Song of the Day: The Act We Act (Sugar)

This is the opening track on Sugar's "Copper Blue," their first album. The band was formed by former Husker Du singer Bob Mould in the early '90s.

This was also the second of two cover songs played by the band I was in, Soma Holiday. Note that I don't call it "my band"--I've never really felt that was mine, and it'd feel conceited to call it that. Funny thing: both Sugar and Soma Holiday broke up in 1995.

This is easily the best track on the CD, and when we were trying to come up with another song to cover, GC popped in the disc. I liked it immediately. Mould's guitars and his nasal punkish voice really work well (though the vocals are kind of buried in the mix). It's not hard to play--and that was a bonus for me, given that I had so much trouble keeping up with some of GC's ideas. I've got a quick ear for learning a song, but back in 1994 I simply didn't have the chops.

The down side was that MC didn't have the chops to sing it. We're not talking about a song with, say, Aerosmith's vocal pyrotechnics. Mould's not doing a great deal--but what he does has presence.