Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Blow in the Wind
Fat Wreck Chords
Punk rock’s favorite cover band is at it again! Blow in the Wind is probably the most fun Me First & the Gimme Gimmes record to date. Moonlighting from their day gigs in NOFX (bassist Fat Mike), Swingin’ Utters (vocalist Spike Slawson), Foo Fighters (guitarist Chris Shifflet), and Lagwagon (guitarist Joey Cape and drummer Dave Raun), the punk rock supergroup takes the piss out of 13 ’60s classics, ranging from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt. The boys are obviously having a lot of fun with this one, as every track crackles with energy and high spirits. The best moments coming when they marry punk rock classics to the ’60s tunes, i.e. The Beach Boys’ “Sloop John B” starting with the distinctive drum beats and shout outs from the Ramones’ “Teenage Lobotomy,” or most ingeniously, mixing The Clash’s “London Calling” into the similarly bouncy Turtles hit, “Elenor.” Even the obvious jokes seem fresh, like recording songs that were originally sung by women, like The Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back” (given a sneering punk rock twist that I won’t spoil at the close) and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” (OK, nobody’s gonna top the Blues Brothers’ version for sheer hilarity, but the boys do a fine job of taking the piss out of it, especially when they turn it around to be about themselves). Nothing cerebral or earth shattering, just a breezy, old-fashioned good time to be had by all – and isn’t that enough?
Fat Wreck Chords, P.O. Box 193690, San Francisco, CA 94119, http://www.fatwreck.com
