Yo! Check Out This Ride! EP - Overview

Overview

Having been dropped from Goldenvoice Records in 2000, The Aquabats entered a period of relative inactivity during the first half of the 2000s, practically halting all plans for touring and recording due to financial constraints. Yo! Check Out This Ride!, the band's first self-produced and independently distributed album since their 1996 debut The Return of The Aquabats, was recorded to both satisfy the group's fanbase after four years of no new material, as well as serve as a potential demo to attract interest from record labels. This would ultimately prove successful, as the Aquabats would sign to Nitro Records later in the year.

Yo! Check Out This Ride! was recorded during a transitional period in The Aquabats' career. Following the departure of trumpeter and co-founder Catboy in 2002, the band had dropped their once characteristic horn section and predominant ska elements to focus more exclusively on the synthesizer-based rock and New Wave influences that had starting appearing on 1999's Vs. the Floating Eye of Death! and would fully manifest itself on The Aquabats' subsequent release, Charge!!. Musically, the album covers hip-hop-influenced rock ("Yo! Check Out This Ride!") and synthpop ("Todd-1 in Space Mountain Land!"), as well as featuring cover songs from power pop band The Plimsouls, British Invasion legends The Kinks, and vocal group The Kids of Widney High.

This would also be the final Aquabats release to feature original member Prince Adam as an official member, and the first with drummer Ricky Fitness, who joined the band in 2002. The cover art, depicting a horseback Aquabat lassoing a dinosaur-like creature, was painted by longtime Aquabats artist Brandon Bird.