By Keith Walsh
With a new album, “Fighting The Urge To Waste Away,” Orange County’s ska and pop punk band Good Luck, Ugly scores some powerful musical and lyrical points.
The album is pure D.I.Y. On Bandcamp.com it’s called an “homemade, pandemic album.” I noticed the indie sound right away, and that’s not a bad thing. In line with previous releases by Good Luck, Ugly, it’s filled with ska and punk songs featuring themes of heartache, alienation and hope. It’s the hope that is the overarching theme, which is not surprising because the band is a Christian band. GLU played at His Place in Huntington Beach in January of 2020 but have not made the leap to a full on gospel rock album so far.
There is an explicitly Christian song on “Fighting The Urge To Waste Away,” though. It’s a cover of the campy Sonseed classic “Jesus Is A Friend Of Mine.” It’s a fun retake of a song that many of us have enjoyed, even if somewhat ironically. I feel that GLU could get more traction with a professional video of this tune.
“She Said” is the second video from the album, featuring only Mike Alvarez miming vocals and guitar, bass and drums. With its depictions of domestic life with a wooden spoon (I’m not kidding) the video is hilarious and the song is a catchy single as well. Notable absent is drummer Eric Mattson, who left the band in May of last year, and Chris Benner on bass. Probably the pandemic made this approach necessary, as the video appears to have been filmed at Alvarez’ home. For an indie D.I.Y effort it’s pretty solid. I wonder if the entire album is actually an Alvarez solo project under the Good Luck Ugly banner. Overall the album has a fun, spirited feel and is worth multiple spins.
I’ve been told by former GLU drummer Mattson that the name for the band came from Alvarez’ desire to flip the script of the bullying narrative he’d been subjected to when younger. “Fighting The Urge To Waste Away” features the band’s characteristic positivity, with lyrics about alienation that is ultimately won over by faith and hope. I wanted to ask Alvarez more about the band’s approach to lyrics, as well as how the album was recorded and also about the awesome cover art, but was unable to get a hold of him. Hopefully soon.
Good Luck, Ugly on Facebook
TheGoodLuckUgly.com
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