How Hard's A Johnstone?

Band: The Johnstones

Country: Canada!

Notable Album: Word Is Bond

Favourite Track: "Action"

Well well well - today not marks letter "J" for the blog, but also the FIRST Canadian band on here! The Johnstones hail from Ajax, Ontario, and are known best for their outrageous performances that go along with pretty ridiculous songs.

Julien, master keyboardist and trombonist

This was in Burlington at the Red Rooster, January 2011

Today's blog is a little different, because I'm promoting the album more than the band - since Word Is Bond, The Johnstones have lost their ska-punk edge and play a raw-ish pop-punk-with-horns style of music. Although it isn't bad music, knowing them for a few years as a ska-punk band makes it hard to accept the material from the Sex EP and onwards. I think I listen to 2 tracks from Sex and 3 from Can't Be Trusted - but I love most of the songs off Word Is Bond! One thing that has always impressed me about these guys is the musical diversity of the members. Changing vocal styles from rapping to singing to chanting in no time flat, Julien changing from keys to trombone sometimes in the same song, and Ryan singing, rapping, and drumming all at the same time (only the best musicians can do this), these guys make their music their own simply by the way they present it.

"Action" is by far my favourite track on this album, but it's followed closely by "Gone For A Long Time" and "Living In The Gutter." "Action" is the quintessential ska-punk track, featuring quick upstrokes, a wicked walking bass line, and horns everywhere! I bought Word Is Bond at SCENEfest back in 2007 and I was blown away by this song, and it was even better seeing it live the same night! all 3 tracks named above are wicked, and anyone who is new to the Johnstones will love them, and all the old fans will already know and (hopefully) love them!

Pick up the album here, and stay tuned for letter "K" tomorrow!

Not-Not-Not Dead Yet!

Band: The Infested

Country: UK

Notable Album: Myths, Lies And Hypocrites

Favourite Song: "Not Dead Yet"

Well howdy there folks, today is letter "I" for my ska blog! I figured I'd start off with some shameless advertising first though. My band Nobodies Home is playing a show on April 20 at L3 in St. Catharines. We are opening for Toronto ska-punk band The Flatliners, who are coming through St. Catharines for their first time since S.C.E.N.E. last summer! The event on Facebook, along with all related info, can be found here. We have a bunch of new songs, and I'll be extra excited, since it'll be the night after going to see THE SPECIALS in Toronto! Hope to see lots of people there!

Anyways, on to the music! The Infested are a crack rock steady band from the UK. If you don't like hardcore punk, or crack rock steady bands like Leftover Crack or The Antimaniax (from earlier in the blog), then you probably won't like this band. However, if you like a more hardcore, angry ska-punk / hardcore punk feel, you will love this band! With all songs on Myths, Lies And Hypocrites written by G Infested, the tracks are fast, intense, and to-the-point. Lots of quick ska-punk tracks mixed in with fast hardcore punk songs, I have had this album for 2 years and never gotten bored of it! Now, with that being said, if you want music variation, you will not find it on this album - the first three songs use the exact same chord progression, and that particular progression (some sort of transposed C, Em, Am, F) shows up a LOT throughout this album. But, I am a fan of such things - maybe I have no musicality to me at all - and I thoroughly enjoy each song on this album.

"Not Dead Yet" won the Favourite Song Race for me this time, but it just barely won against "You Think You're A Hero." Interestingly enough, neither of these songs are ska-punk - just straight-up fast hardcore punk-rock tracks. My favourite ska-punk on this album is "Keep Droppin'" and it gets the bronze medal for my favourite tracks. "Not Dead" and "Hero" both use this consistent chord progression, but in different keys - so listen closely, and you will know both songs off by heart in no time! "Friends/Mistakes" is also a great ska-punk track, with an almost hip-hop feel for most of it. It's actually the same chords as the other two, but just one position back - if we kept it in C, it would be Em, Am, F, C, and so on and so forth - so now you actually know three tracks!

The things that I find interesting about this band is the use of distorted vocals. I tried it once to freak out the guys during band practice and it definitely does NOT fit with anything except hardcore music! It's sometimes hard to hear what G is singing, but the music is so good I don't even pay attention to the lyrics anyways. If you pick up this album, turn your bass up! It's recorded without much low-end, but the bass lines are incredible in each song and the bass drum drives the music forward relentlessly - so if you can, PUMP THE BASS!

Pick up the album here if you like these tracks - I have a feeling the guys might really need the money!

The Have Nots!

