"Z"s Dead, Baby

Band: Zebrahead

Country: USA

Notable Album: Phoenix

Favourite Song: Mike Dexter Is A God/Role Model/Asshole

I'm going to start off with the music section, and then all the ooey-gooey lovey-dovey stuff down at the bottom.  This is going to be great.  Oh yeah, there's also a special surprise near the end of this post!  GO READ IT.


So today's band is Zebrahead!  Many people will be like WHAT NO WAY ZEBRAHEAD ISN'T SKA OR SKA-PUNK and I tend to agree with you.  They're really cool though, an interesting mix of pop-punk and rap-core - but they did have a couple ska-punk tracks on Phoenix, which is why I chose them for today.  Also, there are like 3 bands IN THE WORLD that start with the letter "Z" and none of them are ska bands. So bear with me, I did my best.  Zebrahead have been around for a while, and they most recently released an album called Panty Raid, which is a full cover album of female pop songs.  Their rapper, Ali, rapped for Reel Big Fish's cover of Unity on their live DVD, and they've toured with bands like Less Than Jake, Green Day (back when they were cool), and Goldfinger.


Phoenix was released in 2008, and was Zebrahead's last full-length before Panty Raid.  It's a mix of pop-punk, rap-core, and even has several ska-punk tracks (which is AWESOME)!  I think it's my favourite Zebrahead record, but I'm sort of going through them in reverse-chronological order.  Only time will tell what the verdict is for the other albums, but at the moment this is a great CD.  They sort of remind me of Limp-Bizkit-Meets-Reel-Big-Fish-Meets-Some-Other-Pop-Punk-Band and that is totally fine with me.  Unfortunately, I have no good stories to tell about my life and this album yet, but those will come eventually.  These guys are great, buy the album here and support them if you can.


Mike Dexter is a really fun skanking track.  It comes as a surprise after a slew of punk and rap songs, but it's definitely a welcome surprise.  This is what I like about pop-punk bands - since they pretty much automatically get great recording deals, the ska they record sounds impeccable.  Also, the pop-punk genre has a very limited chord set, and this works great when writing ska.  Almost every time, you get a great-sounding, catchy and dance-y song that they'll be embarrassed about recording but that doesn't matter.  Mike Dexter is just that - a simple, well-recorded track (with some added keys just for good measure) that's just a ton of fun to listen to.


OK!  That's it for Mitchell's Ska Blog.  It's been one crazy year - starting, then stopping.  Then starting again.  Then finishing.  I suppose that's how it goes for everyone's first time.  Writing a blog, I mean.  DON'T BE SO OFFENDED, THAT'S NOT MY FIRST DIRTY JOKE ON HERE.


It feels good in a weird way to finally be done this.  I know I wasted a lot of time in the middle, but this still feels like an accomplishment. I told myself that I'd only move on to something new if I had the dedication to finish this blog and I think I've achieved that.  It feels cool that I actually could (sort of) find a band for each letter of the alphabet - it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I was able to listen to albums I hadn't heard in a long time, and it reminds me why I love this music in the first place.  I've never really analyzed or thought about music in this way before (or at least, I've never talked about it like this), and it's been a challenge to describe exactly what I like about particular bands or songs.  It's usually a feeling that can't be put into words, but I did my best and this is what showed up.  Ska is a genre that gets a lot of ridicule, and lots of it deserves that.  But I think each of these bands deserves the credit they got - they are what makes the world of ska diverse, unique, and always interesting.  Each of these bands brings something of their own to the proverbial ska table, and they each deserve equal recognition.


I hope everyone had as much fun reading these posts as I had writing them, and that year in the middle?  Let's just forget about that and all stay friends.  This is not the end of my internet presence, however!  I have been working like a secret agent these past few days, setting up my brand new website over on WordPress AND IT'S LIVE NOW!  It's going to contain all the stuff I like to talk about - music, movies, concerts, photography, and (of course) myself.  I'll be moving these posts (well, at least the 2011 ones) over there so if you missed any, you can check there or here to read up on ska bands.  Or go back to the beginning and read them all over again!  Watch my literary skills progress from silly to articulate-silly.  It's quite gripping.


But if you want, you can just head over to my brand new blog here!


Anyways, that's all for the Ska Blog.  Thanks to everyone who read this bad boy, and thanks to the bands who re-tweeted when I wrote posts about them.  This was a ton of fun, I really hope you enjoyed yourselves.  James is being rude so I'm going to go beat him up.

"Y" oh "Y" do I only have "Y" albums and no artists?

Band: Chris Murray

Country: Canada (currently lives in USA)

Notable Album: Yard Sale

Favourite Song: Everything'll Be Alright

Guess what.  This is my second-last post on here.  Sad, right?  Only sort of.  I have been setting up a new blog in the background and it's looking pretty cool so far - no one knows where it is yet, but over the weekend I will launch it and you can all be like OH MY GOD MITCHELL ROCKS.  That is what your reaction will be.  Identical for everyone.  It's gonna be great.  So hopefully you'll all get to check that out later this weekend, but for now it's time to wrap things up!


