Ska-punk-kiddie-high-school-core goes national

LESS THAN JAKE

Losing Streak (Capitol)

When I was in high school in Berkeley, Calif., everyone worshipped a band that had broken up in 1990: Operation Ivy, the geniuses who practically invented that fiery, bouncy, angry, spirited music that's never been adequately named. Ska-punk? Ska-core? Chicken-gristle? These deities brought us all those packed shows at Gilman Street where the crowd sang along at the top of their lungs in an orgy of communal adolescent frustration, aggression, and rage. Well, we never actually went to any of those shows. We were too young. We missed it.

So we started 400 bands just like it. I was in one. We were brimming with two-note horn lines, two-chord guitar progressions, screamed lyrics with no trace of melody. (We didn't exactly have the ska element in our music, though, because our guitar player couldn't quite master that tricky "off-beat" guitar style.) I can think of about 12 other bands from our age group that played some kind of fusion of punk and ska, with varying instrumentation, style, and attitude. The problem was that Operation Ivy were original and fresh, and these bands weren't.

When I first heard Less Than Jake's major-label debut, Losing Streak, I was hit with a wave of adolescent nostalgia. At one point I seriously wondered whether I'd actually been in this band, until I realized they were from Florida. The reason: I recognized every one of their songs without having heard them before. Chord progressions and attitude by Op. Ivy, horn lines and goofy lyrics by Skankin' Pickle. This band plays simple, basic, three-chord ska-punk. There is nothing original here. Nothing at all. The lyrics are stereotypical expressions of frustration, confusion, and angst. "9th at Pine" tells a hackneyed tale of violence: "When it all came down / on that Saturday night / should I choose a side / at 9th and Pine / can we still say we're civilized / watched some kid go down at 9th and Pine." You get the idea. The "joke" tune on the album is called "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts." The joke doesn't go too much further than the title. Had it not been for Green Day, Rancid, and the Dance Hall Crashers, Capitol Records would never even have given this band a second thought.

The only things I can solidly say
in support of this band is that they are
tight, melodic, and catchy. Their songs have the brash, bouncy energy of three-chord pop-punk, and their horn lines and
ska-guitar breaks will be a refreshing
novelty for those who haven't heard this kind of music before. But for those who want an adequate introduction to this genre, buy something by Skankin' Pickle or Voodoo Glow Skulls instead. (I would
recommend Operation Ivy to anyone
with any interest at all in the music of the
last 10 years.) These guys, however,
are imitators, nothing but imitators.

--Noah Enelow

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