Less Than Jake

Less Than Jake: Borders & Boundaries [reissue]Borders & Boundaries [reissue] (2012)
Fat Wreck Chords

Reviewer Rating: 4

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Contributed by: JeloneJelone
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Published on October 19th 2012Following their fallout with Capital Records, Pez enthusiasts Less Than Jake found themselves adrift. In flew Fat Mike of NOFX with a one-off deal for his label Fat Wreck Chords, ensuring that LTJ’s ska-punk lineage would continue. It was only a gentlemen’s agreement, but it ended up yielding on.

Following their fallout with Capital Records, Pez enthusiasts Less Than Jake found themselves adrift. In flew Fat Mike of NOFX with a one-off deal for his label Fat Wreck Chords, ensuring that LTJ’s ska-punk lineage would continue. It was only a gentlemen’s agreement, but it ended up yielding one of the band’s best records, Borders & Boundaries. Twelve years later, LTJ has returned to the material for a deluxe anniversary edition.

At this point, folks should know what to expect with Less Than Jake’s reissue series. Borders & Boundaries continues the trend of tacking on a couple of bonus tracks plus a DVD of the whole thing performed live. This release’s importance to listeners depends on whether or not they already own it. Borders never went out of print like, say, Goodbye Blue & White, and if you already own it, there’s not too much of a need to hear the three demos added on at the end. Yeah, LTJ concert videos are always fun, but they’re not essential.

Now, for the young people of the world who never picked up this here album, the deluxe edition is a must-have. Fat Wreck is selling it for $12--a true deal in stereo. Besides, I’d argue Borders marks the beginning of LTJ’s underrated period. Yeah, we loves Losing Streak and Hello Rockview, but Borders has some awesome rockers of its own, namely “Gainesville Rock City,” “Look What Happened” and opener “Magnetic North,” which boasts one of my favorite scene critiques: "Everyone here hates everyone here for doing the same things that they do." You like drunk-punk? Howsabout the puke-dance that is “Malt Liquor Tastes Better When You’ve Got Problems?” Sure, at 15 tracks, Borders isn’t as consistently memorable as Rockview, but c’mon. It’s still the Jake we’re talking about.

What’s also neat about this release is that even though Fat dropped Borders pretty much just to be nice, LTJ and the label have still worked together to put this reissue out together, a first for the series. Friends forever!

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

new_wave (October 20, 2012)

GNV FLA is better than Hello Rockview? That's just nutty...

telegraphrocks (October 20, 2012)

1- Losing Streak
2- GNV FLA (yup)
3- Hello Rockview
4- Greetings And Salutations (love it)
5- Borders And Boundaries
6- B Is For B-Sides
7- Anthem
8- In With The Out Crowd (yuppers)
9- Pezcore
10- Losers Kings And Things We Don't Understand

Yup.

likeaparasite (October 20, 2012)

Thanks for the overview, paul. A good read. I like "Losing Streak" and "Hello Rockview" more than this album, but I think it's a solid album too, with some career highlights for the band. I'm surprised there hasn't been more love in the comments for "Last Hour of the Last Day of Work", although I was pleased to see Aubin recently call it the best Less Than Jake song.

Not my personal favourite (That would be "Scott Farcas Takes It On The Chin"), but one that I think is very special. And "Look What Happened" is iconic. Instant high school nostalgia every time I hear that one. Same goes for "Bad Scene and a Basement Show", which is a perfect song for a high schooler feeling angst about dames. "Pete Jackson's Getting Married" is a delightful song too. I love the xylophone in it.

MN_DrNick (October 20, 2012)

It's not my favorite of theirs, but I seriously think it's their best album they've ever done.

Thumbs (October 19, 2012)

Solid album, but having the original for 12 years, and it being NOT scratched, I see no point in re-buying it for some demos.

" I was hoping the reviewer would touch more on the DVD. Has anyone seen it? If own the original is this worth the purchase for the DVD alone???"

NO! What is worth buying is that LTJ DVD they put out in 2010 or 2011. It has their first 6 full-lengths played live in their entirety.
The DVD contained here is the exact same one in the DVD collection (same with Losing Streak and Hello Rockviews reissues, and I imagine the Pezcore one too). The DVD's like $15 or something. Wait, I'll just go to Interpunk and get the fucking link... hold on...

