‘Candy Coated Fury’ is an energetic album with on the gruesomeness and the ironic awesomeness of love and the perils of being part of the human society while going rock steady on punk. As Aaron Barrett, the lead vocalist, guitarist and main song writer says, “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.” He goes on to state, “We're finally just doing what Reel Big Fish does best, and that's what we did on those first two albums.”
Now if you hadn’t grown up skanking to RBF, I would definitely say that you have missed out. But it’s never too late to start. These guys have been ska-ifying and punk-ifying the airwaves for almost 20 years now. They set foot into the music scene with their self-released, debut album, 'Everything Sucks,' back in 1995. Soon the band was signed to Mojo Records, and attained well-deserved publicity, amongst the likes of other bands of their time such as, Sublime and No Doubt.
There’s nothing like hearing the sound of brass instruments and the organ in the midst of punk riffs. RBF’s ‘Candy Coated Fury’ begins with a funny, brutally honest track, ‘Everyone else is an Asshole.’ The song is very classic, RBF and it’s vibe and theme serves as a sing-along anthem. The preceding tracks move onto themes on dysfunctional relationships, such as, “ Lost Cause,” “Your Girlfriend Sucks,” and the superb, “I know You too well to like You Anymore,” with an ample amount of role play with lovers cussing at each other.
I’m also a fan of some of the more old-school sounding tracks, such as “Hiding in My Headphones,” and the extremely catchy instrumental, “Don’t Stop Skanking,” that have more ska than punk. And would you ever picture yourself skanking to the Wonderstuff’s “Don’t Let Me Down Gently”? I think not! Well RBF took the liberty of adding their special touch to the song, as well as ska-ifying When In Rome’s “The Promise.”
When speaking about the album, Barrett says, “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.”
So far, in the band’s musical carrier, it has released 7 studio albums, several EPs, been part of various compilations and had an inflow and it is currently signed to Rock Ridge Music. At the moment, including Barrett, RBF’s lineup includes Dan Regan on the trombone, John Christianson (Johnny Christmas) on the trumpet, Ryland Steen on the drums, with Derek Gibbs on the bass and Matt Appleton on the saxophone and vocal harmonies.
Adding the sugar-coating, as they usually do to blatant truths RBF is like an ice-cold cocktail on a blistering-hot summer’s day. Just the thing I would recommend to add to your summer playlist.
Find out more about Reel Big Fish on these links:
http://www.reel-big-fish.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ReelBigFish
http://www.myspace.com/reelbigfish
http://twitter.com/reelbigfish
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