I was just listening to both The Cat Empire and Reel Big Fish, and my god their bass lines are so groovy its mad, with the punk ska feel of reel big fish I'd expect the bass lines to be fast root notes but they really intricate but fit really well, and the cat empire are like nothing i've ever heard before and they bass player who plays both upright and ebass and on both he has amazing feeling lines.

i've been hearing a lot of things about cat empire, gonna go check 'em out.

p.s. if you like that kind of vibe, check out los fabulosos cadillacs. legendary band from argentina.

I agree about Los Fabulosos Cadillacs...btw original singer is back and recording it should be a nice cd.
Also check Sol D'Menta from Puerto Rico(they have myspace page) they have a good fusion of ska,latin,rock.Most of their cd's but the last one,last one is a little different from the other ones.

my coworker is argentinian and he always shows me some pretty rad ska music from his country. los fabulosos cadillacs was one of the bands he showed me. I guess south america has a pretty rad ska scene.

You can check bassist Daniel Maza from Uruguay. A skilled and tasteful player, who usually plays great Latin styled music.

just got some cat empire music. this is awesome stuff.

(also loving the budos band, which i bought on a whim)

Cat Empire is dead cool. I'd never heard of them until I got one track that I really dug on a mix CD a friend had sent me, and within 2 months they were playing in town here at a festival. Naturally I went - very impressed with the live show.
They were so much fun though, that I turned the analytical-musician off and wasn't really 'paying attention' to what the bass player was doing.

I'm really digging in to Antibalas' rhythm section nowadays. Beautiful stuff.

Budos Band is cool too......also check out LOCOS POR JUANA