Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution – A Call to Arms: #863 of best 1,000 albums ever!

Why is Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution’s A Call to Arms on my best 1,000 albums ever list?

A short and incredible acoustic ska punk album.

What does Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution’s A Call to Arms mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?

I’m a big fan of the ska punk bands Streetlight Manifesto and Catch 22 – which shared some band members – so I was really excited and intrigued when I discovered that some of the alumni from those two bands gathered for a (to date) one-off acoustic ska punk album under the helm of Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution.

And indeed A Call to Arms is every inch fantastic. In fact, it would likely have landed quite a bit higher on the best 1,000 albums ever rankings if it was a wee bit longer. And (also) in fact, at 18 minutes and 22 seconds, A Call to Arms might end up being the shortest album on the entire project in terms of running time. That’s how much I dig it.

“They Provide the Paint for the Picture-Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids” is flat out an incredible song title, so let’s just start there. But more importantly, this song does an amazing feat of starting out with a “soft” acoustic classical guitar-driven section with beautiful crooning vocals before blasting off into what you’d more typically expect (in a great way) from Streetlight Manifesto/Catch 22 alums but in acoustic form.

“They Provide the Paint…” well, paints, for lack of a better word, the path forward for acoustic ska punk, something I would have liked to see a lot more of in addition to this five-song EP.

“Dear Sergio” is a Streetlight Manifesto cover, and the song’s frantic ska punk pace on the original version loses nothing in velocity while allowing the horn section and vocals to be highlighted in a really pleasing way. This is ska punk that you can play for your parents… if you had a hankering to play ska punk for your parents.

“Here’s to Life” is simply a great ska punk song laid down on acoustic, with special attention played to musical dynamics and musicality that sometimes get a little lost in translation when the amplifiers are turned up to 11.

Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution’s A Call to Arms

If you’re reading this – which means that if you’re reading you’re really reading this, dig? – I’d expect most of you immediately catch (22) what my “turned up to 11” mention above references.

But just in case, here you go – and then watch This Is Spinal Tap for your musical and pop cultural education if nothing else. But chances are you’ll greatly enjoy it and have a lot of so THAT’S what they’ve been talking about moments.