The Del Fuegos, for a long time, anyway, had the misfortune of being known for their appearance in a Miller Beer television commercial, in which pleasantly disheveled leader (and now successful children’s music maker) Dan Zanes says that “Rock ‘n’ roll is folk music ‘cuz it’s music made by folks” (or something to that effect). Pretty innocuous stuff nowadays, what with iPod commercials and WB teen soaps being every indie band’s dream ticket to a national audience. But back in ’85 thereabouts, to many in the music underground, it was selling out. It just added fuel to heated discussions about major labels and selling your soul. Left of the Dial and all of that. For the Fuegos had signed to Slash/Warner Brothers, and their first record was a radical sonic departure from their live sound and this, their first 7” blast of snarling trash, twang, and (ironically) beer. That first album had BIG production written all over it. The performances seemed meticulous and coached. The old drummer Steve Morrell, famous for his crazed rockabilly moves and playing with trashcan lids, had left, and his replacement’s playing was as wooden as his namesake, Woody. Where was the joyous abandon? It was one of those albums where the huge snare is twice as loud as anything else. For some old-time fans of the Fuegos, the big-time move seemed like a huge letdown (I swear there was almost a Bambino-esque curse on Boston bands going for the gold ring back then). And their first glorious single here illustrates why. It was recorded by Rick Harte, pretty much the only cheap and sympathetic game in town for bands like the Neats, the Lyres, and other A-listers on the scene. The Fuegos were just a trio early on ( younger Zane’s brother Warren “Ork Boy would join up later), and it operated a bit like a rockabilly outfit with a direct musical and lifestyle line to their beloved 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll delinquents.

“I Always Call Her Back” represents what I remember best about checking out bands at the Rat in Kenmore Square in the 80’s. This was a scene of mostly working man bar bands made up of local guys and some transplants like a few of the Scruffy the Cat guys. Leather jackets, biker boots, red bandannas wrapped around ankles, cigarette packs rolled up in the t-shirt sleeve, sailor tattoos, sticky floors, endless bottles of Rolling Rock. It all changed somehow with the Pixies and Forte Apache studios and all those bands full of college kids and trust funders – the Lemonheads, Blake Babies, Fuzzy, Gigalo Aunts, Galaxie 500. Not that there weren’t college kids rocking it previously or townies doing the same after, but there was definitely a paradigm shift which had the unmistakable whiff of the British Invasion making the Brill Building girl groups irrelevant. It also pointed silently but unmistakably to unsettling issues about class divisions in the underground. Talking about class in one’s scene is still pretty taboo to this day.

A funny footnote: The Classic Ruins, another Boston bar band in the mold of the early Del Fuegos, upon seeing that the Fuegos had made a bunch of money from Miller, proceeded to pen a song about their favorite beer, LaBatts, in hopes of snagging sponsorship riches. They didn’t get their TV spot, but judging from the Labatts banner that hung behind the drum kit at their shows, they must’ve scored something.

A footnote to the footnote: Someone please please send me a file or post the Classic Ruins’ tune “Geraldine (I Need Money, More Than I Need You)" from the Chuck Warner Throbbing Lobster compilation Claws! Sheer old school genius.

Andrew Chalfen

The lovely full-color pic sleeve and the fact that it was on EMI probably disqualify this from being a true "DIY" single in the Messthetics/Kugelberg sense, but nonetheless, it does have some of the same charms as many of the best of those records: weird noises, cheap keyboards, etc. I think this was another one that Steve Mitchell at Low-Down Kids pointed us toward. You should really check out his new, revamped web site.