Let's Talk About...Lagwagon
Welcome back to Radio Unfriendly. I’m going to be talking about another one of my favorite bands and my favorite albums from that band. This time around its the Southern California based skate punk band Lagwagon.
This one was actually written before the Smoking Popes one. If you aren’t aware of this, these were originally done as podcast episodes. The Lagwagon episode preceded the Smoking Popes episode. Anyway, I’m doing this as a writing adventure instead and wanted to do some of the previous episodes on here.
First off, some history of the band.
Lagwagon was formed in 1990 in Goleta, California. They were originally calling themselves Section 8 but changed their name because another band in the area was using it. Lagwagon was the name of an early song of theirs that they named after their touring van. Their debut came in 1992. Duh was released on Fat Wreck Chords. The band has spent their entire recording career with this label even though they have had several offers to join various major labels. The band went on hiatus in 2000 and started back up 2 years later. As of this writing, the band has released 9 studio albums, 4 extended plays (EPs), a box set called Putting Music In Its Place, a compilation of B-sides and previously unreleased material called Let’s Talk About Leftovers, and a live album called Live in a Dive. They have also appeared on numerous compilation records. Most notably, quite a few of the Fat Wreck Chords comps such as Fat Music for Fat People, and Life in the Fat Lane, among others.
They have gone through various lineups. Originally, the band consisted of Joey Cape on vocals, Chris Flippin on guitar, Shawn Dewey on guitar, Jesse Buglione on bass, and Derrick Plourde on drums. Shawn was replaced on guitar by Ken Stringfellow in 1996, who was replaced in 1997 by Chris Rest. Derrick was replaced on drums by Dave Raun in 1997. Joe Raposo replaced Jesse on bass in 2010.
A bit of a deviation here but I wanted to talk about some of Joey Cape’s projects outside of Lagwagon. First, he has done a bunch of solo stuff. He has released 6 studio albums and a bunch of splits with other artists such as Tony Sly R.I.P. of No Use For a Name and Jon Snodgrass of Drag the River. His first solo album was Bridge, released in 2008 and his most recent released was 2021s A Good Year to Forget. He also had another band called Bad Astronaut that he formed in 2000. That band has released 3 full length albums and a split with Armchair Martian. And last but certainly not least, Joey is a member of punk rock cover supergroup Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Joey plays guitar in this band. They have released 6 studio albums, 2 live albums, 3 EPs, and 2 compilation albums.
And now I will get into a little of my own history with this band…
There’s always that ONE SONG.
Lagwagon is an interesting creature in regards to being one of my favorite bands. For one, out of my “main” list of favorite bands (yes, I have a main list…basically a list of bands that are always in top rotation…..). So anyway, out of my main list of favorite bands, Lagwagon is the band that I’ve been into the shortest amount of time. When I heard the song “Cog in the Machine” the album had already been out a couple of years. I mean, once I heard that album and was pretty much hooked but I haven’t been REALLY listening to them near as long as I’ve been listening to bands like Bad Religion and the Descendents. Another thing that sets them apart from most of my favorite bands is….and I feel weird admitting this….I don’t actually own any physical albums of theirs. Everything I own of their material I bought from either Bandcamp or iTunes. Granted, this is something I plan to rectify. Their stuff is still available on vinyl through Fat Wreck Chords so at some point in time I’m going to buy their stuff on vinyl.
Another thing about Lagwagon, which oddly enough made it very interesting to put make we want to talk about them is the fact that I’m not super familiar with their album catalog. I own most of them of course but when I’m listening to the band I’m usually not listening to a specific album. I just find a good Lagwagon shuffle playlist and go to town. So while I know a bunch of their songs and I have a lot of favorites, like I said, I’m not super familiar with the albums themselves. Well, I didn’t use to. I am a lot more familiar now that I’ve put this thing together.
Anyway, without further jibber jabber about the band themselves, here are my top 5 favorite Lagwagon albums…..
#5. Double Plaidinum
This one was released in August 1997 and recorded in 1996 and 1997 at Orange Whip Recording in San Francisco, The Music Annex in Menlo Park, and Dave Wellhausen Recording in San Francisco. It was produced by Joey Cape, Angus Cooke, Ryan Greene, and Ken Stringfellow. It is the first album of theirs that did NOT feature the original lineup. AllMusic gave it 3 out of 5 stars and Album of the Year scored it an 80 out of 100. Some of my favorite tracks from the album include “Making Friends” and “Bad Scene.”
#4. Railer
As of this writing, Railer is their most recent release. It was released in October 2019. It was produced by Cameron Webb and recorded in Maple Sound Studios in Santa Ana, California. It has gotten to #12 on the Billboard Independent Albums Chart. My favorite tracks include “Surviving California,” “Bubble,” “Parable,” and “Stealing Light.” This album features a cover of the Journey song “Faithfully” which is also quite good.
#3. Blaze
Released in April 2003, Blaze is their 6th full length album. It was recorded in November 2002 at Motor Studios in San Francisco and produced by Joey Cape. It was the first album released after their hiatus and the first album of theirs to appear on the Billboard 200. It reached #172. Some of my favorite tracks from this one are “E Dagger,” “Baggage,” “Dividers” and “Falling Apart.”
#2. Let’s Talk About Feelings
Let’s Talk About Feelings was released in November 1998. It was produced by Joey Cape and Ryan Greene and recorded at Motor Studios in 1998. The album was mixed by Bill Stevenson and Stephen Egerton at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado. Joey himself has said that this is his personal favorite Lagwagon album. It debuted on the Billboard Heatseekers chart at #33 and was named by Rolling Stone as the 42nd greatest pop punk album ever. This album was reissued in 2011 with demos, outtakes, EPs, and B-Sides, including a cover of the Jawbreaker song “Want” and a cover of the Echo & the Bunnymen song “Bring On The Dancing Horses.” My favorite tracks on the album include “Train,” “Owen Meaney,” “After You My Friend,” “May 16,” and “Gun In Your Hand.”
And here is my absolute favorite Lagwagon album…
#1. Hang
Hang was released in October 2014. It was produced by Joey Cape, Bill Stevenson, Angus Cooke, and Thorn Flowers. It was recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins and Orange Whip Recording in Santa Barbara. This was the album that got me into Lagwagon. That is, this is the album that made me a fan. It includes 2 bonus tracks which are both covers. “Don’t Laugh At Me” originally by Peter Paul and Mary and “Exit” which was originally recorded by No Use For A Name. Some of my favorite songs from this album include the aforementioned “Cog in the Machine,” “Western Settlements,” “Reign,” “Drag,” and this one…
That’s it for this time. If you would like to learn more about the band Lagwagon, go to the following links:
Also, go check out these cool music podcasts!
Also, I originally did this as a podcast. You can check that out here.