On the death and rebirth of "ska"

Someone posed the question of "why did ska die". This is my take.

The ska scene did a lot to kill off ska. I'm not pointing fingers and blaming, hell in the long run I think it's good that it happened, but let's be honest: we all had a hand in killing ska. I helped kill ska. Sure I worked my ass off to write magazines, put on concerts, play in bands, DJ, you name it I did it. Yet as much as I built up the ska scene in Denver (which fuck, I'll say it, I did more for than anyone else) I'm also responsible for killing it. Coming out of the dearth of the 80s we were all so excited about having 'ska' bands around that we didn't stop and say "wait, is Mustard Plug really good enough to support?" Instead we bought their records, we went to their shows, we promoted them. We were hypnotized by the idea of "ska" without taking a step back and saying "are these bands really worth it?". This trend started in the very early 90s (91, 92) and we set up this attitude that all we were open to all ska bands. Of course bands got lazy, bands got opportunistic. Why put the effort into being creative and interesting when you can tour and put out records with little effort. We the fans, we the promoters, we the record labels, we the bands, we the media, we the "tastemakers" of the scene exhibited an appalling lack of quality control. That was the problem. Not enough of us (myself definitely included) stepped back and said "Now wait...this is awful." Instead we played up the "ska" angle. We promoted the cliches. We put out the crap. And people ate it up, but we weren't far sighted enough to see that it was a one trick pony and people would get sick of it. People would eventually look past the hype and realize there wasn't much there with 80% of the "ska" bands. We built our scene on cliches and shit. We can't be surprised that it collapsed. It was our fault. Stop blaming Reel Big Fish, and definitely stop blaming No Doubt, who did nothing but distance themselves from the ska label as far back as 1992. The role RBF played in the demise of ska could just as easily have been played by The Invaders or The Mudsharks or Mealticket or any number of total shit bands that we embraced in the scene. RBF and Save Ferris were just in the right place at the right time to get paid.

So that's what happened, the problem? It's happening again.

This isn't a personal slam against anyone or any band, but if people are interested in keeping ska from walking down the same road it walked in the 90s, it's time to change the way things work. We're still doing the same thing we did to get us into this mess.

We're busy promoting "ska" as a thing instead of individual bands that deserve recognition. The commodification of ska means that it's either all up or all down. We don't separate the wheat from the chaff. The great end up being equal to the terrible, they're all "ska".

Things like "3 Floors of Ska" end up doing as much harm as good. Sure it shows that "ska" is alive, but at what price? I'll be honest, I've been to two 3 Floors shows and they were awful. With the exception of a couple good bands, most of the bands playing were terrible. I walked from floor to floor (alongside another notable west coast scene 'tastemaker") grimacing at each band that was playing, this was what the East Coast had to offer. It was embarrassing. Instead of having one up and coming band that was awful opening a normal show we were surrounded by terrible "Ska!" bands.

The same thing can be said about "Still Standing". Sure it showed there were a lot of 'ska' bands out there. It showed there were a lot of terrible ska bands out there. That doesn't do anything to shake off the image of ska as a joke genre, that just makes it worse. It's something which is supposed to tell the world "Hey we're still here and we're worth paying attention to" and it's full of garbage. I mean really, who thinks that 60 of those bands were good enough to be promoted on any sort of national level?

Let's be honest here, a lot of the "ska" bands that are out there now aren't yet ready for prime time. I'm not saying that they won't get better, or that they shouldn't be out there practicing and getting better, but there also isn't any need for false promotion. I'll put it this way, just because Megalith CAN put out 12 albums a year doesn't mean they SHOULD.

I also think that it might help if the scene weren't so self contained. Ska bands signing to ska labels playing ska shows. Let's be honest here, Hellcat (beyond their better funding), is in a better position to break ska into new markets than a ska only label is. For one thing being a non-genre exclusive label means that can be more discerning about what they put out. A label like Moon had its hands tied. If they wanted to put out a new album they had a limited pool of bands to pick from, and they ended up overfishing as it were. Unless a label is willing to seriously cut back on its release schedule (which makes it hard to have good distro, etc) and only release quality material than it's going to end up putting out subpar material. That's not helping anyone, not the bands, not the fans, and in the end, not the labels.

So I guess to sum all this up, what I'm saying is call a spade a spade. Most ska sucks. Which means we shouldn't be ready to engage in a full "ska" comeback until we clean up our own shop and figure out that we should be promoting good bands instead of "ska" bands.

The Toasters - This Gun For Hire. A brave experiment. Gone so wrong.

