Right Now

Right Now
Date Aired	June 7, 2017
Running Time	15:14
Previous review	Body Like a Back Road
Next review	Something Just Like This
Website	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVE39YesHU

Todd plays "Right Now" on the piano.

SR-71 - RIGHT NOW
A one-hit wonder retrospective

Todd: Welcome back to One-Hit Wonderland where we take a look at bands and artists known for only one song. Now, I try to hit a wide amount of genres here, but for the most part that means that I cover a lot of stuff that's ancient history to me.

(Clips of "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Freak Like Me")

Todd (VO): I came to popular music relatively late in life, so a lot of the songs on here I didn't get to experience when they came out, even if I was the right age for it.

Todd: So for once, I want to cover a genre that actually meant a lot to me. Yes, today we are going to be listening to Late 90's teeny-bop mall punk!

(Clip of "Right Now", with Todd playing air-guitar)

Mitch Allan: She clings to me like cellophane

Todd (VO): Yeah, I was all into this stuff. (Clips of Blink-182- "All the Small Things" and Sum 41 - "Fat Lip") These guys ruled the late 90's and early 2000's as far as I was concerned.

Todd: And then Avril Lavigne and Simple Plan rolled out and I realized I was a huge lame-o and started listening to indie rock. (Back to "Right Now") But for a while, this was my jam. I was all about Blink-182, Sum 41, Eve 6...yeah, they all had numbers at the end of their name for some reason. And of the number bands, we're gonna look at one way down at the bottom of the pyramid.

Mitch: Why, why you always kick me when I'm high

Todd (VO): Now technically, this was not a hit on the Billboard Top 40, but I remember it being played constantly on the rock stations and on MTV. If you wanna know what the year 2000 looked like, it looked like this. Bright shiny colors, not a care in the goddamn world. This was on the "Dude, Where's My Car?" soundtrack, which, yeah, that about sums it up. It was upbeat. It was an innocent time. And yet the band behind it, SR-71, never really ranked very high in the teen punk pantheon. Not like Sum 41, Good Charlotte, The Ataris, New Found Glory, Yellowcard, or the other six billion bands filling out the Warped Tour roster. Which is sad to me because when I listen to this song now, I'm like "this is killer." It's like the perfect summation of the entire genre.

Todd: I mean, I'm not the only one who remembers this, right? (Image of a Google search reading "Sum 41 - Kick Me When I'm High") No, it wasn't by Sum 41! God.

Mitch: That bitch, it's over

You know I used to be such a nice boy

Before the hit Todd: Eh, this is the boring part, let's get this out of the way.

(Still images of the band, Mitch Allen, and a jet)

Todd (VO): This is the band. This is Mitch Allen, lead singer, lead guitarist, only consistent member. They're named after a military jet that's way more popular than they are.

Todd: They were originally known as Honor Among Thieves, and they're from Baltimore. Oh! Oh, they're from Baltimore! Okay, well no wonder they never had a second hit, because nothing good ever comes out of that stink-ridden city of garbage and puke--

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

We would like to express our most sincere apologies to the fine city of Baltimore and all its residents, and we deeply regret any distress caused by statements made on this program

Todd: --Cal Ripken never benched himself, because then he'd have nothing to do but look at that flaming toxic waste--

We would like to again offer our deepest apologies. Statements made on this program are not reflective of its producers and sponsors. Uh...go Ravens?

Todd: --wonder Poe was depressed. You'd write miserable goth poetry too if you--

Look, we just work with the guy, we don't like him. We don't even really talk to him, okay?

Todd: Well anyway, let's listen to the band

The Big Hit

(Video for "Right Now," Todd headbangs and raises the horns)

Todd (VO): OK, full disclosure: When I say things like, "Am I seriously the only one that remembers this?"

Todd: It turns out that I actually kind of don't remember this. I mean, I thought I did, but every time I tried to sing it or hum the melody, I'd get it confused with "Dammit" by Blink-182.

(Video for "Dammit")

Blink-182: So I guess this is growing up

Well I guess this is growing up

(Back to "Right Now" video)

Todd (VO): I mean, they're pretty similar songs,...

Todd: ...and what's that - what are these chords I hear? (Todd's piano is shown, along with the chords as they are played) The one, the five, the six, and then the four? (Image of the infamous "Pop Song Chords") Yup!

Todd( VO): Of course, you can't be surprised. Most pop-punk songs are written with those chords. It's a very basic genre; we're lucky we even got to a fourth chord in there.

Todd: So what is this song about exactly? Well, basically just a breakup song.

Mitch: She clings to me like cellophane

Todd (VO): About a clingy girl who treats him bad. It's, it's not very serious. It is, as they say, a silly love song.

Todd: I mean grant...well a

anti-love song but still about

04:28

girls and relationships it's a love song

04:30

[Music]

04:34

you did it all for the nookie Sonny

04:37

driving me insane at the time it was the

04:42

hobbyist punk song I'd ever heard and

04:45

pop punk of course did exist before this

04:47

but it was never this pop like even the

04:51

most teeny bopper of him blink 182 went

04:54

out of their way to play up their

04:55

snottiness and immaturity but there's

04:57

not even a whiff of rebelliousness here

04:59

the production is slick is anything the

05:01

Backstreet Boys were making it's sure

05:03

bubblegum it may as well be an ad jingle

05:05

of course now the dregs still remaining

05:08

in astronomer have caught up with sr-71

05:11

plays trail and there's basically

05:13

nothing talking about pop punk anymore

05:15

and I think that's a good indicator of

05:16

why sr-71 didn't really pick up the

05:19

following of its peers it'd be cute what

05:22

is it's catchy as hell

05:24

it's almost absurdly well-crafted for a

05:27

pop song

05:27

[Music]

05:29

[Applause]

05:30

[Music]

05:32

I mean that opening line of the chorus

05:36

we can't be bad but the lyrics

05:39

themselves don't really give you a lot

05:40

to latch on to like even the the lyrical

05:44

hook that gives you the title in super

05:46

corny

yeah that's a joke for middle-aged

05:54

secretaries and it doesn't even make

05:56

sense

05:56

she'll do right now I thought right now

06:00

it's over I think there's the problem

06:06

there's just not a whole lot of

06:07

personality to take notes it's to stick

06:09

with you

06:10

it's almost purely pop there's no weird

06:12

edges or anything

The Failed Follow Up

Todd:

Did They Ever Do Anything Else?

Todd:

Did They Deserve Better?

Todd:

Transcript in Progress