The Driving Stupid

The Driving Stupid released just one single, "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk"/"Horror Asparagus Stories," which came out on the KR label and flopped in 1966. The band eventually attracted renown way out of proportion to their accomplishments, however, when both songs were anthologized on the '60s garage rock compilation Pebbles, Vol. 3 about 15 years later. The tracks are considered to be the apogee of stupid psychedelic garage rock, with their over the top, juvenile, absurd comedy. Some listeners would subscribe to the "it's-so-stupid-it's-brilliant" school; many would find the single unbearably amateurish and dumb. But of such things reputations are made, if only cult ones. The Driving Stupid were formed on the East Coast by college students, three of them longtime friends from New Jersey. As more of a lark than a serious endeavor, in the summer of 1966 they drove from New Jersey to Hollywood in an effort to crack the big time, stopping off in Albuquerque, New Mexico to record some demos. They did manage to land a deal and record an album's worth of material in Hollywood, but the album didn't come out at the time, after the commercial death of the 45. This unreleased material, like the single, combined sloppy garage band rock with self-consciously silly lyrics, like a garage group providing the soundtrack for a Z-grade horror-science fiction film. Most of the Driving Stupid left Hollywood at the end of the summer of 1966 to return to college. The single, plus 17 unreleased tracks from their 1966 adventures, were issued in 2002 by Sundazed on Horror Asparagus Stories. ~ Richie Unterberger