Concert Reports

It was a Ska-Punk showdown when REEL BIG FISH & LESS THAN JAKE invaded the Majestic Ventura Theater, May 8, 2015! The Warped Tour Veterans are in the midst of a U.S. Tour which takes them back East and overseas throughout the Summer.

All Photos: Steve Kennedy

www.Facebook.com/SteveKennedyPhotography

www.Reel-Big-Fish.com        www.LessThanJake.com

Reel Big Fish was one of the legions of Southern California ska-punk bands to edge into the mainstream following the mid-’90s success of No Doubt and Sublime. Like most of their peers, the band was distinguished by their hyperkinetic stage shows, juvenile humor, ironic covers of new wave pop songs, and metallic shards of ska. The group cultivated an underground following that broke into the mainstream in summer 1997, when their single “Sell Out” became a modern rock radio and MTV favorite. Their appearance in the movie “Baseketball” as the halftime band also gained them more fans and helped the bands popularity to grow. Still fronted by original lead singer and song writer Aaron Barrett, they continue releasing albums and touring relentlessly, playing more and more countries and bigger venues all over the world.

Reel Big Fish recorded its self-released debut album, “Everything Sucks”, in 1995. “Everything Sucks” became a word-of-mouth underground hit in ska-punk and college circles, which gave the band enough leverage to sign with the indie label Mojo Records. The label’s president, Jay Rifkin, and former Oingo Boingo bassist John Avila co-produced “Turn the Radio Off”, which marked Reel Big Fish’s first album for Mojo. “Turn the Radio Off” was unleashed in August 1996, and over the next year, the group continually toured in support of the album’s release, expanding their fan base all the while. In spring 1997, the single “Sell Out” began receiving heavy airplay from several influential modern rock stations in the U.S., which soon translated into MTV support for the song’s quirky video. By summer, the song had become a moderate modern rock hit, and the album had charted in the Top 100.

In 1998 the song “Take on Me” from the “Baseketball” motion picture soundtrack was released as the promotional single for the movie and once again found the band in regular rotation on rock radio and MTV in the USA. The Album “Why Do They Rock So Hard” followed a year later, once again enlisting Oingo Boingo Bassist John Avila as producer. The album was not as commercially successful but is still regarded by many fans as the bands finest work. The band filmed a music video for “the Set up (You Need This)”, the only single released from this album.  

The guys wound up on Jive Records in fall 2001 when their current label, Mojo, was bought by Jive’s parent label, Zomba. Reel Big Fish’s first release for Jive, a more rock-oriented record entitled “Cheer Up!”, appeared in mid-2002. This album was very successful in Europe with the video for the single “Where Have You Been” receiving heavy airplay on many music video channels.

Later that same year, RBF did a song for a Rice Krispies called “Snap, Krackle, Pop-punk” which was used in 3 separate commercials. Also that year, they recorded a cover of Toots and the Maytals “Monkey Man” for the Nickelodeon movie “The Wild Thornberrys.” The single for “Monkey Man” was also released in the UK and received heavy radio play as well as the music video being put on heavy rotation on Kerrang TV.

The band’s next album, the cynical yet catchy “We’re Not Happy ‘Til You’re Not Happy”, was issued in April 2005. Touring continued for the rest of the year, and Reel Big Fish happily parted ways with Jive in January 2006, having wished to be dropped from the label since the “Cheer Up!” release.

In August 2006, the group self-released a double-disc live CD (along with an accompanying DVD) titled “Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album”. Barrett said of this album “We finally captured the energy, excitement and humor of our live shows that we were previously unable to create in the recording studio environment. And it all sounds really good!”  

This album is very popular with RBF fans and is sometimes referred to as “the Reel Big Fish Stand-up comedy album” because of all the silly stage banter. The band returned with some new material in February 2007, splitting an EP “Duet All Night Long” with their friends in Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer. “Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free” followed several months later, marking Reel Big Fish’s first full-length studio release since leaving Jive’s roster, and 2009′s “Fame, Fortune and Fornication” found the band covering songs by the likes of Poison, the Eagles, and Tom Petty.

In 2010, the band released “A Best of Us for the Rest of Us”. It includes a 22 song disc of re-recorded hits and classic fan favorites as well as a bonus disc of 14 Acoustic or “SKAcoustic” versions.

On July 31st, 2012 Reel Big Fish released their 7th studio album, Candy Coated Fury (Rock Ridge Music), an inspired and infectiously catchy return to the hyperkinetic ska and biting wit of the band’s beloved early albums. “This album is a lot like our first two albums. It’s got a lot of the same intensity, frantic energy in the music, and the same sarcastic sense of humor. I think these are the fastest songs we’ve done since those albums,” Aaron Barrett, founding vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter says. “We’re finally just doing what Reel Big Fish does best, and that’s what we did on those first two albums.”  

“Candy Coated Fury pretty much describes what Reel Big Fish does,” Barrett says of the significance of the new album’s title. “It’s hateful, mean, sarcastic, and, sometimes sad lyrics, over happy, wacky, silly, joyous, fast music that makes you want to dance. This album is mostly love songs, but bitter, angry, hateful love songs. Just about everybody knows what it’s like to be in a bad relationship. These songs could be sung by a 15 year old about his first love-gone-wrong, or by a 55 year old about a bitter divorce after 30 years. They’re bad-relationship songs that everybody can relate to.”

