In Defense of Ska

Last year, singer/songwriter Brian Fallon tweeted that Slackers lead singer Vic Ruggiero is "one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of our time." This isn't the only time that Brian tweeted about his love for ska during the pandemic. We've seen him praise Mike Park , Catbite and express his love for New York band The Abruptors ' ska cover of his song "Forget Me Not.&...

Before Chris Ruckus was in Dissidente...before Duck was in Joystick....they played in the weirdest ska band of all time: Cryptorchid Chipmunk. Listen to our conversation with them about this peculiar ska band, where the performance was just as unhinged as the music.  To listen to the complete episode, sign up for the In Defense of Ska Patreon If you’d like to support us and listen to early access,...

When drummer Ara Babajian joined The Slackers in 2003, Vic Ruggiero and David Hillyard had to teach him how to correctly play a traditional ska beat, which they did by handing him key records to listen to, and by singing ska beats at him. Ara wasn't new to ska. He'd played in several bands like Agent 99 and Leftover Crack . But The Slackers approached ska with a greater emphasis on hitting...

In the mid-90s, comedian Margaret Cho had a sitcom deal with ABC. She wanted to call it "The Margaret Cho Show" and to have Skankin' Pickle to write its theme song. But, the network wanted it to be called "All-American Girl," and they weren't keen on having a ska-punk band write its theme song. Skankin' Pickle singer/saxophonist Mike Park had already written the delight...

It would seem impossible for PUP to top their brilliant, cathartic 2019 record Morbid Stuff . But then, on April 1, they put out The Unraveling of PUPTHEBAND , such a fantastic record, even Rivers Cuomo tweeted about it. In celebration of this awesome band releasing an awesome record, we brought on PUP singer Stefan Babcock on the show. But of course, we had to talk about ska. And there was a lot...

Twenty-five years ago, I would have never guessed that the bedroom recording aesthetic would eventually overlap with the ska scene. But, in 2022, you have Kmoy and Tape Girl, who are referring to their music as "Laptop Ska," which it turns out, is a great descriptor. Their recordings carry the lo-fi, compressed quality of 4-track indie-rock artists, but it somehow blends with these grandio...

Are The Police Ska? A heated debate between Middagh Goodwin (This is Ska) and Sean Dolan ( The Blue Meanies ) To listen to the FULL episode, head over the the In Defense of Ska Patreon If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our  Patreon !  If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and...

One of the best things about ska is that it's such a flexible genre. You can mix it with soul music, black metal, or anything in-between. There have even been different artists that have mixed electronic music with ska over the years, but now Eichlers is taking the weirdo, Avante-Garde-meets-pop sensibilities of Hyperpop and using that as a foundation for what he's calling "Hyperska.&#...

In 2005, Derek Zanetti had an epiphany. He was a weirdo. He already knew that, but he had a hard time accepting it was ok to be a weirdo. That is until a friend told him that he was "never going to be normal because you're a punk." A few years later, Derek would start The Homeless Gospel Choir, a solo folk-punk project that would later go full-on punk rock. And in 2017, he would releas...

In the 90s, there were hundreds of lesser-known ska bands that were amazing. Many of them were better than the bands getting radio and MTV play. On today's episode, we present one of them: The Impossibles from Austin, Texas. A band that seamlessly melded Op Ivy verses with Weezer choruses. Our guest today is Impossibles vocalist/guitarist Rory Phillips. We dig deep into the group's short t...

Ska forever changed the course of music. Not only in Jamaica, but all over the world. Many talented people were involved with its development in the late 50s/60s. But a lot of credit is owed to The Skatalites for perfecting and elevating the genre. Within the Skatalites camp, trombonist Don Drummond was incredibly important and influential. He wrote and/or arranged a majority of their songs. He al...

Comedian Kyle Kinane is known for his hilarious storytelling-style comedy specials, his epic Drunk History appearances, and his love of punk rock. But he's also a fan of ska. In high school, he even played sax in a ska band called The Skabeatles. He tells us all about it We also talk about his history growing up in the Chicago punk and ska scene where Slapstick reigned supreme. He saw Slapstic...

On this Patreon exclusive episode, we sit down again with Ted Leo . This time we discuss the brilliant 2 Tone band Madness, a band that all three of us loves dearly. Ted even pulls out his Madness records and goes track by track to tell us what he thinks about each and every song.  To listen to the entire episode, sign up for the "In Defense of Ska" Patreon If you’d like to support us and...

