Hellcat Records' Secret Weapon

Band: The Gadjits

Country: USA

Notable Album: At Ease

Favourite Song: "Party Girl" (There is no link for this song, SAD)

WELL the past few days have been just ridiculous! So ridiculous that I totally forgot about this (massive fail) until it was too late every day. This weekend, I made a movie and won a film festival, did a lot of all-night work, ate a lot of ice cream, and was re-acquainted with an old friend - but I refuse to give this up, so here we are now at letter "G!" The Gadjits are no longer called The Gadjits - they operate under the alias The Architects - the 4 members released At Ease in 1998, under the wing of Tim Armstrong's Hellcat Records.

Not totally ska or ska-punk but too much so to be considered anything else, At Ease has been a constant go-to for me for almost 3 years now. There are a few songs that I'm not a huge fan of, but that's to be expected with almost any album. But the majority of the songs are SUPER good, so this is still an amazing album. Their only album even remotely close to ska, At Ease is just as soulful as it is fun and upbeat. Other tracks I love from the album are "Sh'bop" (which reminds me of Grease!), "Traffic Tickets," "Backup," and "Holes In My Shoes." They also do a crazy cover of "Mustang Sally!" A guitar, a bass, a drummer, and wicked keys make all these songs fresh and exciting to listen to!

Despite a whole bunch of songs being pretty awesome, "Party Girl" is the top track on this album. It clocks in at just over 2 minutes, and the frantic pace makes this a really fun track to listen to. The chord progressions used are fairly original (not very common for ska), but not overly complicated. The chorus is really easy to learn, so almost right away I started singing along and it got stuck in my head in no time. Even listening to it now I'm getting distracting humming and singing along! I actually think the song is too short - I would have loved another verse in there so end it off, but what can you do?

As always, you can go here to buy the album, and I will make sure to have a post up tomorrow for letter "H!"