Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

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Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Background information
Origin	United States
Genre(s)	Pop punk
Years active	1995–present
Label(s)	Fat Wreck Chords
Associated acts	Lagwagon
Website	GimmeGimmes.com
Members
Spike Slawson Joey Cape Chris Shiflett Fat Mike Dave Raun

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock cover band that formed in 1995. Drawn together by a mutual love of 1960s and 1970s music, the Gimme Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. They have covered songs from such artists as Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, and John Denver.

The band is composed of several very recognizable faces in the new-school punk rock scene, including Spike Slawson of the Swingin' Utters, "Fat" Mike Burkett of NOFX, Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters (and formerly No Use for a Name), and Joey Cape and Dave Raun of Lagwagon. The band wasn't originally planning on making an album, appearing only on compilation albums for their first year. In 1996, however, the band began releasing singles named after the singer they had covered. They produced Billy (Joel), (Neil) Diamond, Paul (Simon), (John) Denver, and Barry (Manilow) in this manner. Their first album, Have a Ball, was released in 1997. The band still performs whenever its members aren't busy with their other bands, and makes plenty of guest appearances on punk compilations.

Each album by the band is themed differently: Have a Ball focuses on classic 1970s and early 1980s songs by artists like Elton John, Neil Diamond, and John Denver; Are a Drag consists entirely of showtunes, Blow in the Wind consists of 60's classics, Take a Break consists entirely of R&B songs by artists such as Boyz 2 Men, Lionel Richie, and Vanessa Williams; their fifth album, Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, was recorded live at an actual bar mitzvah and consists of pop music from the 1960s through the 1980s by artists such as REO Speedwagon, Styx and The Beatles, as well as traditionals like "Hava Nagila".

Me First and The Gimme Gimmes are also known for filling their covers with famous guitar riffs from songs by other punk rock bands. For instance, Elenor begins with the opening tune of The Clash's London Calling, My Favourite Things begins with the melody and opening lyrics of Bad Religion's Generator and on the song Hava Nagila (Christmas Arrangement), the melody from The Offspring's Come Out And Play can be heard.

A running joke in the punk rock community has declared many other punk rock artists as former or honorary members of the band, including Billie Joe Armstrong and Tre Cool of Green Day, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Mike Watt of The Minutemen, Fletcher Dragge of Pennywise, Brett Gurewitz and Brian Baker (who played guitar in place of Shiflett during the bands 2005 tour) of Bad Religion, Pig Champion of Poison Idea, Joe Escalante of The Vandals, as well as Warren Fitzgerald, also of The Vandals (who played guitar in place of Shiflett during the band's 2003 Australian tour, and a few other times), Lindsay McDougall of Frenzal Rhomb (who played guitar in place of Cape, during the second half of the band's 2003 Australian tour), Ben Weasel and Danny Vapid of Screeching Weasel, Ron Welty of The Offspring and Lou Italian of Sick Of It All.

They entered the studio on April 3, 2006 to work on their sixth album, Love Their Country, which was released on October 17, 2006.[1] The theme of this album is country and western, and includes covers of tracks by Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, Hank Williams, Sr. and Johnny Cash.[2]. Prior to the release of the album, Fat Wreck Chords released a digital label sampler iFloyd which included "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" by the band.