SKA

my friend nyx watched a documentary about east bay punk and wanted my recommendations for ska punk songs. these are the songs that i like and find historically interesting AND think nyx probably hadn't heard. (superman by goldfinger is a great song and is historic in its own way and you know it already, right. the bosstones? love them. you've heard em. you get it.)

julia or janice if you're reading this, fellow ska likers, please lmk what i missed!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2dJ5rcCZx94hXnHlCM7d6a?si=61b290b2bb5e4311

WE WILL FALL TOGETHER
streetlight is my favorite ska band. this isn't even their best song, but GOD. WHAT A SONG. you can tell that toh kay has been composing his band's horn lines by voice, they're so singable. horns are irresistible. gosh can you have a horn section that is so together and so not-together at the same time. music.

people call streetlight fourth wave ska, a title that the lead singer likes about as much as gerard way likes being in an emo band. we'll get back to 'em later

SHE GOT ARRESTED
i started listening to the interrupters literally just for this playlist and THEY'RE GOOD. man, matt freeman would be jealous to play this bassline. you ever hear a band doing a kind of music, right, this 2010s band is signaling that they're doing ska. "ah, cute, they're playing a ska style song," i think before the bass comes in and then i go oh fuck they're playing ska

also hey washington mentioned!! spokane doesn't have a lot to recommend it, but it seems like it'd be a great place to allegedly murder your spouse.

TIME BOMB
and out comes the wolves, listen. put your drink down and listen to me. this is a new take that's never been heard before. and out comes the wolves is a good album. no one has said this before me. this is the first time you've heard this opinion!! thanks. now you can leave this dive bar with new information

the oakland band operation ivy was the first (many people are mad about this statement) ska punk band. they did one album and split. by many accounts they split for for normal nineteen-year-old-punk-bandmate reasons, everyone was nineteen-years-old mad but no one was BIG mad. they each went on to their futures, the lead singer to a career of "being a pretty chill and normal guy" and the rest of them to being "musicians" in bands such as these guys, rancid, which along with green day (and others, ok, i know i know) was responsible for people liking punk in the 1990s.

UNITY
oh hey it's those guys! it's op ivy. you've heard all about them

MY GIRLFRIEND'S ON DRUGS
my barber told me about big d. hi eric!! (he has never been online in his life)
this song is so fun. if you go to the spotify radio for this song you'll eventually get to the dead milkmen's "punk rock girl," which is the correct way of understanding this song—a sort of punk rock nursery rhyme. but god, the horn line!

(SK)A PUNK
jeff rosenstock has the platonic ideal punk voice. what a blessing this cover is, especially with jer on EVERY other instrument. jeff rosenstock's band is bomb the music industry (& others) which have SO many songs that would have been more sincere and historic includes in this list except damnnnnn does jeff sound perfect on this

HERE'S TO LIFE
this isn't streetlight manifesto. it isn't (it is). do you know the willpower it took to keep catch22 off this list? but i'm so enamored with the concept of "acoustic ska" and with this song. come back once point/counterpoint hits, and you'll find all the same streetlight tasting notes.

i don't know much but i do know this / with a golden heart comes a rebel fist / and every single soldier wasn't fired: some have quit

BEER
reel big fish is a group of frat boys who sing about wanting to die using the only kind of speech they know.

LAST ONE OUT OF LIBERTY CITY
i could have replaced this whole playlist with the entirety of EITHER of less than jake's this-era albums, rockview or losing streak. they sum it up. this is the thing! this is it. this is what ska punk is doing.

SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS
i've just included this so you can hear it.

SUPER RAD
i am skanking. see??
aquabats. they have a song called "shark fighter," where the lyrics are "i'm a shark fighter. i fight sharks. i fight them in the water, because that's where they are." on tiktok there's a guy who danced to this song (not the shark one) on the occasion of henry kissenger's death.

a "comedy" ska band but, ah, are they? comedy is a slippery thing. they're not funny so much as they are... distilled essence of college radio. ska is, famously, "what plays in the head of a thirteen year old boy when he gets extra mozzarella sticks" and aquabats is that. pass the marinara.

(the music video for this is clearly a joke about the song "we are number one from" from kids' show lazytown. it's just a quirk of fate that lazytown came out 10 years later)

KNOWLEDGE
my favorite op ivy song. this is not ska; this is proof that op ivy was a fucking great punk band.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT
a perfect song. unsurprising for streetlight, who have several albums of these fuckers.

it's got all the streetlight highlights! literary reference. some damned clever songwriting. fitting as many words as you possibly can into a single breath. singable horn lines. a fundamentally young-person's understanding of reality, angry and naive and sincere. toh kay just sort of says the thing he means. i love it

in fact a perfect song in an album of perfect songs that, in their entirety, is even better than any one song? (an album about one of my favorite topics which is, spoilers for the album, wanting to kill yourself and in the same thought desperately wanting your friends to not kill themselves). the real point/counterpoint is between this, "a better place", and "a moment of violence." you don't gotta listen to the album but know there's a Structure here, okay.

NEW GIRL
the mandatory inclusion from tony hawk's pro skater. thankfully, it's a bop! a perfect punk song; it's almost a lucky accident that it's ska.

thanks for listening!