Founded in Ishpeming, Michigan in 1975 as Joe Arkansas by drummer Jim DeCaire, guitarist Joe Potila, bassist Jim Pennell, and keyboardist Lynn Anderson, the band achieved local success before self-releasing the album Yoopanese in 1986. Its followup, Culture Shock, accounted for two of the band's most famous songs: "Rusty Chevrolet" and "Second Week of Deer Camp." Both songs received regional airplay on several radio stations throughout the Great Lakes region, and even appeared on Dr. Demento's national radio program. On Camp Fever, Pennell was replaced by Joe DeLongchamp and Jerry Coffey began contributing on drums and percussion as well; one year later came Yoop It Up, which saw Lynn and Jerry marry. For the most part, the band's repertoire consisted of original content written and produced by DeCaire and Potila.
For Yoopy Do Wah, their first release on CD, Dave "Doc" Bradbury became their third bassist. Followup One Can Short of a Six-Pack (1994) was their last album with Potila. In 1995, he was replaced by Jim Bellmore on lead guitar, co-production, and co-writing duties, while rhythm guitarist "Cowboy" Dan Collins (who had previously sung backing vocals on Culture Shock and One Can Short of a Six-Pack) officially joined. Bellmore's first studio album, We're Still Rockin', featured him on both guitar and bass due to Bradbury's departure. Potila died in 2001.
By decade's end, Reggie Lusardi and Bobby "Sy" Symons had respectively become touring bassist and drummer, although Bellmore and DeCaire typically retained those roles in-studio. Later albums saw Dan Collins and Jerry Coffey's departure, along with Lynn divorcing Jerry and marrying Jim Bellmore. The last touring lineup consisted of DeCaire, the Bellmores, Symons, and Lusardi, who died in 2016. Although the band stopped touring after 2013, the Bellmores and DeCaire have continued to record sporadically. This includes the album Old Age Ain't for Sissies in 2018. Bellmore has also released a number of solo songs on Bandcamp.
In addition to the various members, Da Yoopers frequently featured guest musicians on their albums, mostly culled from local talent. Live shows also featured interstitial sketch comedy typically performed by a stage crew, whose membership and numbers varied over time. Unlike the rest of the band, the sketch comedy actors rarely appeared on albums.
The band is known for singing songs primarily dealing with rural life in the Upper Peninsula, including topics such as drinking beer, hunting, dealing with long winters, drinking more beer, eating Swedish and Finnish food, and more beer. They also own Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, a gift shop and museum.
Albums:
- Yoopanese (1986)
- Culture Shock (1987)
- Camp Fever (1988)
- Yoop It Up (1989)
- Yoopy Do Wah (1991)
- One Can Short of a Six-Pack (1994)
- For Diehards Only (1995)
- We're Still Rockin' (1996). First release after Joe Potila was replaced by Jim Bellmore.
- Jackpine Savage (2000)
- Naked Elves in Cowboy Boots (2000)
- Songs for Fart Lovers (2004)
- Diehards II (2004)
- 21st Century Yoopers in Space (2006)
- Old Age Ain't for Sissies (2018)
Members:
- Jim Bellmore (guitar, bass guitar, vocals)
- Lynn Bellmorenote (keyboards, vocals)
- Jim "Hoolie" DeCaire (drums, vocals)
Former (official) members:
- Dave "Doc" Bradbury (bass guitar, vocals)
- Jerry "Cuppa" Coffey (drums, percussion, vocals)
- "Cowboy" Dan Collins (rhythm guitar, vocals)
- Joe DeLongchamp (bass guitar, vocals)
- Reggie Lusardi (bass guitar, vocals)
- Jim Pennell (bass guitar, vocals)
- Joe Potila (guitar, vocals)
- Bobby "Sy" Symons (drums)
Former sketch comedy contributors:
- Jim Boyer
- Matt "Matty" Bullock (last one to leave, staying until 2013)
- Dick "Dick-E-Bird" Bunce (sporadically played bass as well)
- Steve Calhoun
- Art Davis
- Chris Kukla
- Jerry "Mungo" LaJoie
- Pete "Casanova" LaLonde
- "Billy Bob" Langson
- Robert "Dill" Nebel
- Mike "Mikku" Powers
Tropes present:
- A Cappella: "My First Time Ever" was done in four-part vocal harmony, with Bellmore singing all four vocal parts.
