Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

All the unreleased tracks from the Gimmes’ 1997 debut (Have a Ball!) are offered up on this 12-song collection, which sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday, mostly because the songs are all originally from the ’70s, and pop punk generally always sounds the same. For the uninitiated, Me First are comprised of members of NOFX, Lagwagon, Foo Fighters, No Use For a Name and Swingin’ Utters, and they play covers, lots of them. They’re basically the consistently awesome version of all those mediocre "punk cover” MP3s that used to litter Napster, and Have Another Ball! is more of the listenable same. Tackling Hall & Oates, Simon and Garfunkel, John Denver and Elton John (and eight others), the band are in top form. These are just as good as the A-sides that ended up comprising the first record. If you like pop punk as much as you like Diana Ross, you already love this band.