I am almost done listening to the full body of work of the Aquabats as available on iTunes. I did this in an interesting path. Because at first I assumed I wouldn’t like their music (silly me), I only purchased two songs: ‘Legend and BFF. One of the only episodes I’d caught on DVR at the time was Ladyfingers, thus I knew BFF was listenable. And of course, ‘Legend is amazing and I knew immediately I’d love it. A two-song playlist gets old pretty quick, and I found I wanted more ‘bats to round out my listening sessions. So I bought the two most recent albums: Charge and Hi-Five Soup, and started listening to them nonstop. I had those to memory pretty quick. It’s not that I set out to memorize things, it just happens after a while. Once I started to realize I liked their music, I knew I had to have more. On the other hand I am aware how different the Aquabats are from the only other band I’ve ever listened to with this kind of fervor- The Beatles. There are fewer albums and more lineup changes over time. They are much more obscure, and it’s even hard to know what they look like with the masks obscuring their faces. Genius move that. For someone you know well, a mask is no disguise. For someone you’ve only ever seen in a mask, it makes a big difference. Remember Wilson? Tim’s neighbor from Home Improvement? His schtick was that his face was always partially obscured by the fence. When the series ended they had him come out and show the lower half of his face. It didn’t really look like you would’ve thought. It’s like Frank Oz observed- Entertaining masked or muppeted means no one will bother you when you are at the store buying a can of beans. On the other hand, it can be very depressing if you want someone to bother you at the store while you’re buying a can of beans.
Anyway… where was I going with this? Oh, right, the Aquabats are not the Beatles. I’ve got like six, maybe six and a half albums to enjoy here? So I wanted to make them last. I moved on to Floating Eye and listened to it unto ingrainedness. I liked the way the reverse in time was bringing on the horns and showing stylistic variety. It was like peeling back the layers of time, journeying to the chewy, youthful center of the candy bar that is the Aquabats. Eye of Death memorized, I decided to bring on The Fury of’. Full on ska, baby! The best part about the trip into the past was that the old songs were strangely easy to listen to. Their newer songs took me a few listenings to get hooked, but their old works? Instantaneous attraction. I suspect there’s a major ska fan in me somewhere, but right now I can’t tear myself away from the Aquabats to listen to another band. The final old album is called The Return of the Aquabats, which is already hilarious as a title. The album is incredibly unpolished but somehow still really good. Is it the Commander’s charm and delivery? Is it the ska? The horns? Or is it just my love for seeing the cracks- the full amateurish glory of a group of nobody’s performing at a high school or bunch of friends assembled hastily for a weekend jam. I honestly love this as well as I do perfection. I think the reason is this: I enjoy media by inserting myself into it mentally. I could be there with them, I tell myself, in a way I clearly couldn’t once they really took off.
Adoring their early work to pieces, I again listened until it was all to memory. Because I chose to listen to proper albums first, I had left out Myths Legends et cetra. That’s now. I’m back in the middle hearing their oddballs and rejects from Floating Eye’. So it came as a delightful surprise when I heard Wild Sea. You see, Floating Eye of Death has one song I can’t listen to; Chemical Bomb. I tried twice, but the lyrics make me too sad. But that catchy riff! I missed it after awhile. Well Wild Sea makes use of that riff while simultaneously making the song faster and giving it fun and fantastical lyrics instead of depressing ones. So I feel like I got back the lost song I was missing.