The Shark Fighter!

"The Shark Fighter!"
Single by The Aquabats
from the album Hi-Five Soup!
Released December 14, 2010
Format Digital single
Recorded 2010
Genre Pop rock, comedy rock, new wave
Length 2:56
Label Fearless Records
Writer(s) The Aquabats
Producer(s) Cameron Webb
The Aquabats singles chronology
"Radio Down!"
(2010)		 "The Shark Fighter!"
(2010)

"The Shark Fighter!" is a song by American band The Aquabats from their fifth studio album Hi-Five Soup!, released on Fearless Records in 2011. The song was issued as a single in December 2010, the second single released from Hi-Five Soup! following "Radio Down!" in November 2010.

Overview

Like a good number of The Aquabats' songs such as "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates!" or "Tiger Rider vs. the Time Sprinkler!", "The Shark Fighter!" is a humorous narrative centered on the outlandish adventures of a fictional character. In this instance, the song pertains to the eponymous Shark Fighter, a wavy-haired ocean vigilante who dedicates his life to avenging the implied shark-related death of his past lover by single-handedly fighting the sea's shark population, with the song noting "He will not die/Until all sharks cry".

Musically, the song follows in the same guitar-driven pop rock direction as most of Hi-Five Soup!, featuring The Aquabats' characteristic new wave-influenced synthesizer melodies, a type of sound which Punknews.org specifically described as being like "Devo on a sugar high".[1] The instrumentation of the song additionally features an introductory timpani roll and a simulated choir to lend the track a grand and pseudo-orchestral feel.

Release and reception

On December 14, The Aquabats released "The Shark Fighter!" as an exclusive stream on their official Facebook page.[2] On January 4, 2011, two weeks before the release of Hi-Five Soup!, "The Shark Fighter!" was released to iTunes as a downloadable single.[3]

While critical response to Hi-Five Soup! was generally mixed, "The Shark Fighter!" received almost unanimous praise as one of the album's standout tracks and one of The Aquabats' overall best songs. Punk publication DyingScene listed "The Shark Fighter!" as one of the album's tracks which "definitely hold up to the sound of their past albums", sentiments echoed by the likes of Geekscape, who called the "wackiness" of the song's concept "classic 'Bats", and the OC Weekly newspaper, who opened their review with the first line of the song, writing "And with those words...The Aquabats are once again at it".[4][5]

The Aquabats! Super Show!

Though no music video for the song was ever filmed, the narrative of "The Shark Fighter!" was adapted into an episode of the same name of The Aquabats' live-action television series The Aquabats! Super Show! and aired as the twentieth episode of the series on December 28, 2012.

Written by bassist Chad Larson (Crash McLarson), the episode features The Aquabats encountering the mythical Shark Fighter (played by comedian guest star Rhys Darby) after he saves them from a roving gang of "land sharks". The Aquabats become endeared to the Shark Fighter, in particular Crash, who seems him as a brotherly figure and is selected to become the Shark Fighter's apprentice. As Crash begins to distance himself from The Aquabats to study under the Shark Fighter, he's ultimately forced to decide between his loyalty to his new mentor or to his friends when another group of land sharks attacks the city.

The studio version of "The Shark Fighter!" is played during a training montage where Crash learns how to become a shark fighter, while an orchestral sting derived from the song's melody is played several times throughout the episode. The title characters follow the lyrics of the original song very closely, while a couple of lyrics are quoted verbatim, such as the character's trait of "riding an otter like a motorcycle".

Credits

The Aquabats
Additional musicians

References

  1. ↑ "The Aquabats! - Hi-Five Soup!". Punknews.org. January 25, 2011.
  2. ↑ "The Aquabats: "The Shark Fighter!"". Punknews.org. December 14, 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Aquabats Facebook Post". January 4, 2011.
  4. ↑ O'Hare, Shane (February 2, 2011). "Music Review: The Aquabats - Hi-Five Soup!". Geekscape.
  5. ↑ Raggett, Ned (January 31, 2011). "Local Record Review: The Aquabats". OC Weekly.
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