365 DAYS PROJECT

2003   JANUARY 23   #023

The Utica Club Natural Carbonation Band - Utica Club Natural Carbonation Band Beer Drinking Song

A very strange thing, it appears to be a promotional record for a place called the Utica Club. According to the back of the sleeve it's a crazy place; "Waitresses slide down fireman's poles. Life sized paintings come to life. A friendly gorilla's in charge of the swings" Hmmmmmmm... The A side, written and produced by Sasha Burland, is a poppy funky singalong that occasionally flips out as the engineer leans on the delay pedal. Sounds like the bastard son of the Pearl & Dean theme song and almost clear drum breaks make this a nice uneasily catagorisable oddity. I / Kev would like to thank Rich Siegmeister from CTW for the hook up to 365 Days

- Strictly Kev (DJ, producer, graphic designer and rabid collector of all forms of 'music')

TT-1:43 / 1.59MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
from RCA Custom 7"

Al Quaglieri writes:
This 45 was part of a long-running blitz of TV ads in the brewery's upstate NY territory. The premise was that Utica Club was not only a brewery but also a swingin', slightly psychedelic night spot packed with wondrous delights (except the awful beer, of course). Each commercial's plot was roughly: two hapless, flashlight-wielding dudes are skulking around the outside of the Utica Club brewery in the middle of the night looking for the entrance to the so-hip nightclub; they never find it, although they have various run-ins with the night watchman. Then a quick cut to the incredible scene they're missing, and the implication that Utica Club beer could somehow provoke this much merriment.

Joe Hobaica writes:
I've been enjoying the daily download quite a bit, but now I have to write in. The Utica Club refers to the Utica Club Brewery in Utica, NY (where I grew up). Utica Club is quite notorious for being the cheapest 6-pack around, and as far as the taste, well, you get what you pay for. They now brew the pretty tasty Saranac beer, but Utica Club is strictly the stuff of underage soccer field drinking at midnight. As far as the record goes, it's been a while since I've heard or seen it. I remember getting a copy as a kid on a trip to the brewery, but am damned if I can remember where it is. They really went for a "Laugh-In" vibe with the gorillas and girls on poles and all that. Too bad the beer tasted like ass, bad ass.

Robert writes:
hey kev & otis! I think what you've got there is actually a promo for good old Utica club beer. They probably didn't have a night spot, sad. Alas! a marketing ploy to keep those upstate college kids away from genesee cream ale. All THEY had were those sweaty horses.

Brian Belovarac writes:
Great work on the 365 Days project! You probably know this, but Sasha (or Sascha) Burland is the former jingle-writer behind the Nutty Squirrels, among other equally odd projects. I have an early 60s comedy LP he did with radio actor Mason Adams as "The Idiots and Company" that's very Nichols & May-esque... there's also "Swingin' The Jingles" (jazz arrangements of his 1950s advertising work, with Maynard Ferguson in the band) and another collaborative comedy LP with Roger Price (the guy who invented "Mad Libs"). He really got around.


(Album cover images courtesy of Strictly Kev)