ALBUM REVIEW: Modified by Save Ferris
By CHRISTOPHER SHIPLEY
Scene Music Critic
It must be frustrating for pop ska bands to record new albums knowing almost every critic across the country believes that their genre is dead and buried in a shallow grave.
Three years ago, pop ska was the toast of college campuses around the country. While Notre Dame's own Skalcoholiks were getting people dancing on the Fieldhouse Mall, bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish and Save Ferris were setting the national stage ablaze with their fierce new sound that incorporated a long since forgotten instrument in the pop music scene, the trumpet.
Unfortunately, people began to realize something: it all sounded the same. There are only so many arrangements a pop ska band can create before the music becomes tired and worn-out. Anyone familiar with the genre would recognize Save Ferris' pop ska remake of the Dexys Midnight Runner hit, "Come On Eileen" from its first album, It Means Everything. The song instantly became a part of everyone's mix tapes and mp3 playlists.
Modified, the sophomore release from Save Ferris, is fun. The first track, "Turn It Up," is fantastic driving music with a quick tempo and sexy vocals from lead singer Monique Powell. However, with the exception of "Let Me In," a slow love song where Powell's longing takes over from the group, the band struggles to create a sound which even attempts to be groundbreaking.
After two years on the road with the Vans Warped Tour, the band, originally from Orange County, Ca., took a break in September 1998 to record most of the album, eventually finishing it last summer. The result is a tight-sounding record about difficult relationships, which shows a mature aspect the band did not possess on It Means Everything.
The first single from Modified, "Mistaken," is typical of the kind of quality the listener will find on the disc. "So who are you / I thought I knew / I guess I was mistaken," Powell sings to the explosive guitars which push the song forward.
"The Only Way To Be" takes a stab at those who would sell themselves out for stardom, using a beat and style that resemble Sublime and its other contemporaries. Modified is a solid batch of original music but never dares to enter new territory or take the band away from its pop ska heritage.
To the credit of the bands of the pop ska movement like Save Ferris, it was on to something. The trumpet and other brass instruments have since been used to reintroduce the American public to the sounds of the big band while opening the doors to Latin artists like Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, who have used brass in their music for years.
All Scene Stories for Tuesday, November 2, 1999
