Mike Pride | I Hate Work
Mike Pride’s name appeared in these pages last year via James Keepnews’s keen review of Stove Top by Three Layer Cake, a project that cast the Warwick experimental jazz drummer with legendary punk bassist Mike Watt. On I Hate Work, Pride plays up the punk/jazz connections once again, delivering an entire album devoted to jazz reinterpretations of songs by the infamous hardcore band MDC, a group he drummed for from 2000 to 2004. With the leader on keyboards as well as kit, Bradley Christopher Jones on bass, and Jamie Saft on piano and Mellotron (!), the trio turns the tunes inside out, taking them from far from their thrash origins and into swinging cocktail-lounge realms. Mainly instrumental, the set also stars black metal guitarist Mick Barr (Krallice) on two tracks; its three vocal numbers feature guests J.G. Thirlwell, Sam Mickens (Dead Science), and MDC’s Dave Dictor himself. Don’t tear your tuxedo in the pit, daddy-o.
This article appears in June 2022.
