A majority of the rock ‘n’ roll that has been created in the past decade seems to deal almost exclusively with anger, let-down or depression. This was especially true in the early to mid-90s when bands like Nirvana were all that could be found in a young person’s CD player. To be anyone in the rock scene these days, you’ve got to be edgy. Tripping Daisy, a few guys playing music in Dallas, defied that trend, and it paid off. From the start, Tripping Daisy’s music was upbeat, sincere, and fun. As they continued to create together, the overall enjoyment they received in living shone through their music even more vividly. Not that these guys had perfect lives, not that they ignored the depressing days and the worries of the world. They were just positive about it. They believed in something about life that needed to be shared, that wasn’t being remembered with Kurt Cobain listeners. That life with all its ups and downs, sour spots and jubilees, can still be a whole lot of fun.

This band came into my life in 1997, on the rise to their musical peak of creativity, and close to their end which would come in 1999. Until this time, I had very little interest in music. I spent virtually no money on records and listened exclusively to the radio-edited Gangsta rap and R&B on Little Rock’s KIPR. I was introduced to Tripping Daisy by my music trendy boyfriend, and my musical tastes were forever changed. My friends were all in a band and wanted me to sing for them. I was given a copy of Tripping Daisy’s second LP i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER with the assignment to go home and memorize the whole thing. At first I found it a little too happy for my taste, but since these guys were practically nothing more than a Tripping Daisy cover band, I had to learn the songs.

Within months this music became the soundtrack of my life. I suddenly found it related to every part of me. I started buying the albums and listening to them nonstop. I had Tripping Daisy when I was sad, Tripping Daisy when I was angry, and Tripping Daisy when I was cheerful. When my dad refused to allow me to see them live in Little Rock one spring, I copied down the words to one of theirs songs that began, “Today is just a day like any other day. You can’t do this, you can’t do that, why don’t you give it up, my son?” (“Miles and Miles of Pain”) (1) from the Bill album and considered slipping them underneath his door to articulate my feelings about the matter. Lines like, “Don’t you know that life, it can take some time to get it real” (“Pillar”) (2) became my teenage anthems.

Tripping Daisy formed in late 1991 in Dallas, Texas.(3) A couple of the guys knew each other as fellow music majors at the University. The band was originally comprised of the four basic rock elements: Tim DeLaughter, vocals; Wes Berggren, guitar; Mark Pirro, bass; and Jeff Bouck, percussion, soon to be replaced with Bryan Wakeland.(4) They were an immediate hit. “We were huge in three weeks,” DeLaughter said in a 1998 interview with the FW Weekly.(5) They had fans all over Dallas and gigs at the coolest clubs in Deep Ellum. Their popularity was widely due to Dallas’s modern rock station KDGE. After they released their first album Bill on Dragon Street Records, the station placed several cuts in heavy rotation. The album was a huge local success. “One Through Four” and “Lost and Found” were listed among KDGE’s most requested songs of 1992. According to Billboard, this album was listed as a top seller in music stores all over Dallas such as Hastings, Camelot, and Sound Warehouse.(6) All this was happening during the same time that Dallas was getting a lot attention as a budding music scene, and record companies were on the lookout for the next big stars. Tripping Daisy attracted quite a lot of interest from various labels, and they chose to go with Island Records.(7) This was an incredible break for them. They re-released Bill in 1993, with one small change—“Green Tambourine”, the second to last track on the album was left off. Not because it was a bad song; it is in fact a very endearing song. The band chose to leave it off as a little treat for their original fans, something only those who’d gotten into them from the start (and crazed fans like myself who would later purchase the Dragon Street release for over $40 bucks on eBay) would share. This album is a much loved favorite for Tripping Daisy fans. It is ten (to eleven) tracks of energetic, guitar driven rock with odd lyrics and catchy hooks, and one hidden track of fairytale-like monologue. From the beginning Tripping Daisy radiated an image of hopeful carelessness about life. With the exception of a few more sorrowful tracks like “Miles and Miles of Pain” and “Triangle”, an infuriated depiction of television health-and-wealth preachers, the overall emotion is fun.

