Mad Caddies, Keep It Going

The Mad Caddies play ska and reggae with a Clash-style punk core, and Keep It Going is their fifth album (although, if the world were fair, they wouldn’t have any). Their songs carry on the Fat Wreck tradition of irritating and sappy attempted-anthems (again: if the world were fair and all that).

Their singer sounds like he’s doing a bad Dave Pirner imitation. If they’re lucky, their melodies sound like Soul Asylum imitations, too, but most are much worse. “State of Mind” may be the worst one here — the melody sounds like Eye of the Tiger,” which is even more peculiar in combination with this band’s sound. Anyway, one “Eye of the Tiger” is enough; we really don’t need another. The band’s saddest achievement, though, is the total evisceration of a Delroy Wilson song called “Riding for a Fall,” which they manage to turn into a sappy, reggaefied power ballad. It’s an amazing accomplishment, but not the kind they had in mind.

They’re responsible for some terrible lyrics, as well. “Reflections” beguns with “Once again I’m out on the highway / Searching for answers that i fear / And it couldn’t be much clearer / When objects in the mirror / Are closer than they appear,” which is forced as well as trite. Even Meat Loaf did more with the “objects in the mirror” bit! “Today” begins “Woke up this morning at the end of another bottle, I don’t really know what’s going on / My hands are shaking, my head’s reminding me that last night I must have had some fun.” But his singing sounds like he’s never been in any pain in his life — it’s too self-assured to convey anything but how much he likes himself.

About the only interesting thing about these guys is their woozy horn section. When all you have to offer is a horn section, though, that’s bad. They’ve playing on the Warped Tour multiple times, which is too bad, ’cause they’re taking up somebody else’s 15 minutes of fame. If the world were fair, these guys wouldn’t touring the world — they’d still be playing in their mom’s basement.