- Adrenaline Time: "We Need da Money", the first track on We're Still Rockin', speeds up faster and faster with each line.
- Album Title Drop: Culture Shock is title-dropped on "Yooper Talk", and Yoopy Do Wah comes from a breakdown at the end of "Transplant Song".
- All Periods Are PMS: "Ridin' da Cotton Pony" suggests this.
- The Alleged Car:
- The subject of "Rusty Chevrolet":
Rust and smoke, the heater's broke
The door just flew away
I light a match to see the dash
And then I start to pray
The frame is bent, the muffler's went
The radio, it's okay
Oh, what fun it is to drive
This rusty Chevrolet- "Yooper Snow Rocket" is about The Alleged Snowmobile, an old piece of junk that is held together by duct tape and rust and can't go any faster than 25 miles per hour.
- Anti-Christmas Song: "Rusty Chevrolet" and "Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck" are their two most famous, but they have a few others:
- One Can Short of a 6-Pack, the album that spawned "Beer Truck", also includes "Christmastime at My House" (which contains the line "We celebrate his birthday by spending all our dough") and "One Day After Christmas" ("...I'm crabby and I'm broke").
- Naked Elves in Cowboy Boots is full of them, with such gems as "I Want a Rinky Dinky Doo Dad for Christmas" (see Cool Toy, below), "Naked Elves in Cowboy Boots" (titular elves that haunt only the narrator and other people who don't believe in Christmas), and "Deck da Brother-in-Law" (in-law shenanigans from the narrator's brother-in-law, which include among other things, a cat being duct-taped to the TV).
- Anti-Love Song: "Happy Birthday Fungus Face". The narrator (Lynn) comments that her husband's birthday came to mind while she was cleaning out her toilet bowl, so she writes a "happy birthday rhyme" that is full of insults.
- Ascended Extra:
- Jim DeCaire's son Jesse made a couple guest appearances on Camp Fever, and sang lead on "Yooper Kid" one album later, while he was still a child. Jesse later played guitar on "Shuckin' da Cob", and would sporadically appear as a guest musician on later albums before becoming their sound tech.
- "Cowboy" Dan Collins sang backing vocals on a couple albums before becoming a touring member around 1996.
- Dick Bunce had assisted the band in their comedy sketches for years, but near the end of his tenure, he played bass on a handful of songs instead of Lusardi or Bellmore.
- Ass Shove: The resolution to "Diarrhea":I'll take a cork and Super Glue
Pound it in there with my shoe
And then I'll be all through
With diarrhea - Author Catch Phrase: Deer/beer shows up a lot as a Stock Rhyme. They also make repeated use of Finnish slang such as "sisu
". - The Band Minus the Face: They survived the departure of frontman Joe Potila.
- Big Eater: Present in several songs, most notably "Pizza in My Shorts" (family who eats a lot of pizza) and "Meathead" (man who eats a lot of meat).
- Bizarre Instrument: A few of their songs from Jackpine Savage onward feature a guest musician playing the pogo cello (or as they spell it, "polka-chella").
- But I Can't Be Pregnant!: "Three Months Late" is about a guy freaking out over his girlfriend getting pregnant during deer hunting season.She's late! She's late! Oh Lord she's three months late
I took her to my uncle's camp, and now she's three months late! - Call-Back:
- Camp Fever has two: Late in the album, a character mumbles "My mouth tastes like I ate my socks", a line from "Crawlin' Home Puker" on Yoopanese. At the end, all the guys sing a few bars from "Second Week of Deer Camp".
- One track on Yoopy Do Wah is titled "Nudsie's Wedding Reception". Several tracks later, "Free Beer" has the line "Our old pal Nudsie got married..."
- Jackpine Savage has more. "Can't Find da Truck" uses the line "We've been lost before, and this is what it looks like", previously a line of dialogue on one of the skits on Camp Fever. Later, another skit references painting a face on a board with a hole in it and pretending that it's a woman, referencing a skit on One Can Short of a 6-Pack. The skit "Burt & Bunna", about two squirrels (mentioned below), is also a call-back to One Can Short.
