THE WEEKLY SKANK
by Andrew Rossiter

"Reggae, Two Tone, Rock-Steady, Dub, First Wave, Second Wave, Third Wave…"

Is ska just getting worse and worse, or is it just me?

There have been multiple occasions, just over the past few days even, where I’ve been reading about a band and they say…Ska band from Chicago (or wherever)…and I’ll listen to the band and think to myself “How the hell do you get ska from this?”

Most people nowadays are calling anything with horns ska. Let me tell you, emo with horns is not ska. Punk rock with horns is not ska. Where are the upstrokes on the offbeat? I don’t hear ska; I hear terrible whiny music with horns.

Sadly, this is pretty much the state of ska. Out of the few ska bands left, most of them play more punk than they do ska. Yeah, there are a lot of pretty good 3^rd wave bands, but what happened to my two tone and my rock-steady?

Well, unfortunately, it’s almost disappeared other than the few bands that are keeping it going like the Slackers, the Toasters, etc. The third wave has taken over.

But let’s not get too down on ska here, there is still hope. Even just this past year we’ve seen a huge change in the world of ska with a little EP put together by musicians frustrated with the current state of music, A Call to Arms. And that’s exactly what it was. With the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution releasing that EP, then the boys from Streetlight Manifesto following it up with Everything Goes Numb, their full-length CD, we can only hope that Tomas and the guys can put out something new and even better.

It’s a new breed of ska music. And NO, it is not the fourth wave of ska; it’s just something new and refreshing for us ska kids. Between that and the few true ska bands left, it gives us some hope for the future of ska. Let’s just hope we don’t have to listen to any more emo with horns.

Andrew Rossiter
andrew.rossiter@XROXX.com