Moore Ave aren’t preaching to the choir with their energized reimagining of the Sublime classic Santeria — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
It’s difficult to make a cover sound like a unique production that does justice to its origins, but Moore Ave have done just that. While the original version of the 1997 Sublime signature song was firmly rooted in the California trio’s trademark laid-back ska-punk, the Aylmer, Ont. outfit put their own indie-punk spin on the track — a preview of their upcoming Wade MacNeil-produced debut album Turn Around.
The notion of releasing an album came while Moore Ave were sitting around a fire — fittingly similar to the setting of the original Sublime video. The success of the singles Beanies And Plaid Jackets and 6 Feet had the bandmembers — brothers Josh, Joe and Jack Gaudette, along with brother-in-punk Shawn MacDonald — excited to take the next step, but unsure of how to proceed.
“At that time, all the songs we were playing together were released, and Josh had a solid collection of partially written tunes just waiting around for us to tackle,” the band said. “As the night went on and Josh was showing everyone demos of some new tunes, Shawn stopped the conversation and suggested we write and release our first full-length album. This was never something we would have ever entertained before for whatever reason.”
That night, the band decided an album was in its future. Josh took the liberty of sending demos to Alexisonfire member MacNeil on a whim, taking a shot in the dark that a member of his favourite band might be interested. He was. Over the summer of 2021, MacNeil set Moore Ave up with a studio and an engineer — Ian Romano, also a member of brother Daniel Romano’s Outfit — and now, more than two years and plenty of mixing and mastering later, the band are putting the finishing touches on the album with an eye to an early 2023 release.
Watch the video for Santeria above, hear more from Moore Ave below, and join the congregation at their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