- Common Meter: The verses of "Dear Mr. Governor", "Beer Gut", and "Transplant Song" are all common meter double.
- Cool Toy: "I Want a Rinky Dinky Doo Dad for Christmas". The son demands that his parents buy him the toy in question, leading to the mom getting into a fight at Kmart. Come Christmas, the son is excited to get the toy, only to be told that it's being recalled. He then says that's okay, because what he really wants is another toy that's even better. As a result, both parents Freak Out.
- Credits Gag: On We're Still Rockin', DeCaire's credits include "broom" and "coffee".
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: In one skit on Camp Fever, the wife of a man who has run off somewhere threatens to "give him a vasectomy with a rusty chainsaw" if he ever returns.
- Diaper Check: The subject of "Da Turdy Lb. Diaper".
- Directionless Driver: In the "Beer Run" skit, the guys drive around for hours, following what Potila claims is a shortcut. They pass several landmarks again and again before they finally realize Potila has been holding the map upside-down, and end up in a completely different town once they realize this.
- Double Entendre: "Do You Wanna Buy an Organ" is ostensibly about the musical instrument, but could be about something else:Do you wanna buy an organ
I'll sell it to you cheap
She never let me touch it
So you know it ain't been beat... - Early-Installment Weirdness: Quite a lot of it on their early tapes:
- Yoopanese is all over this, as the band barely resembles itself. "My Shoes" and "Critics Tune" are completely serious songs with more conventional themes; "Robot Girl" and "I Don't Wanna Glow" have science fiction overtones that stand in contrast to the mostly realistic approach of their later work; and "Road to Gwinn" is one of only a very small number of parodies in their catalog. It is also the only album besides Yoopy Do Wah not to have interstitial skits or guest musicians (Old Age Ain't for Sissies has no skits either). Also, Lynn is playing an analog synthesizer instead of a keyboard.
- Culture Shock, despite containing the very famous "Rusty Chevrolet" and "Second Week of Deer Camp", still contains some weirdness. Notably, some tracks still have Lynn playing a synthesizer ("Last Frontier" even has a drum machine, something the band never used again); "Chiquito War" continues to show a mild science-fiction theme; and the B-side is dominated by Finnish folk songs performed by guests with "folk" style instrumentation such as washtub bass, jugs, and spoons. Also, "Rusty Chevrolet" and "Second Week of Deer Camp" are examples themselves despite being among their most famous songs: the former is a song parody, and the latter is accompanied solely by accordion and washtub bass (both played by guests).
- Camp Fever has the band mostly shifted to its most famous sound, but the B-side is still dominated by folk song covers with minimalistic instrumentation. By Yoop It Up, pretty much everything was in place.
- Elvis Impersonator: In "He Thinks He's Elvis", the narrator (Lynn) laments that her husband woke up this morning and thought himself to be Elvis.
- Fake Memories: Referenced in the chorus to "Da Anniversary Song":The older you get, the more you forget
To remember what you should recall
You fill in the blanks in your memory with things
That may not have happened at all... - Fake Radio Show Album: Camp Fever and One Can Short of a 6-Pack use a fictional radio show called "YOOP Radio" as a Framing Device, with relevant skits interspersed among the songs. The former has a Story Arc where all of the YOOP staff are at the deer camp while an inexperienced DJ (played by Jerry Coffey) substitutes, while One Can merely includes the skits in the track listing. Jackpine Savage brought back "YOOP Radio" for one skit, which was a Call-Back to a skit from One Can.
- This actually originates in Culture Shock, but is easy to miss. Only one interstitial skit there explicitly mentions the station call sign YOOP, but the station call-in phone number (used in the skit Talk Time) is also an obvious tell once you know about the Framing Device: 371-YOOP.
- Fat and Proud: "Beer Gut":Beer guts of America, stand up if you can
Stick out your big beer gut and hoist a cool one in your hand
Your beer gut is your buddy, it's a friend who's always near
And all you ever have to do is feed it lots of beer - Feeling Their Age: Old Age Ain't for Sissies is largely dedicated to songs about the ups and downs of being of retirement age, with cuts such as "They All Stopped Drinking" and "I'm Old".
