by
Aaron Carnes on January 12, 2022
Kayla Renelle will always remember something her brother asked her about Voluntary Hazing, her 12-piece ska band. “You have talented musicians,” he began. “Some are classically trained. So why are you playing ska?”
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by
Mike Huguenor on July 14, 2021
Don’t call it the fourth wave. Though it truly never went away, in 2021 ska music is back thanks to a long-awaited critical reappraisal and a generation of new artists and listeners. Here in San Jose, Monkey are an absolute legacy of skankable rhythms and melodies, the Asian Man Records alum having…
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by
Matei Predescu on July 17, 2019
Since 2012, Western Standard Time has paid tribute to Jamaician ska originators—like the Skatalites—through the lens of big band. This West Coast all-star band is composed of established jazz heavyweights currently working the LA scene. Many of them are internationally acclaimed Grammy-winners. The band features world-famous ska musicians, such as Angelo Moore…
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by
Mike Huguenor on June 20, 2019
Set aside what you think you know about ska music and put on “How it Feels” by The Slackers. The first track on 2010’s The Great Rocksteady Single, “How it Feels” showcases what the band had been doing so well for 19 years at that point and continues to do today: write…
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It can be hard to believe now, but two decades ago ska had a pretty big moment. It was a time before Gwen Stefani’s solo debut and Bradley Nowell’s overdose, when alternative radio stations were spinning bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger and Less Than Jake with regularity. And…
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For more than 15 years, Orange County ska band Suburban Legends have choreographed energetic, dance-filled shows in any location imaginable, from bars to punk festivals. Tonight they stop in San Jose at the Back Bar along with pop-punk band, The Maxies.
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For 17 years Mike Park has run Asian Man Records, one of the most successful (if not the most successful) DIY ska-punk record labels in the country, from a garage in Los Gatos.
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Monkey may very well be San Jose’s longest running, consistently-active band. The band emerged in 1995, but unlike a lot of Monkey’s contemporaries, it never mixed punk rock and ska. Monkey always stuck strictly to the traditional more R&B-based sounds of ska’s first wave.
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Local band Monstrauss has been an odd addition to the South Bay scene since its inception in late 2009. They mix elements of grunge, ska, funk-metal and prog-rock. While it might be confusing for some listeners to hear a song jump between ska and grunge, all that’s needed to fully understand Monstrauss,…
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Local ska, rock-steady group, Whiskey Avengers released the first video off their new album, Dead Man Rockin’. The song they chose, “Me, Myself and I” is one of the only non-ska songs on the record. It’s a banjo-driven, punk rock, sea-shanty with a feel that transports the listener back to a pre-rock…
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