I was wrong, it's $14.50:
http://www.interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=193098&

i-type-poorly (October 19, 2012)

This album, along with Hello Rockview, got me through high school. Vinnie is at his best here.

I don't really listen to Less Than Jake at all anymore, but I still keep them on my iPod. When "Malt Liquor..." came on yesterday at random during my commute, I was all sorts of stoked.

lanceuppercut (October 19, 2012)

This is the album that literally changed my life as a high school freshman in 2001 and opened my eyes to punk, ska, and all kinds of different music, ideas, and philosophies. This album never gets old to me and I'm glad to see it get some recognition after all these years.

ak3punk (October 19, 2012)

I own the original, I was hoping the reviewer would touch more on the DVD. Has anyone seen it? If own the original is this worth the purchase for the DVD alone???

paulrulzdood (October 19, 2012)

certainly one of their more underrated albums, along with GNV FLA. The reason being, this came out at the end of a very strong 5-year wave for them; they put out Losing Streak in '96, did Warped Tour '97, put out Hello Rockview in '98; toured their asses off, etc., they were riding high on the late-90s 3rd wave ska craze, found some fringe popularity (i.e. not as much as RBF or MMBT, but popular enough to hear History of a Boring Town on alternative radio, and they got very big in the "scene" by non-stop touring, doing Warped, etc.)

but since they didn't get as big as RBF or MMBT, Capital dropped them, also smelling a sea change that would leave ska-punk looked at as "90's music" for a few years. in other words, once the year 2000 hit; pop-punk was about to explode thanks to Blink 182, Sum 41, NFG, Good Charlotte, etc., and ska-punk and swing was left for dead.

so FAT hooked 'em up with the traditional 1-album FAT deal, and they went to work on an album that would show them becoming a little more serious lyrically and in tone (they were entering their mid-late 20s afterall) and a more straight-forward rock sound, easing back on the guitar upstrokes and ska rhythms.

(side note: interesting that FAT passed on putting out Pezcore in '93; Asian Man of course put it out)

so at the time, myself and many fans of what are still considered their two best albums, losing streak and rockview, were disappointed at the lack of ska and the more mature sound. we were all expecting hello rockview part 2. but over time, the album has grown on me and contains some of their best work, of course Gainseville Rock City and Look What Happened are permanent setlist staples for them that get some of the best crowd reactions, but Malt Liquor was a great song too, as is the underrated album closer, Faction, a song i've never heard them do live, even after attending 18 of their shows between '97 and 2012.

the band seems to shy away from this material and in 2003 they went back to the majors and a poppier sound more akin to Rockview. but this album deserves its due, it's one of their best lyrically and a little darker and serious, although it has it's lighter moments too. they probably should have relegated a few tracks as b-sides though, i never liked it being 15-tracks, it's just too long.

Losing Streak
Hello Rockview
Pezcore
GNV FLA
Anthem
Greetings & Salutations
Borders & Boundaries
In with the Out Crowd

seriouslyawesomedude (October 19, 2012)

It took a while for this one to grow on me, but long term this ended up being one of my favorite LTJ albums

mclz (October 19, 2012)

i like the demo tracks cause the lyrics are different. don't really like when people add demo tracks when its just shittier recorded versions of songs.

Problematiclogic (October 19, 2012)

First LTJ album I owned and still one of the best. Good memories.

misterspike (October 19, 2012)

Loved it when it came out. Still love it today. Look for me in the DVD.

ben_conoley (October 19, 2012)

This is my favourite of all their records. I think mostly because I listened to it every day for 3.5 months while walking to work during a really cold winter in Saskatoon.

fraser (October 19, 2012)

12 yrs ago!?!? I'm old

wearestillalive (October 19, 2012)

yeah, probably my favourite ltj album, if not the best.

levidolphin (October 19, 2012)

Score is for when I got the original album!!!

facetofacereunion08 (October 19, 2012)

Love this record. So underrated. I am an "Anthem-hater" and it drives me crazy at their live shows they play alot from that record and not much from this one. I agree that the back half of the record is super awesome

ireviewmusic (October 19, 2012)

I'll bite. I've always though this was their best record. It takes itself just seriously enough.

chipsahoycookie (October 19, 2012)

The first half of this is instantly catchy and good, but the second half of this record is gold. I wouldn't say this is their best record, but it might be #2 or 3 in their discography. GNV FLA is criminally underrated too.