My experience with the California ska-punk band Buck-O-Nine is limited, but can be easily summed up into two sections. 1999's Libido worked as my introduction to the band, and I thought it was a pretty solid disc. I mean, it wasn't earth shattering, but for a disc to put on in the summer time with the windows down, well, I've heard a lot worse.
Like the band's 2000 mix of live and new tracks, Hellos and Goodbyes. That album was terrible, with few highlights, despite the promise that it would capture the band's live energy. I was unimpressed, especially compared to the energy I did see them bring onstage at the 1999 Warped Tour.
However, I had long heard that the band's older recordings were their best. Essentially, there was Twenty Eight Teeth and there was Barfly. Finding a used copy of Barfly for two dollars about a year back sealed it. Said purchase would also just about seal up any interest I had in this band.
Released on Taang! Records in 1995, Barfly was the band's second release, following up the word of mouth success that greeted their first record, the self-financed Songs in Key of Bree. Barfly showcases the band's many third wave influences, including, but not limited to Fishbone and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. In short, it is an album that has all the right influences and very little else.
The first problem with the record is evident on the very first track: the vocals are mixed way down low, and are almost drowned out by the music. Given the fact that the song, Callin' In Sick, is a mindless ode to, well, calling in sick (complete with faux phone call where the singer tells his boss "f*ck you," oh how rebellious he is!), the fact that the vocals are drowned out isn't such a bad thing, especially since the music is actually decent on this track.
I've always been a big believer that white guys should not try to pull off a Jamaican accent, and this belief is reinforced by Pass the Dutchie, a terrible mix of ska with reggae overtones that soon devolves into a boring mix of driving punk chords and underwater production.
The underwater production problem doesn't go away either. It infests this album like the plague. The horns consistently sound like they're being played by a high school marching band, although, to be fair, the horn parts are mostly inconsequential to the songs. Instead, the band has fallen in love with some basic ska chords and has decided to use them on every song. There's not one thing here that could be called a "riff." Instead, it is the same basic ska chords, backed up by the same basic punk chords, over and over again, ad nauseum. It's like you've become Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and you're living the same nightmare over and over again.
To make matters worse, the band covers songs by some of the most influential artists in the genre ever. They completely butcher Wrong Em Boyo from The Clash's classic 1979 album London Calling before paying even worse tribute to Operation Ivy on Sound System.
A couple of songs do rise above the mediocrity and downright crappiness of the others (most notably Water in My Head and the hooky title track), but that is literally about it. The band lacks a ton in originality, and I'm not just talking about the intrusive cover tracks; at least one of these songs is a direct rip of another band's song. Good songwriting could make up for that, but the songwriting here is boring, unoriginal tripe.
Barfly isn't even worth the two bucks I paid for it. If you feel like you want an introduction to this band, Libido is by far the best place to start. It should probably be where you end your trip through Buck-O-Nine history.
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