Top Drawer (2025, Reissue)
30 years after their first full length was released, Sicko is reissuing all of their albums on vinyl and CD. These boys have put out some really important records to me and over the next few Fridays I'm going to be writing about each of them (Maybe not on Black Friday, but we'll see how that goes). In the 90s, Sicko was part of my holy trinity of pop punk bands that also included The Mr. T Experience and Zoinks. I still obsess over all three to this day.
The release of Chef Boy-R-U-Dum was when Sicko-mania really peaked, at least in the little record store that I spent an inordinate amount of my time in back then. I would stop there multiple times a week, hanging out for many hours at a time, soaking up as much music as I could. The legend of Sicko really was growing after Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy made its way around town and anticipation for the next record was pretty high. Flipside is the store pictured in the liner notes of this reissue that made the window display of mock Chef Boy-R-U-Dum cans and when that record finally came out, it felt like nearly everyone owned a copy.
This is also the time when Sicko finally made it out east. They played at Coney Island High in NYC and The Pipeline in Newark. I will never, ever figure our why I was not able to go to the NYC show. There was some sort of conflict that I guess was important at the time, be it work, school or some other nonsense, but I don't know how important it could have actually been since I don't remember what it was at all but sure do remember missing the show. I did, however, get to see them play at The Pipeline and it was just a joy. I also interviewed Denny and Ean for my college paper and asked them many stupid questions that were all the rage in interviews back then. Boba Fett and Wedge were their favorite Star Wars characters at the time, if you're curious.
But let us not overlook the record itself. While I mentioned last week that Laugh While You Can Monkey Boy will probably always be my favorite for sentimental reasons, it really could be argued that Chef Boy-R-U-Dum was their crowning achievement. Especially in hindsight, it's really impressive to look back on this and see how strong and cohesive it is top to bottom. This is a record crammed full of songs under two minutes, yet they've been lodged in my brain for nearly three decades. They don't feel short, they just sort of feel perfect.
Among the many, many highlights are "Half the Battle." "Believe," "Escalator" (which had a music video!) and maybe the song that galvanized our little crew of dorks more than any other: "The Dateless Losers Club." Despite the fact that the bulk of us had significant others at the time, it felt very much like a song speaking to us as it often felt like we were all just seconds away from being dateless losers again at any moment. I so vividly remember the moment they played it at The Pipeline and everyone in the room throwing up the 'L' with their hands when the "stuck to my forehead" line came.
Like the other reissues, this one sounds great. The best Chef Boy-R-U-Dum has ever sounded. And on this version, the song is listed as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as opposed to "Donit Ask, Donit Tell" like the LP I had from Spain! We've got one bonus track, which is "Escape Velocity" from the More Bounce To The Ounce compilation album, but I must ask - where is "The Rainy Day" song from the Japanese version of the CD? See, this is what happens when an obsessive record collector starts writing about records like this. I ask the tough questions, man. But that aside, it is most difficult to really articulate how much I love this record and how it's stuck with me for all of these years. It can't be recommended more highly from me and it's great to see it back in print and on vinyl in America for the very first time.
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