(Cover art by Ricky Vigil)
Playlist Battle is a series where two people battle head to head with the most devastating weapon in our galaxy — the playlist. One combatant is declared the winner; the other is executed. The Judge’s decision is final.
The Challenge
A few weeks ago, I issued the below challenge on Twitter. Fellow Bearded Gentlemen Music writers Dane Jackson and Ricky Vigil accepted the challenge, submitting a pair of Less Than Jake playlists, arguments in favor of their lists and hope they wouldn’t be destined for the guillotine.
Make your ultimate Less Than Jake playlist and send it to me. It must not exceed 40 minutes. It can’t have that one song I especially hate.
— The Bad Boy Of Audio Fiction Comedy (@Spacefunmars) November 2, 2020
Dane and Ricky face their fates today in Bearded Gentlemen’s first Playlist Battle!
Dane Jackson’s Argument In Favor Of Dane Jackson
When I saw an open challenge from my fellow members of Bearded Gentlemen Music to create the definitive Less Than Jake playlist, I knew I had to throw my hat in the ring. The challenge was simple – create a 40-minute playlist that best represents who Less Than Jake is. Simple enough, right?
My first pass at my playlist was almost five hours long and had just shy of 50 songs on it. Don’t get me wrong, it was an amazing retrospective on why Less Than Jake is one of the best ska-punk bands out there, but it lacked refining. From there, I agonized on which songs would make the cut. Do I go with the hits? What about some obscure B-Sides to prove how big of a Less Than Jake fan I am? The answer to that isn’t as cut and dry as I would’ve liked, but it lies somewhere in the middle of those two mindsets.>
You won’t find some of their biggest hits on my playlist.
That was part by design, and part because I needed to make sure some of the lesser-known songs I think really describe who Less Than Jake are to me were included. Sorry if you’re sad that you won’t hear “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sell Outs,” “Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore,” “Look What Happened,” or “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads” on my playlist. They’re amazing songs, and I love them dearly, but they just didn’t fit how I build a playlist these days.
I wanted to capture the essence of Less Than Jake in my 40-minute attempt. Without Less Than Jake’s Streak, I probably wouldn’t be the ska fan to this day. After hearing theMisfits of Ska comp from Asian Man Records in 1996, I started looking into some of the bands that caught my attention the most. One of those bands was Less Than Jake. Losing Streak was the first ska album I purchased. That same day, I picked up Suicide Machines and The Specials as well. After that, it was all over.
At the end of the day, Less Than Jake has always been a band that mixed thought-provoking lyrics with infectious ska-punk music – driving horn blasts, anthemic choruses, dual-threat vocals with Chris and Roger. They’re a band that is great on record but thrive even more in a live setting. There’s an electricity that surges through a Less Than Jake crowd. Each of the songs on this collection filled me with the nostalgia of live shows of the past. It’s a special feeling to be in the crowd, losing yourself with a few hundred of your closest friends for two hours. The songs on this playlist will take any LTJ fan back to their favorite live memories, and will make folks new to the band long for the post-COVID days when live music can exist again in its purest form.
In closing, here I am, 24 years later, still in as much love with ska music as I was the very first time I heard “This is the old dude Howard J. Reynolds, and you’re listening to Less Than Jake” open up Losing Streak. That’s why “Automatic” is the song I chose to start my playlist off. It’s really the only song that makes any sense. If your Less Than Jake playlist doesn’t start with that intro, can it really be taken seriously?
Ricky Vigil’s Argument In Favor Of Ricky Vigil
I’ve always been a nerd, and all of my friends were nerds, but I took a certain amount of pride in being the cool nerd. While my plebeian friends sang along to the dorky ska of Reel Big Fish, I was exploring the deep, reflective lyrics and slightly less dorky ska of Less Than Jake. To me, Less Than Jake’s music, especially during the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, was music made by people trying to find out who they were–trying to live up to others’ expectations while also forging their own path through a sea of uncertainty. That confidence in identity is displayed on “Last One Out Of Liberty City” (“I know just who I am!”) while the desire to grow and leave this shithole town and its shithead people behind is front and center on “Rock N Roll Pizzeria” and “History of a Boring Town.” I’ve always loved how Less Than Jake can blend really mundane stuff like talking to friends at parties with these BIG THOUGHTS that are constantly at the back of teenage and twentysomething brains (or at least the back of my teenage and twentysomething brain). Who am I? Where am I going? Who am I loyal to?
Should I take a chance on myself?
I feel like a lot of those questions are asked on the band’s underrated 2000 album Borders and Boundaries which I dismissed as a teenager (probably because it was not one of the 12 CDs I owned) but have really come to love over the past year or so. Former LTJ drummer and lyricist Vinnie Fiorello was really the heart and soul of the band, and I think that on songs like “Kehoe” and “Is This Thing On” he is really growing both as a songwriter and as a person, figuring out that he needs to expand outside of the box that people put him in to make sense of the world around him. But even when the world seems too big, you’ve still gotta party! “Gainesville Rock City” celebrates those dumb nights with your friends, even as the world closes in around you and the responsibilities of adulthood loom.
I didn’t include any songs that appeared on the Good Burger soundtrack or featured a music video starring Alexis Bledel. I also didn’t include any of the band’s goofier songs, and, kind of accidentally, only included one song recorded after 2004. Maybe this isn’t the most comprehensive Less Than Jake playlist, but it’s one that captures the weird mixture of excitement and anxiety, enthusiasm, and uncertainty that comes with being a young person figuring out the world. Judge me!
The Verdict
This was tougher to judge than I expected. On a cursory scan of the playlists, it would seem that Ricky has the advantage despite not using Automatic as the first song. His list is shorter, which bodes well for anything punk-adjacent. It sticks closely to the albums I personally consider Less Than Jake’s best. And most important of all, it spaces out the bangers so the list never drags.
Yet, Dane is the winner.
There are certainly more songs I feel lukewarm (looking at you, “Plastic Cup Politics”), but there were also more surprises (“Whatever the Weather!”). The album Losing Streak probably carries a lot of the early momentum as well, given that 4 of the first 5 tracks are from that album, including LTJ’s greatest back-to-back track 1-2 punch of all time: “9th At Pine” followed by “Sugar In Your Gas Tank“, but that only serves to put the listener in a state of ease before the list diverges into weirdness. It’s the set up before the knockdown.
Most importantly, this list had the persistent, unavoidable vibe of the late-teens, early-twenties ennui Dane and Ricky both described in their arguments for their list. It’s more representative of Less Than Jake, not by virtue of covering more of their discography but by virtue of the vibe. Listening to Dane’s list feels like being 22 and bored and realizing everything sucks.
Ricky’s list is much closer to the kind of list I would have made, and it is probably the list I will listen to more often. However, I am a fair judge, and by the laws stated in the Playlist Constitution, Dane is officially the winner. His list is bold, strange without avoiding the bangers, and representative of the band in question.