The music I write about in this space tends to be from my days as a student, toiling happily at the college radio station in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This is partially because I want to stick to posting music that’s out of print, and the songs in my possession that fit that criteria are largely from this era. But it’s also because this is the music that sticks with me the most, the music that has stories associated with it, the music that leaves the strongest impression and has the strongest associations. The songs are the anthems of my youth, containing the lyrics that my friends and I quoted with the zealous conviction usually reserved for door-to-door proselytizers brandishing the doctrinal tome of their choice.

Looking back, it can feel like we existing in an alternate universe where all the candy corn pop songs were relegated to the fringes (well, almost all of them; we all have our secret shame) and bands like Too Much Joy were as big as U2 and R.E.M. There’s also this vast range of artists that had their stretch flirting with the upper reaches of our playlists that didn’t achieve the same sort of iconic status that would cause us to still swap their songs to this day, but were briefly big enough that it feels a little odd to have them seemingly be completely forgotten now.

One of those bands is The Judybats. I don’t know that any member of the crew I ran with would have ever considered the band among their most cherished favorites, but they certainly received significant play on the radio station, and I saw their first album, Native Son in more than one collection back then. Their CDs weren’t the first you grabbed off the shelf when pulling music for a show, but the band was a reliable standby, especially if you opted for one of the “hit” singles.

Not every band needs to be groundbreaking, not every album needs to be Nevermind or In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, something that, for better or for worse, shifts the whole landscape. There is, or should be, room for those bands that simply create first-rate pop songs, brisk diversions that inspire helpless singing along. Sometimes it seems that the tastemakers whose favorite music winds up getting more exposure on the left side of the radio dial are so devoted to making sure the spectacular achievements are duly noted and celebrated that they don’t do a good enough job preserving these sort of tender gems. I wonder how many bands like The Judybats are at risk of eventually being lost for good.

The Judybats, “Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow”

(Disclaimer: While the Judybats’ fine debut seems to be available, it appears that the rest of their catalog, including the song that can be retrieved by clicking on the hyperlink above, is out of print. Therefore, I don’t believe you can obtain the aforementioned song through any simple means that will provide compensation to the band or the songwriters. It is with that understanding that the song is featured here today. If anyone with due authority to do so requests the removal of the song, I will gladly comply.)