Bubbling Under: dada- "Dizz Knee Land"
It's Wednesday. I'm Going to Dizz Knee Land.
Welcome to Bubbling Under. In each edition, I cover a musical artist or song that charted outside Billboard’s Hot 100. This week: 90s alternative rockers dada. As usual, be sure to like, comment, or hit the subscribe button. Thank You!
While a term doesn’t exist, there is a whole subsection out there of songs some people are shocked to find out weren’t huge hits on the pop charts. Sure, they might have been massive on other charts, but the Top 40 eluded them. It’s not always a bad thing and to be honest, the Top 40 isn’t always the greatest measure of a song’s success.
“Dizz Knee Land” was a huge modern rock hit, climbing to #5. It was also a decent mainstream rock hit, peaking at #27 on that chart.
At the time, dada was a brand-new band. “Dizz Knee Land” was the lead single from their debut album Puzzle. Signing to the I.R.S. label (one-time home of R.E.M. and Concrete Blonde) probably seemed like a wise choice. Unfortunately, the 90’s hadn’t been kind to the label and they were falling on hard times.
I’m jumping ahead, though. “Dizz Knee Land” got dada noticed. They were profiled by the Los Angeles Times, in a piece that I’m going to cite heavily here.
The band dada (which used lowercase lettering), consisted of two vocalists, Michael Gurley and Joie Calio. Gurley also doubled as guitarist and Calio bassist. They were joined by Phil Leavitt on drums.
According to the 1992 Los Angeles Times profile, the idea for the song came to Calio in a dream.
Essentially, the lyrics to the song describe people having dubious things happen and celebrating by going to “Dizz Knee Land”. For example:
“I just robbed a grocery store
I'm going to Dizz Knee Land”
It was inspired by an (incredibly cheesy) ad campaign I remember seeing on TV as a child. They’d show a sports personality, for example, and when asked what they were going to do next, they’d yell out “I’m going to Disneyland!” or “I’m going to Disney World!”
I remember seeing this one starring Nancy Kerrigan on TV as a kid:
Surprisingly, the usually lawsuit-ready Walt Disney Company let this one slide. According to dada themselves, the band weren’t worried about that when they named the track. The title spelling was the result of band members playing around with a recording studio scheduling board.
In the same profile, it’s also mentioned that “Dizz Knee Land” isn’t characteristic of the band’s usual sound. Various sources on the internet also state that the band had much better songs than “Dizz Knee Land”. I’m ashamed to admit going into this post only knowing “Dizz Knee Land”.
Two of Dada’s follow-up singles “Dog” and “Dim” actually hit the UK singles chart at #71 and #92, respectively. “Dim” is a pretty decent slice of 90’s alternative rock and it sounds like something that could have been a bigger radio hit.
Their second album, 1994’s American Highway Flower contained the minor alternative hit “All I Am”.
This one is a lot different, but again it blends in well with other alternative music that was popular at the time.
I.R.S. was going through label difficulties at the time and by 1996’s El Subliminoso, the band was essentially signed to a sinking ship.
In between this, though, they popped up on the soundtrack to one of my favourite 90’s comedies The Brady Bunch Movie:
Dada wound up on MCA after I.R.S. folded. This resulted in a self-titled album in 1998. Unfortunately, MCA’s parent company was sold, and once again dada fell through the cracks. After a 1999 farewell concert in Norfolk, Virginia, the band broke up.
Dada eventually reunited in 2003 and they started performing again regularly. An album of outtakes called How To Be Found was released as a fifth album in 2004.
In between touring and releasing EP’s, Calio and Leavitt began a side project called 7Horse. Martin Scorcese used one of their songs, “Meth Lab Zoso Sticker” in The Wolf Of Wall Street.
They also toured for other artists, including Kenny Wayne Shepard, Whiskey Meyers, and in an economical move, dada themselves.
As of this year, dada are still touring.
Next Week: Bubbling Under returns with a look at Dusty Springfield’s career from the late 1970s onwards.
Thanks for the earworm and the reminder! Loved this song back in the day, and it resides in my memory next to "I'm an Adult Now" by the Pursuit of Happiness. Good times.
LOVE Dizz Knee Land and Dada! "Puzzle" was one of my favorite albums the year it came out. It's such a great collection of well-written songs. The production is solid and diverse. I also liked their follow-up, "American Highway Flower." It's too bad they got lost in the shuffle after that. Glad to know they are still touring!