Third Wave Save Ferris
The Resignators
REEL BIG FISH
r o t i d e e h t m a Letter fro Third Wave was created by a bored teenager that just so happens to be a fan of ska and punk, and thought the two combined was pretty awesome. This magazine contains interviews with bands, news on tours, etc. Hopefully it’s cool to look at, too. Enjoy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS News ....................................................................02 Save Ferris ..................................................... 03 Rock Lobsta ................................................... 05 The Resignators ......................................... 08 Reel Big Fish .................................................. 10 Skashank Redemption ............................ 15 Ska Punk History Lesson .......................... 16 01
Issue #1
Less Than Jake has partnered with VHX for the release of six full live concert videos. Each concert features a separate set of the band playing one album in its entirety - Pezcore, Losing Streak, Hello Rockview, Borders and Boundaries, Anthem and In With the Out Crowd. Individual concert videos can be purchased for $5 each, with the entire six-video set available for $25. Fans that purchase all six sets will receive bonus content. from thepunksite.com
New Jersey’s own, Streetlight Manifesto, has recently said that they will be going on an indefinite touring hiatus after 2013. In light of the announcement, the band kicked off their The End Of The Beginning tour in Albany, NY on June 19th. The cross-country three week tour continued until July 13th, ending in Providence, RI. from thepunksite.com
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Third Wave
Not quite a reunion Save Ferris sues Save Ferris singer for booking Save Ferris reunion without Save Ferris No one ever said being in a band was easy. Sometimes it’s even hard to have formerly been in one. Take, for example, the story of Save Ferris, a prominent band of the third wave ska revival of the mid-’90s: they came from Orange County, had a couple of near-hits (the 1995 ska cover of “Come On Eileen” being the biggest) in the wake of No Doubt’s ascendancy, showed up in a film (“10 Things I Hate About You”), and broke up in 2002, having distinguished themselves from their bro-centric contemporaries (Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, et al) mostly via the presence of a female in the group, singer Monique Powell, whose glamorously rowdy style made her the band’s most recognizable member, as is often the case with singers.
Save
Ferris
singer
and
It Means Everything 1997
frontwoman,
Monique
Flash forward to April, when the Orange County Fair announced that its summer concert series would include Powell. a Save Ferris reunion show July 27 at the 8,500-capacity Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, CA. Nothing terribly noteworthy there: bands reunite all the time (the series will also include shows by the Go-Gos, the B-52s, X, Three Dog Night, the Grass Roots and, opening for SF, the English Beat). But this was not to be a typical reunion—or rather, it was to be an increasingly typical one. Turns out Monique Powell is the only member of the original band who will be participating in the show, much to the chagrin of her former bandmates, who posted the following denunciation to the Save Ferris Facebook page:
Modified 1999
ORIGINAL “SAVE FERRIS” BAND MEMBERS DEBUNK ANNOUNCEMENT OF “REUNION SHOW” Anaheim, CA, April 9, 2013 - To Our Fans: It was brought to our attention that on or about April 8, 2013 Monique Powell, the former singer for the band “Save Ferris,” announced that a Save Ferris “reunion show” would be taking place at the Orange County Fairgrounds on July 27, 2013. We feel it is important that fans of the band Save Ferris know that this is NOT a reunion show and the show will NOT include any original or former Band member other than Monique Powell. We have not authorized Monique Powell to perform under the name Save Ferris and the original and former Band members regret any confusion to our fans that may be caused as a result of any misleading statements or marketing materials disseminated by Ms. Powell or any other parties connected to this concert engagement. From what we can infer by the marketing and advertising materials we have seen thus far, this engagement is simply a Monique Powell performance of Save Ferris material accompanied by various musicians, who are unknown to the Band. Due to the large number of inquiries we have received about this subject matter, we felt it was appropriate to release this statement to better clarify the participants of this event so that the public and our loyal fans can make an informed decision regarding whether to attend the event. Although we would like to perform an actual “reunion show” at some point in time featuring the original and former Band members, we would like to take this opportunity now to thank all of the Save Ferris fans who have continued to support our music and the Band over the years. Thank you!
