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Reel Big Fish suck. Their five minutes of fame expired some time between "The Impression That I Get" and "Jump, Jive An' Wail," and now they're scratching their goatees in bemusement, contemplating a bleak future filled with bargain basement CDs and frat party gigs.
That's the way Reel Big Fish tell it, anyway. |
Just in time for the release of Why Do They Rock So Hard?,
the ska cynics are playing Nostradamus -- predicting a miserable
undoing at the hands of greedy radio programmers and fickle teenage
audiences. Reel Big Fish's seventy-four minute, seventeen-track
sophomore effort literally reeks of betrayal and ruin with songs
like "The Kids Don't Like It," "Down in Flames" and "You Don't
Know," a keen little ditty that suggests all music critics go shove
their heads up their asses.
"'Down In Flames' is about the summer of '97 -- the summer of ska,
not the summer of swing," says
vocalist/guitarist/songwriter/heartthrob Aaron
Barrett. "It's about how we were a part of that, and how
all the mainstream types were all 'Oooooh, hooray,' and all the
underground people got mad at that. Now that the ska thing is over,
nobody likes us."
Oddly enough, hundreds of skanking, screaming kids crammed into
Chicago's House of Blues last Wednesday to see the
hyperactive, hyper-sarcastic septet face its self-proclaimed
impending doom. Young enough to mistake Oingo
Boingo for a Slinky, the adolescent crowd
hopped, moshed and surfed throughout the entire set -- all of this
despite Barrett's earlier gripes that "the first time you play a
new song in front of people who want to hear your old songs, they
just stand."
The spectators' jubilance during this short North American club
tour seems to suggest that the band may be setting themselves up
for yet another bout with rock radio success. Buttressing their
blather about commercialism, the loud-mouthed outfit recently
converged in Southern California to film a video for"The Set Up
(You Need This)," the first single from Why Do They Rock So
Hard? A pop culture-friendly anthem with a catchy chorus and a
simple "love stinks" theme, "The Set Up" may well torment Reel Big
Fish with more money, more fame and even more references to their
first radio hit, "Sell Out."
"I'd love to be on the radio again. I like it," says Barrett
bashfully. "I wish we could play in stadiums. Size does matter. I
want to be super rich and famous, and not be able to walk down the
street, and date models, and drive in limos all the time and have
my own private jet."
Following two years of long and loose tours with the Mighty
Mighty Bosstones, Cherry Poppin' Daddies and
MxPx, among others, Reel Big Fish headed into the
studio with longtime friend and producer John
Avila to hash out another Mojo Records
release. A harder rocking album than its predecessor, 1996's
Turn the Radio Off, Why Do They Rock So Hard?
meshes ska with reggae ("Song #3"), while serving up straight up
rock & roll ("She's Famous Now") and acoustic folk ("Big
Star").
Although Reel Big Fish have clearly taken a real big step towards
broadening their musical spectrum, the group's juvenile approach,
Beavis and Butt-head- like vocabulary and, of course, contrived
cynicism remain intact.
"The last album was about being in a band and not being able to
make it and nobody liking you or giving you a chance," Barrett
says. "This one's about how we got our chance and now it's over. We
skipped over that part where we were happy."
ANNI LAYNE (October 21, 1998)