March 1, 2017 - In the episode “Rock Bark Rocks” Harvey attends his first rock concert and accidentally finds himself caught in a mosh pit. This short chaotic scene reminded me of myself during my first punk shows as a teenager in Los Angeles (It was The Ramones, The Damned, and The Dickies on separate occasions at the Hollywood Palladium). There is a certain level of character building that can only come from getting kicked in the head to your favorite music– and a sense of hope that can only come from falling on your ass in a mosh pit… only to be rescued by a swarm of disembodied hands reaching down to pick you up.
I thought to myself, “Why can’t Harvey be stuck in the pit while one of my favorite punk bands is playing?” So I reached out to singer of the seminal Los Angeles punk band, The Dickies (The inimitable Leonard Graves Phillips) and asked if he wouldn’t mind singing on a 30-second song I wrote. I sent him the instrumental music and waited. A few days later I get a 5am text from Leonard with the following lyrics:
I got OCD. Don’t you pick on me.
Zipper. I think I broke my zipper.
I’m not one to argue with genius. I’ve admired Leonard since I was a kid. I told him it was perfect and a week later he was in my studio recording these very words. I just love that he sat there listening to my song and these were the lyrics that popped in his head. Life is absurd. I love how it came out and so honored to have this tiny connection to my favorite wobbly-voiced musician. Incidentally, this song is far from featured in the episode, it goes by very quickly and it’s low in the mix, but that’s why I put these videos up with the full volume mixes.
THE DICKIES formed in 1977 and are one of the greatest melodic punk bands of all time. Truly underrated, although they did have some much deserved success with the cult film “Killer Klowns from Outer space” and most recently, on the soundtrack to “KICK ASS” with their Banana Splits anthem. Enjoy!
-Ego