There Was No "Q" Band...

Band: Mad Caddies

Country: USA

Notable Album: Quality Soft Core

Favourite Song: Polyester Khakis

OK I don't have and couldn't find a ska band that starts with the letter Q so I have decided to do a Q album instead!  For those of you who now hate me for breaking the chain, I feel a deep shame in my very core for letting you down - but get over it and read this anyways.

They played at the Opera House in
November 2009.  Jealous?

The Mad Caddies are a ska-punk band from the United States, and I have had the privilege of seeing them live once.  I was even so kind as to buy James one of their shirts since he pretended to break his arm and couldn't go to the show.  Stuart and Erin and I had more fun without him anyways.  The Mad Caddies play an interesting style of ska, that honestly sometimes reminds me of circus music.  But it means that it's easy to distinguish them from any other third-wave band that you might hear.  Their style has changed rather significantly over their career - starting off with fast silly songs, moving on to a nearly ska-less album, and then coming back with a great album of real smooth ska and punk.  It's interesting to listen to a band's discography and listen to them legitimately mature over several albums - other bands that come to mind are Bedouin Soundclash (until this most recent album, what a piece of garbage) and Big D & The Kids Table (also with a terrible recent album).


Quality Soft Core is my second-favourite album by the Mad Caddies.  My favourite is Keep It Going - a return in 2007 from the nearly ska-less Rock The Plank (the only redeeming track on RTP was Weird Beard - what a badass song.) and the not-so-awesome Just One More (but listen to Leavin'), and a progression into a much more lyrically and musically mature stance in the ska-punk scene.  But since Keep It Going is not by a Q band and does not start with Q, I am left with no choice but to exclude it from this blog. Quality Soft Core is the first Mad Caddies album.  It was released in 1997 and it's easy to tell that it's a debut release.  The music style is a bit scattered - weird time signatures, variations of standard chord progressions, a really strange guitar tone, and quick shifts from ska to punk to "circus" - but all wrapped up into one really unique album that's pretty entertaining to listen to.  It's definitely got the quirkiness and interesting musicality that the Caddies are known for now, but this album pushes the character of their band more to the front than it does for their music.  For whatever reason, Chuck decides to sing in a weird accent for a lot of tracks - which is fun but takes away from some of the musical enjoyment.  Despite the criticisms, I think it's a great starting point for a band that had to make their mark somehow in an underrated and somewhat generic genre - I highly recommend it to anyone who wants some fun, easy-to-listen-to ska in their collection.


My favourite song from this album is actually the first Mad Caddies song I ever heard.  In a time long ago, when the mystical powers of Pandora weren't blocked in the magical land of Canada, I typed "Less Than Jake" into the playlist bar, and Polyester Khakis was one of the first tracks to show up as a suggestion.  I can actually remember when I first heard it - it was my grandparents' 50th anniversary and we were at their house the day after the reception.  Not only were we there for their anniversary, it was also my birthday weekend (I got a ride cymbal!) and I was upstairs doing some schoolwork before we had a big family dinner.  That Monday, I went to school and listened to all the Mad Caddies music I could find online, and over the past few years I've grown my collection from just Polyester Khakis to their entire album collection.  The song itself is a really interesting mix of ska and punk, with a super catchy riff in the pre-verse.  The chorus is easy to learn, and it's even easier to get stuck in your head!  But luckily it's a good track - much better than getting something like Rihanna going "UMBER-ELLA ELLA ELLA EH EH EH" stuck for days (Is it there now?  Is Umbrella playing in your mind? Is it stuck on repeat? Do you hate me?  Don't hate - you know you loved that song at one point or another.).  So yes, it's a good song - weird, but good.


Buy the album here!  Or buy the better one, Keep It Going, here!  Or buy both here!  The possibilities are endless!  The R band will be easy but I have a busy day tomorrow - let's see what happens.  SEE YOU TOMORROW!

The Public Serpents!

Band: Public Serpents

Country: USA

Notable Album: The Feeding Of The Fortune 5000

Favourite Song: Hated By A Nation

This is unbelievable - 3 days in a row and things are still going smoothly!  Today's post will be short because I'm hanging with friends and jamming in a bit and I was late getting home from work.  Hopefully tomorrow will be back to more in-depth stuff but for now I just have to get this done.


SOOOOO Public Serpents hail from the You Ess Of Eh and play their own style of crack rock steady.  This means that if you didn't like Antimaniax or the Infested, you probably won't like these guys either.  But they take the letter P for today since I haven't talked about a crack rock steady band in a long time!  I think a few guys from Choking Victim might actually play in the Public Serpents but I can't say for sure.  I've owned The Feeding Of The Fortune 5000 for a few years and haven't listened to it in a while, but it seemed appropriate since they're a lot more obscure than the Planet Smashers (plus I bet a lot of people expected me to write about them - HAHAHAHA YOU'RE WRONG).


