I came late to the Jeff Rosenstock party. I don't know whether that gives me a greater sense of detached perspective than fans who've followed him for over a decade, or whether my opinion is less valid because I wasn't there, man. But I reckon you can trace a clear upward trajectory in his musical career. The Arrogant Sons Of Bitches were good, Bomb The Music Industry! were better (and Adults!!! and Vacation are head and shoulders above their earlier records in my book), and in the last couple of years I've fallen hard for both his solo album and Antarctigo Vespucci, his duo with Chris Farren. Considering he spent so many years playing in ska-punk bands, I like his music more the further removed it gets from ska.
But let's turn the clock back ten years. This Is What You Get is a live album recorded at SKAlloween in 2004. Included with initial copies of ASOB’s final album Three Cheers For Disappointment, it was later released on its own for free/pay-what-you-want download through Rosenstock's Quote Unquote Records. As the title, ever so slightly misquoting a lyric from "Karma Police" suggests, it consists entirely of Radiohead covers.
Now, if you were to draw a Venn diagram showing Radiohead fans and ska-punk fans, I'm betting the intersection would be pretty small. On the left: po-faced Radiohead worshippers, covering their ears as their favourite songs are desecrated by trombones and upstrokes. On the right: ska-punk fans, wondering why their heroes are covering the songs they ignore on the radio. And in that sweet spot in the centre: people who will love this record.
As an increasingly lapsed ska-punk fan and a casual Radiohead fan, I'm almost there. I like Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer, but everything since then just seems like too much hard work. So ASOB's song selection here is great, with half the set pulled from OK Computer and a quarter from The Bends, focusing almost entirely on the singles. As they bash out 12 far from faithful and often sped up covers, the show sounds like a whole heap of fun, for both the crowd and the band.
They commit to the Radiohead personae, speaking in bad English accents that are more Austin Powers than Thom Yorke. Between song banter ranges from the inspired ("His name is not Dave, his name is whatever the guy in Radiohead that stands over there's name is!") to the absurd ("Are you looking at my bum? You bum looker!") to numerous references to quintessentially British items like tea and crumpets. It's mildly entertaining, but really these are the sort of tracks the iPod's "skip when shuffling" tick box was invented for.
As for the music, sometimes it just sounds like Radiohead played faster with upstrokes because... well... it is. But sometimes it really works. JT Turret's keyboards come to the fore on "My Iron Lung", while the horns transform "Paranoid Android". "Fitter Happier", originally a sparse, disquieting, robotic-voiced spoken word piece, works surprisingly well as a minute-long ska-core blast, and "No Surprises" condenses all the intensity of the original into about half the running time. Radiohead fans will complain about Rosenstock's ragged vocals but, let's face it, Thom Yorke isn't exactly winning any singing competitions either.
One complaint would be the running order. Closing with a couple of less recognisable songs ("Motion Picture Soundtrack" from Kid A, and "True Love Waits" which only ever appeared on a Radiohead live record) means the momentum fizzles out a little. Maybe it doesn't have much replay value, but that just depends on how many times you find it entertaining to listen to a ska-punk band play Radiohead covers with absolutely no reverence whatsoever. For me, that's quite a few times.