Blotto

Emerging among the earliest unsigned acts to ride the early-'80s MTV wave, the satirical New York outfit Blotto broke through when their playful clip for “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard” aired in the channel’s very first broadcast hours and stayed in heavy rotation for months afterward. The unit had begun life in the 1970s as the Star-Spangled Washboard Band, delivering bluegrass material that earned them a slot on Mike Douglas’s nationally televised talk program. After the original ensemble dissolved late in the decade, four former members regrouped, borrowed the name Blotto from Thorne Smith’s 1931 novel, and began steady club work around Albany, New York. Influenced by the Ramones, they each took “Blotto” as a surname: Sergeant Blotto handled vocals, Broadway Blotto and Bowtie Blotto played guitar, Cheese Blotto covered bass, and Lee Harvey Blotto sat behind the drums. Pooling resources, the quintet pressed their own four-track EP, Hello! My Name Is Blotto. What’s Yours?, in 1980; local radio’s embrace of “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard” turned the independent release into a regional favorite. Two years later the band joined Blue Öyster Cult on tour, then cut the 1983 album Combo Akimbo, whose hard-rock spoof “Metal Head” also became an MTV regular. Despite the airplay, no major label came calling, though the group’s eccentric, humorous songs found a natural home on Dr. Demento’s program. Blotto formally split in 1984 yet returned for occasional live dates; on 15 August 1994 Mayor Jerry Jennings declared the date “Blotto Day” in Albany, and the following year the band entered the Capital Area Musicians’ Association Hall of Fame.