Spike Slawson On Adding His Own Stink To Me First & The Gimme Gimmes

Way back in 1995, a bunch of high profile musicians from the bountiful American punk rock scene hooked up, looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s form a cover band, a cover band that will do punky renditions of just about anyone we can think of, from Barry Manilow to The Muppet Show.'  Such a band required a quirky, playful name, so they dubbed it Me First & The Gimme Gimmes.

Fast forward almost a quarter of a century and that cover band is still together, still releasing records, still touring, and frontman and co-founding member Spike Slawson is on the phone from his home in San Francisco reminiscing about how it all started. “Yeah, that’s pretty much how it went down,” he recalls. “It was literally like, Mike [Burkett, also known as ‘Fat Mike’, the band’s bassist, plus the lead vocalist and bass player of NOFX and founder of the Fat Wreck Cords record label] said, ‘There’s bands where the best song on the record was a cover, so let’s do a record of covers,’ which is kinda strange for a guy with a record label to say!” he laughs.

"In some cases you can’t tell whether we’re being genuine, or if you should be ashamed of it."

Looking back across the band’s discography, a canon which now comprises nine albums of pop, rock and related covers, the range of tunes and artists the band has paid tribute to is immense. From the aforementioned Barry Manilow and The Muppets, they have also covered Dolly Parton, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Paula Abdul, Boyz II Men and many, many more. In fact, just about the only area of modern popular music they haven’t touched is other punk bands. According to Slawson, this was intentional. “Yeah, that’s the way we wanted it,” he admits. “Especially the songs on the first and second records, most of the songs I couldn’t stand. But they lent themselves to several layers of irony or sarcasm – in some cases you can’t tell whether we’re being genuine, or if you should be ashamed of it.

“A lot of those songs sounded cheesy to me, and I wanted to change them into something that I liked. Most of the punk songs that I’d like to cover would be the punk songs that I dig, and those songs are done. What are you going to do differently with them?”

Back in ’95, when they were first putting the band together, at least one visionary member of the band had an inkling that MFATGG was not actually a gimmick, not a flash in the pan. “I think Mike was the one who foresaw this being sort of a retirement plan!” Slawson laughs wryly. “But seriously, he definitely saw its potential, if not for its success, then definitely for its longevity.” 

He still feels that there are untapped sources of inspiration for the band to latch onto moving into the future too. “I don’t actually feel like we’ve fully explored the ‘AM rock’ side of things. I’d like to delve back into that songbook. Not necessarily Barry Manilow, but Gilbert & Sullivan and all sorts of great artists from that time.

“If we were to stick to a theme, I think that would be the one.”

The seemingly inexhaustible wealth of songs the band can tap into is one factor behind their longevity. Another major one is simply the fact that playing in a cover band is stress-free – compared to being in a band that plays original songs – and that playing in this band is just a shitload of fun. “Our live energy and the way our presentation has evolved over time, and when you’re a cover band and not an original band, you’re not tearing your hair out deciding what you want to express, how you want to express it, there’s always a big decision attached to it, when you’re creating something out of nothing.

“Whereas with us, the songs are already written and agonised over. Of course we add our own, sort of, stink to them, but there’s all these decisions about them that we don’t have to make. So all we have to really about is costumes!” he chuckles again. “The visual presentation, and making it a fun show for the people.”