The fun was most evident in their live show. Get It On was released a year after Island’s release of Bill.(8) This is a five track live EP—four originals and a Bad Religion cover. This album reveals a distinct Jane’s Addiction influence. And like Jane’s Addiction, these guys rocked hard live, playing with everything they had inside. There are places on this album where you can hear the breathlessness in DeLaughter’s voice. I saw them live once, though I never saw “a live show.” My parents made a rule about two days before the band came to Little Rock on tour that I could not go to live shows until I was eighteen. So the day they played Little Rock I left school, drove to Pleasant Valley to meet my band mates, and we made our appearance at Vino’s Pizza Pub and Brewery around five in the afternoon. The band was just arriving and about to start sound check. Since the guys in my band had a small acquaintance with Tripping Daisy, having opened for them once, we were allowed in the back room while they checked their equipment. All I was able to catch was an hour or so of rehearsal, but even in a sound check I felt the energy of Tripping Daisy. I sat at a table right in front of the stage and sang along like they were performing for me alone. I left before the show started so I could tell my parents with clear conscience that I didn’t go see Tripping Daisy “perform.”

The insane Tripping Daisy live show, along with a radio hit off their second full length album, was what made Tripping Daisy popular. They toured for six and a half years after their second album, i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER, and their performance was very popular. They often started the set with a b-side called “Creature” featuring a tremolo and DeLaughter coming out on stage dressed like Liberace and playing a pipe.(9) As the lyrics came in, the garb came off and the action began. By far though, the one thing that brought their name into the mainstream was their hit single “i Got a Girl.” I had this song on a mix-tape long before I knew the word "mix-tape" or the name Tripping Daisy. It’s a quirky little song about a girl, DeLaughter’s common law wife Julie Doyle.(10) Each line is something unique about his high school sweetheart; he sings “I got a girl who wears cool shoes,” and it has been confirmed that Doyle does indeed wear cool shoes. It was an extremely radio friendly song—and the band’s least favorite. Regardless of the fact that this song is, in the opinion of many including myself, their worst song, this song brought vast Tripping Daisy awareness, and the album sold 300,000 copies.(11)

i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER has a much grungier sound to it than Bill. The songs are pure rock and pure fun, with a few thoughtful lines weaving through the songs, such as “Laugh at what you did today, it’s all been done before” (“mOtivATion”) and “You can’t deny all the people who love you, you can’t deny when their love is dead” (“Same DREss neW dAy”).(12) Only “Prick” appears absolutely bleak, being nine and half minutes of several different movements and lyrics about addiction. The emotions are intense in this song, especially as it rises out of a self-controlled melody into the raging “If I had the strength of ten men, I’d pull your arms out and stick them on your head in pieces!!!”(13) The incredible thing about Tripping Daisy lyrics is that none of them were formally written. “We do a lot of improvising, and most of our songwriting is done on stage… The music comes first, then I just start singing off the top of my head,” (14) DeLaughter explained to Billboard journalist Carrie Borzillo. The only offstage writing they did was some lyric reworking of stuff already composed on stage. (15) Besides that, these ingenious lyrics were spontaneous creations off the top of Tim DeLaughter’s brain.

