If you turned on the radio in 1997 (back when radio was still relevant to the music industry) you undoubtedly heard "Tubthumping", the unusual, infectious pop hit by a band with the goofiest name since Mott the Hoople. That band was Chumbawamba and after the millionth time "Tubthumping" played in the background of American lives we'd pretty much written them off as a one hit wonder just like most of what was on the pop charts. The truth is that Chumbawamba was never supposed to be a Top 10 dance act and for the past thirty years they've had a career that reflects that sentiment. Really, all one hit wonders fall into one of two categories. Most are artists who only had one good song in them, others are talents whose better music got overshadowed by their hit. Chumbawamba falls into the latter variety, though most folks who heard "Tubthumping" don't know that.

Tubthumper, the album off of which the band got their one and only stateside hit, is Chumbawamba's eighth record. They had been churning out politically charged art rock for nearly fifteen years before us Yanks embraced "Tubthumping" thinking it was a silly party song. Those of us who picked up the album and actually listened to the rest of the tracks found a surprisingly adept collection of catchy, socially conscious songs linked together with sound clips in a way that didn't sound at all like factory pop from the late 90's.

The truth about Chumbawamba is that they were incredibly unlikely purveyors of pop who grew out of the grassroots political art scene in the UK during the Thatcher years. In their earliest days they were squatters in Leeds who were more interested in performing DIY awareness shows about striking miners than in ever producing a chart topper. They didn't even press any vinyl until 1986 when Agit-Prop Records came into existence and pop music actually had a fairly significant impact on public opinion in the UK.

Listening to Chumbawamba's early music, it's oddly not far from the sound you'll find on Tubthumper. That's not really because it's all that poppy, but because Tubthumper is just a slightly more glossy take on the combination of folk, pub rock and arty electronica the band had been playing for years. They fit right alongside the likes of The Midnight Oil and Public Image Limited, recording loads of albums about social issues that co-opt pop sounds to spread a message. Considering Chumbawamba's rate of output and their conversant understanding of pop, it was only a matter of time before they registered on the Billboard charts.

I'm not going to suggest that Chumbawamba ought to have appeared in the Top 10 more frequently in America, but it does seem like a bit of a shame that they disappeared so quickly and so thoroughly. It's not as if Americans are any less receptive to political music than Brits, just that our record executives seem to think so. The extensive educational liner notes packaged with the UK release of Tubthumper were noticeably absent from the US version. Perhaps if understanding the protest lyrics on the album hadn't required scouring the Internet for explanations, more Americans would have developed a love for Chumbawamba beyond one drinking song.

To get a clearer picture of what Chumbawamba is all about, consider the live quasi-double album Showbusiness. Disc one consists of songs recorded during two shows at The Duchess of York in 1994, disc two is a lecture given by Noam Chomsky about anarcho-syndicalism. In short, Chumbawamba makes top-notch pop songs then packages them in such a way that they'll never chart on anything but a fluke.

Later this week I'll give those interested in Chumbawamba beyond "Tubthumping" a super-condensed track list primer. Now that we've got the band's rough history in mind, a thorough listen is in order.