Scrambles (album)


Scrambles is an album by Bomb the Music Industry!.

Recording and composition

In April 2008, several demos from Scrambles were posted on the Bomb the Music Industry! MySpace for a few days before being taken down. On October 6, 2008 the band entered the studio to start recording. A day prior, the group released the album's track listing and mentioned that the album would be released in January 2009. Frontman Jeff Rosenstock said it would contain "a ton of weird stuff on it."
Like most of the band's records, several songs feature samples as transitions between tracks. A clip from Green Day's performance at Woodstock '94 is played at the end of "9/11 Fever!!!" A clip from Ol' Dirty Bastard's song "Dirt Dog" is sampled at the end of "25!" A clip from the movie Milk is played at the end of "It Shits!!!"

Release

In mid-November 2008, the band performed at Skanksgiving ‘08 festival. The album originally was due out in January 2009, but it was delayed to allow time for printing a zine. Scrambles was released digitally on February 15, 2009 for free through Quote Unquote Records, as well as being released physically on Asian Man Records. The physical version includes a 32-page zine by friends of the band including Latterman, Mustard Plug, Kaiju Big Battel, Bridge and Tunnel, and Cheeky. In March, the band appeared at the Harvest of Hope Fest.

Demos

On February 15th, 2019 ; Rosenstock announced the release of a collection of demos on Twitter. Along with a link to the demos and the original album, there was a short piece of writing where he reflected on the creation and release of Scrambles. He concluded with "Thanks for reading, listening, and giving a shit. – Jeff". The demos appear to only feature Rosenstock. Several of the tracks contain musical and lyrical differences from their finished versions; "Cold Chillin' Cold Chillin'" is performed almost entirely on unadorned acoustic guitar and vocals, "It Shits!!!" contains different chords and lyrics, and "Wednesday Night Drinkball" lacks its climactic coda.

Reception

Reviews of the album have praised its perceived cohesiveness and clever lyrics. One reviewer wrote that, "Rosenstock's songwriting, which has always been quirky and introspective, is at its best here, mixing the personal and the humorous, and finding the difficult balance." Another reviewer declared that "Jeff Rosenstock is slowly becoming the only voice in punk that matters."

Track listing

Personnel