Me First And The Gimme Gimmes

Have Another Ball!

Written by: PP on 22/08/2008 03:27:30

I've never been too sure whether to take Me First And The Gimme Gimmes seriously or not. Are they just a tongue-in-cheek supergroup/side project, a product of the humorous minds of Fat Mike & Eric Melvin from NOFX, Joey Cape & Dave Raun from Lagwagon, Chris Shiflett from Foo Fighters and the Swingin' Utters vocalist Spike Slawson? Or are they a band with a clear mission: to cover & re-record classic songs to demonstrate how much better they could've been with a dose of punk rock speed and attitude? My guess is that they're a bit of both, judging by the note-perfect rendition of "Country Roads" at punk rock speeds, and the selection of songs like "Sodomy" as the cherry on top of the ice cream.

So apparently "Have Another Ball!" should've really been released back in the day together with "Have A Ball", effectively turning it into a double-album debut. Since that didn't happen, the release of this record is rather confusion, just like the nature of the band: is this meant to be a real release or a b-sides album composed of tracks that didn't make it to the original record? I'd be willing to guess the latter, considering that the large majority of the covers on the CD really aren't worth the hassle of going down to the record store. There's a couple of awesome covers, where classics from the 60s and 70s received a fresh breath of life into them, "Rich Girl" and "Mother And Child Reunion" as the flagships aside from the ones mentioned already, but many of the songs are plagued by the same problem as New Found Glory had on their second cover record: the songs just aren't that good to start out with, so even though they're punk'ed up a bit in terms of speed and worse production, they don't end up being particularly good. As such, "Have Another Ball!" isn't something I'd advise you to spend your money on, even if some tracks trigger positive nostalgia.

6

Download: Rich Girl, Country Roads
For the fans of: Punk goes 70s compilation
Listen: Myspace

Release date 08.07.2008
Fat Wreck Chords

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