These guys were on their way to becoming huge, but it wasn’t just their musical talent that endeared them to their listeners. This band truly liked their fans. Each album had something fun and exciting to go along with it. First it was the special “Green Tambourine” left off the Island Record’s release of Bill, and the hidden track at the end. When ELASTIC FIRECRACKER came out, owners immediately found a book of stamps inside, based off the mail artwork of Guglielmo Achille Cavelleni.(16) Later, when curious listeners started tinkering around with their jewel case, one would find the previously unreleased lyrics to Bill underneath the disc holder in the case. On a later EP, Time Capsule, a seriously intrepid listener would find a hidden track at the beginning of the album approximately ten minutes before the first song. Each album carried one surprise after another. It’s also worth mentioning that they were nice guys, too. They never seemed to let rock-stardom get to their egos. I once read on a message board a story of how a girl asked DeLaughter for his autograph. He took her Styrofoam drinking cup and signed it “Love, Tim” with a little heart and an arrow through it. At one show we gave DeLaughter our band’s sticker, and he put it on an amp. They remembered small local bands when touring and requested them as support bands. They remembered people’s names.

With ELASTIC FIRECRACKER they spent six and a half years touring.(17) During these years, Bryan Wakeland left the band and was replaced by Mitch Marine of Brave Combo and several other well-known projects. They toured with Def Leopard on a fifty-seven city tour. But with all of this arduous touring, dynamic within the band started to falter. Once they came home, the band decided to take a year off. (18) Marine left the band—or perhaps was kicked out—for what they once referred to as "artistic differences." “Our old drummer… it just wasn’t working out,”(19) Wes Berggren, guitar, explained, without saying much else. Marine got a gig with Smash Mouth and became their hired drummer, (20) while the rest of the guys spent this year sorting out their personal lives. The year off spoiled the band’s motivation to keep playing; they nearly broke up. “We were almost finished as a band,” DeLaughter told the FW Weekly. “We were on the road for six and a half years, constantly grinding, and before we knew it we were tapped. But some forces stronger than us were saying, ‘No, it can’t happen. Cope.’ We took time off, regrouped and it made all the difference in the world.”(21) Phil Karnats joined the band adding another guitar, and a friend of his came in to play drums, but didn’t last long. Then UFOFU broke up, a local Dallas trio and good friends of Tripping Daisy. Tripping Daisy asked Ben Curtis, UFOFU’s 19 year old drummer, to play with them, and he accepted.(22) With these new band members, the drive returned. They went back to the studio and recorded their most creative record ever, Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb, named after an old gospel song; this was now three years after ELASTIC FIRECRACKER. This was their favorite album. “It’s a helluva lot better,”(23) Berggren said, referring to its superiority over ELASTIC FIRECRACKER, with which they were much less pleased.

I remember how excited they were about this one. When I went to “see” them, DeLaughter in particular was excited about the new album. “Have you heard it on the radio yet?” he asked us excitedly. We had to say no, and his face fell. Fans may have recognized that this was their most mature and “definitive”(24) album yet, but it wasn’t making airwaves. People did not want to accept their progression from catchy guitar-driven rock to a more thought-out unpredictable pop.

This album, more than the others, explores their potential. No longer were they a simple four piece band. They experimented with curious synth parts, played with more effects and harmonies, and the product was a very unique, somewhat Beach Boys-like sound. Curtis on drums added a new uplifting groove, and Karnats on the guitar filled out the areas that once lacked. This album was a much sunnier album lyrically than the others. It is full of warm lines like “I can get lost in just living” and “Now it’s time to fill up all the cracks in me, no stopping” (“Field Day Jitters”) and “I loved the days when we were younger then and rainbows caught us” (“Geeareohdoubleyou”).(25) This album can be summed up by one line in the fourth song: “It sure is fun to sing about life” (“Bandaids™ for Hire”).(26) The music here is much more self-aware and developed. “I hate saying that we have matured as a band, but I don’t know any other way to explain it,”(27) DeLaughter commented.

Unfortunately this album never got any recognition. It never got the airplay or publicity they expected from such a great piece of work. Island dropped them a month after it was released when the label was bought out and merged with Universal and PolyGram Records.(28) It was virtually unheard of to anyone other than their faithful fans. This did not stop them though. DeLaughter opened a record store outside of Deep Ellum called Good Records, and the band formed their own label, Good Records. They collaborated with Dallas band Centro-Matic for a split EP on 7” and began working on their next album. They put out a recording of an improvised practice session titled The Tops Off Our Head under their new label. They began recording for their next LP.

