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Starting A Ska Band

B

buddysilver

Feb 7, 2010
19
0
Reading, PA
#1
Me and a few of my high school buddies decided to change our bands music from rock to ska today, after our drummer decided to leave our band. We all just got into ska music recently and we realized it would be a great change because there is absolutely no local ska bands, and we can separate ourselves from the million other rock bands at our school.

We know that we need to find another drummer, and get a trumpet player, and a trombone player (correct me if I am wrong)

So I have a few questions:

What bass would be good for ska? I was always GASing for a Ray34 and now might be a good time to get one used.

Where would we be able to play? At our age (14-15) money doesnt matter much and we only want a good time.

Would we need any additional players besides the ones already listed?

And if anyone listens to ska, what kind of simple songs could we play to get a good grasp on how to play ska and move onto harder material?

Thanks in advance!
 
#4
For simpler stuff, I'd recommend some Fishbone, RBF, Mustard Plug, maybe some Catch 22.

I don't know about your area, but local punk bands play pretty crappy venues most of the time. Not that there's anything wrong with that, plus having brass instruments will blow people's minds.
 
#14
I'm a huge fan of ska and my first band in high school was actually this ska/punk thing inspired a lot off of Less Than Jake. We ended up dropping the ska part because we had an impossible time finding and keeping anyone for a horn section. Since you're still in high school, I'll toss out that your marching band/etc. is a great resource for finding members.

Everybody so far has already hit some of the best band suggestions, but I'll add The Impossibles; always loved them. Specifically, their album "Anthology." Their early stuff is a pretty good example of ska with little to no horns present.
 
#15
From my own experience as an audience member, Ska is one of those genres that can't be pulled off even remotely half-assed. A tight well-oiled ska machine will have the booty dancing harder than you ever thought possible. Even a tiny bit off of that, and, well, it will suck. Badly. I'm a fan, and have watched many many shows in the last couple of decades and IMHO, few make the grade.

I'm not saying don't do it, but damn, make sure you dial it in...
 
#16
a 2-3 piece horn section will suffice. it never really matters what you have in there. streetlight is bari sax, tenor sax, trumpet AND trombone. i think i heard a band once with a tuba. find at least 2 so they can harmonize and do counterpoint melodies.

there are ska bands without horns. most sublime is sans horns. theres a canadian band called illscarlet that doesnt have horns. bands like big d at the kids table will put my accent on dub and their organ.

the fun thing about ska is that it is pretty much open terrain. ive seen bands with moogy synths, ive seen ones with rappers, with horns, without horns, mostly horns.

depending on the sound you want, most basses will do. a P always works. J if you want to cut. a stingray always works as well. those 3 are pretty well the staple for any sort of pop punk. dude from streetlight plays a warwick, so it doesnt really matter what you use.

places to start: less than jake, reel big fish, sublime. pop punk with occasional upstrokes and horn hooks.

places to end up: streetlight manifesto (who is as far as im concerned "prog ska" or some sort of 4th wave). mostly horns, but every instrument is somehow holding their own amazing ground. busy mix.
 

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