The Mighty Mighty Bosstones ‘Let’s Face It’ Turns 25

March 11, 1997: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones drop their fifth studio album, Let’s Face It. It was a breakthrough, but Boston fans knew better.

 

If you grew up in the Boston area in the ’90s, you were wise to the Bosstones. I was a freshman at Wakefield High School in the fall of 1991, and the Where’d You Go? EP was already making the rounds. More than a few juniors and seniors were sporting plaid and two-tone oxfords on the regular. And as a budding trombonist in the Wakefield High School Jazz Band, I couldn’t have been happier that a local ska band was the height of popularity.

 

Flash-forward to 1997 and the rest of the country was catching on to the band that we’d been skanking to for the better part of the decade. 25 years on, let’s revisit Let’s Face It.

• "The Impression That I Get"

  Before the album dropped, alternative radio and MTV starting banging away at the lead single “The Impression That I Get.” It would make it to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

• "The Rascal King"

  A follow-up single that references infamous Boston Mayor and Massachusetts Governor James Michael Curley? It’s doesn’t get much more Boston than that.

• "Royal Oil"

  That little trombone lick at the very end of the song? Yeah, I used to play that all. the. time.

• Live on Conan

  How cool was it to see a ska-punk band you used to see at The Rat on national TV?

• Hometown Throwdown

  Bless the soul of the bootlegger who uploaded audio from the 1997 edition of the Hometown Throwdown.

• Let's Face It

  25 years on and it’s a platinum record for Boston’s favorite ska-punks. Sadly, the band broke up earlier this year. But they left behind a helluva legacy.

  

  Released on March 11, 1997.