Upbeats and Beatdowns

Description

Upbeats and Beatdowns is the debut album by the American ska-influenced alternative rock band Five Iron Frenzy , released on SaraBellum Records in 1996, a division of 5 Minute Walk Records, distributed by WEA. The album was recorded from 9/2 to 9/10, 1996 at One Way Studios in Concord, California; with Masaki Liu producing. Mixed by Masaki.

Five Iron Frenzy is Reese Roper on lead vocals, Scott Kerr on guitar and background vocals, Micah Ortega on guitar, Nathanael “Brad” Dunham on trumpet and background vocals, Dennis Culp on trombone (and background vocals on track 10), Leanor (Jeff the Girl) Ortega on saxophone, Keith Hoerig on bass, and Andrew Verdecchio on drums.

They call it ska-core. Punk rock fused with the bouncy rhythms and horns of ska music ala The Specials. Now bands like the Voodoo Glow Skulls have built a fan base for “Third Wave Ska” music. When The Supertones released their album on Tooth & Nail Records, a virtual flood gate opened into the Christian market and now it seems that ska-core bands are sprouting up all over the place. Of these come Five Iron Frenzy with their debut. Several songs here deal with tough issues like unity in the Church and the atrocities committed in the name of Christ in the past and present. With songs like «Where Zero Meets Fifteen» where Reese Roper, the lead singer and writer of most of the songs, deals with his inability to help the suffering people around him. It’s easy to see that Five Iron Frenzy is not just another band pointing a condemning finger. ‘Upbeats And Beatdowns’ also contains a couple of strangely different songs. One being a song dealing solely with the ’80s television show Different Strokes and the other is a hilarious ska-core version of Amy Grant’s early hit «Everywhere I Go». While a few of the songs come off as cheesy, ‘Upbeats And Beatdowns’ maintains a strong lyrical diversity, sometimes funny and light hearted, at other times tough and hard hitting. [Rod Lobaugh, Cross Rhythms, June 1997]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/upbeats-beatdowns/867557372)

CD tracklist:

01. The Old West
02. Where Zero Meets 15
03. Cool Enough For You
04. Anthem
05. Faking Life
06. Shut Up
07. Arnold & Willis & Mr. Dumond
08. I Feel Lucky
09. Milestone
10. Beautiful America
11. Combat Chuck
12. Amalgamate
13. Everywhere I Go
14. A Flowery Song
15. Third World Think Tank
16. untitled

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by SaraBellum Records.

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