Description
Crackerjack is an album by the American indie-rock/ska band One Eighty (a.k.a. Flight 180), released on BEC Recordings in November 1998, a division of Tooth & Nail Records. Also marketed and distributed in the UK by Alliance Music. The album was produced and recorded by Gene Eugene of Adam Again fame at The Green Room in Huntington Beach, California. Mixed at Front Page Studios in Glendale, California.
One Eighty features Kim Tennberg on vocals and trumpet, Madelyn Mendoza on vocals and percussion, John Anderson on saxophone, Josh Brisby on trombone, Chris Tennberg on rhythm guitar, Jerry Elekes on lead guitar, Dave DesArmier on bass, and Jamin Boggs on drums.
One Eighty’s debut, Crackerjack, may be the first sugar-pop recording to wear a ska-punk disguise. Every one of the genre’s tell-tale trappings (or clichés, depending on your view) shows up here, from pogo-stick guitar riffs to a breezy horn section. But the underlying vibe is a neon sign blinking “Top 40!”
Credit the band’s most distinct feature: the twin lead vocal harmonies of Kim Tennberg and Madelyn Mendoza. These women sing like birds, harmonizing so sweetly it’s easy to forget the bed of distorted guitars buzz-sawing beneath them.
The result comes off like a ska version of the Bangles, with enough swing and jazz references to keep things interesting. The best of the lot is «When We First Dated», which fuses ska with ’50s doo-wop, and the hyperactive «Cool World», which drops a load of pop-culture references before making its point that “nothing satisfies but God.”
Underneath the vocals, though, this is pretty standard fare. The playing is tight, as is the production by Adam Again veteran and long-time producer Gene Eugene, but the band doesn’t display a whole lot of chops. But that’s okay. Next time One Eighty can stretch a bit and fully mine the catchy vibe that’s bubbling up through those lush harmonies. [Anthony DeBarros, CCM, March 1999]
One-Eighty are a typical ska. swing, punk, pop, surf team from Orange County. Two girls, Kim Tennberg and Madelyn Mendozer, take the lead on vocals as well as playing trumpet and percussion on this album. A group of boys provides the backing. They rattle these songs off at a very fast pace, so much so that before I had managed to follow the words in the album cover, I found that I was listening to the second song. There are 14 songs on the CD. Yet to me it sounded too much like the same beat, the same fast pace, over and over again. Admittedly there are some variations. In «When We First Dated» the pace slows down and speeds up again more than once. The best song was the nearest thing to a title track that this album had «405». This tells the sobering story of a driver who curses some “crackerjack” that cuts them up only to see them crash immediately afterwards. Overall, the lyrics did look promising as they interweaved themes about dating with more spiritual matters. A closer look revealed what I felt were quite mundane platitudes. But then again, it did have a catchy beat. [Dancin’ Dave Derbyshire, Cross Rhythms, April 1999]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/crackerjack/716519882)
CD tracklist:
01. Cool World
02. Tick Tock
03. Vacation
04. When We First Dated
05. Sally
06. Wait
07. Slacking
08. 405
09. Lost In A Haze
10. Bittersweet
11. Just Like You
12. By My Side
13. Sleeples Nights
14. Without A Thought
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by BEC Recordings.
A full-page advertisement for various new releases on BEC Recordings, including One Eighty’s Crackerjack, was featured in the April 1999 issue of CCM Magazine.
“Tick Tock” (MUSIC VIDEO)
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