Party Down!

### *We won't let you down.*

*Party Down!* is the first studio album by *The Dropouts*, released on October 20th, 1994. The album consists of a variety of songs without much of a narrative that is common in later releases by the band, but this album was built to be more of an introduction to the band, using songs from their previous musical *Cheer Up!* as well as new original songs to fill out the album.

## Production

*Party Down!* started production in early spring 1994, 2 years after *Cheer Up!* and one year after the EP *Bad First Date.* After being picked up by producer Jeremy Hunter, the plan was to turn the rough *Bad First Date* into a fully fledged studio album. Original band members Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, Nikki Brown, Jimmy Rodriguez, and Nathan Taylor all worked together to fine tune the tracklist for the album, cutting out a lot of songs from *Cheer Up!* that were on the EP, as an effort to write new things all together that would better represent the band rather than the musical. While other songs later made it onto future albums, the only song from *Cheer Up!* to make it onto *Party Down!*  was *Brand New Hero.*

"At first I was weary about cutting all of the songs from *Cheer Up!* because of how attached I was to them, but overall it made much more sense to have original material for our first album, and we did end up using the old songs for future albums, so all in all, not that big of a loss." - Scott Wilson.

Most of the songs written for *Party Down!* were written mainly by Nick Barnett, after a meeting where they decided Nick would be the frontman of the band as he played the main character in *Cheer Up!* and had the best "on stage personality". This, along with him being the writer of most of the songs from the musical, lead to it making sense for him to be the main writer for the band. Of course, every song was passed around between every member, making sure everyone's voice was heard. Nick wrote *Troublemaker, Chemical Bomb, Sell Out,* and *I'm Cool,* Scott Wilson helped with *Dope Nose, Brand New Hero,* and *Scott's A Dork,* while the rest of the band all came together to write the songs *Party Down, The Set Up (You Need This),* and *She Has A Girlfriend Now.* However, the song *Undone - The Sweater Song* was written entirely by Nathan Taylor for a previous project that never made it off the ground.

## The Road To *Party Down!*

Leading to the release of the album, 3 singles were released, the first being the self titled song *Party Down.* The single was released on August 14th, 1994 to a good amount of success, being played on radio stations around America. An interesting fact was when the first single came out, the album still wasn't completely done, with 4 songs still not finalized for release.

The second single released was *Brand New Hero* in an effort to show the public that it was the same team that was behind *Cheer Up!.* In honor of the single, *Cheer Up!* was temporarily put back into select theaters, with the new version of the song edited in. Many fans of the musical didn't believe that the band would make it anywhere with them reusing old songs, but they did believe that it was a better version of the song than the original from the musical. *Brand New Hero* was released on September 25th, 1994.

The final single to be released was *Dope Nose*, released on October 1st, 1994. This was the only one of the singles to have a Music Video accompany it, which included Nick, Scott, Nikki, Jimmy, and Nathan all playing their instruments and singing along to the song in what looked like a still shot of a teenagers bedroom, cutting back and forth between each member alone in the room, then cutting to them all together during the chorus. The music video went viral, and *Dope Nose* quickly became one of the highest rated songs of the month, quickly building hype for the album that would be released only 19 days later. *Dope Nose* got so popular that at one point later in their career, the band had to refuse to play the song at live shows, since the fast and hard rock sound of the song was far too tiring to keep playing at every single live show when they played as often as they did, that and they were starting to get sick of it. Now that time has passed, they will happily add it to a setlist from time to time.

"I don't think any of us expected *Dope Nose* to get as big as it did, especially after 2 singles that did just ok, and apprehension from our old fanbase. Not even Jeremy was expecting much from the last single, hoping that the album would make up for it. But low and behold, it blew up. It's funny since a lot of the lyrics are just nonsense that made us laugh back in the writing room, but I guess it's what people wanted." - Nick Barnett.

