Here’s the Spotify link to the playlist. You’re welcome to recreate it on any platform you choose. Just press play and read along, acting like the voice in your head is the DJ. The times listed are that of the song playing, not the full episode length. I play this with a 5-second cross-fade enabled. Have fun!
Intro
| FMF# | Track | Artist | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Coffee In The Pot” | Supergrass | Road To Rouen | 2005 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 Hello and welcome to abp’s coffee episode! Today we honor one of the most famous and well-known drinks of the world; coffee! Java, espresso, cappuccino, Americano, cold-press, nitro-infused, etc.; the list of styles of the usually-served hot drink may be too long for the show. Are you a zombie before you get your morning brew? Does the caffeine addiction afflict you too? I hope you’ve had your dose of daily drip because we’re about to turn up the speed.
01:10 Historical accounts of humans consuming coffee for its energizing effects date back to at least the 15th century. East Central Africans first used the beans in the modern sense of roasting and brewing. Not much ahs changed since then in the form of preparation, though certain regions do things a little differently.
01:40 National Coffee Day is celebrated on September 29th each year in the United States. The day gives millions of people an excuse to celebrate their morning caffeine addiction by justifying it as a necessary step to our days. Yes, I am also one of those coffee heads. I’ll throw all the excuses at you that you’ve already heard; kids, job, stress, sleep, blah blah.
02:10 Have you ever drank too much coffee? I can definitely say that I have. That sick feeling, nauseous like you ate something terrible, all the while you’re blood seems to be at 1000 degrees and heart is pumping like it’s running a marathon. Suck. The Promdates, out of Norway, know all about that overdose, too. The lyrics to the next track describe that moment you realize you’ve gone too far. From their 2016 split with the Meeps, here’s Norway’s best coffee-guzzling punk band with “Coffee OD”.
Set 1: Coughy
| 2 | “Coffee OD” | The Promdates | The Punk Rock Rumble – Split EP | 2016 |
| 3 | “Coffee With You” | Carbona | Back To Basics | 1999 |
| 4 | “Cappuccino” | Lunatics On Pogosticks | Sleeping Till The Weekend EP | 2014 |
| 5 | “Too Much Coffee” | SWMRS | Berkeley’s On Fire | 2019 |
| 6 | “409 In Your Coffeemaker” | Green Day | Slappy EP | 1990 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 Sweet Children doesn’t really sound like a band that tours filling stadiums, does it? Or maybe it does, what the hell do I know? That’s what Green Day was originally called before moving to the more ambiguously colorful descriptor. Billie Joe Armstrong has been a vocal critic of the name, though, in 2001 stating it was the worst band name in the world. From early in their career on the Slappy EP, that was Green Day with “409 In Your Coffeemaker”.
00:40 A generation later, we move from Billie to Joey. Billie Joe’s son Joey Armstrong plays drums for Berkley band SWMRS. The band took influence from Green Day and others’ pop punk sound and mixed it with the EDM-tinged sounds of the 2010s. That was “Too Much Coffee” from Berkley’s On Fire.
01:10 From the West Coast, to the Gold Coast. Kinda. Lunatics On Pogosticks hail from Melbourne and channel all the right elements of garage rock. Slightly lo-fi sound, energy, simplicity, fun lyrics, they’re doing it right. The final track to their excellent 2014 EP Sleeping Till The Weekend, “Cappuccino” sits in the middle of the set.
01:40 Remaining in the Southern hemisphere, we heard Carbona from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The band takes their name from the Ramones song “Carbona Not Glue”, a track removed from their 1977 LP Leave Home because the company who made the stain remover Carbona didn’t want to be associated with, well, glue-sniffing. “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” might have fed them that worry. Carbona, the band, sand “Coffee With You” from their sophomore LP Back To Basics.
02:10 Up next, The Smugglers ask the age old question – “Coffee, Tea, Or Me?”. The Vancouver, British Columbia band kept garage rock alive and well in the 90s and into the 2000s before calling it quits. Their 2000 LP Rosie was released through the legendary Berkley, California punk label Lookout! Records, the same label that released Green Day’s early works. Here’s The Smugglers with “Coffee, Tea, Or Me?”
