The Wondertruck Crashed: The Tale of Mary's Danish and David King
Mary’s Danish were one of those bands that never made it. They were popular in the L.A. scene in which they were spawned but through a variety of reasons they never hit it big like their friends in Jane’s Addiction or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What follows is a sad tale of unfortunate errors and mistakes that doomed a really great band to the dustbin of obscurity.
The band formed in the mid-‘80s by a group of friends: singers Julie Ritter and Gretchen Seager, guitarists Matt Colleran and David King and bassist Chris ‘Wag’ Wagner. The band were a little bit of everything including indie rock, alt rock, some surf influences and loads of funk to go around. They blended all of these together in a tasty stew that soon began to attract attention. After working with a series of drummers, Nick Ziegler was drafted in and the band began to attract a heavy fanbase throughout California. The band eventually signed a deal with small independent Chameleon Records and started recording their debut.
The highlight of the album, the track that everybody seemed to focus their attention on was a song written by Colleran called “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight.” In 2021 the song sounds a bit dated with its emphasis on blues riffs and all but the undeniability of Gretchen and Julie’s voices together makes the song something unique. It definitely stood out on 1989 alternative rock radio. During the recording of the album, Colleran departed under unknown reasons and was replaced by Louis Gutierrez, best known for his time in Paisley legends The Three O’Clock. Ziegler also departed and was replaced by James Bradley Jr., aka JBJ, who was a respected session drummer having worked with Chuck Mangione among others.
Having two female singers, two guitarists, a funk bassist and an African American jazz drummer definitely set the band apart from the rest of the pack. When There Goes the Wondertruck… was released in 1989 it helped establish the band in a small way. During this time, the band played shows with their friends in Jane’s Addiction, the Chili Peppers, Thelonious Monster and Fishbone among others. Gretchen, Julie and Wag were even featured backup vocalists on Mother’s Milk, released about the same time. But the band didn’t break through like their friends. “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” made it to number 7 on the modern rock charts but the album sales were lagging.
Trying to continue to build buzz for the band, Chameleon released a live EP in 1990 titled Experience, which included an oddball cover of Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.” The live show was also released as a VHS tape and the band reentered the studio with producer Dave Jerden, fresh off his work with Jane’s Addiction, Social Distortion and Alice in Chains. The result was a wildly schizophrenic record jampacked with 17 songs.
Unfortunately, the band encountered issues with Chameleon. The label was busy switching distribution from EMI to Elektra and Danish decided it was time to leave and find a new label. The album was basically finished at this point and the band were allowed to take the record with them. Chameleon continued to exist for a few more years releasing records by the likes of Kyuss, Dramarama, Ethyl Meatplow and Lowen & Navarro. Danish however signed a new deal with what I feel is probably one of the worst record labels in the history of the music business.
Morgan Creek was a film production company best known for “Young Guns” and for later giving us “Ace Ventura.” In 1990, the company’s founders decided to launch a subsidiary record label. Morgan Creek Records had hits right out of the box with the soundtracks of “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” The label went on to sign Shelby Lynne, Janis Ian, Miracle Legion, Little Feet and Danish. Danish took the tapes for their Dave Jerden produced record and Morgan Creek released it as Circa in the spring of 1991.
The album was led off with the single “Julie’s Blanket (Pigsheadsnakeface).” The song is ok but doesn’t really grab the listener’s ear. A good video was made for it but the song only got to number 14 on modern rock, not as good a showing as the band’s ‘hit.’ The album, as said before, is a schizophrenic mess, careening from the straight rock of “Yellow Creep Around” and “Louisiana” to the wtf of “Down,” “Venus Loves Leonard,” “Mr. Floosack” and “Hoof.” The album does have one straight up masterpiece in “7 Deadly Sins,” an absolute classic and the one song from Circa that I still go back to over and over again.
Even with a freaky psychedelic video for the “Foxy Lady” cover, Circa bombed. It’s amazing that despite all the accolades the band was receiving in the press that the label could not get the band to sell records. It’s strange considering how well their friends were doing and how many records they were selling but it looked like it just wasn’t going to be in the cards for Danish. The band began to feel disillusioned, and tension began building.
