It’s without a doubt been an exciting few weeks for fans of the 1996 comedy/cartoon film Space Jam. No, there were no massive updates on the Space Jam website (still in its beautiful ’90s condition!), but rather, rumours that Space Jam 2 may finally become a reality, this time starring current NBA icon LeBron James.
Space Jam is without a doubt the most successful basketball-related movie of all time. They story follows Michael Jordan as he takes a mid-career shift from basketball to baseball. Meanwhile, the Looney Tunes characters are held hostage by a race of aliens, and challenge them to a game of basketball for their freedom.
Despite being one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, the movie only picked up one major award: Best Song Written Specifically for Motion Picture or for Television at the 1997 Grammy Awards, which was handed to R. Kelly for his seminal hit ‘I Believe I Can Fly’.
And Now They’ve Made A Concept Album About It
Dan Faughnder is a man who appreciates fine art. His band Sledding With Tigers are fans of the greatest movie to ever combine sport and comedy (sorry Happy Gilmore). So much so that this week Sledding With Tigers released Come On And Slam, a folk-punk concept album dedicated to the movie Space Jam.
The album started with the best of intentions. In an effort to help save the Che Cafe in San Diego, Sledding With Tigers tweeted out a link to a petition with a caption sayingFaughnder would record the fabled album if it scored 1,000 retweets.
If we get 1,000 RT’s on this tweet, I will record an ENTIRE ALBUM of songs about Space Jam. http://t.co/t5nqNY2LnD <– SIGN IT #savetheche
— Sledding With Tigers (@sleddingxtigers) May 17, 2014
In an interview with Vice, Faughnder said: “Halfway through this process, I think I really started to regret ever telling anyone that I would write an entire concept album about Space Jam, but now, I’m actually pretty stoked on it.”
“I think I might be the only person self-centered enough to take the plot of a 90s children’s movie, and end up writing a bunch of songs that are secretly about myself,” he said. “I really hope people like it, but the most important part is that my friends and I had a ton of fun making it.”
Come On And Slam follows the release of Sledding With Tigers’ debut full-length album, A Necessary Bummer. For people who (for some weird reason) are looking for songs that have less to do with Space Jam, this album travels through life, love, and friendship through excellent song titles such as ‘The Devil And A California Burrito Are Raging Inside Me’ and ‘That One Limp Bizkit Song’.
It’s not all jokes, though – Sledding With Tigers hand out honest and lovely lyrics such as, “If self-loathing was a sport, then I would finally be good at a sport“. And a man who can make you reminisce on the plot of Space Jam through music is a little bit of a genius.
Come On And Slam is available though Bandcamp right now, where it sits as the fourth most popular punk album of the week. It’s also available on cassette via Antique Records.