Yeah yeah. I know we already did an ROTD with Adam last week, but that was about Omnigone in general. This special edition focuses solely on the upcoming Operation Ivy tribute comp Mooorree Than Just Another Comp, due out in April via Sell The Heart Records and Lavasocks Records. We rolled a FIVE.
1) Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! The first one I'd like to ask is: It seems that almost everyone I meet has a story about the first time they heard OpIvy. Do you remember yours?
I had a friend in high school named Jay Solis. He had a cool older brother named Eric, they were both cool skater kids & had a ton of great taste in music. The two bands Jay turned me onto that changed the course of my life were Operation Ivy & Fugazi. I remember Jay lip syncing along with the lyrics, pulling ridiculous faces to mirror the intensity of the lyrics. This was 1992 or 93, I had only missed Op Ivy by a few years, but as a teenager with no car in Gilroy, Berkeley may as well have been on the moon.
2) What does OpIvy mean to you in particular, and in the broader pantheon of punk music?
What does OpIvy mean to you in particular, and in the broader pantheon of punk music?
The East Bay is my chosen home, in no small part because of the musical legacy of Operation Ivy. Without them, there's no Rancid, which means there's no Link 80, which means there's no Omnigone. Operation Ivy is the blueprint for the type of ska that resonates with me the deepest. To me, they should have been as big as Nirvana.
3) Why did you pick the song you chose to do?
We picked “Freeze Up”. We wanted one of the more overtly ska songs, & this song has a little bit of everything Op Ivy did best rolled into one song. Baz actually picked it, and I think he really picked well. We were early in the selection of songs, so we could have picked almost anything. This song has fast parts, half time parts, a gang vocal, a solo, a cool bridge. It's a great song & I also haven't heard a ton of other bands cover it.
(This next question is an either/or. If you have gotten a chance to hear to whole comp, answer question 4A. If not, answer 4B)
I'm gonna answer both, fuck it, nothing is real.
4A) There are a lot of great covers on the comp. Aside from YOURS, can you pick another track that stands out for you, and let us know what you dig about it?
The only other covers I have heard are the Flying Raccoon Suit cover of “Missionary”, Catbite's cover of “Healthy Body Sick Mind” & the Middle-Aged Queers cover of “Sleep Long”. I think the FRS cover is the most original. That band is full of mega talented people, turning it into a New Orleans street band feel is incredible. I also think Jessica is one of the most unsung front people in ska, I think she is really coming into her own as a performer. I saw Catbite play their cover a few times on the Bad Time Records tour & it was great. They can't miss. Middle-Aged Queers are fronted by Shaun from Wet Nap, he's an East Bay kid through & through. Also one of the only people who is around my age that still frequents Bay Area shows. Their cover is great, I saw them play it at Fest & at Gilman. Playing Op Ivy at Gilman always gets a great reaction.
4b) A bit of a follow-up to question #3: if you ended up farther down in the pecking order and didn't get your first pick(s), which song did you really want to do?
I would have been happy with any song. “I got no” would have been my next choice, I love the call & response. There's a lot of great Op Ivy songs that have no ska in them at all, just straight up punk rock rippers. When we covered “Lock Step & Gone” for the Rancid comp, we wedged a bit of “The Crowd” into the middle part.
5) Aside from the comp, what can we expect from Omnigone in the near future?
Our new album {came out) Friday (3/31) on Bad Time Records! It's called Against the Rest & we're very proud of it. We're currently demoing material for our next record. Baz & I have a lot to say, & as the elder members of the current group of new ska bands, we want to get these songs out! We'll be playing some more shows soon, specifically April 28th at the Starlet room with Half Past Two & Eichlers.
Mooorree Than Just Another Comp is due out 07 Apr 2023. You can preorder digitally at the STHR Bandcamp. For physical releases on vinyl (inventory is going fast!) visit the Sell The Heart or Lava socks web stores.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.