Most Surprising Album in Jerry Harrison's Production Discography

responsible for an awful lot of dross from the 90's, Jesus. ugh.

2002 An Awful Lot of Dross From the 90s Jesus. Ugh.

It's like that one Spy cartoon of Dan Aykroyd's desk with his Accept Box overflowing with scripts alongside an empty Reject Box.

He's the Rick Rubin of acts that want to be forgotten as quickly as possible.

celebrity endorser of the iHome line of bluetooth speakers

sits on the control room couch, awake and engaged, during tracking sessions.

was he a producer for hire or a Warners staff producer? Both?

Maybe he was following in the footsteps of John Cale, with less spectacular results.

He probably forgot to wear a cape.

This list is so "college rock" in the sense of what jewel boxes littered the most floors of dorm rooms, as opposed to what was played on college radio stations.

Lol. Extra lol since I originally read that as "jeweled bones."

hugely otm. major 'back to campus FallFest' concert vibes

That Le Butcherettes album from last year is spectacular even if Jello Biafra shows up unwarranted in the first two minutes.

B-b-but does Mojo Nixon show up at any time?

It's cool how many of these are complete sentences

The Blind Leading the Naked Violent Femmes
Remember Rusted Root
Live On Kenny Wayne Shepherd
I’d Rather Eat Glass Bijou Phillips
Love The Juliana Theory
How I Go Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Believe The String Cheese Incident

oh I see someone above already kind of did this sorry

oh, we remember all right

B-b-but does Mojo Nixon show up at any time?

Mojo Nixon is everywhere and Mojo Nixon is in everybody out there

we had it all: cups, pudding pops, powder -- the complete jello biafra

the basic answer here is surely : none of the above.
he is a producer for hire.
you pay the fee, you get his name on the production credit.

Maybe he was following in the footsteps of John Cale, with less spectacular results.

― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs),

yeah, that's whom I had in mind

They probably paid him in promos.

was Violent Femmes' college radio profile 1982-1991 as impressive as I imagine?

I imagine them as CMJ mainstays. I remember "American Music" and their Culture Club cover getting airplay as late as summer '91.

"American Music" is so corny and yet I really love it? Is that Jerry Harrison's doing somehow?

Nope, that was Michael Beinhorn.

man it's like he thought: "welp, i've helped make some of the coolest music of the 70s and 80s ... let's see if I can do the opposite from now on."

Ha, exactly. It’s like he’s the anti-, um, the anti-, ... the anti-Jim Dickinson, maybe.

No, that doesn’t work

the anti-David Byrne

It's in line with a general phenomenon among people who make great art and then just want to chill and direct a Jack or record a 'Don't Drive Drunk' in their latter years.

IHNTPTYP (I Have Nothing to Prove to You People) Syndrome

I have nothing to offer as a producer so I only work with bands that are beyond help syndrome.

Little column A, little column B

he tried to release an album under the moniker "The Only Head on the West Coast" but David Byrne sued.

He's the Rick Rubin of acts that want to be forgotten as quickly as possible.

No Surfing, Just Shred

I kind of agree with mark e: all of them are surprising, until you've gotten halfway through the list and realize what he's about as a producer, and then none of them are surprising.

"college rock" in the sense of what jewel boxes littered the most floors of dorm rooms, as opposed to what was played on college radio stations

Yeah this is epically true, and so evocative.

Maybe what we need right now is a POLLege rock poll, that focused on stuff (mostly US, white, burby) college students actually listened to in 1993 or whatever. Yr Hootie and the Crows, Duncan Loeb, BNL, DMB, GooGoo Blossoms, Rusted Spin, Semisonic Ray, Third Eye Doctors, Counting Root, Live Traveler, Sheryl Sweet type shit.

I recall feeling a little too old for it, but some of it became a guilty pleasure and I confess there was some of it that hit me just right.

1992 Volo Volo Poi Dog Pondering

I'd completely forgotten about this band. They were like Rusted Root for grad students. And now I see that Jerry has produced both bands, which is a degree of masochism I was not aware was possible.

Poi Dog sort of bounced around, from Hawaii to Austin and ultimately to Chicago, where they remain kind of an outdoor music mainstay in the way the Bodeans are to WI (and Chicago, too). Every bar band in Chicago seemingly features members of Poi Dog.

Yes. I seem to recall that one of the Poi Dogs, the one who would call me to drive him to the ramen noodle shop when his car broke down, produced an album by a band featuring one of the Chicago ILX0rs.

I remember in the early '90s, XRT pretty much played them hourly.

They were a really good live band. I remember somebody- some of the band members, I think! - making the following joke:
PD1: Somebody said we should make a kids album!
PD2: I thought we already did!

My only memory of PDP was seeing Dag Juhlin (I think) as part of "John Wesley Harding's All-Male Threesome." Iota in Arlington maybe 2003 or '04?

Footnote: The third member of the threesome was REM side-bro Scott McCaughey.

Yeah, Dag frequently plays in my guitar teacher's cover band, along with a former PDP drummer. (Plus singer/multi-instrumentalist David Blamires, who used to play with Pat Metheny; I love it when all these talented folks just end up in certain places, playing with whomever).

i know some of the many who love this music will hate to see a companion spotify playlist, but here it is Take a Look at These Bands: Jerry Harrison Produced It

i tried to be fair to jerry, choosing the song that seemed best from each piece. or the song that seemed least bad. or a song with a word from a talking head song in it. or the first song on the ablum. i tried to be fair to jerry, and this is what came out.

oftentimes, i'd look up the album art and try to find the most popular song from that album in the artist's most played list. oftentimes, that particular album was absent.

No Casual Gods, No Credibility

wikipedia is the one truth

Sometimes, all I can say is Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Lol at playlist title, Sufjan

Oh yeah, I seem to remember something about Jerry telling them he wished that David B would put the band back together.

Isn't the bassist from Belew's band? She's great.

julie slick? she wasn't with the band in the videos I saw from the tour last year but I don't know about this time.

Yeah, she's in the band now.

I guarantee Bernie got fucked out of money by George Clinton