Rundown Kreeps Revive All the Great Ska and Punk Sounds of the 90's on New Album RDK
4.6 out of 5 stars
Rundown Kreeps is a ska-punk band from L.A. that will have you hearing a mix of Sublime, Pennywise, The Hippos, Less Than Jake, Fenix TX and even Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at times.
Basically, what I am saying is that Rundown Kreeps has taken a lot of my favorite punk and ska bands from the 90’s and given that sound a fresh new take.
Their lead single from their new album RDK and opening track “NOLA” (about New Orleans) is a good upbeat song that helps set the mood for the album not necessarily in tone, because the album varies from song to song a bit, but generally the songs are upbeat and make you want to move around and dance.
The overall variation of the songs comes up on the second song, “Held Down” which feels like a great mix of Sublime and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (which is a swing band from the 90’s). The song has a rad guitar solo halfway through it as well.
One seemingly out of nowhere cover song appears on the album with “The Scientist” which is a Coldplay song completely redone to sound like a ska/swing song again. It’s also slowed way down with some strings at the beginning of the song before jumping into the Reel Big Fish / Me First and the Gimme Gimmes style cover for the rest of the song. It’s done quite well though even though I generally just don’t like covers much.
Another cool comparison to Sublime is that the band can rap a bit over the ska riffs.
A good example of this comes from the two songs “Dog Rash” and “Yellow Truck” which are much more of the Sublime style songs that those fans will love.
“Spring Forward” gets back mostly to the full punk rock style up until the end when it breaks down a bit to get that funky sound in it.
“All I Got” reminds me of another ska band, The Hippos, but if you mixed them with Fenix TX. It’s got a great punk chorus in it that is catchy as hell.
“She’s My Friend” is a punk rock anthem with the subject being the living embodiment of hate. The line, “I know hate. She’s telling me I’m her greatest friend,” is one of the best lyrics on the album too. The heavy breakdown which transitions to a fast pre-chorus in the middle of this song would definitely get people going nuts at a live show too.
The album ends with “We All Go” which is a pretty good album ender in the realm of Less Than Jake, but I would say that “She’s My Friend” may have been the better closer song on the album. It’s always tough to choose the track list, and everyone will have different opinions of it.
Overall, this album was a great surprise for me as I had no idea what to expect at all, and I came away with a high respect for the band. They definitely know how to rock the styles that they play, and it doesn’t seem weird as they jump around at all. It’s a very difficult thing to do as a band coming up, because a lot of fans simply want you to be one thing or another. Rundown Kreeps doesn’t seem to stay too long in one format which I think is really cool.