Bad Operation feels like living legends. They feel larger than life. They only have one full length album, and last year they dropped a couple songs on a split EP with Joe Gittleman’s debut singles. At the end of July they dropped another single before they embarked on a tour in support of Japan’s Hey Smith, Kill Lincoln, and the Suicide Machines. All three bands they are supporting are kind of legends in their own right, but for some reason, Bad Operation feels like they could be headlining this tour. Their sound is completely fresh and original, yet somehow classic.
Their newest single “I don’t wanna know” is clean and timeless. You could tell me this song was a classic and I would believe you, it feels like the type of song the defines an era- but the era is lost because nobody else is doing it. It’s just them- in a class of their own.
While their tour with Kill Lincoln, Hey Smith, and The Suicide Machines just wrapped up before I had the chance to write this review, I want to say how incredible that line up is. Hey Smith is one of the most successful Japanese ska bands, which is a massive scene right now. The Suicide Machines are one of the most prominent and enduring third wave ske core bands who wrote some of the most significant ska albums of all time. And Kill Lincoln is the figurehead for Bad Time Records and perhaps the most prominent ska band in America today- and despite all of that, Bad Operation is the band that I would be most excited to see. It’s Bad Operation who coined the term New Tone to describe their music that has gone on to loosely be used to describe the entire sound of modern ska for the last 5 years. Their sound is so iconic, it’s possible that they are the defining band of an entire generation of ska music- and this song, with its clean horns, guitars, and bass, its powerful vocals, subtle organ, and driving drums perfectly capture and define this sound.
Damn, this single makes me hype and makes me long for a new full album.
Written by Gimp Leg