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Save Ferris But the show remained on the schedule, so the chagrin became something altogether more aggressive. The OC Weekly reported last week that the former bandmates were suing Powell. Save Ferris frontwoman Monique Powell could find herself in legal hotwater over the decision to do a reunion show at the OC Fair without any of the other original members. The singer was recently sued by her former bandmates for falsely promoting what’s been billed as a reunion show at Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheatre on July 27. A conversationwith the band’s original guitarist Brian Mashburn confirmed that he and his former bandmates Bill Uechi, Eric Zamora, Brian Williams, Oliver Zavala and Evan Kilbourne were definitely not happy about the announcement about the show back in April. Now, they’re seeking unspecified damages for promoting the Pacific date as a proper Save Ferris appearance and an injunction that would prevent Powell from using the moniker ever again. Harsh? Eh, not really, according to Mashburn, considering Powell never even told the band what her plans were for the show. “On [April 8] we found out that Monique Powell scheduled a Save Ferris “Reunion” show without inviting or telling any of the original band members,” says Mashburn. “And because word spreads so quickly on social media these days and pre-sale tickets were going on sale Wednesday, the band wanted to do the responsible thing and inform the public
and its fans before they purchased tickets that this wasn’t a “reunion” show and didn’t involve any band members other than Monique.” Powell joined the band in 1995 after original singer Adrienne Knolff quit. Mashburn says that most of the songs likely to be performed at the OC Fair gig were written either solely by him or as a collaboration between him and Powell. The band--still considered heroes in OC’s Third Wave Ska scene--rose to prominence after 1997’s ska-style cover of “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners but split in 2002 after two albums. The remainder of Save Ferris went on to perform as Starpool with lead singer Alan Meade. As with recent stories about Stone Temple Pilots and Queensryche, this saga brings up interesting questions about who retains the legal, ethical and (dare one say) spiritual rights to a defunct band’s name and image—the original players or the face and voice most closely associated with the group’s notoriety. To date, Monique Powell has only made one statement about the fracas: “While I had hoped this could be a reunion of sorts with all, or some, of my former SF band members, unfortunately that isn’t the way it looks to be turning out.” But a post on her Twitter feed two days after the lawsuit news broke seemed to indicate her position, albeit obliquely (and self-aggrandizingly) :
@Monique_Powell: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. ~Mahatma Gandhi She is a lead singer, after all. Save Ferris performing. Photo posted on the band’s official Facebook page.
from msn.com
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Third Wave
Hot lobsta
Mahiki goes punk with Carl Clarke’s new restaurant Mahiki, the Mayfair club once beloved of Prince William, has gone a bit punk. Having suspended its usual no jeans and T-shirts door policy the club is now serving chips with a side of “edible spliffs” (no drugs, just celery salt and chilli). It’s all down to DJ-turned-chef Carl Clarke, 45, who has brought his team from east London to “stir s**t up in Mayfair” with his restaurant Rock Lobsta. Planned as a permanent addition to Mahiki, the menu will be familiar to those who visited Clarke’s east London ventures, including Disco Bistro, where former drug baron “Mr Nice” Howard Marks does a quiz night. There’s a mix of luxurious and downright trashy food. That means the delicate fresh Cornish lobster
has been fried and turned into corn dogs, Clarke’s favourite dish there, and there’s something called fried beer cheese. The music is a mix of dub reggae, punk and ska. “I was nervous initially,” says Clarke. “I thought, ‘I’m exposing myself doing this in Mayfair’, but I’ve had a great reaction. My east London mates came to our opening, to christen it.” It’s all very well doing that sort of thing out East but how has he got the more traditional part of the city to take note? “I suppose they’ve seen it’s fun. It all started because I decided food needed a more left-field moment, with the same approach as club nights. I used to DJ at
Turnmills so I used the same approach. “Food is part of a night out now. It needs a soundtrack, art, great kitchen. Who cares what you wear as long as the food is good? “Now there’s a great scene, with cool people like the Young Turks at The Clove Club. Kids want more. The table might be wobbly but as long as there’s soul it doesn’t matter. London’s food has never been better.” Clarke’s first venture was two years ago, when he brought lobster to the East End. “I was in the pub with my friend and we thought of lobster rolls. We started the Twitter hashtag KlackKlack to get discussion about lobster and suddenly everyone was talking about it.” This led to their first pop-up (or “ad hoc itinerant restaurant” as he calls them because “I hate the word pop-up, it’s been bastardised”), in Calvert Street. “We were totally inexperienced but picked up momentum and sold around 100 kilos of lobster in three days. Our first customer came from the City in a limousine and bought us out.” Although he loves Hackney and its environs for work, Clarke admits: “I’d die if I lived East.” He prefers Kensal Rise, where he and his wife, who works as a manager at the Fairtrade Foundation, have lived since he came to London from Birmingham in 1994, to DJ. “All my friends live there. It’s like grown-up east London.”
