“Confucius” Made Me a Re-Adjusters Fan

Review by: Mr. Substitute

Good God where do I even begin? I guess it started when Eichlers posted the lineup for their 7/16 show in Fullerton at the Programme Skate Shop and I saw that the opener was this band called the Re-Adjusters. Wanting to get a sense of who I would be watching, I looked them up on Spotify and saw they came out with an album last year called “Capital Vices” and on my normal 30-minute commute I put it on.

If you read my article about Simple Minded Symphony you’ll know that I am an avid fan of ska, particularly if horns are involved. The Re-Adjusters have FIVE (5) horn players that are skillfully involved with every song either together in just breathtaking hornlines or passing solos around like the Harlem Globetrotters. They’re fronted by guitarist and vocalist Jack Sneddon who shares vocals with the immensely talented bass player Cheyanne Fox. The musical range of Capital Vices is so…SO pleasing: a song can start heavy and have you headbanging one moment and the next instant you’re skanking and in another instant you’re jamming to a nice melodic horn solo, and then back to headbanging (I was listening to “Confucius” when I wrote that sentence, it works).

“Capital Vices” is the Re-Adjuster’s debut album but they sound like they’ve been playing together for years, and for some of them, they have! The word cohesive comes to mind both listening to them in-studio and seeing them live: they are a unit and powerful one at that. “Capital Vices” follows suit in that it is just one, continuous flow of songs as if you’re listening to a rock opera. It does, in fact, have an intro, interlude, and outro that do exactly as their titles suggest. And if you’ve followed my articles, you know that I speak in metaphors a lot, this album brings to mind something very specific (and I’m sorry if you can’t relate): replaying one of your favorite single-player, plot-driven video games. Or how about rewatching your favorite childhood movie, seeing an episode of an old show you used to enjoy. I’ve known about this album for about a week now and I’ve already listened to it enough that it feels familiar. And it feels familiar because it’s so easy to get stuck in your brain!

What’s different about this review is that I had the opportunity to see the Re-Adjusters live and that just solidified everything that I thought about them: They. Are. Solid. They played a lot of songs off of “Capital Vices” and ended with Slow Gherkin’s “Shed Some Skin.” Their energy was just infectious and their entire set was filled with these jaw-dropping moments, from EVERY horn player’s solos, to Fox’s voice in “Wack” as well as Sneddon’s tasty use of the wah pedal in the same song. I had my head bobbing the entire set and now that I’m familiar with their songs, I know I’ll be skanking around the next time I see them, and I WILL see this band again because I am now a big fan of the Re-Adjusters.

You can check out “Capital Vices” on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Apple Music and don’t forget to follow the Re-Adjusters on Instagram, Twitter and on their YouTube Channel! I will entirely be following them to see what they have next.