"O" Man! (Or the Big "O," choose your pun)

Band: Operation Ivy

Country: USA

Notable Album: Energy (1991 Lookout! Records Re-Issue)

Favourite Song: Artificial Life

I'm on the bus home from work, and I'd like to celebrate this momentous day with you all.  Today is Day 2 of the Ska Blog's resurrection! And it's written the day after Day 1! This is quite the feat, but we'll see if I can keep it up until the end...


Anyways, today's band is probably a no-brainer for those of you in the know. I chose Operation Ivy for a few reasons. Mainly, they're AWESOME. I wish I could have been a ska kid in the early '90s, so I'd have a chance to see Op Ivy play a show - it would have been insane. Being in the crowd, watching Tim and Jesse singing and playing their music, singing along to Unity or Sound System or Artificial Life... what an experience that must have been. For those of you that don't know, Operation Ivy was essentially one of the first big 3rd-wave ska-punk bands. They formed in 1987 and disbanded in 1989, a month after the release of their first full-length, Energy. You'll hear covers of their songs everywhere - Reel Big Fish covers Unity, Green Day covered Knowledge, Keepin'6 covered Yellin' In My Ear, and even The Hippos did a cover of Freeze Up. There's even a full Operation Ivy cover album (in which some bands butchered songs, but it's still a nice gesture) that you can find pretty easily.  If you ask most current ska-punk bands about their influences, I can pretty much guarantee that Operation Ivy will pop up in the list. The members went on to do a whole bunch of different projects - Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman went on to join Lars Frederiksen in Rancid, and Jesse Michaels eventually formed Common Rider.


NOTE: I am now home and watching 3rd Rock From The Sun with James as I write this.  I am fully prepared for the many delays this may cause.


The easiest collection of Op Ivy tracks you can find is the current issue of Energy.  It was originally recorded with 19 tracks, but Lookout! Records re-issued it in 1991 with 27 tracks - compiling their EPs along with the original Energy recordings.  Lookout! recently (well, in 2007) gave up their rights to the album and it was re-issued again on Tim's Hellcat Records.  It was re-mastered and put together in a funky little Digipack - who knows if it's worth it?  I own the 1991 re-issue, which has a really interesting recording quality - almost as if the CD version was recorded right from vinyl or tape. In any case, you'll have to get used to the pop and scratches and overall low-quality recording before you can enjoy the music.  Once you get past the sound, you can appreciate the music and lyrics and understand why so many bands were influenced by these guys. There's something really honest with the way the album goes together - a cool mix of punk and ska, many songs with a message but some that are just fun, and the odd off-time section that let's you know that it's all recorded honestly. It's like a live recording with a thousandbajillion-times better recording quality.  Jesse carries most of the vocals, but it's a real treat when Tim pipes up for a verse here and there.  For almost 30 songs, the album doesn't drag and the music stays relatively fresh all the way through - something that current ska bands have a hard time with!


I have a hard time choosing a favourite song from this album.  It's tradition for me to listen to the album that I'm writing about while I'm writing, and I'm taking moments to stop and sing along to most of these tracks.  Each song is really unique in a way that ska doesn't get much credit for.  If this was a year ago, I'd say it would be a toss-up between Sound System (who can resist a song about skanking?), Freeze Up, or Unity, but I think after another listen-through I'm going to say Artificial Life is my favourite track.  I'm getting goosebumps as I listen to it - it's actually possible to hear how much fun they're having, I think that's part of why I like it so much.  It's so easy to imagine seeing this song live, watching Jesse and Tim get pumped as the song starts up, hearing the crowd sing along to the 2-line chorus, Jesse crying "pick it up!"  Not to mention the fact that it's a simple and awesome ska-punk song - 3 chords (honestly, the whole song. Get over it, it's barely 2 minutes long.), a perfect skanking tempo, and some great choppy offbeats make this a really fun song to listen to.


You can grab the album here, and stay tuned for the letter P tomorrow!