One of my absolute favorite reviews of our albums was by none other that the coolest kids on the kooky-music block, Greasy Kid Stuff. If ye have been missing the boat, make sure ye listen to their show, Saturday mornings on 94.7 FM.
I wanted to give this review of our third album, Prelude to Mutiny, it it's own hallowed posting on this here new website/blog/jollyboat.
A bit like a lucky feather in the old tricorn cap...
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Maybe it’s not saying much to call Captain Bogg & Salty our favorite pirate band, but let’s go out on a limb and say they might just be our favorite band period. If you count the sheer number of plays their CDs have received in our household, no other artist even comes close. Yes, it helps that we have a toddler who names “pirate music” among the things she loves most, but the fact is, we listen to Captain Bogg & Salty all the time, even when we don’t have to. This is music that’ll have you cranking up the car stereo and singing at the top of your lungs after you’ve dropped the kids off at soccer practice.
Now, some might pigeonhole Captain Bogg & Salty as a kiddie band or a novelty act or a comedy troupe or something, and we wouldn’t argue with them (not too much, anyway). But we would be obliged to point out that they are just about the best kiddie band/novelty act/comedy troupe we’ve ever encountered — and as hosts of a long-running radio show for children, we’ve encountered a lot.
Hilariously funny and endlessly inventive, these guys have wrung three excellent albums from what, in less capable hands, could have become a tired joke in about three minutes. Listening to their latest CD, Prelude to Mutiny, it becomes apparent why the joke hasn’t worn thin: it isn’t merely a joke. Some of these songs scratch a musical itch not satisfied since the mid-eighties heyday of the Mekons and the Pogues.
Filling in the gaps of Treasure Island, snatching choice bits of dialogue from U2 albums and Alice in Wonderland (or is that Peter Pan?), retooling Toy Dolls, Tom Waits and The Little Mermaid for their own piratical purposes, Captain Bogg & Salty try on musical styles like freshly pillaged clothes, and are convincing every step of the way. Genre-hopping? Well, how else would you get from sea chantey to surf rock, from rockabilly to AC/DC–style metal, on just the one leg?
Look, with Sleater-Kinney calling it quits, someone has to assume the mantle of “America’s Greatest Rock Band,” right? Well, we hereby nominate Captain Bogg & Salty! Why they don’t already have a Saturday-morning cartoon show and their own line of action figures is quite beyond us.
— Belinda & Hova “Greasy Kid Stuff”
Psssst, avast there. Ye can purchase Prelude to Mutiny at CDBaby.com.
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