My most vivid memory that this album brings back is actually my trip to Saskatchewan.  The last time I listened to this album all the way through was on a 5-hour bus trip from Cadillac (population 500) to Regina before I headed off to Montreal (which was right before I headed off to the arctic. Told you my summer was rad.).  If you're a fan of Choking Victim, Leftover Crack, The Infested, or the Antimaniax, you'll definitely like these guys.  The recording quality of the album is similar to the Infested album in the sense that it's actually recorded fairly well, but it's missing a lot of low-end.  The music is angry, choppy, and surprisingly original for a ska-punk band, no matter what sub-genre you choose to put them into.  It's hard to hear what the singer says a lot, but the music more than makes up for the lack of clarity anyways - it's definitely an enjoyable listen if you're OK with some anger in your ska.


It never ceases to amaze me how hard it is to choose a favourite song from the albums that I write about.  You'd think that after listening to these CDs over and over, I'd be able to choose a song that stands out - but I suppose that's what makes an album a good one.  If you have a hard time choosing your favourite because you like so many, then that's an album that did it's job.  If I had to choose one song (which I do, I know), I'd probably say Hated By A Nation is my favourite, but not by much.  Hated By A Nation is the second track on the album, and is more of a generic ska-punk song.  2 separate 4-chord progressions are all that make up the song - which is not a bad thing because the intensity that the song provides is really what makes it unique.  Brandon told me once that it sounded like a really angry little kids' song and to be honest, I can see what he means - it's a weird sort of happy angry yelling.  But the chorus is super intense, and the verse is perfect for angry skanking so I have to name this as my favourite track.  Other great tracks are Effigies Of Life, Death Of A Revolutionary, and The Feeding Of The Fortune 5000.


You can grab the album here - I now have the daunting task of playing music and finding a ska band with the letter Q for tomorrow!

"O" Man! (Or the Big "O," choose your pun)

Band: Operation Ivy

Country: USA

Notable Album: Energy (1991 Lookout! Records Re-Issue)

Favourite Song: Artificial Life

I'm on the bus home from work, and I'd like to celebrate this momentous day with you all.  Today is Day 2 of the Ska Blog's resurrection! And it's written the day after Day 1! This is quite the feat, but we'll see if I can keep it up until the end...


Anyways, today's band is probably a no-brainer for those of you in the know. I chose Operation Ivy for a few reasons. Mainly, they're AWESOME. I wish I could have been a ska kid in the early '90s, so I'd have a chance to see Op Ivy play a show - it would have been insane. Being in the crowd, watching Tim and Jesse singing and playing their music, singing along to Unity or Sound System or Artificial Life... what an experience that must have been. For those of you that don't know, Operation Ivy was essentially one of the first big 3rd-wave ska-punk bands. They formed in 1987 and disbanded in 1989, a month after the release of their first full-length, Energy. You'll hear covers of their songs everywhere - Reel Big Fish covers Unity, Green Day covered Knowledge, Keepin'6 covered Yellin' In My Ear, and even The Hippos did a cover of Freeze Up. There's even a full Operation Ivy cover album (in which some bands butchered songs, but it's still a nice gesture) that you can find pretty easily.  If you ask most current ska-punk bands about their influences, I can pretty much guarantee that Operation Ivy will pop up in the list. The members went on to do a whole bunch of different projects - Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman went on to join Lars Frederiksen in Rancid, and Jesse Michaels eventually formed Common Rider.


NOTE: I am now home and watching 3rd Rock From The Sun with James as I write this.  I am fully prepared for the many delays this may cause.


The easiest collection of Op Ivy tracks you can find is the current issue of Energy.  It was originally recorded with 19 tracks, but Lookout! Records re-issued it in 1991 with 27 tracks - compiling their EPs along with the original Energy recordings.  Lookout! recently (well, in 2007) gave up their rights to the album and it was re-issued again on Tim's Hellcat Records.  It was re-mastered and put together in a funky little Digipack - who knows if it's worth it?  I own the 1991 re-issue, which has a really interesting recording quality - almost as if the CD version was recorded right from vinyl or tape. In any case, you'll have to get used to the pop and scratches and overall low-quality recording before you can enjoy the music.  Once you get past the sound, you can appreciate the music and lyrics and understand why so many bands were influenced by these guys. There's something really honest with the way the album goes together - a cool mix of punk and ska, many songs with a message but some that are just fun, and the odd off-time section that let's you know that it's all recorded honestly. It's like a live recording with a thousandbajillion-times better recording quality.  Jesse carries most of the vocals, but it's a real treat when Tim pipes up for a verse here and there.  For almost 30 songs, the album doesn't drag and the music stays relatively fresh all the way through - something that current ska bands have a hard time with!


