It's been a while since a genuine ska-punk release dropped in my mailbox, so this one came in catching me quite cold for the style. Amidst all the current flow of slick produced power-punk, a good skanking CD should have pleased me, and Gainesville, Florida always has good soil for cultivating good bands.

The Know How has been around for about seven years (this being their third full-length) and has had a busy time touring with bands like the Planet Smashers, Mustard Plug, the Toasters and Streetlight Manifesto. Catchy horns and sci-fi moog licks should get you off your feet, but unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed about the level of energy that came from the release after the otherwise rather good first 3 songs. At times, I had the feeling that I sometimes have with some of Mad Caddies' more recent recordings, where there's too much attention paid to producing a slow-skanking, more heartfelt kind of sound, which pours a lot of the energy down the drain.

Nevertheless, there's quite some fun going on here, and I'm sure that fans of the genre will enjoy this much more than I did. Also, I'm pretty sure that a live performance by this band has more to offer than listening to this through my headphones. Fact is, the recordings sound a bit basic and the quite bland vocals are not really outstanding in my eyes. I think I just like my ska-punk a bit more guitarded and hefty than this gathering of songs. Thumbs up for the first couple songs and the fun moog inclusion though.