Operation Ivy - Seedy

Operation Ivy - Seedy
Posted May 18, 2008, by Matthew Montanez.

Featured Artists: Operation Ivy; Genre: Ska;
Operation Ivy was a 4 piece ska/punk band active from about 1987 to 1989. Op Ivy consisted of Jesse Michaels on vocals, Tim Armstrong (at that time known as “Lint”) on vocals and guitar, Matt Freeman on bass, and Dave Mello on drums. Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman may be better recognized as members of Rancid. While Operation Ivy was definitely a precursor to Rancid, this young band from Berkley has absolutely proven to be an inspirational musical root in both the ska and punk genre. Seedy was released in 1996 as a collection of unreleased recordings. The album contains 11 tracks of awesome ska and punk variation. In play order, these tracks are:
01 Healthy Body Sick Mind
02 Someday
03 Plea For Peace
04 Troublebound
05 Uncertain
06 Hangin Out
07 Left Behind
08 Old Friendships
09 Hedgecore
10 Steppin Out
11 The End.

Many tracks by Operation Ivy, not only on this CD but on various other albums as well, are combinations of multiple Op Ivy songs. These kids were purely about jamming out, relentlessly focused on creating the music that they loved. Anyone familiar with Tim Armstrong’s scratchy style guitar riffs and Matt Freeman’s incredible bass lines would recognize the talent that these kids displayed. Beyond their natural instrumental talents, the lyrical content of Operation Ivy’s songs was no less than amazing. Considering that these kids were teenagers during the existence of the band, their lyrics were amazingly insightful targeting main stream America and the visible descent of society in terms of value and integrity while promoting a sense of social justice that the global community tends to overlook. Personally, Operation Ivy is my favorite band as a result of their intense approach toward promoting a truly powerful perspective of the world from youthful eyes accompanied by truly inspirational musical talent. Operation Ivy should be respected as one of music’s great inspirational roots. Anyone who has never heard Op Ivy or just isn’t very familiar with the band should really look up a few songs and maybe do a little more research on what they were about.


You can find out more about Operation Ivy by going to www.operationivy.com.
Operationivy.com has an mp3 page where you can check out each track on just about all of their albums.
Op Ivy played under Lookout! Records however Seedy was released under the Karma Kredit label.


"We sat back and laughed, ignored by the world we attacked
Everything seemed so fake and plastic, you were so cool and sarcastic
You looked over your shoulder and I was always there
We went easy and stepped lightly in a world so different from us" Op Ivy, Old Friendships