Tripping Daisy

It's perfectly possible that Tripping Daisy wrote some beautiful, thoughtfully crafted, profound songs during their career.  This may have happened.  But everyone except a small group of diehard fans (mathematically speaking, these must exist) will only know them for "I Got a Girl," one of the most unfortunate songs of the 90s.  

I say unfortunate because everything about it tapped into a specific milieu that was extremely unsavory.  In 1995 we liked darkness, irony, and all things grotesque.  "I Got a Girl" was full of meaningless if vaguely positive lyrics like these: I got a girl she loves her dog/I got a girl I love her dog too; I got a girl that makes me laugh/I got a girl I'll make her laugh too.  Not excessively weird, just stupid.  But the singer, Tim DeLaughter, delivered them in a childish way that made him sound deeply disturbed.  This was cool at the time.  Healthy teenagers would act disturbed just for the hell of it.  So Tripping Daisy wrote the right crappy song at the right crappy moment.  Just watch the music video:

See?  I feel like I need a shower now.  I'm sure they thought it was artsy and deep, but when deep = disturbed, it just ends up being disgusting.  

Tripping Daisy disbanded in 1999 when the guitarist, Wes Berggren, died of a drug overdose.  The band seemed destined to become one hit wonders, with its remaining members living lives of frustration and quiet desperation - but no!  Tim DeLaughter is still among us in the form of The Polyphonic Spree.  Seriously.  The former lead singer of Tripping Daisy is now the lead singer of The Polyphonic Spree.  

They don't play "I Got a Girl" anymore but they do occasionally cover "Lithium" by Nirvana, which is close enough: