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Sure, aesthetic effort on the part of acts that were briefly popular in the late ’90s and somehow still releasing albums in 2009 may be a bit too much to ask. But should we ever excuse laziness and/or mediocrity? While little effort is required to avoid the music on these discs, the cover art still lingers as we innocently navigate to the front page of the iTunes Store, flip through stores’ CD racks, check out their teeming cutout bins. Things probably went wrong in both cases when the acts in question decided on their albums’ titles (hed(pe) chose New World Orphans; Reel Big Fish decided on the alliterative Fame, Fortune and Fornication), but honestly.
The question that then comes up: Which cover is worse? I’m leaning toward the Reel Big Fish cover, what with its aesthetic seemingly stolen from a K-Tel hard-rock compilation.
hed (pe) [MySpace]
Reel Big Fish [Official site]
The continuing existence of both bands insults more than my eyes.
I couldn’t choose, they’re both terrible. But then I noticed that Hed (pe) put their PMRC sticker in a really aesthetically RONG place.
I think the RBF one is funny. Whatever, kill me…
I had no idea (hed) pe was still putting out albums. I am very sorry to say that from my rap-rock teenage years, I own not one but two of their past pieces of crap.
voted Hed (pe) because they couldn’t even find a decent way to work their (awful) name into the cover.
woulda walked past both.
done the once over on the RBF cover, thought of it as a hilarious tribute band then moved on.
I voted hed(pe)
@brasstax: Agreed on the advisory sticker sealing this for me. It makes an already dated-looking cover look even more 1993, and not in a good/nostalgic way.
Hey guys, remember the 80s??!?! Dude, those hair metal bands were so awesome and funny, too!!!! Remember?
I wish Reel Big Fish would die, but I there are always going to be 13 year olds(and people in Japan).
@Ned Raggett: Amen.(by the way, just read your Peachcake piece today. Good stuff…had never heard of them).
@MayhemintheHood: Hey thanks — and did you get my message on here, BTW? Just drop me a line when you can!
Thing about that stupid RBF cover is that it just makes me think of pseudo-ironic covers like this one from the early 90s or so:
Good lord, RBF is still around?
“Sell out with me, oh yeah!/The record company is gonna give us a lot of money and everything is gonna be all right!”
And so many gullible high school kids believed that was satire.
@MayhemintheHood: I didn’t even know we could get messages on here.
I just checked my profile and saw your message and one from Diablo Cody. Did the real Diablo Cody send me a message on Idolator(it was in response to a comment i left saying she looks like Katy Perry). That would blow my mind.
Oops. That was supposed to be in response to you, Ned.
I think the RBF one is pretty funny, but then again, I’m from a small town where a strong contingency of people still look like that. It is missing a certain…. Camaro quality to it, though.
Also, if this album is an effort similar to their last… 3? Maybe? Maybe more? albums then I, too, am in the “I wish they’d just break up” category.
c) merriweather post pavillion
the hed p.e. is clearly worse, cuz it’s more amateurish, kinda of a retarded Ministry look going on or something.
as for Reel Big Fish, i’ll always remember the time i off-handedly shit talked them as they were unloading their equipment into palookaville in santa cruz back when i was in college. good times, or god i’m so old!
@eriq78: a retarded Ministry look going on or something.
Hahah, that was what I first thought of as well…
Here’s what bothers me about the RBF cover: it looks like the accompanying photo that would go with some unfunny pop-up ad for credit score services or insurance. “When was the last time you checked your rates?!?” or “Did Plan A not work out?”
RBF is obviously “supposed” to be funny which kind of gives them a pass, but Hed(pe) is serious which makes it seriously wrong.