So why is Perfect Thyroid’s Musical Barnacles on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
One time in the late 1990s, I was in a bookstore somewhere on Long Island or New York City, and I picked up a copy of Alternative Press. Flipping through it, I noticed there was a piece along the lines of “Five Great Ska Punk Bands,” or perhaps it was even a little more grandiose a la “The Five Greatest Ska Punk Bands of All Time.”
In any event, what I recall is that Perfect Thyroid was on that list, which immediately delighted me.
Perfect Thyroid quickly became one of my favorite local bands on the “upstate New York scene” during my college years at Binghamton University.
While they do excel at playing ska and punk, their overall sound is a lot rangier than that (which the band branded as skunk music if you can dig!), spanning from alternative rock to Latin influences.
“Pear-o-noya” is a song that proves out that when PT does set its sights fully on ska punk, they can crush it. The horn hook is best of Mighty Mighty BossTones worthy, the chorus ramps up the punk factor, and throughout the vibe is danceable for days.
Perfect Thyroid is a stridently leftwing band when it comes to politics, and it’s not hard to see some prescient and creepily relevant lyrics in some of their songs with relation to what’s going on in the U.S. circa 2023. A great example is “Elected Pimps,” one of the band’s best songs, with a piercing message about the fragility of the democratic system and the importance of vigilance and civic activism.
Greed and oppression are the games they play
We’ve got to fight them each and every day
In disguise as democracy – elected pimps tell us who to be
“Got the Time?” is a Joe Jackson song that in Perfect Thyroid’s hands becomes a scorching punk rocker. It’s one of those relatively rare situations where the original songs is pretty good and the cover song is flat out great.
And then there are songs that are simply a flipping good time, such as “Cattbutt 2” (not to be confused with “Cattbutt” the original, which like “Elected Pimps” also appears on the brilliant Kiss the Mammoth and Run).
Pop culture stuff that’s somehow related to Perfect Thyroid’s Musical Barnacles
Something that I’ve cataloged in conversations many times with college friends but never codified in writing is my Top 5 local bands from my college years at Binghamton University. Big doings, yes? Well, let’s do it!
- #1) Brother Meat – Outstanding alt rock and hard funk chops, but it’s the unmatched showmanship that puts them over the top
- #2) Perfect Thyroid – A very close second
- #3) Yolk – Arguably the best musicians of this group. If their sound was slightly more accessible, they had all the makings of blowing up in the mid-‘90s alt rock scene
- #4) Soul Patch – Shoutout to my fellas here, who these days perform under the helm of Sol Patch. As we all know, there is never a good reason to not feel compelled to churn the butter nor change one’s gears (oh yeah).
- #5) Conehead Buddha – Always a good time
Some stats & info about Perfect Thyroid – Musical Barnacles
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Ska, Ska Punk, Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Third Wave Ska Revival, Dance Music, New York Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – not rated!
- When was Musical Barnacles released? 1997
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #338 out of 1,000
Perfect Thyroid’s Musical Barnacles on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Perfect Thyroid’s Musical Barnacles that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Open your mouth and close your eyes and let the overlord’s spoon slide deep inside.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.