Ghoti Hook
“Retrospective”
(Tooth & Nail Records)
I don’t remember if it was one of the first punk shows I ever went to or if it was some underage club or whatever but I remember some girl giving me a homemade tape of music that she had with her. I remember listening to it and thinking it was pretty decent but it was by a band with some jacked name that I could never remember and it probably ended up under my bed with a bunch of old Spider-Man comics and Nerf footballs. Periodically through the intervening eight or ten years (!) I’d think back to that show/club and wonder just what band was on that tape. After listening to “Seasons”, the first track off Ghoti Hook’s “farewell and thanks for a great eleven years” CD, I now have my answer. “Retrospective” is a collection by the Christian pop-punk outfit that surmises their four album career by selecting a few tracks from their previous Tooth & Nail releases. The first few tracks (the older stuff) are pretty much about God (“Shrinky Dinks” uses the word “God” thirty-eight times in a one minute span-I counted ’em), while the preponderance of the others (the newer stuff) are about girls. Musically they sound a lot like Pennywise, believe it or not. And while I’m sure you’re thinking they’re a bunch of puss rockers without any real talent, I’m sitting here ten songs deep into this release (a cover of the Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?”) wishing I’d never lost that damn tape. Or that girl’s phone number.
