This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
FILE UNDER: Ska-punk noise from girls and boys.
SOUNDS SORTA LIKE: No Doubt — if they really were a ska-punk band.
POINTED COMMENTS: Both bands are septets. Both have horn sections. Both have female vocalists. But The Wedgewoods and The Barrymores dish up two distinctly different brands of ska-punk on their respective debut discs. The Barrymores, for their part, emphasize the rude in rude boy with raunchy, raucous, raggedly punky numbers like Up The Bum and My Girlfriend’s Got Bigger Balls Than Me. The Wedgewoods, by contrast, take a more serious and studious approach on songs like Wasting My Time and Jo Lee, which boast smooth grooves, adept performances and some sharp songcraft. To put it another way, The Barrymores are like a pitcher of cheap draft while The Wedgewoods are a smoothly mixed drink. Which one you prefer is a matter of taste, but either one will get the job done just fine.