Rock
Lobsta’s
new
masthead,
paired
with
the
Mahiki
logo.
He’s excited about Rock Lobsta but admits at the moment his ideal night would be “at home, with a curry and a Guinness”. How about a curry version of Disco Bistro? “Who knows what will happen next?”
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Rock lobsta
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from standard.co.uk
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The Resignators emba Chances are very good you don’t know diddly about the Resignators. Unless, that is, you come from the land Down Under, where the seven-piece Melbourne skacore crew has developed a fiercely devoted following for its hot-rodding, skanking sounds. Also, those in the ska scene probably have caught the crew on one of its five cross-Canada tours tearing up venues from coast to coast with various acts, frequently labelmates on Montreal’s celebrated Stomp Records. The Resignators’ Francis “The Captain” Harrison, who describes himself as “vocalist and all-round nice guy,” was nice enough to take time out of the band’s very busy tour schedule to answer a few questions for us.
The 08
Resignators, Third Wave
a
seven-piece
“psychoska”
You Got Me Thinking 2006
band
out
of
Melbourne
who
Offbeat Feeling 2006
kicked
off
their
music
career
in
2005.
ark on Canadian tour
Time Decays 2008
The Province: Truthfully, nobody much knows the Aussie ska scene. Is it big, little, local to one particular city or what? The Captain: Really, nobody knows? Well maybe that’s because it’s a well-kept secret. Currently there’s a small yet enthusiastic ska scene in Australia, based mainly in the major cities of Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and our home town of Melbourne. All different styles of the genre are covered, from traditional Jamaican, blue beat, dance hall, 2 tone, lovers rock, rock steady, third wave, ska-core, ska punk and reggae. Interestingly enough Australia played a role in the early Jamaican ska scene when in the late 1950s a band called the Caribs were called upon to play backing tracks on many of the early ska hits. An Australian guy named Graeme Goodall also engineered on a lot of these recordings. Q: A 40-year age difference between the oldest and youngest members of the band is unusual. Who schools who in what? A: Nobody really schools anybody in anything. Steve, the elder statesman of the band, has a keen interest and sound knowledge of traditional Jamaican
See You In Hell 2010
sounds, but that hasn’t stopped others from researching the genre and bringing in their own ideas and concepts. It really is a joint project. Some of the younger members also bring a more modern element and point of view to our music. Q: And if that wasn’t weird enough, you have the original guitar player from GWAR in the band, too? How did this crew ever come together in 2005? A: Steve, the original Ballsack, Jaws of Death from GWAR, didn’t join The Resignators until 2010. He had been living in rural Australia with his Australian wife, and now our keyboard player, Stacy. He had grown up in the Caribbean learning his trade from two voodoo princesses. It’s interesting at shows when people find out, we are about as far from GWAR stylistically as you can get. Steve is happy to chat to the fans about his time with GWAR. Steve comes in very handy at Halloween with his knowledge of costume and makeup. Q: With Down in Flames coming out on Stomp in North America, the band is heading over here to tour. Is this the first time to our shores to play?
