Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Have Another Ball!
Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Release Date: July 8, 2008
Back in 1995, five Bay Area friends - all from different yet respected punk bands - decided to take their love of karaoke and FM radio staples to new heights by forming a fun-loving side project that basically combined elements of lounge singing with punk rock to make Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. In fact, they had so much fun singing these timeless classics from artists who were the antithesis of everything punk rock despised (like Carly Simon and Logins & Messina), they thought about stretching it out to 2-CDs worth of sped-up oldies for their 1997 debut.
Alas, the band figured too much rock for the Warped Tour audience might result in overdosing on pure, unadulterated rockage, and send them into a hypnotic, acid-trip-like trance that Jerry Garcia experienced on a nightly basis for ... well, until his death. The first Gimmes session wound up having a dozen tracks leftover, put onto limited-edition EPs featuring the first or last name of whatever artist the band was paying homage to (e.g. Denver for John Denver; Billy for Billy Joel). Now, after taking on showtunes, 60’s pop, R&B and country (not to mention crashing a Bar Mitzvah), the band has decided to present their fans with remastered versions of these long-lost b-sides and the other half of their aforementioned debut, Have a Ball.
The most noticeable improvement since their inception is vocalist Spike Slawson’s (bass player for Swingin’ Utters) voice. Here, it is still very raw and throaty (see: “Only The Good Die Young”) while nowadays, he feels almost like he would be completely comfortable singing nightly in Las Vegas. Slawson is the star of the show here, with legendary NOFX front man Fat Mike left to picking up the rhythmic paces on bass (that of which he succeeds at) and Lagwagon vocalist Joey Cape keeping to the background on rhythm guitar. Former No Use For a Name guitarist Chris Shiflett adds his own punk-tastic touch to some very memorable chords (“Country Roads” and “Coming To America”), proving why he is revered as one of rock music’s most talented axe-handlers with Foo Fighters today.
Have Another Ball not only sounds better than the lo-fi EP versions that have been trailing across the internet for so long, they are some of the Gimmes best songs. “The Boxer” takes Simon and Garfunkel’s poetic tale of an Irish boxer to even more grandiose heights by adding much-needed flair to the tune, and “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me,” easily one of their best covers, cranks up the classic Elton John ballad better than George Michael ever could. The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” is transplanted into James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend” (originally sung by Carole King), making it an anthem for acquaintances everywhere - an impeccable song to unify an audience.
While any Gimmes fan will likely already have these in some way, shape or form, it’s nice to finally have a full-album’s worth of these classic b-sides which all sound better than ever - some may say they sound even better than Have a Ball originally did. As a companion piece to the bands debut, it works perfectly and will hold any fan over until the next time they get to hear new material from these five friends’ other bands. And hey - maybe your mom will finally come to understand why you’ve had your music turned up so loud all these years: you were simply enjoying her favorite songs in your own way.
And The Fresh Prince said parents just don’t understand...
I already have most of these songs, but they were accumulated from various file sharing sites and have shitty bitrates so it'll be sweet having all these on one disc with top quality. Looking forward to it for sure.
Also, I hate to be that guy, but isn't it "Blitzkrieg Bop" that the use as the template in the introduction to "You've Got A Friend"? (Hey Ho, Let's Go = You've Got a Friend)
I already have most of these songs, but they were accumulated from various file sharing sites and have shitty bitrates so it'll be sweet having all these on one disc with top quality. Looking forward to it for sure.
Also, I hate to be that guy, but isn't it "Blitzkrieg Bop" that the use as the template in the introduction to "You've Got A Friend"? (Hey Ho, Let's Go = You've Got a Friend)
God, what an idiot I am. I was thinking "I Wanna Be Sedated" but with the wrong melody in my head.
I don't know how I did that, what an asshole I am hahaha
Thanks for that, Chris. Splash of water in my face - okay, it's fixed now so every other guy who sees this will be like "What the fuck are they rambling about?"
And yes, I know the review on the outside page says I rated it at 72%, however, I can't rate the lyrics the band didn't write. That really isn't very fair, so it only appears to be low-scored.
God, what an idiot I am. I was thinking "I Wanna Be Sedated" but with the wrong melody in my head.
I don't know how I did that, what an asshole I am hahaha
Thanks for that, Chris. Splash of water in my face - okay, it's fixed now so every other guy who sees this will be like "What the fuck are they rambling about?"
MF&GG's are freakin awesome, glad these scattered tunes have finally found a home on one release...awesome supergroup, totally hilarious skate-punk face lift given to classic rock classics. too bad half they time they play warped it goes over 3/4's of the crowd's heads (usually, the 3/4's that are too young to remember the mid 90's skate punk heydey and too eager to see how tight william beckets jeans will be and how androgenous he will look)
MF&GG's are freakin awesome, glad these scattered tunes have finally found a home on one release...awesome supergroup, totally hilarious skate-punk face lift given to classic rock classics. too bad half they time they play warped it goes over 3/4's of the crowd's heads (usually, the 3/4's that are too young to remember the mid 90's skate punk heydey and too eager to see how tight william beckets jeans will be and how androgenous he will look)
hahahaha. this is part of the reason that I hate warped now. it used to be almost exclusively good bands like Lagwagon, NOFX, Bad Religion, etc. Now it's all these shitfuck bands like All Time Low and Metro Station, etc. so bad.
"he is revered as one of rock music’s most talented axe-handlers with Foo Fighters today."
I don't think that is really true.
Why not? They are one of the best rock bands in this day and age, Shiflett is a fantastic guitar player and has strengthened his talents through Grohl's songwriting abilities.
Why not? They are one of the best rock bands in this day and age, Shiflett is a fantastic guitar player and has strengthened his talents through Grohl's songwriting abilities.
Yeah, I agree. I don't think that he is exactly 'revered' in this way by most people though. He barely gets a thought from the majority of people, mostly because his name is not either Dave Grohl or Taylor Hawkins.
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