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Less Than Jake Limited Edition Tour EP
2003
Fueled By Ramen

Various - Less Than Jake Limited Edition Tour EP (Cover Artwork)

Review by: primeevil7
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lessthanjake.com (link)

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Published on November 11th 2003

This one comes fresh off Less Than Jake's 2003 November US tour, with unreleased tracks from Less Than Jake, Fall Out Boy and Punchline. Rufio and Yellowcard both add tracks from their latest cd's, 1985 and Ocean Ave, respectively.

There's good and bad with this CD, sadly more of the bad.

There is ALOT wrong with this CD, namely its price. 5 bucks for 6 songs might sound good, but the quality is quite suspect.

Punchline's song, much like them sounds a lot like Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and Midtown. Put simply, if you've heard any of those three bands, you've heard Punchline. If bland had a sound, it would be Punchline.

Fall Out Boy's track, an acoustic version of "Grand Theft Autumn" is a textbook explanation of why unreleased tracks are unreleased to begin with. As an electric song, it sounds almost good, but the acoustic version just slaughters the song and leaves it for dead. There's a catchy chorus, but the pop-punk with truly random screams is getting crowded, and this track does nothing to distinguish Fall Out Boy from the pack of "me too" bands out there.

You already have an opinion on Rufio, so if you like their stuff, "Don't Hate Me" is another song by them, if not, just skip it.

Now for the tolerable.

Yellowcard's "Hey Mike" is catchy the way a softcore band is supposed to be, but fails to add anything in lyrically, so you're left with an unnervingly catchy song that you want to tear out of your head. Otherwise, they seem to scream "We're only an average pop-punk band with nothing new to say, BUT, we have a violinist, so maybe the kids won't notice how mediocre we are".

For the good?

Let's face it, you bought this for the unreleased Less Than Jake material, a version of Brightest Bulb with Billy Bragg, a person who I had never heard of before and for their unreleased song "Sobriety is a Serious Buisness and Buisness isn't so Good".

Hearing an older, British voice on Brightest Bulb is quite an improvment, and it adds something to the song that should have been in Anthem. My only gripe about the song is that Mr. Bragg and Chris didn't do a chorus together.

Now, for "Sobriety". It's a 50 second song, which dissapointed me greatly. I wanted a longer fucking song for the 5 bucks I paid for the compilation. That being said, the song is fast, loud, and up to Less Than Jake standards, Losing Streak style. It's a good song, but I felt cheated after listening to it. It's comendable that Less Than Jake put out two truly unreleased songs on this comp, but, truth be told, I'd rather have a longer song, ala, ASAOK on the disk. But, the quality of those 50 seconds is quite, quite good, so I can't complain too much.

Should you plunk down 5 bucks for this CD? I don't think so. If you've got a Napster esque program, pay 2 bucks for the two Less Than Jake songs, and skip the other ones.

Other: the art on the CD is top notch, and is a strong point in the CD's favor, but its not enough to make you want to purchase it.

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Posted by miff on 2006-10-12 18:21:39

"Billy Bragg is new? I bet he's not as good as Billy Talent. Do you even know who they are?"

yes i know who they are n i wish i didnt

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 6:19 PM (EDT)

you can get the brightest bulb has burnt out with billy bragg on rock against bush vol. one

Posted by kenfuggit on 2003-11-16 23:23:06
My Score:

Did i see someone actually mention ASSUCK on a LTJ review page?!? The end is surely coming soon.

ASSUCK = "the brown noise"
that is a compliment, by the way!)

-Ken

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, November 14, 2003 at 2:56 PM (EST)
My Score:

Someone needs to learn what the word cliche means.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, November 14, 2003 at 1:46 AM (EST)
My Score:

wow...all these bands suck...and i feel terribly sorry for mr. bragg...but, bad idea my man.

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 13, 2003 at 7:28 PM (EST)
My Score:

The reviwer never mentioned if this cd plays in all car stereos.

Or bike stereos.

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 13, 2003 at 4:56 PM (EST)
My Score:

jesus you guys review records and you dont know who billy bragg is?

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 13, 2003 at 5:18 AM (EST)
My Score:

yellowcard suuuuuuucks

Posted by Fuzzy on 2003-11-12 19:45:58
My Score:

The Billy Brag song is from a UK single. It's just his voice overdubbed the album version of the song. Honestly, it's not all that hot.