Down In Flames 2013
A: This will be The Resignators’ fifth tour of Canada. The first was in 2009 when we were lucky enough to cross Canada with The Creepshow from Toronto. We love coming to Canada and with support from our label, Stomp Records from Montreal, we try to get a tour there once a year. It has, however, been two years since our last visit. Now, armed with our new record Down in Flames, we promise to bring our Australian antics, good humour and great skankin’ tunes as we play across Canada with a bunch of amazing bands including Suburban Legends and Canada’s own king of Jamaican ska, Chris Murray. We can’t tell you how excited we are for these shows! Q: What makes the Resignators stand apart from other bands in the genre? Besides those ridiculously pro-U.S. and Canadian tour promo videos? A: The Resignators stand out because of their energy, it’s pure and simple. Great music, hot-looking individuals out of Melbourne, Australia, combined with one of the most energetic shows you’re ever likely to see. If I wasn’t in the band I’d still be at every show, buying their records, wearing their T-shirts, drinking their beer and having fun. from theprovince.com 09
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REEL BIG FISH
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Reel Big Fish OCEAN CITY — About 16 years ago, Aaron Barrett penned lyrics that warned of the potential ills upstart music artists might face from major record labels.
“They tell me it’s cool ... I just don’t believe it.” Reel Big Fish chester Academy
with frontman Aaron Barrett, performing at Man2 in February of 2011. Photo by Giles Smith.
Then, the Reel Big Fish frontman watched as the words from “Sell Out” came to life — for his band. The 1997 hit looms as the band’s biggest commercial success, and its short-lived run on a major label lingers as a forgettable footnote in Reel Big Fish’s history.
“It is kind of funny how the lyrics ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was kind of a joke when those lyrics were written. But I think it was weird at the same time because we had a sense of, ‘We know this is what’s going to happen.’” Poster adverstising Reel Big Fish’s tour for their newest album, Candy Coated Fury, with Pilfers and Dan Potthast.
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- Barrett
Reel Big Fish, from left to right: Ryland Steen, Dan Regan, Aaron Barrett, Scott Klopfenstein, John Christianson, Derek Gibbs
“But as a young band, at that point all you can do is enjoy yourself as much as possible, because it could be a short ride. Luckily for us, it’s been a very long, enjoyable ride.” As it turns out, “Sell Out” was far from the pinnacle of success for Reel Big Fish — it was just the beginning. Reel Big Fish remains perhaps the most viable band that spawned from the 1990s Southern California-bred ska-punk era thanks to a relentless touring schedule and a steady stream of projects in the recording studio. The group played Seacrets in Ocean City on Monday, July 8, on what would otherwise have been a day off between its Vans Warped Tour dates in New Jersey and Virginia.
Everything Sucks 1995
Turn the Radio Off 1996
Why Do They Rock So Hard?
1998
Cheer Up! 2002
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Reel Big Fish “The band had a taste of being played on the radio — we had that commercial push when the whole punk-ska thing was happening,” the singer-guitarist said. “When ska crept back into the underground, what kept us alive was the constant touring.” The band marked its 20th anniversary in part with the release of “Candy Coated Fury,” its seventh studio album, as well as continued touring galvanized by a fan base full of diehards whose loyalty hasn’t wavered, and a new generation of younger fans who have gravitated to Reel Big Fish’s style. Barrett said the band thrives when it has a jam-packed touring schedule — it is on the road a minimum of six months per year — and its latest album seems to suggest Reel Big Fish is at its best when it has the liberty to produce music on its own terms.
Reel from
Big left
Fish performing to right: John
at the Shout It Loud Tour in 2007, Christianson, Dan Regan, Aaron Barrett.
Barrett said Reel Big Fish has enjoyed its artistic independence since going the indie route for “Candy Coated Fury.”
“Luckily, we had already built up this amazing, loyal fan base, who didn’t care that we didn’t have a song on the radio. They just kept coming to the shows anyway.” - Barrett
We’re Not Happy ‘Til You’re Not Happy
Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free
Fame, Fortune and Fornication
2005
2007
2009
Candy Coated Fury 2012
from delmarvanow.com
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Meet the Band:
SKASHANK REDEMPTION Ah, ska. That bouncing, brassy, bass-heavy music of decades past (remember Reel Big Fish? Mighty Mighty Bosstones?) is still alive thanks to a central Ohio bunch. That said, “our focus isn’t necessarily preservation,” said saxophonist Joe Brenneman, 26, whose ensemble — the tongue-in-cheek Skashank Redemption — would rather kick back than make a statement. Ska, he said, is “energetic, brings people together onto the dance floor, and isn’t preoccupied with trying to seem cool.” Skashank
Redemption
performing
at
Columbus’
2012
Independence
Day
Festival.
