Albums of cover songs have breathed new life into the careers of Rod Stewart, Michael McDonald and Barry Manilow, just to name a few.
Reel Big Fish drummer Ryland Steen is well aware of the covers trend. But he feels that if ever a band was suited to do a covers album, it would be Reel Big Fish.
“I think it’s because we’re a ska band, because we have horns, I think it gives us the opportunity to approach songs in a very different way from the originals,” Steen said.
Besides, Steen said, Reel Big Fish has already developed a reputation for its talent for covers.
“Pretty much every record we’ve put out, there’s usually been at least two covers on the record,” he said. “I think our fans are really excited about what we do to songs, whether we butcher them or whether we make them better.”
Fans of Reel Big Fish should be especially enthusiastic now that the group has released its first full album of covers, called “Fame, Fortune and Fornication.”
Overall, the choice of songs for the covers CD is eclectic and often surprising, considering the punk-ska sound that Reel Big Fish has pursued since the group formed in 1992 in Orange County, Calif.
To be sure, the band pays tribute to a pair of ska pioneers, covering Desmond Dekker’s “Keep a Cool Head” and Toots Hibbert’s “Monkey Man.” But few would have expected a cover of the Eagles’ “The Long Run,” John Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” or Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down.” Other selections include Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and two songs by Poison, “Talk Dirty To Me” and “Nothing But a Good Time.”
Steen said this seemingly odd mish-mash of songs was a product of the wide-ranging musical tastes of band leader Aaron Barrett.
“All these songs are songs that are in Aaron’s iPod, songs that he loves listening to,” Steen said.
Steen said Barrett has always shown a knack for recognizing cover songs that will work well when redone in the band’s ska-punk image.
And on “Fame, Fortune and Fornication,” the group certainly puts its stamp on the covers. The catchy melody of “Nothing But a Good Time” translates effortlessly into the Reel Big Fish version that features a peppy ska beat (except during the chorus, which retains much of its pop-metal structure). “The Authority Song” starts with its familiar guitar lick, but quickly accelerates into an arrangement that mixes slamming punk and skanking ska. “Brown Eyed Girl’s” famous horn parts, as well as its vocal melody, work easily in Reel Big Fish’s ska/reggae setting.
It all makes for a CD that’s sure to entertain fans of Reel Big Fish, many of whom have stood by the band even as the group’s profile has faded considerably over the past decade.
The band enjoyed a major burst of popularity in the late 1990s, when groups such as No Doubt and Sublime helped push ska to the forefront of the alternative rock scene. “Sell Out,” the single off the group’s 1996 CD, “Turn the Radio Off,” reached No. 10 on Billboard magazine’s modern rock chart, and the video for the song saw considerable play on MTV.
But the popularity of ska (and ska-punk) proved brief, and Reel Big Fish never again cracked the upper tier of the modern rock charts.
But because the band has continued to record and tour regularly, further solidifying its reputation as a fun and unpretentious live band, it can still play the same 2,000-to-3,000-seat venues it did during the heyday of the “Turn the Radio Off” CD. What’s more, Steen said, the band is far more popular now overseas than it was in the late 1990s.
“If you’re looking for that fame, if you want to be on TV, then yeah I guess everyone in the band would be (bummed) as far as where we are careerwise,” he said. “But we’re making a living. We’re on the road touring. We’re doing what we love.”
That’s exactly what Steen is doing this winter as Reel Big Fish, which also includes Barrett (vocals, guitar), Scott Klopfenstein (trumpet), Dan Regan (trombone), John Christianson (trumpet) and Derek Gibbs (bass), hits the road to support “Fame, Fortune and Fornication.” The band’s live set, though, will extend far beyond that album.
“Reel Big Fish has always been really good about playing a good mixture of songs off of every album. We definitely know all the hits that all the kids want to hear,” Steen said. “So we play a really good range of songs from all of the records.”