## Reception

*Party Down!* was released on October 24th, 1994 to critical acclaim. The public liked the upbeat and light hearted lyrics that the album carried, as well as Ska being at it's peak as a genre at the time. Many people came for either *Dope Nose* or *Brand New Hero* and stayed for the calm and unsettling vibes of *Chemical Bomb* as well as the fun, teasing lyrics of *Scott's A Dork*. However, the album itself wasn't able to live up to the success of *Dope Nose,* leading many to label the band a "One Hit Wonder", despite the financial success of the album.

The album served as a good launching off point for the band, making a fair amount of money for them to go on their first tour.

## The Party Your House Down Tour

While the album was released to good reviews and overall positive reception, the band wasn't big enough to afford full stadium shows and instead opted for a smaller tour where they'd play house shows and small venues like bars. They named their first tour the "Party Your House Down" tour, promising to "bring your house down with the craziness of their show." And they did have quite the stage presence, even back in these days, often wanting to perform in the middle of the house with the crowd around them, partying with everyone else as they played their songs.

At the end of the tour, they opened up their shows by commission, letting people buy them for private parties and family owned restaurants. During this period they played many college parties, often getting noise complaints for playing too loud.

## Dope Nose Sickness

Due to how popular Dope Nose had gotten, it was quickly their most popular song. People were always requesting it, playing it at every single show and radio show they were on, always having to put 100% of effort into performing the song since that's what people were expecting. This lead to the band getting sick of the song, and taking it off many different setlists when performing. Many called the band a "One Hit Wonder" because of how big *Dope Nose* had gotten compared to the album, which lead to the inspiration for the band's next album *One Hit Wonderful.*

## Tracklist

1. *Party Down -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, Nikki Brown, Jimmy Rodriguez, and Nathan Taylor
2. *Troublemaker -* Written by Nick Barnett
3. *Dope Nose -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
4. *Chemical Bomb -* Written by Nick Barnett
5. *Brand New Hero -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
6. *Sell Out -* Written by Nick Barnett
7. *The Set Up (You Need This) -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, and Jimmy Rodriguez
8. *She Has A Girlfriend Now -* Written by Nick Barnett, Jimmy Rodriguez, and Nikki Brown
9. *Scott's A Dork -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
10. *Undone - The Sweater Song -* Written by Nathan Taylor
11. *I'm Cool -* Written by Nick Barnett

## Fun Facts

- The Album's cover art was made by Nikki Brown, with the idea that the sound of them rocking out would be heard all across the city, flipping it upside down which is where the upside down buildings come from on the cover. The pink and blue neon lights were inspired by 80's anime, that Nikki watched a lot of when she was younger.

- The album's name *Party Down!* was thought up as being the opposite to *Cheer Up!,* not that the subject matter of the album strays too far from the musical's, but rather just as a way to show that this was something entirely new. That's why the album ends with an "!" just like the musical's name does.

- Scott wanted there to be a song that matched the title of the album, which is where the song *Party Down* comes from. While everyone else was apprehensive about it, after writing and performing it the band liked it so much and it felt like the perfect opener.

- The song *I'm Cool* was used as the closer to the album despite being one of the slower songs on the album to try and add a small narrative according to Nick Barnett. "There isn't any easily followable story on *Party Down!,* but adding *I'm Cool* as the closer almost makes a small meta story about us doing our best to impress you, finally breaking and showing what we're really like in the last song. Just a bunch of college dropouts trying to make it big." - Nick Barnett.

- The Song *Scott's A Dork* is based on true events that Scott and Nick went through when they were younger.

- *She Has A Girlfriend Now* is based on true events that happened to Jimmy, with Nick and Nikki helping out with the lyrics since Nikki herself is lesbian, and Nick had something similar happen to him as well.

- *Chemical Bomb* is based on a dream Nick had one night after reading about how close the world had come to Nuclear War during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

- *Undone - The Sweater Song* was originally written for Nathan Taylor's old band, but the band never ended up going anywhere and only ever got one song recorded. So Nathan opted to include the song he wrote for that band as he was still very proud of it.