https://clickhole.com/5-times-the-animatronic-fox-on-splash-mountain-addresse-1825122431/
…so much to see and listen to here…what a great motherfathers day present…grazzo…