Days of the New - Touch, Peel and Stand

When you’re voted the Greatest of All-Time Mainstream Rock Song (an accolade that feels almost anti-rock and roll in its name, but all the same no less impressive), there comes a time when you must be featured as a Rock Song of the Week pick. If you hadn’t already seen the name of the song at the top of the page, and here I mean no offence to Charlestown, Indiana export Days of the New, but you might not have guessed it was this one. That’s where we come in – the paragon of truth and justice, the saviour of humanity through music, the readers of endless rock and metal magazines and devourers of those free CDs you get in said magazines – to show you the path to music that, erm, others considered to be the greatest of all time. Hey, I never said we were punctual in that big list before, did I?

All of this is to say that, for our dignified Rock Song of the Week pick, we have rustled around in the archives to find Touch, Peel and Stand. Full of low tones to the point of washing out and enough implied denim to bankrupt the Levi’s brand, it’s a grungy piece of late 90’s ephemera that, while very locked into its timeframe of release sound-wise (a little after, some might say), still more than holds a bit of nostalgic charm today. Here’s a fact that will blow the mind of a small portion of readers – back in 1999 and thoroughly pre-stardom, Nicole Scherzinger of the pop-group Pussycat Dolls featured on a Days of the New track. I guarantee you that is not coming up at your local pub quiz, but if it does, you owe me at least a sip of your winnings.