Q: How do you define your music? A: Ska is a label that covers a lot of mileage. We play fast, upbeat rock with an in-your-face horn section. Think punk meets reggae. Q: Some people associate the genre with a specific time and place — namely, the 1980s and ’90s. Have you always embraced the genre? A: For most of us, ska was something we knew about but didn’t totally identify with in its heyday. Catchy melodies and horns drew us into the genre. Ska represents a historical collision of several disparate sounds that offers a lot of opportunity for us. Q: Are all of you marching-band alumni? A: Nearly all of us were in a school band at some point, and most of us have degrees in music. Music is something that we can’t live without — and something I’d consider to be our primary vocation. Q: Can you explain your involvement with the Dick & Jane Project? A: Last summer, I served as a resident musician, songwriter, producer for their Insteption album release and had the pleasure of working with some of the kids they had shadowing us throughout the entire process. My favorite moment was when I met the girl who provided the lyrics to my particular song and got to talk to her about what inspired her to start writing. Q: Why should someone see your band in concert? A: It’s impossible to leave without feeling exhausted, sweaty and very satisfied. from dispatch.com
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A Not-So-Brief History of Ska
(pronounced /’ska:/, Jamaican [skja])
is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British Mods. Later it became popular with many skinheads. Music historians typically divide the history of ska into three periods: the original Jamaican scene of the 1960s (First Wave), the English 2 Tone ska revival of the late 1970s (Second Wave) and the third wave ska movement, which started in the 1980s (Third Wave) and rose to popularity in the US in the 1990s. 16
Third Wave
After World War II, Jamaicans purchased radios in increasing numbers and were able to hear rhythm and blues music from Southern United States cities such as New Orleans by artists such as Fats Domino and Louis Jordan. The stationing of American military forces during and after the war meant that Jamaicans could listen to military broadcasts of American music, and there was a constant influx of records from the US. To meet the demand for that music, entrepreneurs such as Prince Buster, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems. As jump blues and more traditional R&B began to ebb in popularity in the early 1960s, Jamaican artists began recording their own version of the genres. The style was of bars made up of four triplets, similar to that of “My Baby Just Cares for Me” by Nina Simone, but was characterized by a guitar chop on the off beat - known as an upstroke or skank - with horns taking the lead and often following the off beat skank and piano emphasizing the bass line and, again, playing the skank. Drums kept 4/4 time and the bass drum was accented on the 3rd beat of each 4-triplet phrase. The snare would play side stick and accent the third beat of each 4-triplet phrase. The upstroke sound can also be found in other Caribbean forms of music, such as mento and calypso. The first ska recordings were created at facilities such as Studio One and WIRL Records in Kingston, Jamaica with producers such as Dodd, Reid, Prince
Buster, and Edward Seaga. The ska sound coincided with the celebratory feelings surrounding Jamaica’s independence from the UK in 1962; an event commemorated by songs such as Derrick Morgan’s “Forward March” and The Skatalites’ “Freedom Sound.” Because the newly-independent Jamaica didn’t ratify the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works until 1994 copyright was not an issue, which created a large number of cover songs and reinterpretations. Jamaican musicians such as The Skatalites often recorded instrumental ska versions of popular American and British music, such as Beatles songs, Motown and Atlantic soul hits, movie theme songs, or surf rock instrumentals. Bob Marley’s band The Wailers covered the Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” and radically reinterpreted Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Iconic Jamaican ska band, The Skatalites.
Ska Punk 2 Tone: A Revival 2 Tone (or Two Tone) was created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and pop. It was called 2 Tone because most of the bands were signed to the record label 2 Tone Records at some point. Other record labels associated with the 2 Tone sound were Stiff Records and Go Feet Records. Within the history of ska music, 2 Tone is classified as its second wave, the product of a time when the New Wave music of the early 1980s stirred nostalgia for vintage music. It is the musical precursor of the third wave ska scene of the 1990s. The 2 Tone sound was developed by young musicians (mostly based in the West Midlands area) who grew up hearing 1960s Jamaican music. They combined 1960s ska with influences from contemporary punk and pop music. Bands considered part of the 2 Tone genre include: The Specials, The Selecter, The Beat, Madness, Bad Manners and The Bodysnatchers. The music term 2 Tone was coined by Jerry Dammers of The Specials. Dammers, with the assistance of Horace Panter, also created the Walt Jabsco logo to represent the 2 Tone movement. It was based on an early album cover photo of Peter Tosh, and included an added blackand-white check pattern.
