Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a San Francisco-based punk rock cover band formed in 1995 by infamous personalities of the punk rock scene : Joey Cape, Fat Mike, Dave Raun, Chris Shiflett and Spike Slawson. "If underground music had an all-star game, these guys would lead the league in voting every season" (www.fatwreck.com). To this day, the Gimme Gimmes have released seven LPs, two EPs and eighteen 7"s of punk rock cover songs, building unexpected bridges between generations of music lovers.

Building bridges was never their ambition though. Having fun and getting wasted on stage were always the boys' motives. In the early days of the band, the Gimmes simply appeared on compilations, released very limited quantities of 7"s and gathered for occasional shows. "It's either going to be totally meaningless or elevate you to some weird mythical rarity" Spike summed up. Amazingly, 17 years later, the five drunketeers have pulled themselves up -or stumbled down- to a unique spot in the punk rock scene and can now, without a doubt, praise themselves as the best cover band in the world!!!

First things first. Let's get rid of the two boring questions that start EVERY Gimme Gimmes interview :

Why/How did it all start ?

Joey and Mike had the same idea at the exact same moment (Chris has something to do with this too) : "Let's pick old songs and make them punk! In fact, let's form a band that would exclusively play cover songs, put them out on 7"s and play a few shows for our friends. The best songs on a lot of records are the covers so let's just do that" (no one actually said that but it's the idea). The best part of the covers-only thing, is that whatever the critics, the Gimmes can laugh and say: "Yeah we know, these songs suck, but we didn't write them so don't complain to us"...

Fat Mike decided he wanted to play bass because that's what he does in the other band he's in and he's just a lazy man. Joey felt like it was his responsibility to make sure the Gimmes would never get too good, so to preserve the band's sloppiness, he chose to play guitar. The crucial vocalist part was entrusted to Spike who was working at Fat Wreck Chord's shipping department. Spike's heartfelt interpretations of radio hits still bring back painful memories to Fat's warehouse. Dave's incredible drumming talent and his ability to drink over five beers without even falling to the ground got him the coveted drummer spot. Chris who lived with Joey at that time, came as the natural choice for the lead guitar part. Not only is he a great guitar player but he's also the most amazing totally-wasted-guitar-player which perfectly fits the bands ambition never to go on stage sober. Yeah, booze and other substances are the band's sixth member.

"When you're doing a show with the Foo Fighters, it's like you want it to be good, it's a serious thing, you're trying to play the songs correctly with the other people, as opposed to with the Gimme Gimmes it's like you're just trying to stand up because you've been drinking so much. It's all about self-indulgence." (Chris, who's also in the Foo Fighters)

How do you guys pick the songs you cover ?

Usually, Mike and Joey (them again...) come with a bunch of songs. The band gets together and tries to put these songs through the Gimmes' machine. If it doesn't work within five minutes, they move to the next one. A lot of songs just don't survive the 4/4 drum beat transition. The boys go for songs they can drastically change. Covering an already quick song would be pointless. The songs that best fit into the Gimmes' machine are the simplest ones : a singer, an acoustic guitar and no drums. They give the Gimmes the freedom they need to do whatever it is they do.

At first, some of the Gimmes had the feeling that some artists were off limits :

"For the longest time I thought covering the Beatles or the Stones or Dylan was taboo. You just shouldn't. I fuckin' love the Beatles, they're like the greatest band that ever lived. I just didn't think it was ever a good idea to cover them, and so it's funny that we covered them on this record ("Blow In The Wind"). Mike even changed some of the melody lines, which is like super taboo. You can't change the Beatles, it's just silly." (Chris)

"Mike somehow convinced us that it was a good idea to do 'Stairway to Heaven', so I guess there's no song out there we wouldn't touch." (Spike)

There. Now you know why and how. Come to think about it, there's not much else to say about the band really... Maybe that's the reason interviews always start with these two lame questions. All in all, the Gimmes are just a bunch of friends with very low self-esteem and strong personalities (except for Dave) who somehow became the most unoriginal and funny band out there. If you ever get the chance to see them play live, pause for a minute in the middle of the show, and take a look at the crowd : all these punkers singing along to Judy Garland, Elton Jonh or R Kelly hits and yelling cheerful fuck yous... Now that's fuckin' original!!!

TRIVIA

The Gimmes all have "GIMMES" tatooed inside their lower lip.

The boys had an on stage tiki bar for some shows.

Some Gimmes (all of them?) make more money out of this band than from their main projects. Now that's just sad...

Fat Mike is all about awkward moments (and S&M) so playing a Bar Mitzvah where nobody knew or liked them and being booed off stage @ a baseball game were giant treats for him.

The Gimme Gimmes is the only band Chris has been in that his parents actually like.
The Gimmes will be the guys' retirement band.
Even people who hate punk rock can't help laughing when they hear the Gimmes.
Different Drums by the Gimmes is featured in Dodgeball (that's a movie).
The Gimme Gimmes will soon be a cocktail (i'm working on it).
Spike co-wrote independent movie ¡El Presidente!.

BAND MEMBERS...

	SPIKE SLAWSON Vocals & ukulele He's the bass player of the Swingin' Utters. Spike also plays bass in the Filthy Thieving Bastards. He's also the singer/bass player of The Re-Volts. (Wikipedia entry)
JOEY CAPE Guitar & backing vocals Joey is the singer of Lagwagon. He's in Bad Astronaut. He's also in Afterburner. (Wikipedia entry)
	DAVE RAUN Drums Dave is the drummer of Lagwagon. (Wikipedia entry)
FAT MIKE Bass & backing vocals Fat Mike is the singer and bass player of NOFX. He also owns independent record label Fat Wreck Chords. (Wikipedia entry)
	CHRIS SHIFLETT Guitar & backing vocals Chris is the guitar player of the Foo Fighters. He also sings and plays guitar in Jackson United. (Wikipedia entry)