From: David Sarno <dsarno@pipeline.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 23:41:03 -0500
Message-Id: <199411150441.XAA22647@pipe1.pipeline.com>
To: ftp@locust.cic.net
Subject: (Fwd) Boy O Boy  
Status: O

Forwarding mail by: pauls@cic.net () on 11/7/94 10:54:30 PM
-------------------
BOY O BOY
Richmond, VA

This is one together ska band.  All their CD's  come well 
packaged and professional looking. Unfortunately, their music 
can't keep up with  their inserts.  They have released two 
CD's,  SHISH-SKA-BOB and NO STOPPING, NO
STANDING.  I'm not quite sure what their  obsession they have 
with zoning and parking  rules, but on both albums it is a 
subject of  lyrical consideration.  As for their music, I  give 
it a mixed review.

Their first album, SHISH-SKA-BOB, is
pretty good.  There is some clean ska, and  some popish-ska.  
>From what I've heard of  the band, they are very popular at 
frat parties,  if that is any indication.  The first album,  
however, is satisfactory.  Songs like "Land of  Ska" and "Big 
as the Sun" use organs to the  fullest.  However, turning 
"Purple Haze" into  a ska song is like dancing with your 
mother. She can jiggle all she wants, it just isn't an  
attractive sight.  Friends don't let friends play  Skendricks.

As for the polished NO STOPPING, NO
STANDING, it's saccharine sweet.  The
horns are clean.  Unfortunately, most people  don't want to 
hear Joe Jackson singing to ska  tunes, even if he produced the 
first Toasters'  Album.  Essentially this album was produced  
so tight it squeaks.  In all honesty, however, it  lacks the 
character ska fans desire.  This  album appears to be a 
compilation of past  material which was not released on their 
first  CD.  It 
contains songs I would be embarrassed to  play back to back 
with the like of the English  Beat or The Specials.

I was able to catch Boy O Boy open for the  Blue meanies at 
Wetlands, NYC.  They
played most of their songs from SHISH-
SKA-BOB, which the crowd skanked
to happily, and then a bunch of new world  songs.  The crowd 
just stood and shot dirty  looks at the bands.  I guess after 
that  experience, Boy O Boy decided not to fill  their latest 
album with new world music as  they had indicated to me they 
would.

CD: SHISH-SKA-BOB **1/2* (2002 B.
Hanover Avenue, Richmond, VA  23220) $12

CD: NO STOPPING, NO STANDING 1/2*
(2002 B. Hanover Avenue, Richmond, VA 
23220) $12