- Forgotten Anniversary: The subject of "Da Anniversary Song". She tries to hint that it's their anniversary, but he's stuck on amusing anecdotes from her uncle's funeral.
- Gasshole: Just about every album has had at least one reference to farting, with gems such as "Diarrhea" and "If I Could Fart Like My Dad". Then there's Songs for Fart Lovers...
- Genre Roulette: They've done traditional folk songs, polka, country, and rock, just to name a few. This genre-hopping gets turned up to eleven on We're Still Rockin', where every song is done in a different musical style (for example: "Big Truck" is truck-driving country, "Green Green Grass" is reggae, "Vampire Surfin' Girls" is surf rock, "My First Time Ever" is a cappella, "Shuckin' da Cob" is '90s punk, etc.). Jackpine Savage dialed it down slightly, but still had the hard rocking "Super Dooper Yooper Love Machine".
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: "Chiquito War" describes a "chiquito", a cross between a chicken and a mosquito which was bred through Black Comedy Rape.
- "I Am" Song: "Yooper Cowboy Dan".
- In the Style of: "You're My Porky Babe" is in the style of Sonny and Cher.
- Innocent Innuendo:
- "My First Time Ever" sounds dirty with its lines about a female spreading her legs, the narrator putting his hands on her breasts, and "white stuff" coming, but it's really about milking a cow.
- Similarly, "Beer Gut" has one:I took my date into the sauna, and on the bench we sat
She pointed and she said, "I've never seen one big as that"
She held it and she stroked it, and she told me with a smile
"Bodybuilders make me sick, but beer guts drive me wild"
- "My First Time Ever
- Kids Rock: DeCaire's son, Jesse, sang "Yooper Kid" with a few other kids singing backup.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: All of the albums featuring Bellmore stand out for having more Genre Roulette than the albums on which Potila was involved.
- Lead Bassist: Everyone who has ever played bass for the band (except for Dick Bunce) has sung at least one lead vocal.
- Lead Drummer: Jim DeCaire is the most prominent member of the band, having co-written and produced nearly all of their material.
- Lethal Chef: "She Don't Make Good Pasties" is about a wife who is terrible at making the titular food (a meat and vegetable pie of Cornish origin).
- Listing Cities: "Christmas Is Everywhere" is just a list of cities and countries where Christmas supposedly can be found.
- Local Reference: They frequently name-drop a lot of the smaller former mining towns in the Upper Peninsula. Some songs also reference businesses with a strong presence in the area, such as IGA supermarkets and (now-defunct) Shopko department stores in "Rusty Chevrolet".
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Diarrhea" is performed as a straight-up love ballad. At least barring the fart solos.
- Lyrical Shoehorn: The opening lines to "Dear Mr. Governor", in which a "troll from down below"note brushes a snowflake off his body, kicks it in the lake, then says that he'll "stay down here below the bridge and eat my birthday cake". Huh?
- Musical Gag: The skit "Rev. Send Me Money" on Camp Fever features a radio preacher backed by organ music... which happens to be "Second Week of Deer Camp" played in the style of a hymn.
- Naked People Are Funny: "Naked Elves in Cowboy Boots". The titular elves chase a man who doesn't believe in Christmas, and no one else can see them.
- New Sound Album: We're Still Rockin' turned up the rock influences in the band's sound (likely a result of Jim Bellmore taking over from Joe Potila).
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: "Vampire Surfin' Girls" from Munising Bay.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Zig-zagged. They changed bassists twice within their first decade of recording, and some of the songs on their second and third albums have either a guest musician on a washtub bass, or no bass parts whatsoever. Bellmore played all the bass parts on We're Still Rockin' due to it being recorded after Bradbury left; while they later hired Reggie Lusardi as a touring bassist, Bellmore continued to play nearly all of the bass parts in studio (with one notable exception being "One More Beer").
