...up to my eyeballs in Ska!

[andydeedpoll]

Its Official.

it is IMPOSSIBLE to go to or play a gig in Bradford, England, without having a Ska band playing.

everyone but my band, the Deedpoll, loves Ska!!! you could say, in our opinions, if not our actions, we are the Anti-Ska. and it makes it so hard to have any type of following/get performances in the first place.

im not talking about 'proffessional' music... im 16, and one of the eldest in my band. every band ive played with has the same kind of age group. so obviously the easiest way to perform is to perform with lots of bands in the same evening, because no one has a following big enough to be able to fill a venue on their own, and it sorta takes the pressure off. and Ska bands always make their way onto the list... it seems theyre simply arent enough non-ska bands to fill an evening!

ggrr.

does anyone else have this problem? the whole music scene of an area being completely washed out with a certain genre of music? how have you got past it?

well. thank you for listening to my little rant
Andy

 

[Echelon]

Oh, wow. Yeah. My band couldn't play a show for about 2 years without the rest of the bill being some hardcore screaming band. I like that hardcore music, when it's good. BUt when you get a bunch of pissed off high school kids together, it's not so good. Ever since Slipknot got signed, every band in Iowa suddenly decided that they should play that kind of music.

 

[Axis]

got the same thing goin on over here in the home of dave matthews.

 

[leddy]

If it's good ska, there's no problem. What the kids are calling "ska" these days is the problem, and probably is why you hate ska.

 

[Mark7]

Yeah. Leicester was like that 5 years or so back. Everytime I popped into AOS to check out the wanted ads they seemed to be 95% Ska bands.

The other 5% were Oi Punk and Metal.




I grew to loathe all three genres in that time

 

[andydeedpoll]

If it's good ska, there's no problem. What the kids are calling "ska" these days is the problem, and probably is why you hate ska.

yeah, i agree with that. as long as its in small, bitesize quantities... i really like bands like the specials and things... but i see hardly any resemblance in That ska and newer stuff. maybe im just being a bit dim

but the horn players cant play (i should know, i play trombone) and the singers cant sing! i think ive seen one good ska band in about 10, where ive come away thinking 'yeah, that was a good band. the guy could sing... etc'

i feel so ashamed... weve just been offered a gig with a "pop-punk/ska" band and ive agreed to play

Andy

 

[leddy]

yeah, i agree with that. as long as its in small, bitesize quantities... i really like bands like the specials and things... but i see hardly any resemblance in That ska and newer stuff. maybe im just being a bit dim

but the horn players cant play (i should know, i play trombone) and the singers cant sing! i think ive seen one good ska band in about 10, where ive come away thinking 'yeah, that was a good band. the guy could sing... etc'

i feel so ashamed... weve just been offered a gig with a "pop-punk/ska" band and ive agreed to play

Andy

Amen.

Yes, ska has evolved quite a bit from the days of the Skatellites and such, but at some point it is safe to say it is no longer ska.

Traditional ska has a lot in common with jazz. The song would have a form, often an AABA pattern where the head (melody) would be stated, then horns would solo on additional choruses, then one more chorus of the head. Much like jazz, a convincing solo takes more than a few years of playing to accomplish. Even just having good tone and playing in tune usually takes many more years of study on a horn than, say, electric guitar, and you generally don't learn how to arrange music for a horn section until 2 or 3 years into a college degree in music. Good ska bands with young players will be very, very rare. Don't get me wrong, I like some evolutions of ska, particularly the 2nd wave stuff of the 80's (English Beat, Specials), even some newer stuff, but ska/punk...nah. (IMO) The presence of a trombone does not make punk become ska.

Don't hate ska, just hate bad ska.

Listen to the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, they are heavy players. These are NY pros who dig ska, it would be hard to find better musicianship in the genre.