Intermission
| 7 | “Coffee Stained Shirt” | Voodoo Court | The Party’s Over | 2002 |
Set 2: Javabilly
| 8 | “Coffee, Tea, Or Me?” | The Smugglers | Rosie | 2000 |
| 9 | “One More Cup Of Coffee” | The White Stripes | The White Stripes | 1999 |
| 10 | “Cup Of Coffee” | The Novocaines | Ragdoll EP | 2009 |
| 11 | “One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette” | Glen Glenn | Laurie Ann / One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette – 7″ Single | 1958 |
| 12 | “Coffee Break” | The Rock N’ Rollers | Rock ‘N Roll Time EP | 1958 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 That song seems to have a very familiar…sound to it. Very Bill Haley-ish. Perhaps that’s because the Rock ‘N’ Rollers are a studio-exec crafted band created solely for the purpose of selling records in line with a fad. If that really is the case, is “The Rock ‘N” Rollers” really the most creative name they could find? Apt, I suppose. Still. The EP Rock ‘N’ Roll Time, directed by Ken Jones, is five basic as hell rock and roll songs, and I love it. That was “Coffee Break” from said EP.
00:40 Glen Glenn was a rhythm and blues rock and roller from the 50s that did everything he could to mimic the swinging pelvis seen on TV. That is, until he got drafted. Glen recorded a few songs in 1958 and they’d actually get pressed to wax, but only days after his music hit the public he was drafted to the war and his career was over. Slightly. He would re-emerge in the 80s and record collectors began hunting for those early singles. His best known song, “One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette” graced our ears just now.
01:10 When Jay Watson left The Novocaines to play drums for Tame Impala, the band thought it was over. However, they reformed and put out a solid EP in 2009 titled Ragdoll. The lead single “Cup Of Coffee” starts off paying homage to Dylan with the line “One more cup of coffee before I go”.
01:40 The White Stripes covered at least three songs on their debut LP, including the Bob Dylan Desire-era ballad. The others being old blues songs from Son House and Robert Johnson and a rendition of the traditional folk song “St. James Infirmary Blues”; a track which Dylan also covered. “One More Cup Of Coffee” followed the Smugglers.
02:10 Coming up next is a trip down percolator lane. A trip that starts out light and poppy and climaxes with some real heavy psychedelic stuff; as most trips go. Starting things off is a cut from the debut record of Montreal, Quebec group Rock ‘N’ Roll Television. Here comes a bright, up-tempo discharge of television jonesing from the band titled “Coffee At Least”.
Intermission
| 13 | “Java” | Al Hirt | Honey In The Horn | 1963 |
Set 3: In The Mud
| 14 | “Coffee At Least” | Rock ‘N’ Roll Television | Rock ‘N’ Roll Television | 2008 |
| 15 | “Coffee Monkey” | The Bottle Rockets | Leftovers | 1998 |
| 16 | ”Coffee With My Friends” | Candy Hearts | All The Ways You Let Me Down | 2014 |
| 17 | ”Coffee Cup” | The Wildflower | A Pot Of Flowers – Compilation | 1967 |
| 18 | “Coffee” | Psychedelic Porn Crumpets | High Visceral, Pt. 2 | 2017 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 Alright, pull your head out of the clouds now. We’re back on Earth. That sure was fun though. Another amazing Aussie group contributed to the set with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets doing “Coffee”. The song comes from the part two of their High Visceral releases. I wonder what Billie Joe Armstrong thinks of this band name?
00:40 The Wildflower, from A Pot Of Flowers, smoothed things out a bit after the Candy Hearts treat. Almost like a sip of warm coffee after a snowy breath. The Wildflower never released a proper album of their own, though they did compile all of their tracks for a release in 2008. The few songs they contributed to this comp, though, fit right in with the titular nature of the album and the whole San Fran peace-love-dope thing. We heard “Coffee Cup”.
