- Release date:
- July 8, 2008
- Artist/Band name:
- Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
- Record label:
- Fat Wreck Chords
- Official Web Site:
- http://www.gimmegimmes.com/
Backstory: Show tunes, Barry Manilow, country classics and R. Kelly—in the past, all targets of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, an all-star punk-rock covers group that has, through the course of its six previous records, managed to make everything they touch sound like a pretty good NOFX song (no surprise, as that group’s frontman Fat Mike is the bassist here). For Me First’s 10th anniversary (give or take), the group is releasing 12 songs originally recorded but not released for their 1997 debut “Have a Ball,” most of which revisit the worst of the ‘70s.
Why you should care: If you’ve ever had “Country Roads” or “You’ve Got a Friend” lodged in your brain, it’s a relief to have that melody hijacked by the Gimme Gimmes’ take on these schmaltzy classics…especially when the latter track, a James Taylor soft rocker, is reimagined here to the tune of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Although those moments of mash-up brilliance are few and far between, there’s something nice about having overly familiar songs re-energized by a few punk rock guys who sound like they (somewhat) respect the source material.
Verdict: Not nearly as classic as the band’s debut, mainly due to the song selection (“Have a Ball” took Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” and made it one of the best, most preposterous sing-alongs in punk rock history; here, they settled on simply speeding up Joel’s boring “Only the Good Die Young”). But hey, “Coming to America” never sounded so badass.
X-Factor: Track five, the 28-second “Sodomy” may not be familiar to most people; it was a song in the musical “Hair.” For more Broadway goodness done as three-chord anthems, check out the Gimme Gimmes’ 1999 record “…Are a Drag.”
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