- Non-Appearing Title: "Chiquito War", "Bingo Fever", "Fishin wit Fred", "Yooper Kid", "Pizza in My Shorts", "Da Fishing Trip", "He Thinks He's Elvis", "My First Time Ever", "She Don't Make Good Pasties"…
- Nose Shove: In "Fish Fight Song", the female lead threatens to shove the husband's fish eggs up his nose if he shrugs off his duties as a father in favor of fishing again. She then implies an Ass Shove with the spoken line "Somewhere else, too".
- One-Hour Work Week: "Fishin Wit Fred" Defies this trope just for the sake of recreational fishing.Twenty Yoopers on a pontoon boat, fishin' for Moby Dick
The wife, she thinks I'm working, and the boss, he thinks I'm sick
It's a perfect day for fishing, drinking beer, and telling lies
It's a little bit like heaven, when you're fishing with the guys - Parental Hypocrisy: The narrator of "Shuckin' da Cob". He is scolded by his father for masturbating to porn magazines, but counters dad by saying that he got the magazines from dad's dresser.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Admittedly it's about a recreational sport rather than a job, but "Second Week of Deer Camp" is about hunters who "never shoot no deer."
- Polka Dork: Usually with Jim "Hoolie" DeCaire dressing in nerdy clothes. He also plays a nerdy lead in "Desperation Polka", about a nerd who is so desperate that he dates (and marries) a fat ugly woman.
- Potty Failure:
- The protagonist of "Diarrhea" has an accident after a bout of what he thinks is "only gas".
- The title character in the skit "Santa's Helper" (from Naked Elves in Cowboy Boots) offers burps and farts to the listener as "gifts". Upon being asked for one more, he strains to make one last fart and ends up soiling himself instead.
- Rearrange the Song:
- The versions of "Smeltin' USA" and "Three Months Late" on For Diehards Only feature slightly different instrumentation arrangements.
- The late-90s video compilation It's About Time, Eh! had a re-recording of "Diarrhea" with a more polka-style instrumentation and local musician Kim Lenten on lead vocals. This re-recording later appeared on their website, and then on Songs for Fart Lovers.
- Revolving Door Band: Quite a few membership changes. Jim DeCaire and Lynn Anderson/Coffey/Bellmore are the longest-lasting members.
- Robot Girl: "Robot Girl" on their debut album has Lynn dismissing an unfaithful man who wants a "robot girl" who will cater to his whims.
- Rhyming with Itself:
- "Last Frontier", the first track on Culture Shock, rhymes "fall" (the season) with "fall" (the verb).
- "I Tink My Beagle's Gay" rhymes "way" with itself on the chorus.
- Same Language Dub: They released a music video for "Rusty Chevrolet" in the early 1990s, featuring the group's then-lineup of Jim DeCaire, Joe Potila, Lynn Coffey, Doc Bradbury, and Jerry Coffey. However, the latter two were not in the band at the time the song was released, and DeCaire didn't play anything on it, so only Lynn and Joe are matched up.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Done frequently. Notable examples include:
- On "Dear Mr. Governor", Lynn sings both the chorus and part of a "ba bum ba bum" counterpoint under it.
- Doc Bradbury does his own harmonies on the verses of "Free Beer".
- DeCaire sings harmony over himself on the chorus of "Da Fishing Trip".
- Jim Bellmore tends to sing most of his own harmonies. For instance, "My First Time Ever" is an A Cappella song where he sings all four vocal parts, and he can be heard doing a bass harmony under himself on "Yooper Snow Rocket".
- The Something Song: "Fish Fight Song", "Cow Pie Song", "Sauna Song", "The Transplant Song", "Da Anniversary Song".
- Song Parody: Not their primary genre, but they've done a few:
- "Road to Gwinn" ("On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson)
- "Rusty Chevrolet" ("Jingle Bells")
- "Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck" ("Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo & Patsy)
- "Packer Backer Anthem" ("The Star-Spangled Banner")
- "It Was Eino" ("The Banana Boat Song" by Harry Belafonte)
- Song Style Shift:
- "We're Still Rockin'" has a more upbeat midsection compared to the slower rock of the rest of the song.
- "Yooper Snow Rocket" shifts to a mostly A Cappella B-section with only vocals and hand claps.
