Mealticket - "Lisa Marie" 7"

Mealticket – “Lisa Marie” 7”

Asian Man Records, 1997

Acquired: Asian Man Records Mailorder, New, 2002
Price: $~.50

 

Yet more late 90s ska-punk from the Asian Man Records box I bought 12 years ago. This one is strange, because not only does the band sound quite a bit like early No Doubt, they look the part too! It’s eerie. I’m thinking maybe ska horns are the cheesy sax solo of the 90s, given how perfectly they date this music. Seconds after dropping the needle I was taken back to those halcyon days where I was 12 years old. Mighty Mighty Bosstones were all the rage and the Baseketball (featuring a couple rightous jams from Reel Big Fish) was constantly being blasted from my portable boom box (running on the power of 6 D batteries). It was a good time, but this music only serves my nostalgia. These songs are fun and the lyrics have some charm, but that’s about their only positive function. 

"Lisa Marie"

Mail Order Children - Thinking of Raising a Family 7"

Mail Order Children – Thinking of Raising a Family 7”

Asian Man Records, 1998

Acquired: Asian Man Records Mail Order, New, 2002

Price: ~$.50

 

While I generally have a certain affection for late 90s ska-punk, Mail Order Children make me feel like I’m on a Tilt-a-Whirl on the verge of vomiting. It’s too fast! This is often a rally cry for certain bands. The whole “We play so fast you can’t keep up with us!” vibe. I guess it works in hardcore punk, where everything gets washed out by power chords and distortion. Here, the music is going 45 RPM and the vocals are going 33. It’s unsettling, and I feel like the grandpa yelling at the teenagers walking on his lawn. Even though I find this whole affair very exhausting, I totally understand how important this stuff was to so many teenagers in the late 90s. The first show I ever went to was an all ages ska show when I was 16. I learned to skank, I had a fucking awesome time, and though this music doesn’t hold up it doesn’t really matter because it was never meant to hold up (you could argue that trumpets and quickly upstroked guitars are the cheesy sax solo of the 90s). Kudos for the horn players for being able to play their instruments blisteringly fast. Another musical trend from the late 90s ska/punk scene that tends to get overlooked is the focus on gross-out humor. Though these songs are fairly tame, the credits feature such jobs as “Bass Rapin’  & Heartbreakin’,” “Trumpetin’ & Bumpinin’,” “Alto Saxin’ & Crotch Waxin’,” “Tenor Tweakin’ & Deep Throatin’,” and “Baritonin’ & Goat Blowin’.” While Though these hopelessly juvenile antics have mostly gone the way of the buffalo (Juggalos excluded), I gotta say, reading the words “Goat Blowin’” warmed the cockles of my heart just a little bit.

Here is an example from an anthology, as the tracks on this 7" are nonexistent in Internet form:

Blindfolded from Mail Order Children on Myspace.

Korea Girl - "Reunion" 7"

Korea Girl – “Reunion” 7”

Asian Man Records, 1997

Acquired: Asian Man Records Mail Order, New, 2002

Price: ~$.50

 

I don’t know why I always think any Asian Man Records release I put on my turntable is going to be ska punk. Though AMR released a bunch of ska-punk in the 90s (great ska punk, I might add, because I’m assuming you thought it didn’t exist), they also gave shelter to a burgeoning Alkaline Trio and more recently Laura Stevenson & the Cans, Lemuria, and Dog Party. Socially conscious punk rock for the win. Korea Girl offer up more of a understated, post-grunge, mid 90s indie rock. Their music is pretty, slightly shambling, charming, and melodic. The sides of the records show two different sides of the band. The Elizabeth Yi fronted “Reunion” is all clean guitar and understated melody a la a less twee Softies whereas the Tobin Mori fronted “Launched” is a more propulsive indie rock track in the vein of Pavement. Either way, I love this unpretentious mid-90s stuff.

"Reunion"

Lemuria - Get Better

Lemuria – Get Better

Asian Man Records, 2007

Acquired: Mississippi Records, Used, 2013

Price: $4

 

Another rock solid find from Mississippi Records (have I mentioned that if you’re ever in Portland DEAR SWEET JESUS GO TO THAT RECORD STORE ALL OF THE HYPE IS TRUE!!!!!!!). Everything’s coming up Lemuria, apparently, because I now own all of their albums on Vinyl after falling in love with the band just a few months ago. Excluding their split with Kind of Like Spitting, Get Better is Lemuria’s first proper LP and it’s fucking wonderful. It’s more raw than Pebble or The Distance is So Big, but the most enchanting thing about this band has been watching them (pun inititially unintended but now fully intended) get better album after album. The songs here are more fully realized than those on Your Living Room’s All Over Me and Sheena Ozzella’s vocals are less chirpy and more soulful. The vocal interplay between Ozzella and songwriter/drummer Alex Kerns clicks a lot better here than on that aforementioned split. It’s just dreamy hearing a band come into their own. The fact that it’s on Asian Man Records, a record label that dominated my punk rock years, makes me dizzy with delight. It’s a fitting label for Lemuria’s idiosyncratic brand of pop-punk. It’s barely pop-punk though. Outside of some big power chords and heartmeltingly great hooks, Lemuria have apparently been hard to pigeon hole from the outset. The songs are both blissfully poppy, sobering, inventive and almost deceptive in their emotional resonance. The way these tracks sneak up on you and stick with you is a testament to how fucking good this Buffalo, NY trio was from the start and I’m almost scared to see how good their follow up to The Distance is So Big is gonna be considering that that album is almost definitely vying for the title of my favorite album of 2013. Get Better is prophetic in every sense.

"Pants"

Five Iron Frenzy - Miniature Golf Courses of America Present... 7"

Five Iron Frenzy – Miniature Golf Courses of America Present Five Iron Frenzy 7"

Asian Man Records, 1997

Acquired: Asian Man Records Mail Order, New, 2002

Price: ~$.25

 

Enter the Late 1990s Ska-Punk Octagon, where a band with a “Christian Message” sounds just like any other ska-punk band founded by band geeks. There’s just something so wholesome and unthreatening about ska-punk, so I’m surprised there aren’t more Christian ska-punk bands. At least here Five Iron Frenzy don’t feel the need to shoehorn their faith into their songs (unlike say, Relient K) henceforth the music is enjoyable rather than irksome. It helps that the 7” kicks off with a cover of Abba’s “Mama Mia,” which, you know, is a rock solid jam no matter who’s playing it. It works surprisingly well with the horn section! The two original tracks—“Arnold, and Willis, and Mr. Drummond” and “Handbook For the Sellout—aren’t exclusive to the 7” and don’t really offer much in the way of originality. But that’s ska-punk, isn’t it? You know what you’re getting into and the genre is best suited for venues packed with young people skanking the night away.