Migrainetown, USA again, so I’ll keep this brief. It’s been a few weeks and I don’t want it to be a few more.
This week’s theme, as you may have guessed, relates to the new book by James Carnes, In Defense of Ska. As a genre and ethos, ska was a heavy influence in my mid teen to early 20 years. I’m only a handful of chapters into it, but the flood of nostalgia, upstroke guitars, and blazing horn riffs are unmistakable and glorious.
Sles was the first ska kid I knew. As a trumpet player and liker of fun things, it’s no surprise Reel Big Fish were one of the first ska bands he was into. He got me, a Metallica loving kid, to go see RBF at Deep Ellum Live as my first ska show, and I’m super glad he did. JER is right about band kids segueing into ska easily as the talent and rhythms are very accessible.
Aside: thinking about the book earlier this week, I had the thought. “Oh yeah, the Gadjits”. What? Had not thought of them in 20 years but 99% sure they were the openers for Reel Big Fish at that first ska show.
We Are The Union – “Morbid Obsessions”
In Defense Of: Ska, Equality, Truth
This is a very important video for a large segment of the music community. It provides a brilliantly abstracted, yet very apparent, look at the struggles of transitioning into who you always have been. As I mentioned before, the ethos stemming back to two tone ska, was of unity and acceptance of race, gender, and otherness.
Congrats to Reade, Jeremy, and the whole WATU crew. Ska is “so hot right now” and y’all are spreading a great message with the spotlight on you.
VooDoo Glow Skulls “Left for Dead”
In Defense Of: The Glow Skulls, or VGS
There is a stellar feeling when reading a song title you hadn’t expected and instantly having the clip play in your head. Imagine the feeling of reading the chapter title:
Fat Randy
You hear it, right? That slowed down chorus with E deeply singing “Fat Ran-dy / uhhha / Fat Ran-dy”
The defense for this song comes as a result of the odd choice of abbreviated name for this band. Carnes chooses to describe them as “the Voodoos” and not “the Glow Skull” or simply VGS, for those fans of brevity out there. Wtf man, the Voodoos? I don’t know the dudes, but I’m not calling them that to their face.
Internet scouring skills are failing me, but I’m (again) 99% sure the song appeared in the background of a Taco Bell commercial in the late 90s.
Aside: Another similarly great moment while ready the book was the sub title “A Cat with Two Heads”, evoking the classic(?) Aquabats tune about, well, an imaginary cat that has two heads. (Woah-oh, the catwithtwoheads). That the Aquabats had their own kids show made me a happy parent in the same way Yo Gabba Gabba having Biz Markie featured did. Also, how can you go wrong with a ska band anchored by Travis Barker’s drums? At least for a while anyway.
Catch 22 “Keasbey Nights”
I went with OG Catch 22 version because that was the one we were into. I think it is a bit hilarious the whole album was re-recorded by Tomas’ new band Streetlight Manifesto ahead of Victory rereleasing the Catch 22 version. It’s a longer story than my brain can sequence right now, but yeah, cool story to dig into sometime.
These guys were the ska band I was into the most. We went through several copies of Keasbey Nights, had promo copies of Alone in the Crowd, and stacks of posters/cd samplers (street team FTW). In related Deep Ellum Live news, the last Catch 22 show I went to was supposed to be there, but got moved to Hard Rock Cafe the day of the show. We made it to the new venue and had to wait while they shoved back a few tables and proceeded to throw a rocking show to a restaurant full of half tourists during dinner service and half ska kids losing their minds.
