“me_first_gimme”
Me First & the Gimmie Gimmies
Are a Drag
Fat Wreck Chords
If you thought punk had given the finger or sneered at everyone and everything he/she stands for…think again.
Fat Mike (NOFX, Fat Wreck Chords) has conjured up another vision for he and his Gimmies to attack – showtunes! On this, their second release, punk goes Broadway as 12 classics are brutalized and revamped with a So Cal punk twist (or is it wrench?!?).
Although the musical style may not surprise, the interpretation is pretty cool, and in most cases, executed (no pun intended), to punkfection. Judy Garland would need an extra bottle of reds and vodka handy to digest the Gimmies’ rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” But to the angst-ridden society we live in today, we scream “Kudos” to the three chord assault on the merry old land of Oz. It doesn’t stop there as we journey on to Argentina where the boys rip into the tune that Hollywood dissed Madonna in Evita , “Don’t’ Cry for Me Argentina”. Me First & The Gimmie Gimmies = Grammy? It could (well, no it probably won’t) happen. Yet the mayhem continues on the dry-heave inducing “Favorite Things” and “Phantom of the Opera Song.” Orphan Annie, now grown and fresh out of rehab, was seen in the pit with a nipple ring and Dr. Martens whirling to “Tomorrow.”
You may not see Me First & The Gimmie Gimmies on any upcoming collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Weber, but most of this stage music sucks in its original format! Let “them” keep making it, and let the Gimmies turn it into listener-friendly punk for generations to come. It ain’t over ‘til Fat Mike sings!
Fat Wreck Chords, P.O. Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119-3690
