In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing.
I think I first popped Gaunt’s second album into the CD player at work because I loved the title so much: I Can See Your Mom From Here. And though it isn’t my favorite Gaunt song, it was track two, “Rich Kid,” that got me hooked on the brash, ballsy Ohio punk band. It’s mostly three chords and drunken energy, with a chorus you can sing along to immediately—“Fuck the rich kid, fuck the rich kid, fuck the rich kid.” It appealed to both my youthful hatred of the upper classes and my love of no-nonsense guitar rock—a potent combination. The band would only get better with its next two records, 1995’s Yeah Me Too and 1996’s Kryptonite. The band never really broke through, despite signing to a major for 1998’s Bricks And Blackouts. (Or maybe because they signed to a major—fuck the rich kid!) Sadly, singer Jerry Wick was killed in a car accident in 2001; a couple of his bandmates went on to open a coffee shop called Yeah, Me Too, and drummer Sam Brown now plays with Britt Daniel and Dan Boeckner in Divine Fits.