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Lucky Boys Confusion is a ska-punk-pop band from Chicago featuring
Kaustubh "Stubhy" Pandav on vocals, Adam Krier on guitar and keyboards
(co-author with Pandav of most of the material), Joe Sell on
guitar, Jason Schultejann on bass and Ryan Fergus on drums.
They debuted with the EP What Gets Me High (Lucky Boys, 1997) and the
album Growing Out Of It (Lucky Boys, 1998), whose best songs are
reprised on their major-label debut.
The tight, propulsive, kinetic and eclectic sound of
Throwing The Game (Elektra, 2001)
would be just one more punk-pop offering but LBC pull out two massive
tricks: firstly, almost every song is irresistibly catchy and, secondly,
they display an uncanny ability to mix and match different styles, genres
and tempos.
Breaking Rules boasts one of the band's trademarks, an epic, fast-paced
Social Distortion-style refrain, which is
tempered by an organ-based reggae interlude.
The Story of My Life theme returns in
Fred Astaire
(launched by a Green Day-ish progression)
and a few of the most passionate songs.
3 To 10/CB's Caddy Part III throws in a fractured heavy-metal guitar
riff (of the old Who/Kinks school) and a spastic rap.
LBC's songs manage to fuse the epic, the partying and a serious reportage
of their times the way the Clash used to.
That this is also music with a message is proved especially by the
melodramatic, suspenseful (and middle-eastern sounding)
One to the Right .
Child's Play toys with a filtered rap uttered over heavy-metal riffing,
which then mutates into a ska fanfare and then into an old-time blues.
Ska and reggae are major ingredients, whether
in the clownesque ska of 40/80 (with an aria worthy of the operetta)
or in the full-fledge reggae fanfare of City Lights.
Bossman soars with a Clash-grade chorus and dives into a reggae scherzo.
Not About Debra is a decadent ska that degrades into a wild calypso
dance.
The artistic peak, though, has gotten to be represented by the two best
melodies, the demented ramalama of Dumb Pop Song (fading into a
sublime funk-rap coda) and frantic, pounding Do You Miss Me
(led by a piano ouverture in the vein of Jim Steinman).
The word "catchy" doesn't even come close to the power of these ditties.
Such a smooth fusion of punk, hip hop, reggae, ska, pop, funk and heavy metal
had never been achieved before. Their masters Sublime
and Beastie Boys are only a fraction of the
equation. The rest comes from a life lived in the suburbs listening to
the music of the dispossed youth.
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