bad ska puns
― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (dyao), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:44 (fourteen years ago) link
Skaficianado was def. my favorite Voodoo Glow Skulls record.
― tylerw, Monday, 22 February 2010 04:45 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Monday, 22 February 2010 04:47 (fourteen years ago) link
actual skapunks in the wild circa 2009:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax87yohhNds
― scott seward, Monday, 22 February 2010 04:49 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:53 (fourteen years ago) link
skankin', the dance everybody could do
― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (dyao), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:54 (fourteen years ago) link
ha true
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:55 (fourteen years ago) link
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).
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 February 2010 04:58 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
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.
― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (dyao), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Scott can probably back me up on some of that.
x-post
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 February 2010 04:59 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (dyao), Monday, 22 February 2010 04:59 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Monday, 22 February 2010 05:01 (fourteen years ago) link
x-post:
Well maybe it died in Philly while it was reviving elsewhere.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:01 (fourteen years ago) link
xp Did people actually leave messages or hang up in disgust?
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:08 (fourteen years ago) link
"Scott can probably back me up on some of that."
scram?
― scott seward, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:11 (fourteen years ago) link
xp - ha.
― t(o_o)t (ENBB), Monday, 22 February 2010 05:13 (fourteen years ago) link
scram were weirder though than most hyper jumpy skapunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzeMN4coQ8M
― scott seward, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:13 (fourteen years ago) link
there was some good Japanese ska from the 90s too iirc
― Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (dyao), Monday, 22 February 2010 05:14 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:19 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Monday, 22 February 2010 05:25 (fourteen years ago) link
ska. swing was ignorable.
was 311 ska?
― lost in deming (S-), Monday, 22 February 2010 05:48 (fourteen years ago) link
I think that what made Swing forgivable for me was that it was a hop, skip and a jump from Swing to Lounge and from Louge to Space Age Bachelor Pad Music and I am full of love for Esquivel and Spike Jones (and if you keep going that way, you get to Stereolab and Broadcast which is just fine with me.)
― Masonic Boom, Monday, 22 February 2010 10:25 (fourteen years ago) link
The Cherry Poppin Daddies were a ska band first, then they became a swing band, and now they're back to being a ska band. They just released an album last year called "Skaboy JFK: The Skankin Hits of...".
Clearly, they're the most evil of any band on this list.
― krabapple, Monday, 22 February 2010 11:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Seriously, what the fuck?<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nIyvp6ga5Tw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nIyvp6ga5Tw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
― krabapple, Monday, 22 February 2010 11:30 (fourteen years ago) link
Shit, I meant this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIyvp6ga5Tw
― krabapple, Monday, 22 February 2010 11:32 (fourteen years ago) link
have a huge soft-spot for these guys and this song in partichttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOyQT4aVz4interviewed dicky barrett BITD for melody maker when i was just starting out and he was hilarious. we junked my prepared questions and just talked abt how awesome madness were for ages
― on in the b.g. while you're grouting (stevie), Monday, 22 February 2010 11:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i think Rancid are pretty ace too, tho more when they're in hardcore mode than skacore mode
― on in the b.g. while you're grouting (stevie), Monday, 22 February 2010 11:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Somehow every local band in my hometown was a mediocre ska revival band. I guess this was ok in the context of the time but it's *still the case,* like 90% of the bands there play 'ska.' There's four or five '90s-style ska-punk bands here, too. I voted ska bcz its detrimental effects have been so long-lasting.
― Dark Notion (Abbott), Monday, 22 February 2010 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Whatever ska's crimes, the convention of naming your band with a bad 'ska' pun is endlessly hilarious to me (though you might count this as part of ska's crimes).Where are the swing-pun bands?
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 22 February 2010 17:28 (fourteen years ago) link
The first show I ever saw was Mighty Mighty Bosstones with Murphy's Law opening up in Ithaca, NY - 1995.
― t(o_o)t (ENBB)
which venue was this at?
― ('_') (omar little), Monday, 22 February 2010 17:33 (fourteen years ago) link
ska didn't register much with me either way except i liked what i heard ok enough. the swing revival was ubiquitous for awhile there and i think half the people i went to college with who ended up in l.a. were still riding the wave of 'swingers' nostalgia w/r/t fashion and language. that shit was embarrassing, ska is not.
― ('_') (omar little), Monday, 22 February 2010 17:36 (fourteen years ago) link
All the shitty third wave and beyond ska-punk bands made neo-traditionlists like Hepcat sound like the Maytals. But Hepcat was still pretty great, regardless.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 22 February 2010 17:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Ska is one of the worst genre ever imo
― Zeno, Monday, 22 February 2010 17:41 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think ska is inherently bad, its just a very narrow genre that is virtually impossible to do really well.
― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 22 February 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
a lot of the 90s ska bands got sucked into the 311 vortex, ditch all ska elements for that revved up, glossy mall rock.
― i'm #FFFFFF btw (bnw), Monday, 22 February 2010 18:02 (fourteen years ago) link
― Zeno
― i know who the sockpuppet master of ilx is (velko), Monday, 22 February 2010 18:06 (fourteen years ago) link
Mercifully I kept my distance from both during the '90s, but I wonder, which revival was more successful in terms of helping people get into original ska or swing? I agree with the comments above that '90s "swing" was more like jump blues, so I don't know if it turned a lot of people on to (say) Ellington.
― Brad C., Monday, 22 February 2010 18:10 (fourteen years ago) link
had a high school friend that was really really into 1st-2nd wave ska in the early 90's, i think it was all he listened to at one point, and he sniffed at the later stuff. he mustve hipped me to hepcat, pretty sure he 'approved'. so I already had a little persective and took the 90's stuff in song by song (most of it was bad yes). i wasn't opposed in principle to the swing stuff (meant less 'grunge' for one thing) but i didn't end up liking much beyond squirrel nut zippers, they laid it on thick but there's some good songs and production there
― they want a fapz (tremendoid), Monday, 22 February 2010 18:15 (fourteen years ago) link
I think the real answer to this question is post-grunge though. I mean, that one still dominates alt-rock radio through its influence.
^^^This. I saw and enjoyed a good number of the bands in the 90s being bitched about above (learning swing dance certainly helped.) If you offered me three tickets today -- Squirrel Nut Zippers, Slackers, Staind -- I know which one I'd refuse, or which one would make me hit my car radio button.
― Agonizing over tight harmonies and solid grooves (Dan Peterson), Monday, 22 February 2010 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
One of the worst things about the Swing revival was that it crushed the much more fun Lounge revival off the dancefloor. The lounge scene had a large range of great music, both old (Sinatra/Herb Alpert/Sergio Mendez etc) and new (Fantastic Plastic Machine/Pizzicato 5/Bertrand Burgalat/Tipsy/Arling & Cameron etc), and lots of other stuff too - even Stereolab could get played. I can remember having a few drink-soaked rave-ups in the name of lounge - great nights of dancing, comedy, spoken word, and a fair amount of weird experimental stuff. When the swing nazis showed up, all that eclecticism disappeared almost overnight, the music got really boring and conservative and it was all over. That was my experience with it anyway. It may have been different in other cities.
― everything, Monday, 22 February 2010 19:04 (fourteen years ago) link
i think a major thing that distinguished the squirrel nut zippers -- who were never exactly "swing" anyway -- was katharine whalen. there weren't a lot of women in that whole neo-swing thing. i have one of her solo albums, more traditional lounge-jazz stuff, she's not bad.
― hellzapoppa (tipsy mothra), Monday, 22 February 2010 19:10 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah that's fair, they rode the wave somewhat but would have been doing what they were doing anyway
― they want a fapz (tremendoid), Monday, 22 February 2010 19:13 (fourteen years ago) link
SNZ really predated the revival and were only associated with it out of writer laziness.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 February 2010 19:15 (fourteen years ago) link
That's really true of Cherry Poppin' Daddies, too -- although most of their other influences (Oingo Boingo-ish smartass new wave, white boy funk) aren't generally critically accepted either.
― Agonizing over tight harmonies and solid grooves (Dan Peterson), Monday, 22 February 2010 19:30 (fourteen years ago) link
well alot of these bands predated the revivals but to leave out bands like them and say, bosstones for ska doesn't leave much of a revival to talk about. i guess you gotta question which bands individually contributed to the stain ('put their two shits in') and go from there
― they want a fapz (tremendoid), Monday, 22 February 2010 19:50 (fourteen years ago) link
every generation has its "we should dress up and wear suits" movement, doesn't it? seemed like the clothes mattered a lot.
― goole, Monday, 22 February 2010 19:54 (fourteen years ago) link
So far none of the bands mentioned have a ska pun in their name which to my mind disqualifies them from being a proper 3rd? wave ska band. (were madness and specials 2nd wave or 1st wave?)
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 22 February 2010 19:55 (fourteen years ago) link
Mephiskapheles was the band name that finally sent me over the fucking edge.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 February 2010 19:56 (fourteen years ago) link
Is some of the hate for swing coming from it being popular with the wrong kind of white people?
― the muddy waters of donk (Display Name), Monday, 22 February 2010 20:00 (fourteen years ago) link