Sugar Fight

(Substack’s embedding of my usual Soundcloud distribution is broken. You can listen to it in the player above, or at https://on.soundcloud.com/adxQM)

I’ve known Mark Lerner for something like 30 years. I was in one of his many bands, and played drums on one of his many records. He’s also a graphic designer. He used to operate a letterpress, and he designed and printed the invitations for my wedding to Katherine McVety. He and his wife, Nancy Howell, make beautiful and witty music videos together. They have 2 basset hounds, named Marge and Mrs Miller.

One of his current projects is a band called Sugar Fight, which serves as an outlet for his love of power pop music—”Rootless cheese with zero punk cred.” It’s a kind of Hudson Valley super group, featuring production and guitar from Chris Maxwell, drums from Lukas Lerner, and vocals from Nancy, Syd Straw, Frank McGinniss, Peter Naddeo, Frank Bango, and Mark himself. Their current project is an EP that’s slowly revealing its contents over the summer and autumn of 2023, Princess Telephone. I had the pleasure of being the mix engineer on one of the songs for that project, but that song hasn’t yet been unleashed, so you’ll just have to wait for it, like me.

I love Sugar Fight. And a couple of weeks ago the idea came to me, unlooked-for and vivid, to write the “signature self-titled ballad” for Sugar Fight, or, rather, for an idealized, imaginary, 1979 power pop band called Sugar Fight. The chorus, with the melody for the repeated “Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight”, was just given to me, and all I had to do was figure out how to build the rest of the song around it. Play it loud, like I did!

LISTEN TO SUGAR FIGHT

It was my birthday I was 17
My mom gave me a guitar
I met Samantha at the Dairy Queen
My dad let me take the car
Samantha talked us into the bar

A passageway
The air was gray
A band was starting to play

I asked around and they were Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
And every eye was on the stage
I heard 'em say that they were Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
They were so beautiful and strange
And in that moment I was changed

Their hair was long and they were dressed in white
And both guitarists could sing
The shirts were flowing and the pants were tight
And they just gave everything
They made my heart pound and my ears ring

And in the back
The Marshall stack
Was glowing golden and black

It was the first time I saw Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
No I had never heard their name
I'd never seen a thing like Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
I knew I'd never be the same
It led me to what I became

Thank you for coming, we are Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
You are the best crowd we've seen yet
We'll see you next time, we are Sugar Fight, Sugar Fight
Please buy a t-shirt and cassette
We're coming back, don't you forget