"It's not cool to play ska music but I do it anyway!"

Anywho, I saw the lyrics posted by The Lone David that belonged to the song Point/Counterpoint by Streetlight Manifesto possibly the best ska band ever, and decided to start a thread discussing Ska and it's general greatness.

Who you you like, Who do you dislike, How you got into the music and so on.

El Go!

Well as far as I seen its just you two, I like my Country and Rock. But since this is about ska, what is ska?

"Ska is dance music, first and foremost. Ska was a *Jamaican dance
music* that swept out of Jamaica in the early 1960s to shake the butts
of working- and middle-class Jamaicans before going on, via the West
Indian immigrant connection, to the UK, and then on to the world. In
the UK, ska was also known as *blue beat* music. *Rocksteady*, and
later, *reggae* sprang from the loins of ska in the late 1960s.
Mid-1970s and 1980s/1990s revivals of this popular dance form have kept
this music alive and fun through the present. The ska beat on drums
and bass, rhythm guitar, lots of horns and maybe a Farfisa or Hammond
organ -- that's the ska sound."

Ska is generally split into three waves. The first of which being it's beginnings. The second is when it hit england and bands like the English Beat and The Specials came about, and the third wave which we are currently in with bands like Reel Big Fish, and Streetlight Manifesto.

For more:
http://www.billtanner.net/ska/

Sublime?


I like Sublime... California is a great state and has influenced the WORLD

Not really my genre, though I sometimes enjoy listening to one ska song or two. Metal is my thing.

1st and foremost, I have never considered Reel Big Fish ska, yes they have some ska roots, but they just aren't ska.

Also, bands such as Streetlight Manifesto and Catch 22, while great bands, are ska-punk, while The Mighty Mighty Bosstones is true ska.

That being said, Catch 22 is the single greatest ska-esque band at this time, with Streetlight Manifesto as a distant second.

I disagree as "ska-punk" really is third wave ska.

The small genre the Bosstones played in is known as Ska Core. (To bad they broke up.)
(Hence the album title Skacore the devil and more)

Streetlight and Catch belong to the third wave of ska. (It mostly consists of ska punk sounding stuff kinda a shame really.)

Also in my opinion Catch 22 lost Everything when Josh Ansley, Tomas Kalnoky, and Jamie Egan left the band. To go start Streetlight and BOTAR. I mean Tomas wrote all of the songs on Keasbey Nights.

Reel Big Fish WAS a ska band. Though they lost it after their second album.

Catch 22 was the greatest ska band, and their legacy is what I was referring to, I prefer their old music to any other band's right now, I said at this time because there is a ska band starting up at my school with the potential to be better than Catch 22.

"I don't know [blank], but I know what I like."

Truth be told, I still don't know what ska is, but I was told that Oingo Boingo was pre-ska (guess not if it came from the 60s) or ska. If them and Mighty Mighty Bostons are ska, then I definitely like some of it.

My band needs to get some recordings done but once that happens I would like to post them here and see what people think.

David I know you play music are you going to be involved in said ska band?

Oingo Boingo is generally considered experimental Ska yes. And The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are from one of the many sub genres of ska music.

Anyone heard of "The Voodoo Glow Skulls?"

Sadly no, my bass skills are far below what these guys were looking for, though I am in an alternative rock band.

Well keep playing my friend. Not enough bassists it seems. Way to many guitarists.

I try to do my part, but people choose guitar because you can be famous without a band, how often do you see a solo bassist?

Pretty often if your looking. They just never get as famous.

Well, it doesn't matter anyway, I couldn't hold onto that kind of life, I need to play with a bunch of people I'm friends with.

And a female singer... All the best Alt. rock bands have a female singer...

A lot of good Ska bands have female singers too. Looks to No Doubt and Save Ferris. Try and find some of No Doubts ancient music. It's hard to find... REALLY hard to find but actually good. Well that and it's ska as opposed to pop.

Thats what makes it so good.

Who are your favorite Ska bands?

You should check out Westbound Train.

Oh, oh, me-me-me! There's a reason two of my favorite bands are Otep and Lacuna Coil.

I'm a decent fan of ska, and I kinda like Reel Big Fish. Admittedly, I've really only heard the stuff they played on that move BASEketball with the South Park guys. As for No Doubt, I had no problem finding the Return to Saturn CD, one of their older famous ones.

To find No Doubts ska music you have to go back to their EPs and their first album. Though I hate to admit it, I actually liked some of No Doubts pop before they turned into pop rap.

I haven't listened to much, but I liked Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, especially their version of the Tetris song. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBC7NYRbxl4 has a video with the song in the background.) A friend of mine at work introduced me to it during some downtime. He played it on his MP3/Cellphone and it had such a good beat I had to check out their other songs.

Lupin III's theme ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f-OAK0-a6g ) is pretty good too.

i'd have to say:

catch 22
the mighty mighty boss tones (which my CO, commanding officer, also likes)
save ferris

Sorry, cant stand ska but that just may be me. I mean i dont listen to reggie, R&B, hip hop, rap, country, or any of that soothing Hawaiian soft crap, no offence to anyone. Guess that makes me picky huh?

Just a little bit, but to each his own...

I like ska, but unlike I3lind I could never limit my musical choices by style I don't think that there is a style out there that I don't like at least some small fraction of what it offers, Except for perhaps a few styles that are still in there infancy and haven't really done anything worthwhile yet.

Ya, like the previous ones mentioned in the thread. Also like the Cat Empire and Less than Jake, if you can call that ska.

a little unrelated but anyone know of the song "pizzaday" by the aquabats?
a little annoyed because i can't get it to play on my ipod right now. friday just happens to be pizza day on my ship so i wanted to get the song played over the 1MC (think loudspeaker, but on a ship).

i'm going to add "less than jake" to my list also

Oh and Mad Caddies! How could I forget...*mutters*

"less than Jake" is good, I like their old stuff better than some of their new stuff but the new stuf is still pretty enjoyable.
Mustard Plug is also pretty good, or was good until their most recent couple of albums where they forgot that they had a horn section =(