The Blue Meanies

Full Throttle (Thick)
by Margo Tiffen

Imagine a bunch of pissed-off sideshow misfits who’ve escaped the circus and, lacking another outlet for their talents, decided to start a band. That band, theoretically, would be the Blue Meanies. Ska? Yeah, there’s some horns, but this band is way too dark, manic and paranoid to just toss into that ever-growing pile of feel-good Third Wave ska. They’ve got an organ player who sounds like he’s taken way too much crystal meth for chrissake. The Blue Meanies fuse punk, ska, jazz dementia, experimental… Aw, fuck it. When I listen to these guys I feel like a little kid at the carnival, who, after being separated from my mommy, got slipped some acid-laced cotton candy by a creepy carny, wandered onto the merry-go-round and now can’t figure out how the hell to get off.

Full Throttle is a careening, off-kilter ride through the disintegration of America. Billy Spunke, ringmaster of this outfit, rips through songs about home-grown terrorism and the Oklahoma City bombing (“The 4th of July”), television sitcoms’ alienation from blue collar realities (“Smash the Magnavox”), red tape, waiting in line, and a bar-code society (“The Noise of Democracy”). The Meanies lean far more into the vein of bands like Mr. Bungle and Fishbone than they ever do to the Specials or Skavoovie. The seven-member Chicago-based band labels their sound “skunk core.” I’d just call it insanely good music.