Songoftheday 4/28/23 - Well I don't want to see you waiting I've already gone too far away, I still can't keep the day from ending no more messed up reasons for me to stay...

 

 

"Wasting My Time" - Default

from the album The Fallout (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 20

 

Today's song comes from the Canadian post-grunge rock band Default, who came together in Vancouver at the close of the twentieth century. After hearing a demo, the group came under the wing of genre giants Nickelback, whose momentum was soaring after their breakthrough single "How You Remind Me". Default's debut single from their first album The Fallout was "Wasting My Time", written by lead singer Dallas Smith, bass player Dave Benedict, drummer Danny Craig, and guitarist Jeremy Hora. The song seems to be placed at the end of a relationship, with Dallas angry but yet resigning at the failure, though it's quite vague on details but rather rides on emotion. The production from Nickelback's Chad Kroeger along with Rick Parashar provide some nice warm tones to balance Dallas' strong but shouty-lite voice, making the result cooler than the anger seething in the lyrics. In return, the band found themselves with their first and biggest hit in America...

"Wasting My Time" became Defaulr's first and only hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, reaching the top-20 in June of 2002. On the radio, the song went to #11 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and #14 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, while spending seven weeks at #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock list and a week at #3 on the Alternative Rock counterpart. Internationally the single topped the Canadian rock chart, and made the top-40 in New Zealand at #37 and was a minor British hit at #73. The Fallout album, released in October of 2001 on the TVT label (which started as a TV theme song company and eventually released Nine Inch Nails' debut), peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

The next release from the Fallout was "Deny", which also topped the Canadian rock chart. While it made both the Mainstream (#7) and Alternative (#14) rock charts, the song missed the Hot 100 and pop radio. It probably suffered by the late welcome to their debut to pop radio as rock stations was already playing the new song. That was followed by the ballad "Live A Lie", which put them back on Adult Top-40 radio at #36 while peaking at #31 on the Mainstream Rock list.

Default returned in 2003 with their sophomore effort Elocation, which came in at #105 on the Billboard 200. This time the record was produced by Kroeger with Butch Walker. Two singles from the album made the Mainstream Rock chart, with "(Taking My) Life Away" getting to #25 while also rising to #30 on the Adult Top-40 format, as did another cut from the set, "All She Wrote" at #39. 

 

The band went through a third co-producer for their third record One Thing Remains in Bob Marlette. The lead single, "Count On Me", was a minor hit on the Mainstream (#22) and Alternative (#39) Rock charts. While the record made the top half of the Billboard 200 at #90, it only stayed on the list for two weeks, and this would be the last with TVT.

 

Switching to the indie AudioNest Records after TVT went under, the group released their fourth and so far last original studio album Comes And Goes in 2009, which spent a week on the Billboard 200 at #137. From the record "Turn It On" slipped on to Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart at #38, their most recent showing. After this the band went on hiatus, with Dallas Smith starting a country music career in Canada. He's released four solo albums on the indie 604 label, as well as a couple extended play singles (EP's) in America, one under Republic Nashville, Tippin' Point, which went to #31 on the Country Albums Chart in Billboard in 2014. But in Canada, he did pretty damn well, scoring a dozen #1 country hits in his homeland. Default reunited in 2018 for a short set of re-recordings of their past hits, Re-Cuts, in 2018. They continue to tour in Canada.

(6/10)

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Here's the band performing the song on The Tonight Show...

Next up, and the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame...

And lastly, Dallas doing an acoustic take for country radio...

Song of the day will be back Monday with another Canadian greeting the morning.