With the Mad Caddies, I have to admit to being a late arrival to this particular party. For years and years I couldn\’t really be bothered to give them the time of day – I must have heard the wrong song at the wrong time, but like a lot of the third wave ska and ska-punk they never clicked with me. Then I got over myself and actually gave them a listen and guess what – I\’d been robbing myself blind! Delving onto their catalogue I realised that although their sound is pretty damn slick, they have style, they have soul and they know how to deliver a marvellous tune. So I was pretty pleased to hear about this new album of theirs…until I heard it was a tribute album featuring a selection of popular punk rock tunes. Okay, okay, I\’ve made the one mistake of prejudging them once before so let\’s put that on hold and give the tunes a listen. As it happens although there are a few familiar tunes on here, there is also plenty I haven\’t heard before, so effectively for the large part in my case this is a new Mad Caddies album and a lot of fun it is too. The tunes I\’m most familiar with were penned by Operation Ivy (Sleep Long), Misfits (Some Kinda Hate) and Descendents (Jean Is Dead) but the Caddies have put their own spin on the tunes and really made them their own. I was especially glad to hear the Descendents song as it\’s quite an obscure tune from their early catalogue that works so well done the off-beat style with quite the Sublime vibe. Roll up roll up for the Mad Caddies summer party – bring the (veggie) burgers and the beers as the boys have provided the soundtrack right here. Tom Chapman