It's obviously very hard to find XYZ bands, and I've been cheating - yesterday I did "X" songs, and today I have to do a "Y" album.  But I'm a punk rocker and I know that rules are meant to be broken.  So here I am, breaking rules.  Isn't this exciting?


Chris Murray is a Canadian musician, although he currently resides in California.  He played in King Apparatus, an awesome Toronto ska band, but they broke up and he moved on to a solo career.  He has released several full-length albums and a whole bunch of self-recorded, 4-track EP's.  He's also recorded albums for The Planet Smashers, and did a whole CD with the Slackers - Chris had lead vocals and the Slackers backed him (that is a sweet album).  Chris has also played shows with The Specials, and even played harmonica for Prince Buster back in 2003!  Needless to say, he has made a substantial impression on the ska scene.


Yard Sale is Chris' newest album, released in 2009, and it's actually a collection of unreleased tracks that have been recorded over the years.  There are lots of guest appearances on this album - the Slackers, the Aggrolites and even the Skatalites accompany Chris here and there throughout the album.  As with his other recordings, the lo-fi quality has this intimate, almost campfire-y feel to it.  This is a great album to listen to when you want to relax and enjoy the sunshine.  There really should be a lot of sun when you listen to this record.  And a beach if you have one.  Or if you're close to one.


Everything'll Be Alright is the first track off Yard Sale, and it features Chris, his guitar, and the Skatalites backing him.  The song is all about feeling good about yourself and your surroundings and, even if things look bad, knowing that you can get through them (even if you need your friends for support).  It's so great to hear some upbeat music that matters, instead of the silliness that a lot of 3rd-wave ska seems to evoke.  Chris is a quality musician - he can not only write catchy songs, but knows how to write the lyrics that fit them.  Everything'll Be Alright is a prime example of how his musicianship and penmanship go together hand-in-hand.


Well now!  That was a lot easier to do than yesterday!  I don't know if I'll be able to do "Z" tomorrow, but check back anyways for a farewell message and possibly a link to my new blog!  Pick up Yard Sale here, and have a happy second-last night!

Really? X? This was a mistake.

So.  There are no ska bands that start with X, and I have no ska albums that start with X either.  So this was quite the challenge.  In my entire collection of 12,000 songs (yeah that's right - twelve THOUSAND), I have 5 songs that start with X, and 2 of them are ska songs!  So I'm gonna quickly talk about each of them, because neither are my favourites but they're still great songs.  So read on.  Open your mind to the possibilities.  Jedi stuff like that.

The first song is called X-Factor, and it's by a band called The Porkers.  They're from Australia which is super cool - they're the first Australian band on here!  Probably the last as well.  Oh well.  I don't know if they're still around (they were in 2008, it seems) and they're not one of my favourite bands, but every now and then I put on a Porkers track just to hear something different.  X-Factor is off their album Hot Dog Daiquiri, and it's actually not a song I listen to very much.  I have it on now, though, and it seems to be pretty good.  Some pretty cool horn shots, a great walking bass line, and Pete Cooper's thick Australian accent all make this a pretty enjoyable track overall.  I also recommend Swingin' Like Tiger Woods and Too Big For Your Boots as other great Porkers tracks.

The other song is by a band I listen to much more frequently - it's a song called X-Mas Card and it's by MU330.  Dan Potthast, who I talked about for the D band, is a really interesting musician - he writes songs that are so unique, you just have to hear them to understand.  X-Mas Card is a little different, slower and sadder and a bit less complicated, but it still showcases the unique sound that MU330 always had.  This song is off the album Crab Rangoon, which was still during MU330's "crazy" days before they released Ultra Panic.  Ultra Panic was actually my favourite album, but Crab Rangoon still had some cool songs, like Good Homes and Ireland (this version is Dan playing solo but the crowd loves it!).


Anyways, that was ridiculous.  Y is going to be much easier.  Maybe.  GOODNIGHT!

W is Double-Vee, not Double-You - the French had it right all along

Band: Walk Off The Earth

Country: Canada!

Notable Album: Smooth Like Stone On A Beach

Favourite Song: Rock Me Away

This is the return of Canadian bands on the Ska Blog!  I think this is the first Canadian band I've blogged about since resurrecting this bad boy a few weeks ago.  So let's celebrate together!


Yay! Celebrations!


Wasn't that a fun celebration?  I certainly had a blast, hope you did too.  And now on to the good stuff.


Today's post is slightly sad for me, in a way.  I used to have a very good friend who loved Walk Off The Earth, and I have fond memories of going with her to see a few of their shows.  Unfortunately, we aren't in contact with each other anymore, which is too bad, but I suppose things like that happen from time to time.  People drift apart, life goes on, ska is awesome - those are all facts that we just have to live with.

