Tripping Daisy may not have secured itself rock-star immortality, but it’s a safe bet that the group is going to be around for a while.
Formed in Texas during the early ’90s, TD started playing shows with local bands.
Quickly lumped in with other “alterna-bands” like Okie friends The Flaming Lips, TD quickly started to move in a different direction than others reveling in the Nirvana tide. Swirling effects, double-tracked vocals, and wailing vocals were all part of the equation.
After a couple of EPs (Bill, Get It On… Live), TD landed itself a deal with record mammoth Island, while the LP I Am an Elastic Firecracker sold by the hundreds thanks to marketing push and the unexpected hit “I Got a Girl.”
Unfortunately, the single didn’t really have much to do with what Tripping Daisy was trying to accomplish. The star of I Am an Elastic Firecracker is the noisy, sloppy, near anti-pop construction of the disc. “I Got a Girl” wore thin quickly, and pop culture moved on.
Fortunately, Firecracker is both a better album than its single and a well-preserved staple in almost any used CD store. Imagine a quirkier, kinder mix of Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots and The Flaming Lips.
“Rocketpop” takes off fast before exploding to fit its title. “Bang” shows signs that recent bands like the Starlight Mints may have been longtime listeners, with lounge-style syncopation.
The second single, “Piranha,” sported a shambling riff and the prominent lyric, “Watch out for piranhas / There’s always piranhas.”
“Piranha” was a far more representative track of the band’s body of work but met with less enthusiasm at radio stations. The rest of the album moves much more like a dream than “I Got a Girl’s” shameless rock-talk. Guitarist Wes Berggren throws in liberal doses of E-Bow and chorus, and tracks like “Motivation” slide ahead at their own pace.
Different production tricks show up everywhere too. The keyboard’s tremulous wavering on “Same New Day” would become one of the band’s most reliable tools in later days. Timothy Delaughter’s vocals are run through tons of effects, making him sound alien or robotic, which TD also continued to exploit for years.
Mostly thanks to the band’s tireless commitment to touring and writing, the option for a second major release presented itself. Tripping Daisy went back into the studio and released Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb in 1998 on Polygram Records after a messy split with former backers Island. The album quickly became a favorite with fans and critics. After a whirlwind year of touring, TD headed back to the studio to record LP number three.
However, these things never seem to go smoothly. Finding themselves abandoned by supporters like Island and Polydor, but with full artistic control, TD’s members planned to release their new album, Tripping Daisy, on local Dallas label Good Records. Production wrapped in 1999, and a tour was planned. Unfortunately, nothing’s that easy.
Wes Berggren was found dead Oct. 27, 1999, from what was later ruled an overdose of “cocaine, propoxyphene and benzodiazepine,” according to a Nov. 12, 1999, report from the Dallas medical examiner.
Tripping Daisy was hit hard, and announced that Berggren was too integral to be replaced. The group was disbanded, and members left to work on individual side projects.
Thankfully, Tripping Daisy did eventually see the light of day. Good Records released the album with two additional tracks that were cobbled together from demos dating before Berggren’s death. The finishing touch was a keyboard line added to “Soothing Jubilee” by Berggren’s father.
The resulting disc is an amazing mix of different styles, techniques and tricks. Tripping Daisy topped itself on production and songwriting.
Far from Firecracker, TD was more melodic and more conventionally structured but still far from ordinary. While the more grunge aspects have fallen by the wayside, melody has found its way to the driver’s seat.
And such joyous melodies at that — “Kids Are Calling” bounces along, singing “In the sun, Mommy,” and “Drama Day Weekend” is a day in summer that the sun just won’t set on.
“Jim’s Longtime Voice” is without vocals altogether, opting instead to showcase TD’s electronic expertise with sequenced drum tracks and highly effected guitar coupled with a healthy dose of keys, before finally erupting into the pop-godsend “One Through Four.” Delaughter croons, “One makes / Two life / Three change / Before it’s over now.”
Built around a single note on the keyboard, “Foot Dance” bobs with energy. It moves ahead with a purposeful tempo before fading up the keyboard and guitar. New lines are added to the melody and countermelody until there are nearly a dozen separate lines running at once; then it just explodes into “The Sudden Shift Worried Him.”
“The Sudden Shift” blows up with a fuzzy guitar line, then weaves through a series of sonorous vocals, including, “It’s all in good time / said the man who would soon leave his wife / I do agree / It’s better to live at the top of the trees”
Then everything disintegrates like a dream, leaving behind the pleasant aftertaste of something sweet.
While Tripping Daisy hardly got the sendoff it deserved, the members did make good, and the story isn’t completely over yet. Frontman Timothy Delaughter’s project The Polyphonic Spree begins touring this April with stops April 10 and 11 at Chicago’s Empty Bottle and Metro, respectively.
Tripping Daisy may not be a perennial favorite today, evidence of the group’s existence is planted in used record stores all over the country.
