Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun

International Dance Marathon

6) Grasshopper Takeover, International Dance Marathon (2000)

This is another album that was passed along to me by an old friend who got it for free at a show. So, like, for the information of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun’s younger readers, yes, this was the way to find out about new music way back in the day. It sounds crazy just typing it, but it’s true.

I have a coworker who plays in a band called Huck. When you ask him to describe his band’s sound, he’ll sort of shrug and say something like “Fun rock. We just play happy music.” I think of that when I think about why I like Grasshopper Takeover. For almost eight years, International Dance Marathon has been my go-to in situations where I need a pick-me-up. It’s not exactly the most sophisticated or hard-hitting rock album out there, but it more than makes up for those shortcomings with foot-tapping melodies and feel-good lyrics. It’s gotta be, by far, the most positive album on this list.

I’d describe GTO as something like 311-lite. (An easy comparison; both bands are from Omaha, and I understand that they’re all pals.) The good folks at CDBaby.com tell me that if you like 311, the Foo Fighters, and Everclear, you might like GTO: that sounds about right! It’s interesting to see these lists of similar artists (Yahoo Music says GTO fans might like Unwritten Law, They Might Be Giants, Cake, and Better Than Ezra), because they’re all definitively 90s bands. This shouldn’t be surprising, of course, since International Dance Marathon is GTO’s third full length album and just barely made it into this decade, with its June 2000 release. I personally thought the 90s were a pretty good decade for alternative rock and power pop tunes. Sure, I’ve come to like (and love) new forms of rock music, and obviously bands like the Foo Fighters are still churning out records, but the fact is that as the days go by, new music like you find on International Dance Marathon becomes rarer. Will this be the last DD&UFAOTD:AMIMIFE with a 90s-style alt-pop album on it? This is me coming to grips with my own mortality, people!

Signature Track: “Forever Young”

The pick for signature track here is sort of a toss-up. I’m a big fan of literally every track, but there’s definitely a Big Three: “Esta Vida,” “Sailing,” and the track you’re listening to up there, “Forever Young.” (You guessed it, precious reader: this song was the only one I could find a decent Youtube video of.) “Forever Young” does the trick, though, in terms of encapsulating GTO’s sound: the shifts in tempo, the hooky melodies, the upbeat lyrics. (You know, like, “First rule says you’ve got to believe in who you are. / Second asks you to believe anything is possible. / Third, get up and do it, boy you’ll be a star. / My roots are constellations, guiding me home.) I gotta tell ya, there’s not a whole left to say. This is a list of my favorite albums, and there’s no writing a list like that without including the album that’s given me warm fuzzies since 2002.