Posted by exhaustra on 2003-11-12 19:33:44
My Score:

anthem eighty-eight?

Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2003-11-12 16:18:09
My Score:

Assuck?

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 4:17 PM (EST)
My Score:

ASAOK ??

Posted by losingstreakca on 2003-11-12 03:45:14
My Score:

this ep is well worth your 5 bucks if you are a LTJ collector nerd, such as myself. otherwise its not worth the money. Sobriety is a Serious Buisness and Buisness isn't so Good is a really fucking good song. the end of its great "hi im chris, and im an alcaholic" fucking cant wait to see them in LA

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 3:41 AM (EST)
My Score:

yea, how can someone never have heard of billy bragg? weird. i feel old now.

the only band worth anything on this is LTJ

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 3:40 AM (EST)
My Score:

discount did a whole EP of billy bragg songs.
the ten is for that.

wyzo

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 1:35 AM (EST)
My Score:

do you peopel really not know how billy bragg is? hes been writng and singing protest/folk songs for prolly 30 years. very political. Lars Fredericksen covered one of billy braggs songs on the bastards record

Posted by blood_brothers_are_good on 2003-11-12 00:27:19
My Score:

by the way, author of the review "hey mike" is not from ocean avenue. by the way guy down there "hey mike" is not from the underdog EP. it's just unreleased, as in never been released before.

Posted by blood_brothers_are_good on 2003-11-12 00:25:55
My Score:

i wouldnt say that punchline sounds like brand new or taking back sunday. they just sound like average pop-punk to me

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 11:15 PM (EST)
My Score:

PLus, I bet "Bragg" isn't even his real name, I bet it's not

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 11:15 PM (EST)
My Score:

Billy Bragg is new? I bet he's not as good as Billy Talent. Do you even know who they are?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 11:08 PM (EST)
My Score:

This review sucks. You don't even know what you're talking about.

"Hey Mike" is an unreleased song from "The Underdog EP"

The "We have a violinst, so kids will think we're special" bit is about as chiche' as the very genre you're making fun of.

You forget to point out that the FOB song doesn't even sound like a studio recording.

If Billy Bragg's voice is what is missing from "Anthem": A) No, I can sing that well. It ads nothing special. B) There was a lot missing from "Anthem".

Don't waste your money on this EP.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 10:31 PM (EST)
My Score:

It was the bomb when Less Thank Jake toured with Good Charolette. I wish I was there. I bought a DVD of the show in Wisconsin for $50 off this guy on Ebay. It was so worth it. This tour is probably ok. But I bet nobody does a cover of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."

Can I get this cd at Hot Topic?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 6:47 PM (EST)
My Score:

maybe you,ve never heard punchline before this, and I guess its possible that the quality is bad enough to make them sound bad. But punchline is not, and to compare them with the bands you did is ridiculous. First of all, punchline sounds like none of them. And second, the three bands you did mention don't sound alike either. If you really want to check out punchline go see them live cause they are amazing on stage. Dont get a bad impression of them from this review, or this one song, they don't represent the band well at all.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 5:23 PM (EST)
My Score:

its limited to 5000, oh yeah and the artwork is hella savage

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 5:03 PM (EST)
My Score:

stop complaining. you know what you bought a cd only with so many songs on it. no one said the songs were going to long songs.

Posted by Hulka on 2003-11-11 16:50:26
My Score:

Billy Bragg's website: http://www.billybragg.co.uk

He's currently touring the U.S. with Tom Morello and Steve Earle, among others. Fans of this site might prefer his earlier, solo-electric stuff (e.g. "Back to Basics") over his more recent albums, but he just put a best-of record out ("Must I Paint You A Picture?") that covers his whole career pretty well.

Posted by gutterhippo on 2003-11-11 16:46:30
My Score:

i'll probably get this cd just because i'm a collector nerd. does anyone know how "limited" this release is?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 4:39 PM (EST)
My Score:

the Yellowcard song is unreleased.

They are one of the only punk rock band I still listen to. Hardcore gained me!

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 4:38 PM (EST)
My Score:

That cd artwork is hella savage!

Posted by inagreendase on 2003-11-11 16:31:04
My Score:

I don't know, if you ask me, 5 bucks for a 6-song compilation (limited or not limited) sounds more like an ass-raping than a good deal.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 4:24 PM (EST)
My Score:

if you're going to emphasize the word "ALOT", well, at least learn that there is no such word as "ALOT".