“Great music that won't be soon forgotten by anyone who's heard them”. Do you remember when Pitchfork critic, James P. Wisdom, said that about Save Ferris in his review of their 1997 album, “It Means Everything”? No, of course you don’t, because the 9.5 (out of 10) review for that record was long ago wiped off the site. Pitchfork maintains that it needs to periodically delete items to make room for the new records they are constantly reviewing (and reviewing pretty well), but I smell a rat and P4K isn’t the only corner of the internet that seems to have forgotten about the awesome ska revival of the 90’s.
I feel sort of like the
intro to Portlandia’s first episode describing it, but do you remember when
kids wore dirty, patch-covered suit-jackets, plaid suspenders, and Doc Martens?
When Reggae’s ska stroke style guitars and horns blended with distortion and
punk ethos to create a genre of music that was not only unpretentious and
danceable, but anti-homophobic, anti-racist, and anti-sexist as well? It wasn’t
just Save Ferris, it was The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, The
PiETASTERS, Operation Ivy, Voodoo Glow Skulls, and that’s without even
mentioning the so-called 2 Tone bands that influenced them.
The Toasters were one of
those awesome bands and they are coming to El Corazon on Friday night. If the
name doesn’t sound familiar then maybe this will help: their song “Two Tone
Army” was used in the intro to the 90’s Nickelodeon show, Kablam! (listen
below). Other than that, they have remained fairly obscure, releasing record
after record on singer/guitarist Robert “Bucket” Hingley’s Moon Ska and Megalith record labels
since ’81 (making them one of the longest running third wave ska acts still
touring) and this weekend marks their return to The Emerald City.
Q: How many ska kids does it
take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: Three. Two to drop it, and
one to pick it up, pick it up, pick it UP!
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