- Stylistic Suck: Invoked in a newspaper article, where DeCaire said that they decided not to let Joe DeLongchamp sing a song they had been working on, because DeCaire thought that his voice was too good for it.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion:
- "Deer Hunter's Widow" repeatedly subverts rhymes to "shit" by having the word go unsung.
- "Butcher Town" uses a long chain of averted rhymes, "Miss Susie" style.
- "Arm Chair Quarterback" uses the familiar "Rah rah ree, kick 'em in the knee / Rah rah rass, kick 'em in the other knee" cheer during a break.
- Synchro-Vox: Done twice with a mounted deer head on "Camp Go for Beer", a song exclusive to It's About Time, Eh!
- Take That, Critics!: "Critics Tune":This world is full of critics, they never have no fun
They don't like our music, we're just a bunch of bums
This world is full of critics, it's time to take a stand
If you don't like the music, go start yourself a band - Toilet Humor: While obvious in Songs for Fart Lovers, they've also done several other references to flatulence and related bodily functions (such as "Lonely Yooper", where the narrator hides in an outhouse to escape an affair but ends up getting defecated on instead).
- Truck Driver's Gear Change:
- "Wanna Buy an Organ" goes from C Minor on the verses to C major on the chorus, and then back at each verse.
- "Don't Go Up Dere" shifts from E to F♯ before the third verse.
- "Camp Go for Beer": G♭ to A♭ at the last chorus.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Ring Dang Do" is about female genitalia, apparently.
- Vocal Tag Team: They are all over this trope. Jim DeCaire, Joe Potila, and Jim Bellmore usually did the vocals, but nearly every album had at least one song sung by Lynn. Among the official members, there were several rotations:
- Jim Pennell sang "Smeltin' USA" and "Chicquito War".
- Joe DeLongchamp sang "Camp Fever" (which he also wrote) and "Drinking Resort".
- Doc Bradbury sang "Transplant Song", "Free Beer", "Christmastime at My House", "Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck", and the first verse of "Heikki Lunta".
- Jerry Coffey sang "Super Dooper Yooper Love Machine". He also did two lines on "Nite Crawler Boogie", part of the unison lead vocals on "Wanna Buy an Organ", and a duet with Lynn on "Ridin' da Cotton Pony".
- Double example with "Da Turdy Lb. Diaper": Jerry Coffey sang it in concert for several years, but after he quit, it went to Reggie Lusardi instead. Lusardi also sang the studio version on 21st Century Yoopers in Space.
- Dan Collins sang (obviously) "Yooper Cowboy Dan". He also sang "Diarrhea" live for a time after Potila left.
- Many of their songs are unusual in that they were sung by guests:
- Culture Shock: Bertha and Elaine Hintsala sang "Iso Sika", Glenn Adams did half of the spoken-word verses on "Dear Mr. Governor" (DeCaire does the other half of each verse, and Lynn does the chorus), and Sandy Kemppa sang "Da Couch Dat Burps".
- Camp Fever: Glenn sings "Sauna Song" and "Butcher Town".
- Yoop It Up: Jim DeCaire's son Jesse sings "Yooper Kid".
- Songs for Fart Lovers: As mentioned above, Kim Lenten sings a re-recording of "Diarrhea" (originally sung by Potila on Yoop It Up).
- 21st Century Yoopers in Space: Al "Goofus" Ammesmaki sings "Yooper Love Song" and "One More Beer", Kim Lenten sings "Got My Sisu Working" and "Designated Driver's Drunk", Jim Stedman sings "It's Cold" and "Nimrod Nation", Barbara Johnson sings "No Black Bloomers", Frank Sarvello sings "I Taught It Was a Buck", Jesse DeCaire sings "Snow Day", and Tanya Stanaway sings "Tanya's Song".
- Old Age Ain't for Sissies: Jesse DeCaire sings "I Tried to Be a Yooper Man", Glenn Adams sings "I'm Old" (pitch-shifted), and Kim Lenten sings "Living in Yooper Paradise".
- Vocal Evolution: Jim Bellmore's voice got a lot deeper and more aged. Compare "We're Still Rockin'" (1995) and "Coffee wit da Boys" (2018).
- Volleying Insults: "Mental Monkey" is a string of these between a brother and sister.
