I kept sleeping on the Bad Operation LP. A while ago I signed up for the notification when a new pressing was available from Bad Time Records. The first notification came in and I guess I waited a bit too long to order, so no dice. Finally a month or so ago the 3rd pressing came up for order so I got me a beautiful cotton candy. That is however not what I'm writing about today, when I got the first notification (yet after I went and saw the 2nd pressing was already sold out) I went through the Bad Time bandcamp to figure out what albums I was going to order with Bad Operation. I only sampled a few songs from each band because I like the surprise of a new band and through that sampling I decided that I'd order Kill Lincoln, The Best of the Worst, and Joystick!'s newest albums. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago when my order from Bad Time came in. I was pretty excited to listen to the lot because I only had a vague guess as to what they would sounds like..and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. I got 4 great ska albums that pull from all over the ska umbrella with tons of outside influence, they're familiar but completely new.
Joystick!'s I Can't Take It Anymore (which is also released through Stomp) is a fantastic album. I'm not quite sure if it's skacore or ska punk...really, it's somewhere between the two. There's a lot of melody, some driving and distorted guitars, strong punk bass lines, horns for the most part used as an accent, and a few hardcore breakdowns. They're a full ska band with 2 trombones, a trumpet and a tenor sax, but depending on the song the brass may just show up for a little bit...or come for the whole party. The opening song Retcon has a full on metalcore breakdown, No Sleep After Brooklyn in a ska instrumental track with a bit of punk attitude. I feel like there's traces of Big D and the Bosstones throughout the album, with a heavy Suicide Machines with horns sound, there's even some Latinx horn lines here an there that when mixed with the core influence bring Voodoo Glow Skulls to mind. They can go from a balls to the wall skacore banger to a slow and bouncy song with ease (sometimes even within the same song) and it's not one bit jarring. The vocals are melodic with a bit of snot, and the lyrics are on the introspective side. The Semicolon piano based interlude on Side B is also great and really helps add even more atmosphere to an already impressive album. My only complaint is that there's no lyric sheet or credits outside of the band credits on the back of the jacket.
Now there's been a bag of Great Value Extreme Creamy Garlic + Dill Extreme Flavoured potato chips (free from artificial flavours & colours) for a month or so. I've been looking forward to this bag but wasn't sure what to pair it with or how Extreme they would be. This isn't necessarily a new flavour, a lot of brands have a creamy dill pickle variant...so with great value switching up the name a bit did they make their own stand out entry to the genre? Well, lets see. They smell very dilly and very vinegary..which made my mouth instantly water. Mid sized couple mm ridges. Mid crunch. The flavour is very present..extreme, I dunno, we'll see once I get through half a bag. There's a lot of dill in the mix, some nice vinegar tang, slight sweetness. I'm not picking up a lot on the garlic because the aforementioned flavours are quite aggressive. These are slightly creamy, however nowhere near as creamy as other CDP chips that I've had before. These are quite good. I'm a fan on vinegar based flavours and these bring the vinegar in spades without overpowering the dill. Maybe the slight sweetness is the garlic? I dunno, it doesn't really matter anyway because these are a hit. Now, you're probably asking how do the match up to the President's Choice Loads of Creamy Dill Pickle Flavour chips, well let me see because I also have a bag of those beside me. Give me a second while I crack, open, a..PC's version has a slightly sweeter vinegar flavour. The chips are more dense than the GV version which provides far more of a crunch with ridges of about the same size. The PC also are slightly creamier. Both great levels of vinegar with the GV's vinegar being slightly hotter than the PC. Not a single dud in either of the bags beside me. They both bring their own flavour to the creamy dill pickle genre and I don't think you can go wrong picking either bag.
What about The Best of the Worst's Better Medicine is a banger. Three contributing vocals throughout the album. Liz with a generally smooth melodic delivery that is discernible even in the harmonies with the other vocalists. (I'm guessing) Jason has a delivery that goes from yelled with melody (if that makes sense) to something closer to screaming, to a metal growl. I'm guessing that Joe (drummer) generally joins in for the harms, I don't think I noticed another lead voice. Best of the Worst does a fantastic job at jumping back and fourth from bouncy ska to brutal hardcore with horns. They beautifully blend skacore with metalcore and a sprinkling of crust throughout the album. The lyrics seem to be more from an observers point of view (similar to Joystick!, no lyric sheet and not much for credits [just on the back of the jacket], they come from more from a social commentary perspective rather than introspection. Keyboard, trombone, sax, yessir, the brass is very present throughout the album and often comes off as the lead to me. The songs are very much manic jumping from skankable to picking up change and spin kicking, and back to skanking but it's structured so well that the transitions don't feel harsh. The songs are relatively consistent in tone throughout the album where they don't blend into one another, however they don't deviate too far off path from their skacore sound, and this is very much THEIR skacore sound. I'd love to see this band live just to witness the mania within their pit.
Bad Time Records is putting out some fantastic ska that is pushing boundaries while respecting the genre.
Stay hydrated,
Marc
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