The 2 Tone Records logo - featuring the bel (inspired by Peter Tosh of The Wailers)
suit-clad face of the la- spray-painted on canvas. 17
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History of Ska Punk
Third Wave In the early 1990s, bands influenced by the 2 Tone ska revival started forming in the United States and other countries. This revival included post-punk ska bands such as The Uptones in Berkeley, California and The Toasters and Mighty Mighty Bosstones on the East Coast. Many third wave ska bands played ska punk, which is characterized by brass instruments, a heavily-accented offbeat, and usually a much faster, punk rock-inspired tempo (though the R&B influences are played down). Some third wave bands played ska-core, which blends ska with hardcore punk. However, several third wave ska bands played in a more traditional 1960s-influenced style. On the East Coast, the first well-known ska revival band was The Toasters, who played in a 2 Tone-influenced style and helped pave the way for the third wave ska movement. In 1981, The Toasters’ frontman Robert “Bucket” Hingley created Moon Ska Records, which became the biggest American ska record label. The Uptones jump-started the Bay Area California ska scene in 1981 when the band, consisting of Berkeley High School students, went on to play sold-out shows throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for seven years. Their 1984 self-titled record was released on Howie Klein’s 415 label. The Uptones’ punk-influenced ska has been cited as inspiration by California bands, Operation Ivy, Rancid, and Sublime. In 2002 The Uptones reformed and continue to record and play live shows on the west coast. Orange County, California had one of the biggest and most influential third wave ska scenes, which originated in the early 1990s. For about a decade, Orange County was the starting point for many successful third wave ska bands. Some of these ska bands had a great deal of commercial success, albeit short-lived. The Hippos and Save Ferris enjoyed commercial success with the albums “Heads Are Gonna Roll” and “It Means Everything”, 18
Third Wave
respectively. Both acts were featured in several major motion picture soundtracks during the 1990s. The Aquabats have remained one of the few original Orange County ska bands who still play today. However, the band generally doesn’t play in a ska style in their most recent release, Charge!!. The same applies to Goldfinger, who, despite once being an active forerunner in the scene, dropped the ska sound in 2001. In the early 1990s, the Ska Parade radio show helped popularize the term third wave ska and promoted many Southern California ska-influenced bands, such as Sublime, No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, and Let’s Go Bowling. In 1993, the ska-core band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones signed with Mercury Records and appeared in the film Clueless, with their first mainstream hit “Where’d You Go?” Around this time, many ska-influenced songs became hits on mainstream radio, including “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt, “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish (which reached #10 in the Billboard Modern Rock charts in 1997) and “The Impression That I Get” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. In 1994, Matt Collyer of The Planet Smashers’ founded the third wave ska label Stomp Records. In 1996, Mike Park of Skankin’ Pickle founded Asian Man Records, which was the biggest west coast United States third wave ska label. Also in 1996, the band Less Than Jake started the record label Fueled by Ramen, which featured many lesser-known third wave ska bands, and later became the home of successful pop-punk bands like Fall Out Boy. In 1997, Brett Gurewitz and Tim Armstrong founded Hellcat Records, which mostly featured punk bands, but also featured several ska and ska punk acts. By the late 1990s, mainstream interest in third wave ska bands waned as other music genres gained momentum. Moon Ska Records folded in 2000, but Moon Ska Europe, a licensed affiliate based in Europe, continued operating in the 2000s, and was later relaunched as Moon Ska World. In 2003, Hingley launched a new ska record label, Megalith Records. 19
Issue #1
History of Ska Punk
