Music Review: Less Than Jake's GNV FLA

Less Than Jake is one of my all time favorite bands. In fact, they are #2 on my list of favorite bands, a fact that makes some people squint their eyes and tilt their head in amazement at me when I say that. After all, they are a punk/ska band who still plays and makes music long after the early 90’s when that music enjoyed some popularity. They haven’t changed much over the years, and neither has their music. What has changed (besides the line up a few times) is what is in the content of the lyrics. As they have gotten older, their songs have grown into anthems of growing up and dealing with life’s ups and downs. It used to be that the songs were much sillier. They released their 11th studio album GVN FLA on June 24th of this year, and it’s everything long time fans of LTJ have come to love (GVN FLA is a shout out to Gainesville, Florida where the band is from).

A quick history of LTJ: although the band counts literally hundreds of recordings on everything from vinyl to cassette tapes to CD’s, they only have 11 official studio albums. The first 4 were released on small punk rock labels, and then Capital Records picked them up for two albums that are considered to be their most popular, including the omnipresent Losing Streak. But when they, and ska music in general, failed to garner the public attention that Capital thought they would they were dropped. Classic punk rock label Fat Wreck Chords produced their 5th studio album (and my favorite LTJ album) Boarders and Boundaries in 2000 before Warner Bros. Music picked them up to release 3 more albums before they were dropped from a major label yet again. The latest album was released on their own label, Sleep It Off Records, which they started this year.

LTJ has always been known for their love of PEZ, (which I also share—just ask my wife about my PEZ dispenser collection!), their crazy live shows which often have themes, and the impromptu banter they engage in on stage. They are known for having a lot of fun with their music and their live shows. They never actually released the last names of the band members—they were eventually released by the media. The band was started by the drummer Vinnie, guitarist Chris, and bassist Roger while they attended the University of Florida. In 1993 they started adding horn players to the band, and have since gone through a whole host of people and instruments in the horn section. The name come from Vinnie’s family’s dog, named Jake. Story goes that he was treated better than the rest of the family, so everyone was “less than Jake.”

This new album is more of a throw back to days of old than their last release In With the Out Crowd, but not as far back as Losing Streak. In fact, they haven’t made music that sounded quite like that in a long time. I understand though, music has to evolve like everything else. This record sounds more like Boarders and Boundaries—several classic fast moving songs with great horn lines and songs about coping with life as an adult who still feels young. Out Crowd was the most Pop-Punk sounding music they have ever recorded. I still liked it, but I am a hard core fan. I think most LTJ fans are much happier with this record. LTJ always uses simple power chords and almost never has any guitar solos. They seem to go out of their way to make the music sound fun, not angry. This record is no different. The first track off the album ”City of Gainesville” is almost deceiving—it sounds very much like a low key, laid back slow roll, which is not something they are known for. But then it gets started in a fantastically abrupt way with “The State of Florida” which they talk about the recent changes in the landscape of Florida with the real estate boom. Other songs on the record talk about their frustration of getting older, something we’ve come to expect from LTJ.

I have to say overall I am really happy with this album, and I give it 4 ½ out of 5 stars. I will say that I’m almost positive that a new comer to the LTJ sound would probably rate it lower than I will, however. Keeping with my tradition, here are my top 10 LTJ songs (Disclaimer: for those who are unfamiliar with LTJ music, another thing they are known for is having crazy names for their songs that don’t really have anything necessarily to do with the lyrics in the songs):

1) Malt Liquor Tastes Better When You’ve Got Problems
2) Gainesville Rock City
3) Sleep it Off
4) How’s My Driving?
5) Lockdown
6) Johnny Quest (Thinks We’re Sellouts)
7) Welcome to the New South
8) 1989
9) Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore
10) History of a Boring Town