I once had a good discussion with Jon McCain (then Toasters drummer) about this album, he insisted - in all seriousness - that it was the best Toasters album (I think this was circa "Hard Band Fe Dead", maybe a little before that album). After challenging him a bit he admitted they were trying for a commercial angle and maybe missed their core audience a bit. He still thought it was a solid album. Anyway every couple years I pull out this album and re-evaluate it - just to see if it has improved with age. And here's my shocking revelation:

it did.

TGFH is really the summation of an epoch of ska. A time when bands experimented not with "play fast, play punk", but with other genres. Branching out the sound in search of an identity. The album encompasses the smooth pop-ska that just predated the 3rd Wave explosion. It contains classic "fast ska" cuts like the live version of "East Side Beat", it touches on Soca with "Paralyzed". It edges into a bold Lovers Rock croon with "Don't Say Forever" (for those who never had a chance to see Cashew Miles perform with the band, he really had the best stage presence of any of their vocalists). "Don't Say Forever" may be too bold in it's use of the Lovers Rock sound, most ska kids simply aren't familiar with artists like Sandra Cross or Kofi - they simply don't appreciate the super sugary pop croon that Lovers Rock is. The second side opens with "Choose" in which Cashew gets a chance to belt out an upbeat modern R&B vocal. And who can forget the pinnacle of the album, in fact in what may be the pinnacle of the Toasters recorded career "Roseanne". I mean, wow. Touching on the oh-so-brief "Skacid"/"Acid-Ska" craze of the late 80s it is a perfect blend of over the top sweetened early 90s dance, pop oriented "rap", and a poppy perversion of the ska sound. Truly breathtaking and far ahead of its time. I mean, honestly, can anyone of you not smile simply thinking about the song in your head? Putting the record on the turntable I shake with excited glee at hearing the perfect overproduction. There is indeed, nothing wrong with this here groove. They're the Toasters and they jam on the Roseanne. No really the song is catchy. Stupid, insipid, and catchy. Fantastic pop. In fact the weakest parts of the album are the songs that sound like traditional Toasters songs (such as "Lies", which is almost saved by Cashew's soul overtures, but in the end it can't overcome the fact that it's an old Toasters song.)

I started this out as a bit of a joke, but as I listened to the album - a few years more mature and more knowledgeable about other genres than when I bought it - I can see what Jon was saying. In the end I have to say he was right. It really is, no joke, no lie, not only a good Toasters album, but it's also a decent pop album.

Okay, so maybe that's a slightly overly enthusiastic review of the album, in truth it is a flawed album. It seems to me to be a transition record, they didn't seem to know what direction they were headed in so what came out is a bit of a mess. My interpretation of what happened was a band looking at their future. Would they "grow up", mature, into a band that appealed to an older audience who may not have the patience to hear the same sounds year after year? Would they expand their sound into new areas and experiment with new ideas progressing into band like...The Police (not that I'm a fan of them, but for some reason they come to mind when I think of TGFH) or would they stick with tried-and-true play the same music that they had been playing since day one. It's too bad that an overly slick production, poor lyrics, and a changing audience stifled this evolution in The Toasters. I'm curious as to what they could of done had they stuck with this phase. TGFH was received so poorly that I'm not sure the band ever recovered. Instead, as we all know, Bucket returned with an album which signaled a return to the status quo.

To my ears they've been releasing the same album ever since New York Fever. I can't knock it, they're successful, but makes it difficult to sustain a long term fan base. Every couple years a new set of ears comes along and discovers the Toasters and buys the newest records. Older people come out to the concerts on a nostalgia trip, even if few older songs are played the new songs do not deviate too far from the expectation, so most everyone leaves satisfied. However little will compel the old listener to pick up the new albums, or to follow the band with much interest. Instead of steadily building a larger and larger fan base, they seem stuck marketing to a particular age group. Every few years brings along a new class of high school and college kids to sustain the band for another round of the same old thing.

Now I know the above will be taken as a negative criticism, Bucket would most likely not be happy and have quite a few issues to raise with me, but it's not really meant that way. Really it's more a statement of "what if...". What if the Toasters pursued the ideas in TGFH a little more? Most likely there would be no Toasters today, the bigger world of "adult contemporary" is far tougher on bands than the insular ska scene is. They could have ended up where Urban Blight did, a band who explored a similar sound after their ska heyday, and where did Urban Blight end up you ask? Well I don't know, and that's the point. They failed, they disappeared (heck, they could still be slogging away in complete obscurity!). So it is very likely that Bucket made the right choice for himself. He stuck to the safe and steady and has done quite well.

Still, I'm curious as to where they could have headed...