Candy Coated Fury was Reel Big Fish’s first album of newly recorded original material in five years. Overall, it’s the seventh in the band’s twenty year history, and it feels as vital and vitriolic as RBF’s foundational releases. The record opens with the huge sing-along vocal, balmy horns, and hyperactive ska groove of “Everyone Else Is An Asshole.” The track is an exceptional distillation of Reel Big Fish’s classic euphorically-juvenile ska punk. The stately arena riffs in “I Dare You To Break My Heart” reference cock rock, new wave, and soul without sacrificing one iota of RBF’s signature simmering skank. “I listen to the Darkness a lot; it was only a matter of time till I wrote a song like this! I can’t really sing as high as that guy so this song sounds more like Kiss, if Kiss was a Motown band that played ska,” Barrett says, detailing the song’s diverse stylistic touchstones. The anthemic “I Know You Too Well To Like You Anymore” features some of Barrett’s finest cutely cruel lyrics. “I think that is an amazing bad-relationship song,” he laughs. “I really captured the hateful love of two people who were once madly in love, but have been together so long, they can’t stand the sight of each other anymore but still say ‘they drive me crazy, and I hate this and this about them, but I love them.’” No RBF album would be complete without playfully irreverent 1980s covers. The band rounds things out ska-ifying the Wonderstuff’s “Don’t Let Me Down Gently” and When In Rome’s “The Promise.”

On December 12th, 2014 RBF released their first Christmas Album, A six song, digital only album entitled “Happy Skalidays”. This album includes 4 classic Christmas songs and 2 RBF originals.

Reel Big Fish continues to tour non-stop, playing over 250 shows a year to thousands of loyal fans all over the world, gaining more and more underground popularity as the Ska scene continues to flourish.

Visit www.Reel-Big-Fish.com for all the latest

Less Than Jake

Playing music is about moments. A collection of great moments defines an amazing record. An avalanche of powerful moments tumbles into an engaging live show. The moment when band and fan become one and the same, the moment of interaction, is the type of moment that lasts forever.  

Twenty years into its pioneering journey, Gainesville, Fla., natives Less Than Jake – comprised of lyricist/drummer Vinnie Fiorello, vocalist/guitarist Chris DeMakes, vocalist/bassist Roger Manganelli, saxophonist Peter “JR” Wasilewski, and trombonist Buddy Schaub – have had their fair share of moments. For a band obsessed with interacting with its fans, both online and after shows; for a band that is so concerned with making sure the fan gets the perfect experience, with well-known hijinks in every live performance; for a band with seemingly unlimited creativity in the form of physical products, from custom-made cereal boxes to unique vinyl packaging; and for a band that is so passionate when writing new music, 20 years begins to seem like an even longer amount of time. A lot of moments add up over two decades – teenagers grow into men over two decades – dare we say, things change?

Ever-adapting to the constant change in an unsure music industry, Less Than Jake is still making cannonball-sized splashes in the deep end while many of its peers timidly eye shallow waters. With the release of Greetings And Salutations (2012) this sentiment is as true as ever. The twelve-track release recorded at The Moathouse in Gainesville and produced by Less Than Jake’s own Roger Lima, includes both limited edition EP’s Season’s Greetings and Greetings From Less Than Jake plus two unreleased songs.

The twelve tracks are pure unfiltered LTJ, Sunny ska mixed with barn-burner punk rock, more intended to get long-time fans and first-time listeners warmed up and moshing in their living rooms and singing along to every lyric. Keeping its signature mix of punk roots and horn-driven melodies, songs like “A Return To Headphones” and “Finer Points of Forgiveness” take the best of old-school Less Than Jake and put on a fresh coat of paint for an amped-up listening experience.

Drummer Vinnie Fiorello puts the release into perspective “We had been writing music in short creative bursts for the last year but looking back at all the songs they wound up more of a cohesive thought, following the moods of the seasons of the year, from the winter through the summer. Greetings And Salutations is as much moody and tense as it is casual and laid back…”

Greetings And Salutations is the follow up to 2010’s TV/EP and the band’s last full-length, 2008’s GNV FLA and is being released in Europe and the UK via Rude Records on October 16th. With the rest of the year of worldwide touring ahead, the group is still following through on its mission to please the fan, wherever the fan may be. More so than many bands that have been doing this for so long, Less Than Jake continues to provide output that loyal fans love. From a 16-minute EP of TV theme show cover songs to re-releases of their classic back catalog to live shows of genre staples Losing Streak or Hello Rockview in their entirety, Less Than Jake has done it all. Less Than Jake will continue to do it all. “We’re constantly pushing ourselves to come up with new ways to present the band,” says Schaub, “whether it be within the writing of our songs, ideas for keeping our live shows fresh, coming up with crazy new merch ideas, or just coming up with the best joke in the van. Keeping your band new and innovative is the key to lasting around for more than a minute in the minds of fans.”

As the release of See The Light in 2013 proved, this isn’t a band content to rest on the laurels of past success. In fact, 2015 is more about pushing forward and breaking new ground, rather than contemplatively reflecting on the success of yesteryear. A constantly innovative force in the industry, DeMakes says the band has managed to stay around so long by staying true to themselves. “Twenty years of blood, sweat and beers,” DeMakes says. “It’s been a privilege and a pleasure. We have survived more trends than we can count and have managed, so far, to leave a legacy of music two decades long.  

All Photos: Steve Kennedy

www.Facebook.com/SteveKennedyPhotography

www.Reel-Big-Fish.com      www.LessThanJake.com  

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