POLL: Which left a bigger shit-stain on the '90s? Swing or Ska

I my mind, the two are pretty interchangeable. Didn't a lot of these swing bands do ska too? Swing dancing is pretty fun though.

I think the real answer to this question is post-grunge though. I mean, that one still dominates alt-rock radio through its influence. Whens the last time you heard a swing or ska song on the radio outside of retro/specialty programming? But turn on any "current rock" station and you'll be bombarded with Seether, Three Days Grace, Flyleaf, Puddle of Mudd type bullshit. That shit-stain has yet to fade.

The swing revival was "Zoot Suit Riot," "Hey Pachuko," and "Jump Jive and Wail" and maybe some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and absolutely NOTHING else.

You're forgetting Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Hell."

Yeah, I think my old roommate's twenty-plus compilations of swing revival music points to it being a lot more than just a handful of singles. Man so much of that shit was terrible though.

Let me guess, nineteen of those were on a Cleopatra Records sub-label and all the bands were tenth-tier hair metal acts 'reinventing' themselves.

Well I never really investigated them too deeply, but I would imagine you are right. I just remember they went by names like Swing This Baby and had covers like this:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000I0Q8.jpg

Anyway, they're still out there...waiting...

http://www.daddies.com/

http://www.daddies.com/images/interfaces/header-03.jpg

the swing thing being in the air got a lot of us gen-x types to take dance lessons that we never would have otherwise.

Part of me wants to defend the swing revival along these lines, not that it's how I got into partner dancing (or whatever you want to call it). I think people are overly mean about the swing revival. I can't defend any of the swing revival groups mentioned so far, but I suspect there were also a lot of more established jazz musicians who got a boost from the swing revival. I have a cousin (I don't know particularly well) who is a pretty accomplished jazz saxophonist (whose preferences lean toward the Archie Shepp side of things) and I remember him talking about some swing band he was playing with in Philadelphia (I can't remember the name) in the late 90s (or possibly a hair later) and if he said they were good, damn it, they were good. (I never did get to see them though because I only took a couple swing classes, enough to improve certain things about my salsa dancing and to leave me pretty certain I wasn't into swing.)

For someone who likes to dance but tends to be socially awkward, partner dancing can be a life line. It may sound dorky to state it flat out like that, but I just don't see why there has to be so much hatred toward it. (But I guess people on this thread are hating the music and the whole hype around the fad, which is understandable.) Lead/follow partner dancing probably just doesn't fit in with our culture at this point and isn't likely to come back (and is maybe somewhat of a cultural anomaly globally even?) but I hope it stays around as another option.

(Actually, salsa dancing is still going pretty strongly in its own niche, and not just as something for people my age.)

The ska revival largely passed me by. I did buy a Rancid CD that I never liked.

At least the swing revival helped keep some dance instructors and jazz musicians off the street.

Guys Rancid is really not ska, please stop using them as an example.

Ska-punk? They sounded like ska to me some of the time, but I can't really argue since I'm not interested enough to even track them down on youtube.

But I wanted to add a link to this thread which seems relevant for overall weird revival trends in the 90s context (and has some good stuff on it):

Looking back at the easy listening revival.

They really only added horns to a couple songs, I'm not sure why they have a rep on this thread as a ska-punk band. They were (still are) very much just a mediocre punk band that tossed horns on a few songs. Hardly enough to make them ska.

I remember him talking about some swing band he was playing with in Philadelphia (I can't remember the name)

It was Joe Sudler's Swing Machine.

I would have felt better about "swing" if they'd just called it a jump blues revival. But I guess, "Hey kids, like race singles?" would have been hard to sell.

There was a band from Chicago called the Mighty Blue Kings (who were actually pretty fun) that always bristled at the "swing" tag and insisted they were a jump blues band.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers were ok

i'll stan for ska. Streetlight Manifesto are great!

― Mordy, Monday, February 22, 2010 5:58 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

lol was going to stan for catch-22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8woy5IPHojY

^^ still is k-k-klassic btw

I sometimes what my music taste would be like if I hadn't spent my formative years listening to pop punk/ska

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndNjrD90a0

I vote swing. At least those groups sound like they listened to the original records. Ska revival music has no soul.

I mean I voted for ska as worse.

where do the Mighty Mighty Bosstones fit into this shit? I still have some Bosstones-related PTSD, I think.

I am voting ska, because I barely noticed the swing thing. I did used to like this local Phoenix ska group called Kongo Shock, though.

If I say I like ska it's more likely that someone will assume it's 3rd wave shitstain ska than someone assuming I like Cherry Poppin Daddies if I say I like swing. So, ska.

swing gave us this though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGlIqjszsR8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQgs

I tend to identify the ska genre almost entirely by its rhythm, so an absence of horns isn't an issue for me, but I'm not a skaficianado.

bad ska puns

Skaficianado was def. my favorite Voodoo Glow Skulls record.

what's funny is that, in my socal 90s experience, ska and swing were pretty intermingled. they both kinda came out of high school band class! at least that was the way it was at my high school. Suddenly dudes who could play horns were playing in swing and ska bands. both sucked! oh well.

actual skapunks in the wild circa 2009:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax87yohhNds

where do the Mighty Mighty Bosstones fit into this shit? I still have some Bosstones-related PTSD, I think.

― richie aprile (rockapads), Sunday, February 21, 2010 10:25 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

loooooooooooooooooooooooooool

The first show I ever saw was Mighty Mighty Bosstones with Murphy's Law opening up in Ithaca, NY - 1995. I fucking loved a lot of that ska shit at the time and would be lying if I said that it doesn't still hold a soft spot in my heart. That swing revival stuff was much more annoying imo.

skankin', the dance everybody could do

ha true

One thing that confuses me about 90s ska revival is that, in Philadelphia at least, I remember bands being around who were kindof ska (usual with some punk mixed in) in the mid-to-late 80s, so I'm not sure when it was supposed to have gone away (but Philly tends to be late in letting go of musical trends, genres, etc., something I like).

Skanking consists of a “running man” motion of the legs to the beat while alternating bent-elbow fist-punches, left and right.[2] The punk version features a sharp striking out look with the arms, and is sometimes used in moshing to knock around others doing the same.

Skanks include the "Jungle Skank", the "Migraine Skank" and the "Tribal Skank". These are renowned as the truest and purest form of skanking. Any other skanks, notably those involved with drum and bass and dustep music are rubbish.

Scott can probably back me up on some of that.

x-post

I grew up in Philly in the 90s, and I don't remember any Philadelphia based ska bands - all the regional ones I listened to were from NJ

OK thing #518 that I probably should not admit on the internet:

The beginning of this song was my outgoing answering machine for a while when i was a freshman in college. I was 17 - cut me some slack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z70jVUTAbo4

x-post:

Well maybe it died in Philly while it was reviving elsewhere.

xp Did people actually leave messages or hang up in disgust?

"Scott can probably back me up on some of that."

scram?

xp - ha.

scram were weirder though than most hyper jumpy skapunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzeMN4coQ8M

there was some good Japanese ska from the 90s too iirc

Scott, yeah I was thinking of Scram! though really only a small percentage of what they did was ska. They were one of my favorite local bands. Too bad "Here Tonite" is not on youtube, that really was a classic song. If I ever get some of my old cassettes digitized. . .

I do remember some lesser lights being around doing similar things.

most cities had SOMEONE doing ska since the 80's. just like there were always at least 3 to 4 mods on scooters or 5 to 6 trad skins or 2 to 4 mohawk punks in philly at all times.

ska. swing was ignorable.

was 311 ska?

"as if ANYONE is going to come out w/ a full-throated defense of date rape"

Somewhere, Fred Durst is raising his hand sheepishly.

If someone where I live saw this on a wall they might call the cops: "don't vote Obama, your kids will look like this!" I know they don't mean it, but, like, TRY HARDER ok.

― Earth Dye (u s steel), Wednesday, March 3, 2010 5:26 PM (Yesterday)

uh wha?

always fun, this thread

friend was talking to me about less than jake on twitter wondering what they were doing and I said i bet they are still going those ska bands have crazy loyal audiences, but jesus christ look at this tour schedule these dudes are road warriors....cali across the whole US to europe to UK to germany with a zillion shows everywhere and barely any days off!

http://www.lessthanjake.com/shows/