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120 REASONS TO LIVE

120 Reasons To Live: School Of Fish

Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.

#99: School Of Fish “Three Strange Days”

Don’t press play yet—that’s not the real video for “Three Strange Days.” The real one is not only non-embeddable, it also comes packaged with a commercial for an Ashley Judd movie. Hope your back catalog rots, EMI. Anyway, click play to listen, then quickly open another browser tab and get to work on your NCAA bracketology. Depending on how close you pay attention, you’ll either hear a pretty dopey song about an acid trip or a marvel of ’90s guitar-rock production, which elevates the main riff to listworthy greatness. “Three Strange Days” came from School Of Fish’s 1991 self-titled debut; the band got one more release in with Capitol Records before calling it quits in 1994. No reunions here—singer Josh Clayton-Felt died of testicular cancer in 2000. He was only 32.

2 replies on “120 Reasons To Live: School Of Fish”

I recognized School of Fish from the photo embedded in the weekly email blast. Whether that’s sad or a triumph is up for debate. What isn’t debatable is how great their first album was when released. I still remember Dave Kendall introducing it on 120 Minutes in between Fishbone and Chapterhouse. I played the heck out of the CD and added the track to multiple mix tapes. A great moment in time.

Thanks for highlighting the song!

Saw them in Denver while they were touring for this first album and for their encore they played a cover of George Michael’s “Father Figure.” The best covers to me are those that you know you know, but you’re not sure why. And then the chorus rolls around and you say, “Oh wow! Yeah, I know this song.” (M Ward’s cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” or Bobby Bare Jr’s cover of the Smith’s “What Difference Does It Make” comes to mind as good examples. Echo and the Bunnymen’s cover of People Are Strange by the Doors is the exact opposite–every time I hear it I wonder “is this the Doors or not?”) Their cover was fun, funny, and they made it their own, without the sardonic posturing it could have had. While I never realy wonder “What happened to School of Fish?” it was nice to be reminded of them today.

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