Less Than Jake

TV/EP

Written by: PP on 05/12/2010 05:42:01

Cover albums are by no means a new idea in the bag of punk rock tricks. New Found Glory have released some of our all-time favorite movie soundtrack covers, Reel Big Fish are heavily involved in the same business, and the punk goes X series are immensely popular. But I don't think anyone has attempted anything quite as preposterous as Less Than Jake here on their sixteen track, eleven minute covers EP called "TV/EP".

As the title suggests, Less Than Jake cover songs that we all know from TV (that is, if you live in America or watch a lot of sitcoms). That's been done before, sure, but how about the short, 15-45 second covers of commercials and advertisements? That's right, aside from "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", "iCarly", "Animaniacs" and a bunch of other tv series theme songs receiving a ska treatment, Less Than Jake take the piss on things like McDonalds commercials, Kit Kat ads, and even Toys'R'Us spots. It's a ridiculous idea, but the ska punkfying of the popular and widely recognized tunes turns out to work much better than you'd expect. Basically, there's lots of fun, chuckles and laughter to be had on this collection, almost certainly ensuring it similar notoriety as the New Found Glory classic "From The Screen To Your Stereo".

I'm guessing the whole idea of the EP is to represent and make fun of the sorry state of affairs in American television, and the pathetic tendency to "channel surf" intensely. Hence all the tracks are simply titled "Channel 1" through "Channel 16", have a maximum length of barely over a minute, and are followed by the distinct sound of white-noise from switching channels on a really old TV. The joke is valid, the point is sound, and the songs are pretty good on face value. But given that these are essentially novelty tracks, I have a hard time seeing anyone enjoying this beyond the five or six listen limit. For short-term listening, however, it is excellent, and that's sort of the whole point of the experience anyway.

7

Download: Channel 5 (Different Strokes theme), Channel 10 (Spongebob Squarepants)
For the fans of: Punk goes.. X, New Found Glory's "From The Screen To Your Stereo"
Listen: Myspace

Release date 12.10.2010
Sleep It Off Records

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