I Dare You

So I thought I'd do something different for my hundredth post, I'm gonna post something truly awful. At first I thought I'd start a "Guilty Pleasures" series so I could post things that I loved under an umbrella of ironic safety whenever it felt appropriate. Then after consideration I thought, where do the Guilty Pleasure modifiers start and end? My boy Kellz? Mike Oldfield? Stuff I should feel guilty about but don't? Tracks that I started to like with a "wink wink nudge nudge, Pretty cool huh?" and ended up loving wholeheartedly? The term just seems too amorphous for my ridiculous tastes.

So here it is. I bought the Transformers the Movie soundtrack on cassette (to play in my sweet am/fm/tape clock radio) from Gemco when I was nine years old. Did work around the house washing the car, raking leaves and mowing the lawn to get the funds together to purchase this sure-to-be amazing tape. Damn, children are underpaid. Anyway, to ears and a brain that didn't understand the coolness factor, this was the raddest shit EVER! Bombastic cheesemetal, synthy air guitar madness and of course, Weird Al, whose contribution, Dare to be Stupid, is still one of my faves of his. Nobody touched me more than Stan Bush though. His best known song is "The Touch" from Boogie Knights, you know the one Dirk and Reed record when they decide to be coked up rock stars? That song was also included on Transformers but "Dare" is where its at. When I was 27 I decided to search out Transformers to enjoy in ironic fashion, but alas, I found that I could love "Dare" without a sarcastic laugh. I think it shaped me a lot without me even knowing. Arpeggiated synths. Check. Metal guitars. Check. Layered backup vocals. Check. Dare ended up in heavy rotation in my headphones, a go get em anthem that still riles me up. Yeah it sucks, but that's not the point.

Stan Bush- Dare