By the spring of 1992, Morgan Creek had rushed the band back into the studio and try and make something better. This time the man behind the boards was Peter Asher, ‘60s pop star of Peter & Gordon and longtime manager and producer of acts such as 10,000 Maniacs, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt; he also happened to be Danish’s manager as well. By the fall of that year, American Standard was in stores.
Hampered by what may be one of the worst album covers ever (a hamburger dripping ketchup on an American flag hat), the album limped into stores. It’s an amazing record and probably the best record Danish ever made. It has a more streamlined approach, crisp production and some of the catchiest songs the band were able to create. Songs like “Porcupine,” “Leave It Alone” and “Gotcha Covered” are outstanding. “The Living End” feels like a tour de force and “My Dear Heretic” is one of those songs that I’ve never forgotten about. The record feels like a band that’s been through the ringer and knows this might be the end so we might as well do the best we fucking can. David wrote the album’s second single, “Underwater,” which is one of the band’s definitive tracks and really showcases their full power.
“Leave It Alone” was the first single and it featured a video that collaborated with Rock the Vote in a painfully dated clip that tries to paint the politicians as puppets with their strings about to be cut. This band was great, but their videos were pretty crap. Despite landing gigs on “The Tonight Show” with Leno and “Late Night with David Letterman” performing “Underwater,” Morgan Creek never sprang for a video for the track which helped cripple its performance. “Leave It Alone” only got to number 21 on Modern Rock and the album seemed to disappear but the band still had some life left.
The band managed to appear on the original “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie soundtrack with a cover of the old chestnut “I Fought the Law” with Chad from the Chili Peppers on drums. It’s average. As a result of their connections with Peter Asher, the band also appeared backing Neil Diamond on a cover of “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” from his 1993 album Up on the Roof: Songs from the Brill Building; Louis having contributed a guitar solo on one track from his 1992 Christmas record. Gretchen and Julie and perhaps other members contributed to a children’s album entitled Primary Colors for Kid Rhino.
But unfortunately, Morgan Creek was screwing the band more and more. Tour support for an opening slot for Stone Temple Pilots in the spring of 1993 was rejected and the band turned it down. One of the band’s friends owned then-nascent Billabong and was offering to make t-shirts; Morgan Creek wouldn’t pay so that didn’t happen either. Things were beginning to look bleak, and it was during this time that David, Wag and JBJ formed a side project with friends Robbie Allen and Eddie Anisko called Rob Rule. The band was a bit more bluesy with some good alt rock thrown in and the band soon started getting attention from majors. This manifested in more tension within the band, and they were still dealing with Morgan Creek shit.
Sometime in either summer or fall of 1993, the band announced they were calling it quits. Essentially, Morgan Creek wouldn’t do anything more for American Standard nor would they pony up any money for a fourth record. The band had their hands tied and this was their easiest way out. I feel like this really fucked up the band psyche and, in the end, the label really messed up a great band. Perhaps had the band been pursued by a better label the story wouldn’t have ended like this, but we’ll never know.
In the wake of the breakup, Rob Rule moved ahead full steam and signed a deal with Mercury Records. Gretchen and Louis formed a new band called Battery Acid with Matt Colleran of all people. Julie started a solo career. Rob Rule made their debut with producer Don Gehman, best known for R.E.M. and John Mellencamp and just before he made his name legendary with Hootie and the Blowfish. Mercury released their self-titled debut in the summer of 1994 with the lead single “She Gets Too High.” Wag departed the band midway through recording and ended up joining Battery Acid, because he wanted to go heavier than Rob Rule was doing. He was replaced by Steven Ossana and the band pressed on.
Just before departing, the band recorded Wag’s song “Only Thing,” which was a tribute to his wife, who he has been with over 30 years at this point. I found this disc in a box at a flea market for a dollar; upon first listen to “Only Thing,” I quickly determined it was one of the best songs I had ever fucking heard and that’s a testimonial I still stand by. It’s perfection from beginning to end.
Well, the album flopped hard. The single made some inroads on Mainstream Rock radio, and they toured with Candlebox, but nothing seemed to work. A semi-great record lost in the dustbin of ‘90s alt rock history. There was talk that the band attempted making a second, potentially heavier record with producer GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against the Machine, Melvins) but it was either never finished or released and the band seemingly dissolved by the end of 1995.
