"Watching people beat each other up to Barry Manilow songs, it's pretty funny," says Spike Slawson, singer of punk-rock cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. If you know anything about the band, you probably understand what he's talking about; if you don't, that statement perfectly encapsulates everything weird and wonderful about the Gimme Gimmes. The band is a sort of punk-rock supergroup, fronted by Slawson, whose day job is bass player for the Swingin' Utters, and featuring members of NOFX, Lagwagon and the Foo Fighters. Started as a lark, with a few 7-inch singles on various labels, the band took a common punk-rock practice—covering cheesy pop songs in a sped-up punk style—and turned it into their raison d'etre.
Over the course of four studio albums, the Gimme Gimmes have covered everything from show tunes to classic pop and R&B ballads. Their latest release, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, was recorded live at an actual bar mitzvah, where the band performed renditions of "Hava Nagila" and "Auld Lang Syne," along with such cover-band standards as "Stairway to Heaven" and "The Longest Time." Complete with minimal applause, a blessing in Hebrew and an appearance by the 13-year-old guest of honor on the drums, Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah is hilariously awkward, and captures the Gimme Gimmes' fanatical dedication to the art of being a cheesy cover band.
Before the bar mitzvah, the band had played at least five weddings, in addition to sporadic club gigs and short stints on the punk-rock Warped Tour, which is where Slawson observed the moshing for Manilow. He sees a whole future for the band playing confirmations, state fairs and perhaps a gay cruise. "Any kind of potentially awkward situation, where you've picked good songs," is Slawson's standard. It's hard not to wonder if the band members are masochists, given the reaction to their bar mitzvah gig—"There was just floor in between us and them and they just stared at us with [arms] crossed," according to Slawson.
It's more that bassist Fat Mike, leader of NOFX and owner of Fat Wreck Chords, the label that releases the Gimme Gimmes' records, is a sadist who tries to put the band in increasingly uncomfortable situations. "He'll go through it himself, but what makes it worth it is seeing his four friends suffering," Slawson explains. Yet, as much as Slawson might protest, he also clearly gets a perverse sort of pleasure from the band's complete ridiculousness and frequent inability to get through an entire song without screwing up.
Those qualities, along with a clear, earnest love for classic pop, have made the Gimme Gimmes an unlikely success in the punk-rock community, where you'd be hard-pressed to find many fans of John Denver or Neil Diamond. Their albums have sold well, and when they do play their occasional shows, there is always an audience. Although the Foo Fighters and NOFX are well-known, it's hard not to notice that the Gimme Gimmes have eclipsed Slawson's primary band, the Swingin' Utters, in both visibility and fan interest. While he clearly puts the Utters first, Slawson is philosophical about the Manilow covers getting more attention than his own tunes. "Anybody that works hard and actually cares about what they put on record is bound to be overshadowed by flashy covers," he says. "That's just the way America works."