Review → The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Don’t Know How to Party (1993)
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Don't Know How to Party
Welcome back! I hope that whatever holidays you celebrate (if any) were pleasent.
In honor of the fact that I’m going to three of the six Hometown Throwdown shows the Mighty Mighty Bosstones perform in (and now around- what’s up New Haven and Providence!) Boston, I’m going to take a look at a Bosstones album. So here goes a look at their first major label LP, Don’t Know How to Party.
If you don’t know the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, you’ve probably at least heard “The Impression That I Get” (aka “that ‘knock on wood’ song”) at some point in your life. It was pretty popular back in ’97. The Boston-based band spent years perfecting their blend of ska, hardcore, metal, and anything else the Boston music scene could assimilate. They had become pretty well known for their raucous live shows, and partying mentality. After a pair of albums on Taang! Records, they were signed by Mercury and, after dropping the Ska-Core, The Devil, and More EP, unleashed Don’t Know How to Party in 1993.
Overall, the album has a harder, more metal-influenced edge than its predecessor, More Noise and Other Disturbances, but is also just more overall diverse stylistically than the Taang! albums; this set of songs hints at the extreme diversity to be found on Question the Answers the following year. Opener “Our Only Weapon” and “Last Dead Mouse” on heavy on hard riffs, and light on ska’s characteristic off-beat rhythms. “Last Dead Mouse” sways and grooves along its story of a salesman with a peculiar offer. The title track gets back into the ska-core the band was known for, and is as good an anthem as one could ask for.
This album contains a number of songs that would become fan-favorites over the years: the title track, the single “Someday I Suppose,” “Holy Smoke,” “Illegal Left,” and of course, the closing song/s, “737/Shoe Glue.” The material here is all memorable, and finds the band fine-tuning its style, and also finding singer Dicky Barrett learning more nuanced vocal stylings; the vocals are still gruff, as is his style, but there’s more tunefulness and less reliance on the Boston hardcore-style growl.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have always put out strong, catchy material; this is one of many traits that have made them beloved in their Boston scene, and the ska scene in general. (another is their supreme love and respect for their fans) Their third album finds the band on top of their game, and producing ever-stronger material without, it appears, a lot of major label meddling. The best starting place for a new listener? No, that would probably be Let’s Face It. It does, after all, have the “knock on wood” song on it. But this is a great album, and an excellent addition to any ska fan’s collection.
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