88 Fingers Louie

Back On The Streets (Hopeless)
by Chaz Thorndike

It’s all in the timing. Everyone picks their favorite bands and sticks with them, unless they suck for a few albums. At the same time, bands that are very similar to your favorites, well, they get overlooked cuz, ya know, you already have your favorites. Your friends may ask you, “How can you like so-and-so but not so-and-so?” You just do. It’s irrational, but that’s the way it is.

That said, I’ve never really cared too much about Chicago’s 88 Fingers Louie. They’ve always been enjoyable, but they never made it to the list of CDs I would take to a Desert Island, or whatever people with lots of free time think about. Sure, they put out good seven inches on Fat and, I think, Hopeless, but then who hasn’t? And the band’s broken up, had rarity CDs released, then gotten back together again more times than any other band I can think of without thinking to hard. But Back on the Streets is really fuckin’ good. Melodic without being whiny pop sissies, hard without being judgmental, gnashing-teeth dorks who define themselves by what they don’t do, as opposed to what they do, 88 Fingers rampage through song after song catchy-yet-not-shit tunes. Produced, as usual, by the talented Mass Giorgini at Sonic Iguana, Back on the Streets sounds big and mean. Yeah, OK, you got me, these guys fuckin’ rock.
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