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Why do so many hate ska?

#24
First Wave? Great. Second Wave? Mostly great. More modern stuff? Well... There's an awesome ska band round Manchester called Physical Jerks. They play great old school two tone meets Elvis Costello style stuff. That, I like. Endless Less Than Jake clones? No, thanks. Carry on doing what you're doing and enjoy yourself by all means, but not for me. Hate is just dumb though.
 
#25
Floridabwoy said:
aaaahhhh... the fed's are only in it for the bucks

The Pietasters were ****ing awesome. Now addays The Aggrolites. That Tim Armstrong - A Poets Live album didn't leave my player for a looooooooong time.
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I liked the Pietasters first few singles and albums, and they were always a great and friendly live band (one night we played club Babyhead in Providence RI with them, and they brought their fire eaters). Later on they got into more of a soul thing and while still fun live the albums didn't really do it for me.

I tend towards the traditional side of things and still go and hang any time the Slackers are in town, etc.

At the time that Moon Records ruled the scene, it was really cool, because you'd go to see or play multi-band shows and everyone would give each other a hand, maybe trade horn players or rhythm players or share gear. Lots of times the bands would all get together and have dinner with all 78678 members in the same diner and stuff like that...it was funny, you haven't lived until you've sat with a bunch of guys and talked about suit hygiene while on tour. It wasn't a competitive scene at all, everyone was psyched to hear who had been signed where or when a new record would be coming out. I remember going out with Skavoovie for a week or so and their bass player had been loaned a 1960's P-bass by Victor Rice (NYSJ & Scofflaws) because he didn't own an electric. One night in CT, Victor sold our merch because we didn't have a guy to do it and no one in the crowd noticed that one of the best ska players in the world was sitting there hawking t-shirts. The real deal, and something that doesn't happen that much these days is that all the players were excited to see what the other bands were going to do or play...And having that kind of band scene made people do more and work harder and everyone had more fun.
 
#26
BurningSkies,

I got to the scene a little later, around 98, when things were a little different. I used to have a good friend who lived in New York around the time you were speaking of, and he spoke very fondly of the music and the scene that was happening at the time. That seemed like a very vital period, and I wish I would have been hip to it.

What I was talking about is what happened after ska officially hit the mainstream, with RBF and Goldfinger and what have you. What came after that was a lot of bands that had no real ties to the stuff that came before it, that were basically emulating that handful of ska-punk bands that blew up. Of course, I know better than to think that this was representative of what Ska was ever supposed to be at it's prime. My argument was that this is why Ska backlashed. I think that when most people badmouth ska, they're talking about the Jeffries Fan Clubs of the world, and not the actual valid stuff.
 
#28
wow - this thread became really interesting, thanks guys.

those of you who sawthe beginning of the '3rd wave' scene - how are things these days for modern bands? i don't see many reggae bands playing here, except for The Trojans once a year at Carnival...
 
#32
Floridabwoy said:
Skies... what band are you in? Do you have a d/l somewhere? Do you play the Dingwall on the recording on your sig?
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I was in a band called Too Hectic from 1992ish through 1997. We did an album for Moon and played east coast great lakes area and a bit up in Canada.

Sounded sorta like this (Jazz bass and Fretless Jazz):

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Since then I've done a bunch of other bands, more recently this (a few years ago):

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Then this for a bit (excuse the recording its 2 track analog tape and one of the few recordings of this project, complete with tape drag and warble, distortion, etc)...and that's my PRS bass overloading the tape:

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Nowadays, the band in my sig is my band, and that's my Dingwall AB-1 on the recording. I'm mostly playing my Z1/Voodoo Rastaburst for everything...Here's a practice jam that vamps off of the Augustus Pablo "Java" riddim. The bass doesn't really shine in this setting, but it's really a stunning bass for live and 'real' studio recording:

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The language you're hearing on the second half of the recording is Ewe, our singer's home language.
 
#33
knumbskull said:
wow - this thread became really interesting, thanks guys.

those of you who sawthe beginning of the '3rd wave' scene - how are things these days for modern bands? i don't see many reggae bands playing here, except for The Trojans once a year at Carnival...
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The Ska Scene is still here, but mostly diminished from what it was about 15 years ago. It will always be a 'bubbling under' subculture here in the US with short times of popularity. The modern bands seem to cop to a certain vibe...either 'new school' or 'old school' or a variety of things in between. At this time I'm looking at it from the outside, as I've been playing reggae predominantly since about 1998.

The reggae scene on the other hand is doing well! There's a good solid scene with lots of local, regional and national acts that give any Jamaican band a run for their money. For the most part, if you're a Jamaican and into reggae, you're into dancehall of some variety while the US scene is much more of a dub-forward roots scene. The popularity of the 'neo-hippy-jam-band' scene makes for a good amount of cross pollination with the reggae world, as does the fact that the dance/electronic scene put dub in the public eye.
 
#34
I<34080 said:
I'm not prejudice, I play trombone. It's too out of place if I want to listen to punk. Hell, third wave ska makes punk too poppy anyway.
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If you want punk, then I can understand it...but Ska and Punk are not the same thing. Don Drummond and Rico Rodriguez made it OK for trombone solos...neither played punk.
 
#37
boomtisk said:
So the general consensus is that Madness sucks, then? That's too bad, I learned a lot about bass grooves and songwriting from them and no one can take it from me. :p
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Madness is great. 2-Tone was a passion of mine for a good long while. The problem is that in the US most likely the only single that the general public has heard is 'our house' and not ANY of the really good stuff.
 
#38
BurningSkies said:
The Ska Scene is still here, but mostly diminished from what it was about 15 years ago. It will always be a 'bubbling under' subculture here in the US with short times of popularity. The modern bands seem to cop to a certain vibe...either 'new school' or 'old school' or a variety of things in between. At this time I'm looking at it from the outside, as I've been playing reggae predominantly since about 1998.

The reggae scene on the other hand is doing well! There's a good solid scene with lots of local, regional and national acts that give any Jamaican band a run for their money. For the most part, if you're a Jamaican and into reggae, you're into dancehall of some variety while the US scene is much more of a dub-forward roots scene. The popularity of the 'neo-hippy-jam-band' scene makes for a good amount of cross pollination with the reggae world, as does the fact that the dance/electronic scene put dub in the public eye.
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cheers :)

glad to hear dub influences are still stong in the US. we had a lot of dub/underground electronic crossover here in the UK with dubstep becoming really popular, less of the traditional stuff. we don't get the hippy jam bands here... can't say that upsets me :D
 
#40
I don't believe I have ever met anyone that doesn't like ska, I have met many that don't even know what ska is, though. Most people that I know that even know what the genre is generally are big fans of it. I respect ska just like any other genre, and I have been a fan of it for quite a while. I am a younger guy, and I got into ska after its big explosion in the late 90's. The first concert I attended was a Reel Big Fish show about 5 years ago.

There are many great modern ska bands out there like Streetlight Manifesto and such, as well as great two tone ska bands like the Specials and the English Beat. First wave ska also rocked, like Desmond Dekker, the Skatalites, and Peter Tosh. I think people just need to get educated about ska, and I bet most will fall in love with the genre.
 

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