New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 20.10.1998
In one episode of the Israeli comedy series "My Nephew from Hell" ("HaAchiyan Sheli Bentz"), a girl shows up who upends the world of the undisputed ruler of "Bagirionit" high school, Yuli Dahan. Yuli's new nemesis is named Gaya, and she comes equipped with a winning smile, a zest for life steeped in Zen, and... a bucket hat, which is what sets her apart.
People in bucket hats are people we remember for many years after they have vanished from our lives, and it is no accident that the Californian rock band "New Radicals" is remembered for two things:
1. The joyously youthful hit, and the video with the unruly teenagers running wild in a mall, for the song "You Get What You Give".
2. The singer with the bucket hat on his head. Gregg Alexander is his name, in case you didn't know.
The debut album by "New Radicals", "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too", was released on October 20, 1998.
"New Radicals" is, first and foremost, the project of Gregg Alexander, together with the actress and singer Danielle Brisebois. He was born in May 1970 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, into a conservative family that belonged to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
At 12 he received his first guitar and taught himself to play several instruments at once. Together with his sister Caroline he played piano and composed songs.
At 14 he joined his first band, "The Circus", with his older brother and classmates. Two years later Alexander signed his first recording contract, with A&M Records.
At 19 (1989) Alexander released his debut album, which drew no response from radio stations or the public. In 1992 he signed with Epic Records and released a second solo album, made up in part of material from the first. That one, too, got Alexander nowhere.
Among the musicians who took part in the recordings was a fairly new backing singer named Danielle Brisebois. Born in June 1969 in Brooklyn, New York, Brisebois began performing as a child actress at the age of seven. In 1977 she appeared in an episode of the detective series "Kojak", and went on to appear regularly in the Broadway musical "Annie".
During the 1980s she took roles in the television series "Knots Landing", "Mr. Belvedere" and "Murder, She Wrote".
In the early 1990s she retired from acting and moved into music, where two years later she met Gregg Alexander, her future partner in "New Radicals" and in songwriting. Alexander contributed to the writing and singing on Brisebois's 1994 solo album.
Three years later Alexander founded "New Radicals", a one-man band with hired players, and in early 1998 his musical partner joined the group as it began work on the debut album.
The album is packed with songs carrying stinging, cutting messages, and its style ranges from piano numbers to acoustic songs to kicking, distortion-driven tracks.
Throughout the album Alexander takes aim at American corporations, the health insurance companies, the FDA and the big bankers, at the Christian religion (which he was steeped in at home) and at politics. He flips a metaphorical middle finger at musical artists such as Beck, Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson, who gets a decent kick in the rear from him. I'm sure there are quite a few women today who would join him in that, no doubt about it.
"New Radicals" will forever be remembered for the one-hit wonder with its positive message, "You Get What You Give", but there is no question that this album holds far more than one great song, from the opener "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough", which here and there recalls "Sympathy for the Devil" by "The Rolling Stones", to "Jehovah Made This Whole Joint for You", which tells people to be who they are and not to go looking for extreme things that don't suit their personality.
The beautiful ballad "Someday We'll Know", released as the album's second single, features Alexander singing in a hushed and at times broken voice as he asks why the relationship ended.
On "In Need of a Miracle", Alexander sings about a man who finds himself at a crossroads and desperately seeks a miracle to overcome his troubles.
Alexander, who was looking for a way to cope with his troubles and with the media's pursuit of him, decided on the eve of the release of the second single that enough was enough. He disbanded the group after a single album and has focused ever since on writing songs for other musicians.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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