Five Songs, 9/18/2023

Bim Skala Bim, “Sunshine of Your Love”

Bim Skala Bim enjoyed covering classic rock warhorses over their career, songs which are really kind of ideal targets for this kind of thing. Any dork who will get upset about a cheeky cover of Cream of Pink Floyd is really showing their ass. Anyway, this is fun, sure, why not?

Upon proofreading, I’m leaving the “Cream of Pink Floyd” typo in there, because it’s delightful. Yes, I proofread these, dammit.

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Five Songs, 7/8/2022

Haggard Cat, “Life and Limb”

Silence is a Dangerous Sound: A Tribute to Fugazi is a huge comp, featuring a bunch of bands each doing one Fugazi tune. The interpretations range from pretty faithful to pretty decomposed, as is de rigueur for this sort of thing. I think you have to be a pretty big Fugazi dork to enjoy something like this, but I am one of the biggest, so it’s fun. Most of the pleasure is in doing the Leonardo DeCaprio pointing meme at the songs (metaphorically speaking), but whatever, stupid fun is still fun.

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Five Songs, 5/26/2022

Let’s Go Bowling, “Identity Crisis”

The final Let’s Go Bowling album, Stay Tuned, feels a little like they were finally letting the commercial winds blow them along towards rock. While their previous records had been pretty traditional, this one definitely feels more of a piece with the other ska bands who were hitting it big. But, of course, by 2000 the commercial appetite for ska was collapsing, so if it was a bid for fame, it didn’t really work out. My least favorite of the four records I have from them (there’s apparently a debut out there that I’ve never heard).

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Five Songs, 11/18/2021

The Young Fresh Fellows, “Another Ten Reasons”

Tad Hutchison is really smokin’ on the drums on this tune, friends! I was going to say that this is from the last Young Fresh Fellows album, Tiempo De Lujo, but no! Turns out there was one last year, exciting!

Unsteady, “Darkie Love Affair”

I was going to say that Unsteady is one of the lost gems of the third wave, having put out two outstanding, unique albums that combine a sort of carnival atmosphere with a jazzy take on ska. But, uh, that song title is not great. Listening carefully, I think it’s an attempt to be clever, there’s no malice here, but yeah.

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