No one could’ve expected it to end the way it did. Near the very end of their recording time, the band, as well as the listeners, received a devastating shock. On the morning of October 28, 1999, Berggren, the 28 year old guitarist and one of the founding members of Tripping Daisy, was found dead by his partner. Toxicology tests showed he died of an accidental cocaine overdose.(29) His death was completely unexpected. “This is the last thing that anyone expected. Wes was the sort of guy things always worked out for,”(30) Curtis told interviewers after Berggren’s death. “He was truly an amazing individual, in all senses of the word, amazing,”(31) DeLaughter commented later. Dragon Street Records owner David Dennard told interviewers, “He was a really normal, levelheaded guy who never got pushed out of shape—even under a lot of trying and tense circumstances.”(32)

The band unanimously decided to close the doors to Tripping Daisy after Berggren’s death. Playing without him didn’t seem right. They decided they would release their new album, however, a few months late. They were almost finished recording the song “Soothing Jubilee” when Berggren died; they put it on the album anyway with Berggren’s father laying down the rest of the guitar tracks for him. The first cut of the album, “Community Mantra”, was completed just a few weeks before the accident, making it the last full song they recorded with their friend and guitar player. (33)

This final album Tripping Daisy was the most thoughtful and introspective album of all. It was very personal, with songs like “Stella is a Planet”, sung about DeLaughter’s daughter, and a version of “One Through Four”, their first big hit. It also seemed strangely prophetic as the opening line in the final track states “It’s all in good time said the man who would soon leave his wife”(“The Sudden Shift That Worried Him”).(34) It’s softer than other albums and beautiful. Each song is uplifting, even the sadder songs like “Drama Day Weekend”. They all encompass at least a glimmer of hope, if not complete sanguinity. If Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb was their most creative album, this would be their most moving.

After the band’s break up, little was heard from the remaining members. Karnats and Curtis formed a band called When Babies Eat Pennies,(35) and little was heard out of Pirro or DeLaughter. Two years later DeLaughter formed The Polyphonic Spree, a 25-piece group with a full chorus and orchestra, with Pirro on bass, and Bryan Wakeland on drums, This new band instantly became a UK favorite and an internationally touring outfit. Curtis moved to New York with his brother, also formerly of UFOFU, and started The Secret Machines with Josh Garza of Comet and Captain Audio.(36)

Though Tripping Daisy's end was tragic and unexpected, it in some ways reinforced their message from the beginning. “Don’t you know that life, it can take some time to get it real.” The loss of a great friend and a great band was devastating. They didn’t deny that. Getting past that was difficult. Still as DeLaughter put it, “You can persevere- this is life: life is fragile, and it has changes, twists, it has turns, and we apply ourselves to these situations; if there’s a bump in the road, we go around it, or if we want to experience it, then—what the hell—we go for it, and we bump! I slowly but surely started coming out of this thing with the help of my family and my friends and the people that cared about me—they offered me this incentive.”(37) The music backs him up. “I know because you are here and we live by the sun” (“Geeareohdoubleyou”).(38) Each of their lives continued, and they continue to make the most of it. They’ve left behind inspiring music, and an inspiring message, that it does one good to get “lost in just living.”

Notes

1. Bill liner notes.

2. Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb liner notes.

3. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

4. Time Capsule liner notes.

5. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

6. Carrie Borzillo, “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island,” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

7. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

8. Carrie Borzillo, “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island,” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

9. Time Capsule liner notes.

10. Eric Boehlert, “The modern age,” Billboard, 29 July 1995, 115.

11. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

12. i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER liner notes.

13. i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER liner notes.

14. Carrie Borzillo, “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island,” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

15. Carrie Borzillo, “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island,” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

16. Carrie Borzillo, “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island,” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

17. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

18. Joshua Ostroff, “Daisy tripping over their new sound.” Ottawa Sun. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsT/ tripping_daisy.html; [INTERNET].

