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

Video of the Week: Less Than Jake - "Does the Lion City Still Roar?"

From their new album GVN FLA (separate post about the album still to come!)

Thinking About Punk Rock

I still have an affinity for punk rock music although I'm close to being in my 30's. There is just something so wonderful and powerful in a 45 second, super-fast power chord filled rock song. Just seems to get me moving. But, I realize that many people don't listen to punk rock and don't understand what makes the difference between a good punk rock song and a bad punk rock song. As with any other genre of music people have varying opinions about good vs. bad songs, and you will get different answers depending and who you ask. For the benefit of the unknowing, I will give my breakdown here.

Now, I'm not going to go into a diatribe about how in the 70s punk rock rose from the ashes as a backlash to disco, but to fully understand all the things that fans love about punk rock you first must understand the range that punk rock covers, and the different forms the music can take that are deemed acceptable to pass as punk rock. Punk rock can be fun or harsh, it can be silly or angry, it can even be poppy or politically charged. Punk rock can be simply guitar, bass and drums--or it can include other instruments like horns, stand up basses, keyboards, and even the violin. The one thing in common across all punk rock songs is the crunching guitar and fast tempo.

Of course, not all punk rock fans love all the forms punk rock can take, or the topics that the bands choose to sing about. Some prefer the angry and political punk rock bands because they sort of make a declaration of their unhappiness with the status quo. Others prefer the lighter pop punk sound because to them its more fun. Its these differences in each individual that determine what makes a good vs. a bad punk rock song.

Doesn't sound very profound does it? That's because its not. Punk rock is no different than any other form of music when it comes to why people like a certain song or not--it comes down to movement. Not movement in terms of dancing, head bobbing, etc. What I mean is that it depends on whether the song moves people internally, as with any great song. Let's use a classic rock example of a song that is universally accepted as a great song: Hey Jude by the Beatles. Why do people love that song? What is it about that song that makes it so popular? It's because it moves people--the message moves people, the rhythm moves people, the catchiness of the song moves people. It's very memorable; people tend to remember when they first heard it, and when they hear it for the first time in a long time they suddenly remember the words and they have fun singing along with it. Great punk rock songs are no different, but think about the challenge of punk rock bands to write songs considered great.

Have you ever noticed that there are a LOT of punk rock bands out there--so many that even the hardcore punk rock fans can't keep up with all the new bands. That's because, generally speaking, punk rock is easier to play than other forms of music. I mean let's face it, most punk rock songs are a series of power chords repeated at a fast pace with mid to heavy distortion adding such a bite to the music that sometimes it's hard to make out the words. Even if bands screw up, a lot of the time it isn't noticeable. And assuming bands can put together lyrics to lay over the track that sound decent, they can produce a lot of songs in a short amount of time. But despite this fact, punk rock songs have a groove to them that fans like, or don't like. The great punk rock songs have become great because they moved a lot of fans at the same time. Sounds crazy to the untrained ear, but punk rock takes a lot of talent to be good at.

That's what I love about it. In my opinion, the great punk rock bands are the ones that make so much out of so little. I use the phrase "so little" because most punk rock songs are so short that there isn't much time for them to become elaborate expressions of music. A lot of them don't have guitar solo's, a lot of them have a few lines repeated several times, and as I said above typically the music is "easy" to play. The great punk rock songs are the ones that come across your speakers with a synergy that makes them sound like they are so much more than they are. Yes, I do appreciate the rawness in the crunching guitars and the off-pitch vocals. I do get hyped up by the speed of the music. But its the idea of so much from so little that fascinates me about punk rock (its also why I love The White Stripes, but that's for another time). I will not list my favorite punk bands here--rather I will write about them as time goes on. And maybe I'll post about why I believe that some of the best song writers in music today are coming from punk rock and country.