SONG OF THE DAY: "Pray For Rain" by The Ergs!

The Ergs! were a pop/punk band in the vein of Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Chixdiggit!, and a million other bands that sound like these guys. They played fast, snotty, poppy punk songs mainly about girls and being young. If that sounds like nothing new, well, you'd be right. But sometimes you don't need to do anything especially new, you just have to take a classic sound and do it really well.

That's what The Ergs! did. They were one of a long line of great punk bands coming from New Jersey, the same scene that has produced bands like The Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, The Misfits, Saves the Day, Streetlight Manifesto, The Gaslight Anthem, and many, many others. During their short, eight-year run, The Ergs! released two classic albums and a whole bunch of EPs, splits, and singles. Their debut album, dorkrockcorkrod, came out in 2004 and instantly made a huge impact on the scene.

But lead singer/drummer Mikey Erg had different plans for the band. He had long expressed a desire to be more than just a simple pop/punk band, and they proved it with their second and final real album, 2007's Upstairs/Downstairs. A lot of the same short, fast punk was still on the album, but there were also touches of other things. They dropped a random country song with "Stinking of Whiskey Blues," and "Books About Miles Davis" sounds like an old soul song played by a pop/punk band, which is kind of what it actually is.

Some people think the band got a little experimental on Upstairs/Downstairs or felt that the album that followed would have been the one where all the experimenting came together in a much more logical way. But, the band broke up a year later, so we'll never know. Most fans prefer dorkrockcorkrod or the half-album Jersey's Best Prancers that came between the two. "Pray For Rain" is one of those perfect pop/punk songs that you can listen to endlessly and never get sick of. As such, it's become something of a signature song for The Ergs!, and it's easy to see why. It's a love song about a hopeless guy who can't figure out a way to get the girl to return his love. It's fast, ultra-catchy, self-deprecating, and simple. And sometimes, that's all you need to make a great song. It even ends with a clip of Henry Rollins being cynical and angry, as usual. Check it out!