Marshall on guitar at Maxwell's Music House
Waterloo, December 2010

In any case, Walk Off The Earth hail from Burlington, ON - a very sketchy place, according to WOTE.  If you own their second album, My Rock, you'll know that in B-Town you have to carry a Gat - whether it be in your leg pouch, or your waist pouch, or your shoulder pouch - just remember that it has to be in a pouch nonetheless.  Walk Off The Earth has now released two full-length albums, and have been steadily releasing super cool covers of songs for the past few months.  They've recently done a cover of the Backin' Up song, and that song Magic that has Rivers from Weezer in it.  That song rocks.  Both versions.  I'm really impressed with the talent of the guys in WOTE - it's not every day that you see a ska/reggae band perform music with ukuleles or beatboxing (and I think Gianni uses a gun for percussion in one of their YouTube videos!).  Needless to say, their musical creativity is incredible and I certainly hope to see much more from these guys.




Smooth Like Stone On A Beach is WOTE's first full-length.  It has a lot more tracks than their second album, and showcases a much more diverse collection of musical styles.  They do everything from ska to pop to rap to a beachy-reggae cover of Rage Against The Machine's People Of The Sun.  It also features the original versions of 100 Proof Life and Broke, which both were re-recorded for My Rock.  This album was given to me at a Johnstones show at the Chili Pepper years ago - it was my first time seeing them and I only knew Rock Me Away, but we had a great time skanking up their set and being amazed that a bassist could also drum and play the guitar!  I had actually been supposed to see them the November before, opening for another Johnstones show at Port Mansion, but I had to work and we were late and they were done.  It was sad.


Rock Me Away is without a doubt the best song ever by Walk Off The Earth.  Sure, it's only got 2 chords and the lyrics are a little bit less than family-friendly, but this was the song that brought me to WOTE, and this is the song that keeps bringing me back to their music.  I can remember listening to Rock Me Away on their MySpace, just getting totally pumped for the show, and then going and experiencing it live for the first time - what an awesome two-and-a-half minutes that was.  The song is a perfect blend of laid-back-yet-danceable ska rhythms, quick slap bass lines, and enough quirkiness to keep the song exciting.  You can hear how much fun they're having, you can imagine the way it would be performed live, you know that if you wanted to you could cover it but it would never be as good - all of this is why Rock Me Away is still the best Walk Off The Earth song out there.  I can guarantee that if you like to be happy, you will like this song.


OK enough rambling from me for one night, gotta go stock up on food in case Canadians actually start living in igloos after this snowstorm.  Buy the album here, and we'll see what happens for the "X" band tomorrow.  Oh what an adventure this shall be.

One Week Left!

Band: Vanzetti Crime

Country: USA

Notable Album: Unity

Favourite Song: Gimme Gimme Gimmick

Today is a very exciting day!  If everything goes well this week, Friday will be my very last posting on my Ska Blog!  OK maybe you are thinking "OH NO MITCHELL WHYYY WE LOVE YOUR BLOG SO MUCH" but calm yourselves.  I'm not leaving you.  I have a grand vision of making a very elaborate blog - with multiple sections, some for photography, a concert review part, miscellaneous mind rambles, and so on and so forth.  But I need to finish this list of bands before I can move on to such bigger and better things, so this week will be a long, drawn-out goodbye of sorts - yet also a really boring beginning to all good things to come.


As a side note, I bought new headphones today!  They will ship here soon, and they will be make ska sound even better that it already does.  If that's even possible.  Which it is.


OK so on to today's band!  Vanzetti Crime is a now-defunct band based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  They are an anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic (and, with all great "anti's," also anti-government) band that only ever released one full length album, Unity.  They describe themselves as follows: 


Vanzetti Crime = Against All Authority + Suicide Machines + Operation Ivy


and that is the perfect description of their music and lyrics.  They have the aggression and political ideals of both AAA and the Suicide Machines (well, the good Suicide Machines albums anyways), but keep their ska tracks in line with Operation Ivy's simple but catchy sound.  One thing I have to comment on is the contrast between lyrics and music.  For the most part, Vanzetti Crime do not sing - they yell or scream  But the music is recorded in such a way that the screaming and yelling is offset by the bounciness and complete carefree-ness of happy ska-punk.  It's weird, but it works.


Unity was the first and last full-length album by Vanzetti Crime.  It was recorded in 3 days and boasts an impressive 18 tracks.  That number is slightly misleading, however, as many of the tracks clock in under 2 minutes.  But that's not necessarily a bad thing - as is the case with many ska & punk bands, it takes years to polish a sound so the first record isn't ever a band's greatest piece of work.  This is just as true for Vanzetti Crime - the music is a little scattered and the recording quality isn't that great, so it's nice that the songs change up quickly to prevent listeners from getting fed up with any given song.  So yeah.  It's good.  Listen to it.


Gimme Gimme Gimmick is my favourite track on this album, but it's closely followed by Population: Addicted & Confused.  Both of these tracks have sort of strange-sounding verses, but it's the chorus that really make them stand out.  On Gimme Gimme Gimmick it's the combination of a wicked walking bass and the call/answer vocals that make it a great song to listen to.  The verses fly by, leading into the chorus that's really easy to sing along to - and that's why it's my favourite track for the album.  Gimme Gimme Gimmick is also a great showcase of the weird bouncy ska / angry yelling contrast I talked about earlier, so I hope you give it a listen and support the local ska scene!


The album is legally free here, so download it and expand your knowledge of underground ska!  Letter W will be up tomorrow, and then it's going to be Challenge Time to find XYZ bands!