Song of the day: Eskimo Joe – "Sweater"

Here’s Eskimo Joe with the cheerfully silly “Sweater”:

Eskimo Joe – “Sweater“ (1998)

Link

“Sweater” was Eskimo Joe’s debut single, recorded back when they were young upstarts. Their songs were chipper little ditties, and usually about nonsense (such as sweaters). Unfortunately for me, the lads grew up and became terribly serious. Eskimo Joe now look like this:

Terribly serious.

Eskimo Joe official (and serious) website

Song of the day: Regurgitator – "Blubber Boy"

Here’s Regurgitator with their ode to love in the frozen wastes, “Blubber Boy” (1995):

Link

It’s probably my favourite rock song in 6/4 time.

The video for it is enjoyably odd – it features Eskimos (although no-one from Eskimo Joe), igloos, polar bears, and, er, blubber. Unfortunately, the person who posted the video decided to replace the original audio track with a live recording of the boys blubbering away:

Instead, if you’re in the mood to waste some bandwidth, here’s an alternative video using the original track. It’s someone called Matt eating a pineapple. Yes, really:

Incidentally, Regurgitator and “Blubber Boy” are both mentioned in my A History of Power Pop in Australia post.

Song of the day: Eskimo Joe – "Turn Up Your Stereo"

Here’s the currently huge band Eskimo Joe with one of their early songs, “Turn Up Your Stereo” (1999):

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“Turn Up Your Stereo” appeared on their second EP, Eskimo Joe.

Eskimo Joe started off as a nice power poppy band – guitars, energy, hooks, and more guitars – but have since become terribly, terribly serious. They’re not as self-important as U2, but they’re getting perilously close to disappearing up their own earnestness. Their latest songs sound to me like the band aren’t having much fun anymore because they’re making artistic statements instead of songs.

Ah, well, at least we have the EP to remind us that Eskimo Joe once wrote fun, guitar-fuelled ditties:

Link

Eskimo Joe on MySpace