Song: Blister in the Sun
Artist: Violent Femmes
Download it:
This HP commercial involved more time and research than any other post I’ve written.
Not because of the song. I mean, “Blister in the Sun” is a classic. The Violent Femmes pwned my formative years. My first concert was the Violent Femmes (that’s a blatant lie: my first concert was Immature, but if you tell anyone I will put you in the ground). So to John who requested this commercial: thanks for outing me, and request some more.
“Blister in the Sun” was written for the 1983 Femmes debut album, but for some reason it’s become an anthem for the nineties, probably because of the soundtrack for Grosse Pointe Blank, which was released 1997 and about the graduating class of 1986. That was back when everything John Cusack did was made of gold. Then he peaked in High Fidelity which is, ironically, a movie about peaking.
But the reason this took me so long to write was because this commercial features a slew of “Blister in the Sun” covers (but not that cover from Nouvelle Vague that was on the Bridesmaids soundtrack, which is totally French), and I was doggone determined to find all of the videos and pop them into this post. It’s like HP was daring me to find as many rad covers as they could. Mostly I just found hipsters shredding the “Blister” bass line on the ukulele.
Here is the original HP commercial with a bunch of impossible-to-find versions of “Blister in the Sun”":
AND NOW MAY I PRESENT
THE ONLY MILDLY INTERESTING “BLISTER IN THE SUN” COVERS ON YOUTUBE
THAT I FOUND ONE AFTERNOON:
1. Countrylace
Jammin’ on the fiddle. Second runner up for blistering fiddle: Femmes lead singer Gordon Gano does it too.
2. The Evolution of Pain
BRUTAL THRASH BASEMENT METAL WAYNE’S WORLD A SPHINCTER SAYS RRRRAAAAAWWWWWWW
3. The Boomwhacker Orchestra
Um. Boomwhackers. Duh.
Good luck getting this out of your head now. You’re welcome.
And now for a bunch of links:
Download “Blister in the Sun” by the Violent Femmes 
Download the Nouvelle Vague cover of “Blister in the Sun”
Download the Bridesmaids soundtrack
Download “We Got It” by Immature
Learn how to play the Boomwhacker
