This coming Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 Reel Big Fish will release their 7th studio album, Candy Coated Fury via Rock Ridge Music.
The band returns with a hyper-energetic and infectiously catchy ska and witty music reminiscent of their beloved early albums. “This album is a lot like our first two albums. It’s got a lot of the same intensity, frantic energy in the music, and the same sarcastic sense of humor. I think these are the fastest songs we’ve done since those albums,” Aaron Barrett, founding vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter says. “We’re finally just doing what Reel Big Fish does best, and that’s what we did on those first two albums.”
The Huntington Beach, California ska band first gained mainstream recognition in 1997 with the high-velocity hooks and barbed humor of the hit “Sell Out.” That song became a staple of 1990s modern rock radio and a MTV favorite, propelling RBF’s sophomore album, Turn the Radio Off (Mojo Records, 1996), up the Top 100 and onto gold sales status. RBF also garnered widespread exposure appearing as the halftime band in the 1998 David Zucker comedy BASEketball. Alongside contemporaries like No Doubt, Sublime, Goldfinger, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, RBF was at the vanguard of the third wave of ska, reinvigorating the genre by incorporating spastic live shows, playfully puerile humor, ironic covers, and metallic shards into the mix.
“Candy Coated Fury pretty much describes what Reel Big Fish does,” Barrett says of the significance of the new album’s title. “It’s hateful, mean, sarcastic, and, sometimes sad lyrics, over happy, wacky, silly, joyous, fast music that makes you want to dance. This album is mostly love songs, but bitter, angry, hateful love songs. Just about everybody knows what it’s like to be in a bad relationship. These songs could be sung by a 15 year old about his first love-gone-wrong, or by a 55 year old about a bitter divorce after 30 years. They’re bad-relationship songs that everybody can relate to.”
Candy Coated Fury is Reel Big Fish’s first album of newly recorded original material in five years and overall, the seventh studio record in the band’s twenty year history.
Reel Big Fish continues to tour non-stop (see dates below), playing over 250 shows a year to thousands of loyal fans all over the world, gaining more and more underground popularity as the ska scene continues to flourish. “There are thousands of ska bands and ska fans all over the world. Everywhere we go we meet so many people that are just getting into ska and starting bands. It’s very flattering to hear that we are one of the bands that have inspired them. As a ska band that has been around for 20 years, it’s amazing to see that we’re still packing concert venues all over the world. We feel very lucky to still be able to be doing what we’re doing after all this time.”
For more information on Reel Big Fish check out their official website and Facebook page.
Upcoming shows:
7/28/12 – The Grove of Anaheim – Anaheim, CA (w/Big D and the Kids Table, Suburban Legends, the Maxies)
August 2nd – Viviero, Spain – Ressurection Festival
August 4th – Yantar, Russia (near Anapa) – Kubana Festival
August 6th – Brighton, UK – Concorde 2 (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 7th – Gloucester, UK – Guildhall (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 8th – Newquay, UK – BoardmastersBeach Sessions
August 9th – Poole, UK – Mr Kyps (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 10th – Coleford, UK – Boomtown Festival
August 11th – Ulft, Holland – Huntenpop
August 12th – Folkstone, UK – Quarterhouse-Folkstone Skabour Festival
August 13th – Southend, UK – Chinnerys (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 14th – Colchester, UK – Arts Centre (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 15th – Stoke, UK – Sugarmill (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 16th– Coventry, UK – Kasbah (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles
August 17th – Milton Keynes, UK – @ Northampton Roadmender (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 18th – Oxford, UK – Oxford O2 Academy2 (w/ New Town Kings/ the Hostiles)
August 19th – Ottery Devon, UK – Beautiful Days Festival