Remember when ska was cool? I suppose the genre has existed in several forms and movements since the 1960s, but in the 1990s punk-infused ska finally reached the mainstream and saturated radios and music channels. It was overkill, and by the time the new millennium rolled around everybody was sick of trumpets and up-beats.
But ska music is, above else, about having fun (except when it's about revolution... unless we're talking about a FUNvolution!), and in the early 2Ks there were still a handful of bands skankin' it up. There was no marketable advantage to being a ska band at this point, and those who were doing it were doing it for the loooove.
Or they just didn't have the heart to tell their brass section to go home.
I have here a couple of punk-ska-rock bands that, in true MP3.com fashion, never made it big. But they were willing to share their goodness with the world, and if we never bought their home-burned CDs then we at least should have given them a few minutes of time for a friendly listen.
That is, unless you think trombones are dumb. Then you're in the wrong place.
Buckledown had the advantage of appearing on at least two widely distributed compilations: Bettie Rocket's Ska Craze 2 and 7Ball's Gas Collection 14. And that is pretty much the extent of my Buckledown knowledge. They showed up, they rocked out, then they disappeared leaving only the shallowest of Internet imprints.
Buckledown - "Not Alone"
But ska music is, above else, about having fun (except when it's about revolution... unless we're talking about a FUNvolution!), and in the early 2Ks there were still a handful of bands skankin' it up. There was no marketable advantage to being a ska band at this point, and those who were doing it were doing it for the loooove.
Or they just didn't have the heart to tell their brass section to go home.
I have here a couple of punk-ska-rock bands that, in true MP3.com fashion, never made it big. But they were willing to share their goodness with the world, and if we never bought their home-burned CDs then we at least should have given them a few minutes of time for a friendly listen.
That is, unless you think trombones are dumb. Then you're in the wrong place.
Buckledown had the advantage of appearing on at least two widely distributed compilations: Bettie Rocket's Ska Craze 2 and 7Ball's Gas Collection 14. And that is pretty much the extent of my Buckledown knowledge. They showed up, they rocked out, then they disappeared leaving only the shallowest of Internet imprints.
Buckledown - "Not Alone"
On the cheesier side of things there was this band called Open 24 Hours. As far as I know they only released one album, Before We Adjourn, in 2000. I don't remember how many songs they put up on MP3.com. Maybe just the one. But that one song would bounce around in my head for days. Listening to the track ten years later it sounds quaint and amateur, but there is something to be said about letting snotty punk kids bang away at their instruments and singing about the things that matter to them (i.e. girls). What I hear here are fun, simpler times. For a moment, I am someone. GO!
Open 24 Hours - "I Should've Been Paying Attention"
Another ska band I remember from the MP3.com days was Hook Line and Sinker. Again, I don't know much about them. I know they had a pretty good following, and I know I saw them at one of the Cornerstone Festivals years after I thought they had broken up. I don't have any .mp3s of theirs from back in the day, but you can find some six-year-old demos on Purevolume.
[You know what? Now that I look back at them, the bands at the tail end of the 3rd Wave ska movement had some terribly generic names. A rose by any other name, I suppose.]
Another ska band I remember from the MP3.com days was Hook Line and Sinker. Again, I don't know much about them. I know they had a pretty good following, and I know I saw them at one of the Cornerstone Festivals years after I thought they had broken up. I don't have any .mp3s of theirs from back in the day, but you can find some six-year-old demos on Purevolume.
[You know what? Now that I look back at them, the bands at the tail end of the 3rd Wave ska movement had some terribly generic names. A rose by any other name, I suppose.]
No comments:
Post a Comment