In 2020, Chicago indie-pop group Beach Bunny released their debut LP Honeymoon to much acclaim. One of the people that fell in love with the album, was Jeremy Hunter, ie Skatune Network . It was one of their favorite records of the year. Just a month earlier, they’d recorded a cover of an earlier Beach Bunny tune, “Prom Queen.” After Honeymoon was released, they considered covering another Beach B...

Link 80's debut record, 17 Reasons , gets a lot of attention, rightfully so. But the group has other records worth your time, particularly their excellent 2000 album The Struggle Continues . On the album, you can hear the group's maturity as musicians, and their broader influences, which include deeper hardcore, and even some nu-metal elements. Our co-host Adam Davis was very involved in t...

This week we are excited to bring on YouTube music critic Justthony Skanktano...or sorry Anthony Fantano. Justthony Skanktano is the name he used on his review of Jeff Rosenstock 's SKA DREAM, which he gave a Strong 8, a better score than he gave NO DREAM, the original non-ska version of the album. He even placed SKA DREAM in his top ten records of 2021. So obviously, we had to bring Skanktano...

Everyone at 2021's Supernova International Ska Festival was talking about Rude Girl Revue , an all-star, all-women, 16-piece ska band, comprised of members of many bands (The Scotch Bonnets, Catbite , Half Past Two , Stop The Presses , The Pandemics, The Skluttz, and more). Today we talk to one of the group's founder's Jenny Whiskey, who's also been a longtime member of Hub City St...

It seems like nearly every major ska record these days has been released by Bad Time Records. What’s going on? Today on the 1st episode of the 2nd season of In Defense of Ska, we bring on the owner of Bad Time Records himself, Mike Sosinski. He explains it all! There’s a lot to the story of Bad Time Records. It starts with Mike’s band, Kill Lincoln, which started in Washington DC a little over a d...

The Midwest played a key role role in the development of American ska. Bands like Mustard Plug , MU330 , Suicide Machines , Slapstick and Blue Meanies pushed and pulled on the genre's boundaries, with little concern for what a ska band was supposed to look or sound like. The band that influenced every single one of these groups was Detroit's first ska band: Gangster Fun.  Formed in 1986, t...

In 2003, indie-punker Ted Leo released the dissonant, Thin Lizzy-esque rocker "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?" The song pays tribute to The Specials, but also comments on the state of rock 'n' roll in the US during the post-911 era. On this episode, we bring on Ted and he gives us a full explanation of what inspired him to write this critically lauded song. He tells us he's...

If you’ve found yourself on Twitter during the pandemic, you might have noticed Pabst Blue Ribbon tweeting about everything from pro-wrestling to milk to ska. And these ska tweets haven’t been generic mainstream 90s ska memes. No, Pabst has expressed their undying affection for Asian Man Records , MU330 , and has even released several “Rat Jamz” mixes that include new ska bands like Catbite , Kill...

The UK had an exciting ska-punk revival in the late 90s/early 2000s that included bands like Capdown, Lightyear, King Prawn, and Spunge. One of the bands from this era, Grimace, broke up and reformed as Sonic Boom Six. They were so eclectic that their pool of influences included grime, hip-hop, dubstep and even just a dash of bhangra. But at their core, they played ska-punk. The group came into th...

Buck-O-Nine’s breezy, feel-good ska-pop song “My Town” took off on radio in 1997, but its video didn’t make it into MTV’s heavy rotation. This was due to some delays in the production of the video, making it so that by the time Buck-O-Nine had the video ready, the moment had mostly passed. “My Town” is remembered from this period of mainstream ska in the sort of in-between zone, not quite The Boss...

This month, Grand Rapids’ Mustard Plug celebrates 30 years of playing ska-punk. Though they often get associated with the late ’90s “third-wave” ska-punk boom, there is so much more to the group. We aimed to explore this in our interview with lead singer Dave Kirchgessner and guitarist Colin Clive.  For starters, before ska was on the tongue of MTV VJs, Mustard Plug was blowing minds in their home...

It’s movie night here at “In Defense of Ska.” Grab some popcorn and go watch the 2020 horror-comedy film “Uncle Peckerhead.” Watch it before you listen to our latest episode because spoilers are discussed. “Uncle Peckerhead” is a great movie about fake DIY punk band DUH. Like “Green Room,” this punk-on-the-road film turns horror. But it’s quite different and involves a people-eating roadie. Fun! Y...