Label head and NOFX leader Fat Mike wanted to put a reggae spin on some classic punk songs, so he enlisted the help of the Caddies, and Punk Rocksteady was born. The album features 12 classic punk songs, hand-picked by Fat Mike, completely reimagined with a reggae strut.
Recorded at San Francisco’s Motor Studios with Fat Mike serving as the record’s producer, the Mad Caddies got to bring one of Mike’s pet projects to life. “This has been one of his dream projects for a long time,” says guitarist Sascha Lazor. “It’s been a party conversation. ‘Hey, you should do that.’” But after years of talk, a two-month long process saw the band, as well as Mike, collaborate on making a list of songs that were befitting of the Mad Caddies treatment.
“We had a grand vision that we needed to have four-to-six sounds on here,” says vocalist Chuck Robertson. “We needed to have traditional ska, super horn-heavy dancehall songs, reggae, SoCal stuff, and we needed to have something new and weird that we could make our own.” In order to make Punk Rocksteady diverse, the band labored over picking songs that could be interpreted in ways that would feel new and exciting, but still retained the spirit of the originals.
With Punk Rocksteady, the Mad Caddies effectively reframe the past 40 years of punk history into something that’s lighter but no less impactful. From pulling vintage soul music sounds out of The Misfits “Some Kind Of Hate,” or giving the Descendents deep cut “Jean Is Dead” a reggae feel, some of punk’s genre-defining bands are remade at the hands of the Mad Caddies.
“If the song’s good, it can be played in any genre and do the song justice,” says Robertson, and it’s true listening to Punk Rocksteady, as the band’s approach shows the limitless potential of the source material, turning Against Me!’s “Sink, Florida, Sink” into a horn-laced joyride and giving the staunch ska-haters Propagandhi a send-up that even they couldn’t deny.
“We wanted this to be a cohesive album that, even if you’re not a fan of punk, you could throw on and enjoy,” says Robertson. And for punks that are dubious of reggae, it gives them a new view of the songwriting chops of some of their favorite bands. With both the Mad Caddies and Fat Mike in a room, the material for Punk Rocksteady had a really high bar to clear, and the band put in the work to ensure it did. “It’s really hard to take a Bad Religion song and make it a reggae song and have it sound good,” says Lazor. “There’s so much movement in the chords, and that doesn’t work for reggae.” But the result was finding a way to translate Bad Religion’s “Sorrow” into something that retained the song’s powerful arch with it sounding like something you’ve never heard before.
A byproduct of reworking all these songs to fit the Mad Caddies’ style was that the band finished the record inspired to look at their own songwriting with the same critical eye. “We don’t like to learn covers or play covers, but we picked these songs that we thought were really good,” says Lazor. “It really gave us a fresh perspective on writing songs.”
Tour Dates:
05/05/18 Austin, TX at Austin American-Statesman Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
05/06/18 Ft. Worth, TX at Panther Island Pavilion Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
05/08/18 Toronto, ON Canada at Mod Club Theatre
05/09/18 Montreal, QC Canada at Corona Theatre
05/10/18 Quebec City, QC Canada at Imperial Bell
05/11/18 Lancaster, PA at Chameleon Club
05/12/18 Richmond, VA at Bon Secours Redskins Training Center Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
05/13/18 Philadelphia, PA at Festival Pier (at Penn’s Landing) Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
05/15/18 Stanhope, NJ at Stanhope House
05/16/18 New York, NY at The Gramercy Theatre
05/17/18 Washington, DC at Black Cat
05/18/18 Asbury Park, NJ at House Of Independents05/19/18 Brockton, MA at Stadium Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
05/20/18 Pittsburgh, PA at High Mark Stadium Punk In Drublic Craft Beer and Music Fest
06/01/18 Chicago, IL at Bottom Lounge
06/02/18 Thornville, OH at Legend Valley Camp Punk In Drublic
06/14/18 Nickelsdorf, Austria at Nova Rock Festival June 14th – 16th
06/16/18 Munich, Germany at Backstage
06/17/18 Gelsenkirchen, Germany at Event-Areaan der Veltins-Arena Punk In Drublic Fest w/ NOFX
06/19/18 Regensburg, Germany at Alte Malzerei
06/20/18 Linz, Austria at Gasthaus Auerhahn
06/21/18 Ljubljana, Slovenia at Kino Šiška Open Air Punk In Drublic Fest w/ NOFX
06/22/18 Dessau-Rosslau, Germany at This Is Ska Festival 21.6 – 23.6
06/23/18 Wiesbaden, Germany at Kulturpark Schlachthof Open Air Punk In Drublic Fest w/ NOFX
06/24/18 Izel, Belgium at Fete De La Musique Izel (FREE SHOW)
06/26/18 Zurich, Switzerland at Dynamo w/ Bad Cop/Bad Cop
06/27/18Selestat , France at Bar Le Tigre
06/28/18 Milano-Segrate, Italy at Circolo Magnolia Punk In Drublic Fest w/ NOFX
06/29/18 Dornbirn, Austria at Messe Dornbirn Punk In Drublic Fest
06/30/18 Giebelstadt, Germany at Mission Ready Festival
07/26/18 Bausendorf , Germany at Riez Open Air July 26 – 28th
07/27/18 Megesheim , Germany at Der Krater Bebt Festival July 27 – July 29
07/27/18 Isle OfBute , UK at Bute Fest July 27 – July 29
07/31/18 Newcastle, UK at O2 Academy Newcastle *
08/01/18 Birmingham, UK at O2 Academy 3 Birmingham *
08/02/18 Blackpool,UK at Rebellion Festival Aug. 2nd – Aug. 5th
08/03/18 Duffel , Belgium at Brakrock Ecofest w/ The Lillingtons, The Lawrence Arms,
08/04/18 Horb AmNeckar , Germany at Mini Rock Festival August 2 – 4
08/06/18 Tolmin, Slovenia at Punk Rock Holiday August 6 – 10 – SOLD OUT
08/08/18 Eschwege , Germany at Open Flair Festival Aug. 8 – 12
08/08/18 Prague,Czech Republic at Futurum *
08/09/18 Pattlingen , Germany at Rocco Del Schlacko
08/12/18 Bellaria-Igea Marina, Italy at Bay Fest Aug. 12th – 14th
Track listing:
1: Sorrow (Bad Religion)
2: Sleep Long (Operation Ivy)
3: She (Green Day)
4: …And We Thought That Nation-States Were a Bad Idea (Propagandhi)
5: She’s Gone (NOFX)
6: AM (Tony Sly)
7: Alien 8 (Lagwagon)
8: 2RAK005 (Bracket)
9: Some Kinda Hate (Misfits)
10: Sink, Florida, Sink (Against Me!)
11: Jean Is Dead (Descendents)
12: Take Me Home (Piss Off) (Snuff)
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