TAD - Jack Pepsi

One of my first Sub Pop singles, though not a part of the Singles Club. These guys were already known as the band that was "too ugly for MTV" and the Peter Bagge artwork on the back cover certainly helped sway me to shell out $4.99 at Newbury Comics for this one. I love it when the sticker is still on it.

Anyway, TAD was a Sub Pop staple, going back to the first days of the label. They're pretty much the first grunge act, or close to it. They were on the heavy side of grunge, and I'm not just talking about their sound. Their front man/guitarist Tad Doyle must have weighed around 350 pounds. They also had this image of being a bunch of hicks from the backwoods of eastern WA, complete with the flannel and boots. Unlike, say, the image UO created for themselves, this was at least grounded in some reality, as these guys really were from the sticks and worked as butchers and the like. I'm not sure if their clothing choices helped create the grunge fashion sense or not, but they seem to have been contributors.

In keeping with their redneck backwoods image, "Jack Pepsi" is about drinking Jack Daniels and Pepsi while driving on barely frozen lakes. Ice Road Truckers meets alcohol, I guess. The B-side isn't quite so heavy. It's a snappy, bass-driven thing. Sounds like it's an homage to serial killer Ed Gein.

One thing about Tad, in addition to their MTV problem (which just gave them more credibility, really) they had some issues with their cover art. I got the revised artwork version of this single, as the original version featured Pepsi's logo, only with the word "TAD" in it. They were sued immediately, and put this version out instead. They were also sued for the cover art that appeared on their 8-Way Santa album, (Great album, and the original cover is fantastic) where this song originally appeared, and I passed up a chance to buy that once. Oh well.

A: Jack Pepsi
B: Eddie Hook
Enjoy!