MxPx – On The Cover II

March 24, 2009
Tooth & Nail Record

Oh, 80s nostalgia, how I love thee. Cheesiness, in my mind, reached its apex in the form of 1980s pop music. The big hair, the crazy colours, Tiffany, the New Kids on the Block. I was only a child and not really into music in the 80s, so I was really introduced to the 80s pop music through punk covers of some of the best of the best of the cheese. But that was in the mid-to-late-90s.

MxPx released the first installment of On The Cover in 1995 during the punk-pop era, when ska was cool and Green Day was famous for Dookie, which in my books is still orders of magnitude better than American Idiot. That was when music was fun, fast and catchy, and it wasn’t necessarily required that guitarists knew more than three chords. I listened to MxPx, Bad Religion, Green Day, The Offspring, Rancid, and many other bands whose priorities were on loud, fast, catchy music. MxPx has been one of my favourite bands since high school, and I still enjoy their music, especially their early stuff, up to The Ever-Passing Moment. The albums after that have been hit and miss (for those keeping track: Before Everything And After: miss, Panic: hit, Secret Weapon: neutral.

Now Green Day is famous for American Idiot, The Offspring knows more chords, and Less Than Jake just pretends its horn section doesn’t exists. I’m not sure if NOFX and some of the other bands I listened to are still around. I listen to folk music more often than I listen to punk music, and my morning radio of choice is CBC Radio One, especially now that Andy Barry’s back from his extended leave. Times have certainly changed, and I think overall that’s a good thing.

Anyways, back to MxPx. Last week, they released On The Cover II, which I got the chance to listen to for this first time today. The tracks are:

1. Punk Rock Girl – Dead Milkmen
2. I Will Follow – U2
3. Suburban Home – Descendents
4. I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers
5. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg) – The Ramones
6. Vacation – The Go-Go’s
7. Heaven Is a Place on Earth – Belinda Carlisle
8. Kids in America – Kim Wilde
9. Fallen Angel – Poison
10. Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash
11. Linda Linda – The Blue Hearts
12. Somebody to Love – Queen

Overall, I feel pretty happy with what they’ve done on this album. However, Punk Rock Girl, and Somebody To Love were perfect they were and never ever need to be covered, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered I Would Walk 500 Miles a lot better. The lead singer of Tsunami Bomb did the female vocals on Heaven is a Place on Earth and I loved her voice and now I need to go find some of her music. The problem I feel with the album is that I don’t like either the first or the last track, so it leaves me underwhelmed due to that fact. I listened to it a second time on shuffle and enjoyed the experience a lot more.

MxPx has been around for a long time, and I’ve enjoyed their music for a long time. This album hasn’t changed my feelings about them, but it hasn’t made me fall in love with them all over again, either. A solid album with some fun songs, with a good mix of 80s nostalgia and covers of classic-era punk music. All in all, I think there’s something in here for everyone.