Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Mad Caddies’ KEEP IT GOING is one of the most spectacular and unexpected listens I’ve had thus far this year.  This “ska” workhorse of a band has completely blind sided me with their ability to shed an old sound and produce an even fresher sound in its absence.  KEEP IT GOING is thoroughly listenable; exercising utmost proficiency in areas that have not traditionally been familiar jurisdictions for this band.

Mad Caddies, while considered a “ska” band, have always been more textured and more derivative of other influences than most other “ska” outfits that rose to great prominence in the nineties.  Their use of the token horn section was always a touch better than that of the average bombast that came from other traditional “ska” groups, such as Mustard Plug, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Reel Big Fish, and others of the same ilk.  Mad Caddies’ brass section never really played rock with their instruments.  Most “ska” of the time had that horn section that filled the offbeats, militantly skipped to the snare, or held general suspended notes over the guitar work.  Mad Caddies, on the other hand, allowed the horn section to dictate the mood and general style of each song.  Not to say that the majority of songwriting revolved around what was produced by the band members that puckered their lips for a living, but more so, the horn blowers weaved into the collective instruments much more effectively than other “ska” fare.  The Mad Caddies horn section, which is still rockin’ hard on KEEP IT GOING, have been able to dip into the realm of the Roaring Twenties, the Swinging Sixties, and a multitude of other swell decades of influence on their vast body of work.  On KEEP IT GOING the horn section is still delivering that same solid performance, but we now get to see the backbone (rhythm guitar, bass, drums) drop the Mad Caddies sound into a different gear.  Going for broke, the Mad Caddies pull off several addictive, and authentic, reggae tracks.

Production value is wonderful on this album.  The influence of Wayne Jobson (producer of successful No Doubt and Toots & The Maytals releases) is apparent in the sheer reggae authenticity that comes through from a band more known for their punk-ier aspects (kind of like Sublime!).  The Mad Caddies drive this new vision/direction home for this album on a later track, which happens to be a faithfully updated cover of Delroy Wilson’s reggae classic, “Riding for a Fall”.  Although this  reggae cover garners much print coverage, along with “State of Mind” as the first single, I tend to focus on the rest of the album that hasn’t been subject to exploitation.

Right off the bat you are hit with that helter-skelter Mad Caddie romp on “The Dirge”.  You immediately know who you are listening to.  After they have identified themselves, the Mad Caddies reveal their new sound, and in my opinion, the best song on the record; “Backyard”.  “Backyard” is an immediately infectious reggae wallop.  If you don’t instantly sway to this song after the first minute, than you may have more in common with the New Orleans funeral procession horn work found later on the album than you may be comfortable admitting to.  Well, you’re dead (metaphorically), so you won’t be admitting to anything.  Or, you’re just dead on the inside, you sad sonofabitch.

“Lay Your Head Down” and “Souls For Sale” are the other two true reggae feasts on KEEP IT GOING.  I mean, you got it in a good deal of the other songs too, but not in such a condensed fashion.  Essentially, the Mad Caddies hit several peaks on this album, in which pure reggae is the result, and then it valleys back into traditional Mad Caddies territory; the traditional territory is still infused with that dancehall tinge, however.  It’s wonderful to watch a band, this skillfully, slip in and out of a new style with such finesse.  The Mad Caddies are true chameleons.  Hence, there ability to still be viable after all these years in a world less commercially tolerant of “ska” acts.

This is another reason why the album gets such a high score from me.  I’ve been waiting for these great “ska” acts to overcome their fatalism that is compatible with the genre.  Ska could benefit from less lamenting, as I mentioned in the review on Big D and the Kids Table, and focus on a little bit of survival.  You never know, you could just end up reinventing yourself and creating one the most outstanding works of your career… such as the Mad Caddies have done with KEEP IT GOING.  It’s not selling out, it’s just plain “selling it”.  And for what it’s worth, the Mad Caddies sold me on this one.  Please do yourself a favor and listen to me for once and pick this album up.  I can’t stress it enough.