19. Joshua Ostroff, “Daisy tripping over their new sound.” Ottawa Sun. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsT/ tripping_daisy.html; [INTERNET].

20. Mitch Marine, “Mitch Marine Official Web Site.” [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://mitchmarine.com/biography.html; [INTERNET].

21. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

22. Joshua Ostroff, “Daisy tripping over their new sound.” Ottawa Sun. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsT/ tripping_daisy.html; [INTERNET].

23. Joshua Ostroff, “Daisy tripping over their new sound.” Ottawa Sun. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsT/ tripping_daisy.html; [INTERNET].

24. Joshua Ostroff, “Daisy tripping over their new sound.” Ottawa Sun. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsT/ tripping_daisy.html; [INTERNET].

25. Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb liner notes.

26. Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb liner notes.

27. Michael Powell, “Ground zero,” FW Weekly, 6 July 1998. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/fw_music.html; [INTERNET].

28. Thor Christensen, “Tripping Daisy musician dies in Dallas home.” The Dallas Morning News, [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://elvispelvis.com/ wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

29. Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner, “Tripping Daisy’s Guitarist Found Dead in Texas.” CD Now. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://elvispelvis.com/
wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

30. Thor Christensen, “Tripping Daisy musician dies in Dallas home.” The Dallas Morning News, [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://elvispelvis.com/ wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

31. Toby L, “The Polyphonic Spree.” RockFeedBack.com. 2002 [cited 1 December 2003]. Available from http://www.rockfeedback.com/thepolyphonicspree_interview.htm; [INTERNET].

32. Thor Christensen, “Tripping Daisy musician dies in Dallas home.” The Dallas Morning News, [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://elvispelvis.com/ wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

33. Tripping Daisy liner notes.

34. Tripping Daisy liner notes.

35. “Comet sighting; Clumsy in Motown; Grand Street redubbed; Bar of Soap brings in road grime.” Dallas Observer, 16 March 2000. [cited 4 December 2003]. Available from http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2000-03-16/sceneheard.html; [INTERNET].

36. Womack, Andrew. “The Secret Machines.” The Morning News, 24 May 2002. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/the_secret_machines_PRINT.php; [INTERNET].

37. Toby L, “The Polyphonic Spree.” RockFeedBack.com. 2002 [cited 1 December 2003]. Available from http://www.rockfeedback.com/thepolyphonicspree_interview.htm; [INTERNET].

38. Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb liner notes.

Bibliography

Boehlert, Eric. “The modern age.” Billboard, 29 July 1995, 115.

Borzillo, Carrie. “Tripping Daisy blooms at Island.” Billboard, 9 September 1995, 1+.

Christensen, Thor. “Tripping Daisy musician dies in Dallas home.” The Dallas Morning
News, [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from
http://elvispelvis.com/wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

Cohen, Jane, and Grossweiner, Bob. “Tripping Daisy’s Guitarist Found Dead in Texas.”
CD Now. [cited 2 December 2003]. Available from
http://elvispelvis.com/wesberggren.htm; [INTERNET].

“Comet sighting; Clumsy in Motown; Grand Street redubbed; Bar of Soap brings in road
grime.” Dallas Observer, 16 March 2000. [cited 4 December 2003]. Available from
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2000-03-16/sceneheard.html; [INTERNET].

L, Toby. “The Polyphonic Spree.” RockFeedBack.com. 2002 [cited 1 December 2003].
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Tripping Daisy. Bill liner notes.

Tripping Daisy. i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER liner notes.

Tripping Daisy. Time Capsule liner notes.

Tripping Daisy. Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb liner notes.

Tripping Daisy. The Tops off Our Head liner notes.

Tripping Daisy. Tripping Daisy liner notes.

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[INTERNET].

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“Tripping Daisy to split.” JAM! Music, 14 December 1999. [cited 2 December 2003].
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