I have a hard time choosing a favourite song from this album.  It's tradition for me to listen to the album that I'm writing about while I'm writing, and I'm taking moments to stop and sing along to most of these tracks.  Each song is really unique in a way that ska doesn't get much credit for.  If this was a year ago, I'd say it would be a toss-up between Sound System (who can resist a song about skanking?), Freeze Up, or Unity, but I think after another listen-through I'm going to say Artificial Life is my favourite track.  I'm getting goosebumps as I listen to it - it's actually possible to hear how much fun they're having, I think that's part of why I like it so much.  It's so easy to imagine seeing this song live, watching Jesse and Tim get pumped as the song starts up, hearing the crowd sing along to the 2-line chorus, Jesse crying "pick it up!"  Not to mention the fact that it's a simple and awesome ska-punk song - 3 chords (honestly, the whole song. Get over it, it's barely 2 minutes long.), a perfect skanking tempo, and some great choppy offbeats make this a really fun song to listen to.


You can grab the album here, and stay tuned for the letter P tomorrow!

ROUND 2!

Band: New Riot

Country: UK

Notable Album: Riot.Sleep.Repeat.

Favourite Song: Days Like These

Happy New Year! I KNOW I KNOW IT'S BEEN ALMOST A YEAR AND I'M SUPER EMBARRASSED but I have been inspired. I don't know how or when, but yesterday I got a Twitter account and today I felt like starting this ol' thang up again. Maybe it's because mom and dad make up 50% of my followers and I don't want to let them down. Maybe it's because I need creative stimulation now that I'm not at school for a term. Maybe it's because I have absolutely nothing better to do. Who really knows? I certainly don't.

So hey there! How have you been? Long time no ska. Actually that's a lie - I've been to at least 15 ska shows since I got back from Saskatchewan (did you know I went to Saskatchewan all summer? And Banff. And the arctic. It was rad.) including seeing The Specials' 30th Anniversary Tour in Toronto and winning tickets to see The English Beat the next night but being 2 kool for 2 nights of 2Tone ska. Also I had no one to go with.

This is sort of a test - I have an urge to expand my online presence but until I make the blog that I have in mind (which will consist of many things, not just ska posts, but mainly ska posts) I want to see if I have enough dedication to finish this. So come along on this magical journey... who knows where we'll end up?

New Riot formed out of the ashes of Fandangle - who put out my favourite album of 2008. They released a demo (with an awesome re-recorded I'm High) in 2009, and we saw their full-length Riot.Sleep.Repeat. in early 2010. If you liked Fandangle, you won't be disappointed with New Riot - 3 to 4 chords, real loud brass, walking bass lines, and all the sing-along choruses you can handle. Some may say that the music is all the same, and those people (I have to grudgingly admit) are right. HOWEVER New Riot does the "same thing" really well, and I highly recommend this to any 3rd-wave ska-punk fan.

This was my first summer album of 2010. I can remember taking my brother to the Avondale Dairy Bar, getting our ice cream (too much ice cream was consumed before I went on that trip), and then sitting on top of the car with all the windows down - listening to the album and waiting for a boat to go under the Welland Canal lift bridge. We must have listened to that album every day before I left. The music is great, but I was surprised and slightly disappointed by the way it was recorded. The distorted guitars are as expected - loud, powerful, perfect - but the clean sound for the offbeats is totally muted. That's what I wanted to hear! I think the music would be much more skankable (IT'S A WORD) and enjoyable if the offbeats were easier to hear. Maybe they'll read this and record the next album differently.

I have a mix CD of my favourite Fandangle and New Riot songs - most of the tracks from R.S.R. are on it. But my favourite track on the album is definitely Days Like These. It's perfect - 3 chords, not too fast, not too slow, and I love the saxophone that pops up in the chorus. Anyone who likes 3rd-wave ska-punk is going to like this track. It's re-recorded from New Riot's Blood Sweat And Beers EP from 2009, but I don't notice any real differences (minus the absence of post-performance silliness at the end of the album version). Days Like These is the second-last track on R.S.R. but I highly recommend listening to the rest of the album first and then going OH MY GOD MITCHELL IS RIGHT THIS IS THE BEST SONG ON HERE right near the end. It'll be like a fun surprise. Plus one song after like a less-awesome encore.

You can buy the album here (I did!), and stay tuned for letter O! Hopefully tomorrow.