The Steel Horse Archives: Trixter, “Give It to Me Good”

TRIXTER
TITLE: “Give It To Me Good”
ALBUM: Trixter
RELEASE DATE: May 1990

Why You Remember Them: For one of two reasons: Trixter hails from Paramus, N.J., which makes them one of the most robust Against arguments in the debate about New Jersey’s overall contribution to the American music lexicon. But also, Trixter was famous in the early 1990s for their ridiculous song “Give It to Me Good,” as well as for their very successful line of rabbit-flavored cereal.

Listen, I’m Gonna Be Honest Here: I know metric amounts of jack poop about Trixter, other than they’re my go-to band when making fun of music Bradshaw used to listen to. But on their debut tour they opened for Stryper and Don Dokken. Separately.

Number Of Your Judgmental Hypocrites Who Bought This Record in 1990: Well, the damn thing went gold, and the band was presented with gold albums after a show at the Meadowlands, which was promptly sprayed down with disinfectant before Springsteen came by again. Also the video for “Give It to Me Good” stayed #1 on the Dial MTV top ten video countdown for five weeks straight. Eat that, Gaga.

Key Tracks: “Give It to Me Good,” “Surrender,” “One in a Million”

Number of Harmony Vocal Tracks On “Give It to Me Good”: 25,000.

Actual Bassist Name: P.J. Farley, whose name was immortalized by Chevy Chase in Three Amigos.

Best Sentence of Their Wikipedia Entry: “The song featured Edgar Winter on saxophone.”

The Worst Media Decision You Will Hear About All Day: The magazine “Metal Edge” once dedicated an entire issue to the band, “The Trixter Color Spectacular,” taking advantage of the modern press’ full-color capabilities, which was new to the metal world at the time, for which all members of the Metal Edge staff should be punished, strenuously.

I Bet There’s Some Terrible Covers Record in the Canon, Isn’t There: Well of course there is, and for extra boring points they called it Undercovers, like every other schlamp-metal band with a covers record. This particular hideous terror includes “Pump It Up,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie” (whaaaat) and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” PJ Farley tears shit up on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” You heard it here.

Pre-Nirvana Song Titles: “Heart of Steel,” “Give It to Me Good,” “Ride the Whip”

Post-Nirvana Song Titles: “Nobody’s a Hero,” “As the Candle Burns,” “Bloodrock”

Most Improbable Recent Venue Played: The Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Recent News: As part of what will be the eventual reunion of every goddamned band in the world, Trixter played five dates in 2008, including the inexcusable Rocklahoma festival and a sold-out performance in New Jersey, their first hometown show in 13 years (though it should be noted that with the whole breadth of human knowledge at my fingertips I cannot determine where this purported concert took place).

Arbitarily Scored Ferocity of Devil-Horns Thrust: 1.2. Not entirely sure “Give It to Me Good” has any actual bass on it.

Oh, Wait, Here It Is: They played at Decter’s Entertainment Complex in Riverdale. That place has some crazy go-kart action!

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