Gretchen, Louis and now Wag had signed to Geffen Records and made a Battery Acid record. According to the band, the record was really heavy, and Geffen asked for a ballad to try and lighten things up. The band agreed and once the song was turned in, the label wanted the rest of the album to now sound like the ballad. At a crossroads, the band left the label and were able to take the masters with them. Releasing the album, dubbed Rita, on the extremely tiny Absinthe label in 1996, the band were really unable to get themselves out there and the record unfortunately died on the vine. It’s a great, loud hard rock record that isn’t available anywhere which is such a shame because it shows a potential progression of where Danish might have gone.
David King meanwhile was branching out and trying new things. He had started composing for films and television and landed a gig with Julie scoring music for the sitcom “Partners” starring Jon Cryer on Fox. He also scored episodes of several other short-lived Fox sitcoms of the era. He also started his own label, Holiday, which scored distribution through Atlantic. Signing his old Rob Rule bandmate Robbie Allen’s new project, Thermadore and his brother Peter’s Christian pop band, Dakoda Motor Co., the label looked like a sure thing.
Unfortunately, the sitcoms got cancelled, Dakota’s album flopped, and the band immediately split up. Thermadore’s album Monkey on Rico featured guest spots from the likes of Wag, Stone Gossard and Chad Smith and had a very minor hit with the single “Three Days,” but the record failed to sell and seemingly by the start of 1997, Holiday had folded. David kept doing composing, but his credits got fewer and fewer. Julie had started her solo career releasing a spoken word record on the SST-affiliated New Alliance Records before releasing her full solo debut in 1999 on the teeny LuxStar Recordings.
1999 was a busy year for members of the Danish; Julie released her record, JBJ had joined the rap-rock band Crazy Town and in 2001 achieved a number one single with the omnipresent “Butterfly.” 1999 also saw the Danish reunite at the House of Blues to a sellout crowd. Unfortunately, that would be the end of the Danish story.
The ensuing years saw Gretchen and Louis raising a family and Gretchen becoming a realtor; Wag starting his own production company and being very successful with it; JBJ moved to Sweden and started a family; Julie and David seemed to disappear into normal lives.
Around 2004 when I began college, I would hit up the dollar bin at my local record store and that’s where I discovered American Standard and I instantly fell in love. Within five years, I had all three studio albums plus Experience. I now also have each record on cassette as well as two promo singles. To say I’m a huge fan is an understatement at this point. Over the years, I got to be lucky enough to become Facebook friends with JBJ and correspond from time to time. I even got to have a phone chat with Wag where I asked about the benefit show in 1992 at the Hollywood Palladium to raise money for his hip replacement. The show featured Beasties and the Chili Peppers for god’s sake. That’s how loved the band were at their peak.
As the years wound on, I continued loving the band and tried on a few occasions to put together an all-encompassing interview with anyone who might be interested. There were a few nibbles here and there but I couldn’t get anything locked down, so I moved on after a while and just kept loving the records. Then in July 2021, it was announced that David King had passed away.
The news was shocking for devoted fans of the band. Julie even joined social media so she could release a statement ostensibly from the entire band talking about the shock of their loss. It was determined that David had passed away as a result of a drug problem. The definite cause was not released but it had been inferred that David had been sober for quite some time before relapsing in the last decade or so. When I got the news, I was beyond devastated. This was one of my favorite bands and I wasn’t expecting this sort of news. I immediately cranked up the Danish on my old iPod and just let the memories come blasting forth.
In what I felt was the ultimate tribute to David, I uploaded “Only Thing” onto YouTube because the album is not available digitally and the song wasn’t online at all. That’s why it’s hard to determine Danish’s overall legacy because none of their material is available online for streaming. Damn Morgan Creek and Chameleon (and the parent companies that now own their catalogue) for not making this band more well-known and getting it out to where more people could appreciate them besides a core group of diehard fans.
In the end, Mary’s Danish were one of the great unsung bands of the alternative rock boom and deserved way more than the bad hands they were continually dealt. I hope that David is in a place of peace and that the band will eventually get the recognition they so richly deserve.
I feel the same way about the Lamont Cranston Band & Grinderswitch, among others.
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