Mad Caddies - The Holiday Has Been Cancelled (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Mad Caddies

The Holiday Has Been Cancelled (2000)

Fat Wreck Chords


Submitted for your approval: 5 tracks of varying lengths and difficult horn parts, with lyrics that really make you wonder how emo this band really is. I know that sounds wacky, considering that the Mad Caddies, for all intents and purposes, are a Fat Wreck punk/ska band with blistering drum beats, super fast power chords, and a goofy stage show to be reckoned with. But come in closer, and take a look at just how emo the Caddies really are:

EXHIBIT ONE: Lyrics
Track one, "Falling Down" -- "the day we met upon a cold December, the day we met and I started to fall."
Track two, "Nobody Wins at the Laundromat" -- "A blackened wick is all that remains when the verdict has been sent."
Track three, "Something's Wrong at the Playground" -- "A cherry burning bright, but a future that's not."
Track four, "Destro" -- "I wanna see you when everything's gone."
Track five, "S.O.S." -- ok, so this is an ABBA cover. But ABBA was pretty emo, right?

EXHIBIT TWO: Liner Notes
Contained after the thanks list, there is a little note from a band member:
"[W]hat you hear on this record is not so much a labor of love as it is an impromptu jam. It is a spur of the moment thing we couldn't really recreate if we tried."
Does that not just completely sound like thrown-together emo supergroup Radio Flyer? Come on, you have to be starting to see it now. And finally, the final piece of evidence.
EXHIBIT THREE: Pictures
Inside the booklet, there are associated pictures put together, like in most CDs. Does this mean that all CDs are emo? No [although by the looks of it these days, that might change. Rap Rock can only live for so long. But I digress]. What is emo are two different series of pictures: one being the same shot from a live show repeated in a vertical row, each frame being a different color, the other being a line of photos running across the bottom of the booklet horizontally, each being a seemingly random shot of the outside and inside of a motor home. Fat has realized that emo is the next big thing, so It is only a matter of time before we see No Use For A Name in V-neck sweaters and Good Riddance in horn-rimmed glasses. Regardless, this EP still sounds great, emo or not, and it is a wonderful follow-up to "Duck and Cover."
[taken from a different kind of greatness webzine]