Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Genre: Punk
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

When I heard Me First and the Gimme Gimmes were coming out with another album, I got excited. No, not THAT way! But then I realized it was just songs I already heard. Either I heard them on 7 inches, live or some other way. I have heard 90 percent of these songs but it’s still nice to have these songs on one album. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of “Have a Ball,” Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are releasing a second installment of recordings from the original session. The songs are remastered and 2 songs are unreleased (well until now).

If you have no idea who The Gimmes are, well they are a punk rock supergroup covering songs from the 50s-80s, as well as other genres. The band consists of members of Swingin’ Utters, NOFX, Lagwagon, and the Foo Fighters. Despite the fact that I heard the majority of these songs, I loved this album. Originally the band was going to release “Have A Ball” as a 2 disc set, but I think they wanted to see how the punk rock community handled their first release. Obviously most of the punks love The Gimmes, I know I do. Some people can’t stand the band but we’ll pretend those people don’t exist.

The album starts off with Hall & Oates “Rich Girl,” then goes into Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” which sounds a lot better I think. The best cover on the album is debatable, but I think it’s between “Country Roads” and “Coming to America.” There’s just something about Neil Diamond songs that sound great when punk bands cover him. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes always add in punk riffs & motifs from classic punk songs into the songs they are covering. They cleverly add in “Blitzkrieg Bop” into James Taylor’s “You’ve Got A Friend.” After each Me First album ends, I get depressed because the albums are so damn short. I always crave more and wish they would cover this song, or that song. Let’s hope the punk rock cover kings come back with a brand new album (with new material) soon!

Bottom Line: Great collection of A sides that should have made it on the original release of ‘Have A Ball’
Notable Tracks: Boxer, Country Roads, You’ve Got A Friend, Mother and Child Reunion, Only the Good Die Young, Coming To America, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
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