Band: The Have Nots

Country: USA

Notable Album: Serf City USA

Favourite Song: "Anchor For A Drowning Man"

So I guess I am a lot more lame than I thought and forgot to do a blog again yesterday. So, hopefully, I will be able to squeeze in two today to make up for lost time! Anyways, this is your "H" band - The Have Nots. Forming after the break-up of another ska-punk band Stray Bullets, The Have Nots essentially pick up where Stray Bullets left off. Same singers, almost identical instrumentation, and a similar message - you could actually just call this the second Stray Bullets album. In any case, I have been listening to this album for over a year now and I don't see myself getting bored of them anytime soon!

Each song is fast, powerful, and feature an interesting take on the traditional ska-punk sound. I find it interesting because they are one of very few bands that I know of that choose to use one clean guitar for offbeats and one distorted guitar over top for either soloing or just additions to each song. Obviously, it's recorded in Stereo, so the right speaker or headphone features the offbeats, and the left features the distorted guitar - it's pretty cool to hear. If you know the song "Scumpunch!" off of The Flatliner's debut album Destroy To Create then you might know what I'm talking about (they do this after the intro) - but even if you already understand, check out the Have Nots' music!

I checked out their MySpace page for the first time a few minutes ago after having trouble finding any songs other than "One In Four" (which is probably one of my least favourite songs by these guys), and lo and behold - there were all my favourite songs! So instead of giving you links for each YouTube-posted song, I'll post their MySpace page a few times and you can go check out all the tracks on there. My favourite song off Serf City USA is a super-short track called "Anchor For A Drowning Man." I can't really explain why I like it more than the others, but I think it's because it's not as punky as the other songs, it's a little more folky and that's a nice change from the rest of the album. However, since I am a die-hard ska-punk fan all the way through, I absolutely love the tracks "Used To Be," "There's Gonna Be A Riot," "My Way," and "Muerte De Perros." "Riot" and "Muerte" aren't on their MySpace page but if you pick up the album then you'll be able to enjoy them too! At the very bottom of their playlist is a track called "Uphill Battle." IGNORE THE CRAPPY QUALITY AND LISTEN TO THAT SONG. I just heard it today (since this was my first venture onto their MySpace page) and it blew my mind! This isn't on the album and is a few years old so I doubt it will resurface, but it's just as good as any of Serf City USA's tracks - and wayyy better than some of them!

One last note - Vinnie from Less Than Jake has a record label called Paper + Plastick. This album is featured as a free download right now so if you like the tracks, you can download the whole album, LEGALLY, FREE! This is the link, and if you scroll down the page you'll see that each song is listed as "free download."  HOW AWESOME IS THAT!  This is a great way for up-and-coming bands to get their music out there, and you can help them get on their way! So once again, head over to the site here to grab the entire album for free!

Hellcat Records' Secret Weapon

Band: The Gadjits

Country: USA

Notable Album: At Ease

Favourite Song: "Party Girl" (There is no link for this song, SAD)

WELL the past few days have been just ridiculous! So ridiculous that I totally forgot about this (massive fail) until it was too late every day. This weekend, I made a movie and won a film festival, did a lot of all-night work, ate a lot of ice cream, and was re-acquainted with an old friend - but I refuse to give this up, so here we are now at letter "G!" The Gadjits are no longer called The Gadjits - they operate under the alias The Architects - the 4 members released At Ease in 1998, under the wing of Tim Armstrong's Hellcat Records.

Not totally ska or ska-punk but too much so to be considered anything else, At Ease has been a constant go-to for me for almost 3 years now. There are a few songs that I'm not a huge fan of, but that's to be expected with almost any album. But the majority of the songs are SUPER good, so this is still an amazing album. Their only album even remotely close to ska, At Ease is just as soulful as it is fun and upbeat. Other tracks I love from the album are "Sh'bop" (which reminds me of Grease!), "Traffic Tickets," "Backup," and "Holes In My Shoes." They also do a crazy cover of "Mustang Sally!" A guitar, a bass, a drummer, and wicked keys make all these songs fresh and exciting to listen to!

Despite a whole bunch of songs being pretty awesome, "Party Girl" is the top track on this album. It clocks in at just over 2 minutes, and the frantic pace makes this a really fun track to listen to. The chord progressions used are fairly original (not very common for ska), but not overly complicated. The chorus is really easy to learn, so almost right away I started singing along and it got stuck in my head in no time. Even listening to it now I'm getting distracting humming and singing along! I actually think the song is too short - I would have loved another verse in there so end it off, but what can you do?

As always, you can go here to buy the album, and I will make sure to have a post up tomorrow for letter "H!"