SKA PUNK Ska punk is a fusion music late 1970s, by bands such as genre that combines ska The Specials, The Selecter, and punk rock. Ska punk The Beat, and Madness. achieved its greatest popularThe fusion of the two genres ity in the United States in the became more prevalent in the late 1990s, although there 1980s, during the third wave has also been a following of ska. Operation Ivy, formed worldwide. Several ska punk in 1987, received positive rebands achieved mainstream sponses in the East Bay area commercial success, which of San Francisco, and were in some cases continued into approached by major labels the 2000s. The characterbefore breaking up in 1989. istics of ska punk vary, due The Mighty Mighty Bosstones to the fusion of contrasting appeared in the movie Cluegenres. The more punk- inless, and their 1997 album fluenced style often features Let’s Face It went platinum. faster tempos, guitar disLess than Jake’s song “We’re tortion, onbeat punk-style All Dudes” appeared in the interludes (usually the chorus), 1997 Nickelodeon film Good and nasal, gruff or shouted voBurger. Save Ferris appeared cals. The more ska-influenced in the film 10 Things I Hate style of ska punk features a About You, and Reel Big Fish more developed instrumentaappeared on BASEketball. tion and a cleaner vocal and Buck-O-Nine’s music appeared musical sound. The common in the films The Big Hit and instrumentation includes elecHomegrown. Between 1999 tric guitar, bass guitar, drums, and 2001, many ska punk brass instruments (such as bands began to break up, trombones or trumpets), and while fans of the genre turned sometimes an organ. Skatheir attention to other music core or Skacore is a subgenre genres. Some bands that of ska punk, blending ska with were originally part of the hardcore punk. One of the ska punk genre, such as The Tim Armstrong (left) and Jesse Michaels (right) of Operation Ivy, argufirst appearances of the term ably one of the most relevant ska punk bands out of the East Bay area. Aquabats, and Mustard Plug ska-core was in the title of continued with less emphaThe Mighty Mighty Bosstones sis on horns and traditional album Ska-Core, the Devil, ska rhythms, and have not and More. Ska and punk rock achieved the same commerwere first combined during cial success that they experithe 2 Tone movement of the enced earlier in their careers.
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Third Wave
Rude Boy Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi or rudy were common terms for juvenile delinquents and criminals in 1960s Jamaica, and have since been used in other contexts. During the late-1970s 2 Tone ska revival in England, the terms rude boy, rude girl and other variations were often used to describe fans of that genre, and this new definition continued to be used in the third wave ska subculture. In the United Kingdom in the 2000s, the terms rude boy and rude girl have become slang, which mainly refer to people (largely youths) who are involved in street culture, similar to Gangsta or Badman. The first rude boys in the 1960s were associated with the poorer sections of Kingston, Jamaica, where ska, then rocksteady were the most popular forms of music. They dressed in
Culture the latest fashions at dancehalls and on the streets. Many of these rude boys started wearing sharp suits, thin ties, and pork pie or Trilby hats; inspired by United States gangster movies, jazz musicians and soul music artists. In that time period, disaffected unemployed Jamaican youths sometimes found temporary employment from sound system operators to disrupt competitors’ dances (leading to the term dancehall crasher). This — and other street violence — became an integral part of the rude boy lifestyle, and gave rise to a culture of political gangviolence in Jamaica. As the Jamaican diaspora grew in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, rude boy music and fashion, as well as the gang mentality, became a strong influence on the skinhead subculture.
Skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian (specifically Jamaican) rude boys and British mods, in terms of fashion, music and lifestyle. Originally, the skinhead subculture was primarily based on those elements, not politics or race. Since then, however, attitudes toward race and politics have become factors in which some skinheads align themselves. The political spectrum within the skinhead scene ranges from the far right to the far left, although many skinheads are apolitical. Fashion-wise, skinheads range from a clean-cut 1960s mod-influenced style to lessstrict punk- and hardcore-influenced styles.
Current Fashion
Ska fans have three main ways they dress, as of 2010, they will dress in black and white suits, punk-style clothing, or Jamaican Rastafarian-colored type style. The Jamaicans and English made suits, moonstop booths and pork-pie hats trend in the ska scene. Checkered clothing is now widely popular in the punk rock scene. Since the emergence of Ska Punk, the two fashions have fused among young fans.
Artwork illustrating what would generally be considered the “ska style”, created by DeviantART user daskai. from skascene.com