It’s not often that I’m completely blown away by an album, but today, I definitely am! OK, that was a lie. I love new music, and I’m often blown away by something, but this is definitely one of those times. The Scrub Ups just released one of the coolest, craziest, most unique sounds I’ve heard in a while. I love it when bands do something experimental, stretch a genre into something I’d never even considered, and do it with such skill that it seems perfectly natural and that it should have always existed. But before I go into their sound, first I want to go into the band itself.
This is the debut album for the Scrub Ups. A few years ago, several members of the Scrub Ups released a ska punk album under the band name Barbicide, featuring Brendog Tween on guitar, Irena Jaroszewski on bass, and Mykal Reich on drums, with all three members sharing vocals. The album featured additional musicians who were not full-time members of the band. In an unfortunate tragedy, a few months after the album was released, Mykal Reich drowned in a freak accident. The band didn’t feel it was right to continue the band in his absence, and broke up. After a couple of years, Irena and Brendog decided to reform as a band with new members and reimagine those songs. They brought in Ian Meredith for banjo, Beth O’Donnell for guitar, added Dave Friedlander on pedal steel, and Greg Insero on drums. That combination of instruments alone should raise some serious eyebrows.
You may need to go back and read that again. This is a ska band that doesn’t have any horns. Gone are the trumpets or saxophone. There are no keys or synthesizers- and in their place we have the pedal steel and banjo. The band would look more at home on a bluegrass stage than a ska festival if you were judging by the instruments alone, and that is exactly what makes this band stand out so much. However, this album was mixed by Agent Jay of The Slackers, one of the most prestigious and well-respected ska bands of all time. The ska chops didn’t disappear; they just got blended beautifully into a glorious fusion that needs to be experienced.
The album begins with “Unlove You”, and the first track introduces the fiddle and gang duetted vocals singing “Hey, hey, hey” and the Nashville-bluegrass vibe with upbeat riffs is immediately upon us. The song is about a relationship gone bad, and the desire to “unlove” someone- if it were possible. The lead vocals on the song are Brendog, with the chorus being duets with Irena, who also provides accent harmonies throughout the track. The pedal steel through the track plays long notes that feel almost surf rock and also provide a lot of that country/ bluegrass/ Nashville vibe that really gives the song its feel.
The next track, “Enemies,” might have the purest Nashville-esque sounds on the album, but “The Scrub Up” has one of my favorite sounds. It’s so much more upbeat, the backing vocals bring a lot of energy, and the big guitar slides make the song feel epic. I also have to give a lot of credit to the drums in “The Scrub Up” for really grabbing my attention and pulling me in at the end of the verses.
Arguably, the best song on the album is “Jezebel”. This feels like a damn good country and western song. The track begins with horses weighing, whips cracking, a country and western banjo, followed by a traditional country acoustic guitar riff, and there is something beautiful about that classic intro. The duetted vocals play so damn well together. Layered guitars and vocals. The pedal steel and banjo, everything plays and mixes so incredibly well together, broken by the occasional whip crack to reset the rhythm. Each instrument plays off the others as perfectly as the vocal harmonies. They’re not playing on top of or against each other but perfectly independent of one another in the most complimentary arrangement. I love it every time I hear it.
“Bloodfall” is the song that stands out the very most for me. It feels like the very antithesis of “Jezebel”. While “Jezebel” was notable for the intricate interplay of the music, the country and western themes, the pure Nashville and amazing dueted vocals, “Bloodfall” feels like Vaudeville. It feels like you’re watching a musical on a stage, with a simple musical accompaniment, and the actress is perfectly overperforming every line. The instrumentation is in the background for the first 90 seconds, and it’s the first song that is led predominantly by vocals. The inflection of words, the rolled R’s and stretched or shortened words, is beautiful as it describes a party of the wealthy at Mar a Lago, greasing palms, rubbing elbows, and blood raining down around corruption at a great and elegant party, in what feels like one of the most beautiful satires of all time. The instruments pick up in one of the most aggressive arrangements on the album after the first minute and a half to add to the texture and make everything feel grandiose. The vocal performance in this song is just fucking phenomenal. It’s so exaggerated and perfect.
The album, by no means, loses any steam from this point. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people’s favorite tracks are in the back half of the album, but I don’t feel that the last few songs bring many aspects that weren’t already established in the first 6 songs. “Rubberneck”, specifically, is one of the best executed songs on the album and contains a rare drum-led bridge, but I think the sound of the album is well established by this point, so it doesn’t need as thorough a review.
“I get mad” almost feels a little psychedelic compared to the rest of the album, as opposed to country or bluegrass. It’s also another song that features Irena as the lead vocalist, and this time it is not over the top, like “Bloodfall,” and shows off her talents as lead instead of backing or harmony (although Brendog does add terrific harmonies and backing in this track). This song also features the best guitar solo on the album and excellent drums. While it’s not one of my favorite songs on the album, it does do a phenomenal job of showing off some of the range of the lineup and prevents the album from being pigeon-holed by the primary stylistic choices.
Overall, this album does an amazing job of showing off some of the most unique ways in which ska can be interpreted, while making an absolute banger of an album. It forges new paths in ways I don’t think many people have ever considered, and does it with skill and passion.
If you are in the NYC area, the band is celebrating the release of the album with an album release show at An Beal Bocht in the Bronx on January 18th, 2026.
Written by Gimp Leg