01:10 As stated earlier, Candy Hearts represent their band name well in this set, bringing a light, poppy rock sound to what can usually be an intense set of songs around here. The New Jersey band put out two albums before reforming and renaming themselves Best Ex and going full-on pop. That was “Coffee With My Friends” from the group’s final album All The Ways You Let Me Down.
01:40 St. Louis, Missouri band The Bottle Rockets could easily be lumped into the 90s alt-country craze that took place, led by groups like Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and the rest of the similar acts. But these guys seem to be a bit more raw, grittier, maybe even cowpunk-esque? From the Leftovers album, a literal collection of randos, that was “Coffee Monkey”.
02:10 Sometimes coffee is instant, sometimes coffee is black. Sometimes we just need to get back on the punkwagon. Up next is the seminal song from hardcore-turned-sludgepunk act Black Flag. After guitarist Greg Ginn took up a more heavy cannabis habit, things slowed down and Black Sabbath was channeled. The result spawned even more new groups looking to mimic this weird new slowed down punk thing. Here’s Black Flag doing “Black Coffee”.
Intermission
| 19 | ”Black Coffee” | Oscar Peterson | In A Romantic Mood | 1956 |
Set 4: On Legal Speed, The American Way
| 20 | ”Black Coffee” | Black Flag | Slip It In | 1984 | |
| 21 | “Black Coffee Blues” | The Ringo Jets | The Ringo Jets | 2013 | |
| 22 | ”Coffee Mug” | Descendents | Everything Sucks | 1996 | |
| 23 | ”Mr. Coffee” | Lagwagon | Duh | 1992 | |
| 24 | ”Instant Coffee” | Bugs | Growing Up | 2020 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 What’s worse, instant coffee or bugs in your coffee? Bugs, obviously, you coffee snob. These Bugs, though, won’t bother you. Unless you really hate pop punk or Australian people. Brisbane group Bugs channel the late 90s/early 2000s pop punk sound while adding in new elements and lyrical relevance to the new world we live in. Of course, there are plenty of love songs though. That was “Instant Coffee” from Growing Up.
00:40 The artwork for today’s episode quotes Lagwagon’s “Mr. Coffee” from their 1992 debut Duh. Before they thought up such an eloquent band name, they were called Section VIII. Their demo tape made it to Fat Mike of NOFX/Fat Wreck Chords, who then decided to record them. A name change was in order, though. Singing “on legal speed, the American way”, that was Joey Cape and Lagwagon.
01:10 It was brief, but we got a hit of the most well known caffeine addict in the punk rock kingdom. That would be Milo Aukerman, singer of the Descendents. With many of his lyrics pointing toward his caffeine addiction and away from drugs or alcohol, Milo has championed the java jingle since the early days of the group in 1980. We heard “Coffee Mug” from 1994’s Everything Sucks.
01:40 Its not often we get Turkish rock and roll around here, so when we do I want to celebrate it. The Ringo Jets are one of the few, well-known garage rock groups in Turkey and dig up blues vibes along with their loud-fast energy. They covered Slim Harpo on their debut album, which closed out with “Black Coffee Blues”.
02:10 Londoners Margot are up next with a standalone single from 2018. “Coffee Stained Scars” was released before their debut EP Margotzeko and has yet to be placed on a physical medium. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t play it. Here’s Margot sharing their love for BLTs.
Intermission
| 25 | ”Instant Coffee” | The Jokers | Manha De Carnaval / Instant Coffee – 7″ Single | 1965 |
Set 5: Java Knife Party
| 26 | ”Coffee Stained Scars” | Margot | Coffee Stained Scars – Single | 2018 | |
| 27 | “Jave Jive” | The Platters | Java Jive / Row The Boat Ashore – 7″ Single | 1964 | |
| 28 | ”Sugar In My Coffee” | Deuces Wild | Johnny Rider | 1992 | |
| 29 | ”Knife In The Coffee” | Car Seat Headrest | Nervous Young Man | 2013 | |
| 30 | ”Coffee Girl” | Skunk Monkey | Ego Deaf | 2020 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 Straight outta College Station, Texas and released on Valentine’s Day 2020, that was Skunk Monkey doing “Coffee Girl”. The band’s sophomore release Ego Deaf was led by the single “Cherry Girl” and includes a second coffee song – “Americano”. I liked this one more, though.
