h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

GreyRobn: If you don't see anything missing, it can only be because you didn't look hard enough.

Okay, I've got some tidbits, feel free to work them in however you choose:


New York ska samples:
Mighty Mighty Bosstones: www.bosstones.com
The Toasters: http://emusic.listen.com/artdetail.jsp?artistid=51480

The Toasters' label: www.moonska.com

Toasters history: They were formed by British ex-pat Rob Hingley, who moved to New York City and was amazed by how little impact ska had made in the states. They've been one of the leaders of the ska movement, particularly the New York scene, and Rob even formed his own all-ska recprd label, Moon Ska Records. Among that labels laurels are the very first signings and recordings of ska giants Dance Hall Crashers and Hepcat, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones paid tribute to the Toasters during the 1995 Lollapalooza tour.

Oddly enough, several of the bands that I thought characterized the New York sound were from California, like Hepcat and Fishbone. Of the others, most didn't have a website. Only other one I could have added to the NY sampler was Mephiskapheles, but I tested out their best song, Saba, and it sounded like hell... poor recording quality, and half of the web sample is just chatter.

You're right, GB, I did miss some stuff. Must have been the odd mood I've been in lately.

I completely forgot about the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I can help you with them, they're from Boston, not NY. I don't think they're considered ska either, but you can't deny the influence. And I think they definately (sp?) had a lot to do with the recent ska revival.

I really don't know that much about ska, so I don't know what else I could add.

Did you mention Less Than Jake?

You could also say something about the split between ska-lovers, old school vs new. I myself (as I think I told you before) prefer the old stuff.

If you wanna go all out, you could say something about ska influenced punk bands like Operation Ivy, Against All Authority, The Suicide Machines, etc.

That's all I can think of now. I'll re-read it when my head clears up a bit.

-Robyn

Robyn, Colonel Gargle

I'll try to work the new words and links at the weekend. I don't know if I'm up to another ten rounds with GuideML Version 2 just yet.

I get the Mighty Mighty Bosstones name now. I never even knew it was amusing before.

Have you come across any good samples of early ska ?

(-:

From Distant Shores

Somewhere you might want to try to check out is Trojan records. My ex had some records from that label that were all old ska and rock-steady. I don't know if they have a website or anything though.

Tried to post this yesterday, bit then H2G2 was doing bad things. Oh well, here it goes...

I'd been focusing my attention on the newer stuff, because that is what I know. The Moon Ska site has links to a lot of bands, and I know I found a website for the Skatalites, but because I was looking for newer stuff, I didn't navigate around in it to see if they had any track samples.

Of course... the Bosstones are from Boston. I don't know why I didn't reason it out before. To find out where a band is from, usually, I'll just look on their cd book to see where their fan mail goes, and their Let's Face It cd names a p.o. box in New York City. But if I look around on their new one, I can see that most of the technical stuff was done in MA, and the name was obvious enough.

I left out Less Than Jake (one of my favorite bands, incidentally) because because they're from Florida, and I was trying to emphasize the NY and CA scenes as the real centers of the movement. The more I investigate, though, the less accurate that appears. Ska is definitely alive and well in California, but it doesn't appear to me that the New York scene is any more dominant than any others outside of California. I think I'll have to do some reorganizing on that bit, and while I'm at it, I can include bands like LTJ. Perhaps I can still go with the classic sound vs. ska-punk contrast, without placing geographical boundaries on it. Then I can throw in Hepcat, a CA band with the classic sound, as well. They're not one of my favorites, but they're a good example of the style.

Ska influenced punk bands: See, that's the kind of distinction I'm trying to draw now. There's the classic ska and two-tone types (Toasters, Hepcat), the pop-ska-swing hybrids (Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris), and the ska-punk types (Goldfinger, LTJ, Homegrown), and then there's ones that don't fit conveniently into any category, like Bosstones, Fishbone, and Dance Hall Crashers. II wouldn't call Operation Ivy and Against All Authority punk bands with ska influence, I'd just call them ska-punk bands. A punk band with ska influences would be, to me, a punk band that goes with the 2-4 emphasis on rare occasions, like Rancid and NOFX. From what I've read about OI and AAA, and from the remakes of old OI songs I've heard from bands like Buck o' Nine, I'd say they went with it fairly regularly, but I could be making a gross generalization here. See... this is the kind of thing we need you for.

Anyway, look for a complete rewrite of the modern ska section in due time... and a bit on the contention between old and new, courtesy of Robyn (you didn't think we were going to let you slip out on us now, did you? ).

Robyn

Trojan has a fantastic catalogue - it seems they have most of the great Ska tunes. They have a website but, unfortunately no samples.

(-:

From Distant Shores