00:40 Will Toledo formed Car Seat Headrest as a solo project and released 12, yes 12 albums on Bandcamp before signing to Matador Records. This guy works. The final self-released album Nervous Young Man includes the finale “Knife In The Coffee”, a garage rock epic; how rare!
01:10 The 80s brought a resurgence of rockabilly thanks to the Stray Cats. Deuces Wild were fellow Brits in hope of achieving slicked back stardom. They released two LPs and one EP between 1989 and 1991 before dissolving. From the 2nd LP, Johnny Rider, we heard “Sugar In My Coffee”.
01:40 I couldn’t really find a punk cover of “Java Jive”, but it is absolutely necessary in a coffee show. Bob Dylan plays the original version from the Ink Spots on his coffee episode of Theme Time Radio Hour, but if I’m gonna do a punk and garage rock show about coffee I have to keep the tempo up! The Platters did a groovy version of the song in the mid 50s and included it on their Encore Of Golden Hits, perhaps being the most up-tempo version of a slow song about coffee.
02:10 Things get real weird with the next track. Its new wave-y, its punk-y, it sure is lyrically…interesting. With an ode to one of the best sensations that can come along with drinking hot liquid, dunking, we’ve got The Deep Freeze Mice. From their 1981 debut LP Teenage Head In My Refrigerator, this is “I Like Digestive Biscuits In My Coffee”. For those non-Europeans like myself, the name doesn’t necessarily imply the reaction when it comes to these cookies. Oh, and there’s a long intro so just stay tuned…
Intermission
| 31 | ”Coffee & Smoke” | Kazam | Coffee & Smoke | 2018 |
Set 6: Cream Or Sugar…Or Biscuit?
| 32 | ”I Like Digestive Biscuits In My Coffee” | The Deep Freeze Mice | Teenage Head In My Refrigerator | 1981 | |
| 33 | ”Fast Coffee” | Meggie Brown | Journey Of Goodbye | 2020 | |
| 34 | ”Station Coffee” | Jonathan Fire Eater | Wolf Songs For Lambs | 1997 | |
| 35 | ”A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop” | Neil Young + The Promise Of The Real | The Monsanto Years | 2015 | |
| 36 | ”The Coffee Song’” | Freedom’s Children | The Coffee Song / Satisfaction – 7″ Single | 1967 |
00:10 (music fades low for voice-over)
00:15 That is how Cream should have recorded “The Coffee Song”. The South African group Fleadom’s Children took a song not included on US versions of Fresh Cream and gave it a heavier, psyched out sound. The group would change their name to Freedom’s Children after releasing the “Coffee” single, apparently for political reasons.
00:40 Speaking of politics, Neil Young practically made a name for himself writing about his political beliefs and causes. Neil has been a vocal opponent of all things unequal since his days with Buffalo Springfield. From his album with The Promise Of The Real, The Monsanto Years, Neil tackles corporations with “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop”. Without naming them, who do you think he was talking about?
01:10 Jonathan Fire*Eater was the origination of half of the members of The Walkmen. They released two albums and an EP before calling it quits in 1998. Many claim them to be largely influential on the NYC post-punk revival sound that would spawn acts like The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more. From their second and final album, Wolf Songs For Lamb People, that was “Station Coffee”.
01:40 Although Meggie Brown isn’t a largely known name even in her hometown of London, she still managed to land an opening spot for The Hold Steady in 2020. That is, before the pandemic ruined live music. Her debut single was produced by Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos at Edwyn Collins’ studio, which is a fantastic starting point! We heard “Fast Coffee” from the Journey Of Goodbye EP.
02:10 Well mudheads, that brings us to the end of this episode. If you’ve been sipping your coffee while listening along, you may need to head to the bathroom right about now. Maybe not, I don’t judge. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!
02:15 (music plays and fades out)
Outro
| 37 | ”Italian Coffee” | Fabrizio Fornaci | The Surfaces Vol. 2 | 2016 |
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