Ska is dead (no not that tour)

[AnonymousJoe]

Why does it feel as though ska as a genre has died? There was a time when there was a ska show every month here, catch 22, mustard plug, suburban legends, streetlight manifesto anyone really. Or when reel big fish started the coast to coast roasts over the summer it was actually a ska show with all ska bands (minus lucky boys confusion). Now it had less than jake which was a nice add and streetlight manifesto but it's still missing something. And last years was MXPX and whole wheat bread and that really crappy band that opened. What happened to the genre? A bunch of new ska cd's came out this year albeit some better than others. Streetlight came out with Somewhere In The Between MP had Black and White and yet streetlight decides to tour in europe for it, and MP barely toured (although dave did just have a kid so i guess its understandable.) Even the bosstones are back, probably the biggest ska news in a while and still the scene feels dead. What was the last big national tour streetlight with westbound train and suburban legends? That was in november there used to be a big tour like every two months. And what happened to the Ska Is Dead tour? They say theres no bands that can headline but the ******** bosstones are back if they can't headline and get a crowd i dont know who can. I think the point of this is what happened to ska?  

[Lethal_Injektion]

artists such as soulja boy are ruining todays youth! mad  

[Guns of Navarone]

idk. 2005 I went to 15 shws in the summer. thatslike 2 months. thats a lotta shows. now, its hardly anything. its dying.

BUT THE BOSSTONES ARE COMING TO FLORIDA.

so I'm happy.

theres a small scene down here. couple bands, we all know eachother pretty much. shows are still fun, even if there aren't many people.  

[Slag10]

bands are getting older, starting families. new bands aren't coming in to fill the gaps like they were. also i think the scene has grown BORING! the albums people payed attention to this year were from bands who hadn't put new material out in several years. there weren't a lot of good new ska bands bursting out these past few years. Also i think there is some turbulence among record labels again. The new slakers album wasn't on hellcat, further highlighting that label's dedication to only what it popular, megalith has been pretty inactive lately, and asian man seems to have pop punk and re-issues shoved up its a** lately(not that i dont love the Queers, but you know how it is) FBR hasn't had a ska band on them in years, Jump Up doesn't really push it artists, stubborn is pretty much a one man show, and Moon is long dead and its bands are scattered to the wind.


back to hellcat, if you doubt my claim, i ask you only to look at the "Give 'Em the Boot" compilations

Vol. 1 All ska, oi, and a few street punk tracks

vol. 2 Still very much a ska dominated label. less oi, more punk, and the first of the label's many psychobilly bands turn up on this one

vol. 3 significantly less ska and oi. a lot more psychobilly and generic punk bands

vol. 4 3 ska tracks, one by Chris Murray who was probably at the peak of his popularity. also street punk and psychobilly seem to dominate this compilation. ill also point out that Hot Topic was pushing both those genres at that time.

vol. 5 two ska tracks to my memory, both of which were album cuts. as for the rest i dont know or care, i gave this cd one listening and sold it back to the store

if you look at the bands on the compilations, what ever was popular when that cd came out, is what's on the comp. Vol. 1 was out at the peak of the third wave, and it shows. i think we are def. reaching the true end of the third wave in the next year or so.  

[Guns of Navarone]

Slag10

bands are getting older, starting families. new bands aren't coming in to fill the gaps like they were. also i think the scene has grown BORING! the albums people payed attention to this year were from bands who hadn't put new material out in several years. there weren't a lot of good new ska bands bursting out these past few years. Also i think there is some turbulence among record labels again. The new slakers album wasn't on hellcat, further highlighting that label's dedication to only what it popular, megalith has been pretty inactive lately, and asian man seems to have pop punk and re-issues shoved up its a** lately(not that i dont love the Queers, but you know how it is) FBR hasn't had a ska band on them in years, Jump Up doesn't really push it artists, stubborn is pretty much a one man show, and Moon is long dead and its bands are scattered to the wind.


back to hellcat, if you doubt my claim, i ask you only to look at the "Give 'Em the Boot" compilations

Vol. 1 All ska, oi, and a few street punk tracks

vol. 2 Still very much a ska dominated label. less oi, more punk, and the first of the label's many psychobilly bands turn up on this one

vol. 3 significantly less ska and oi. a lot more psychobilly and generic punk bands

vol. 4 3 ska tracks, one by Chris Murray who was probably at the peak of his popularity. also street punk and psychobilly seem to dominate this compilation. ill also point out that Hot Topic was pushing both those genres at that time.

vol. 5 two ska tracks to my memory, both of which were album cuts. as for the rest i dont know or care, i gave this cd one listening and sold it back to the store

if you look at the bands on the compilations, what ever was popular when that cd came out, is what's on the comp. Vol. 1 was out at the peak of the third wave, and it shows. i think we are def. reaching the true end of the third wave in the next year or so.

agreed, but thats how most labels are.

hoping for sleep it off. hope it becomes good. hope Less Than Jake can make an awesome return with the new CD. I mean there are good ska bands out there, just hoping it can come back again. til then, I'll continue to support the scene about as much as I can down here, specially when it comes to smaller touring bands.  

[Kingshortpants]

If you want to blame someone blame yourself. Its easier today than ever before to meet bands and get in contact with them. Once you know a couple bands you can start putting shows together. Your problem there is all you did was list big bands ska is a small time thing these days, we're just waiting for a wave. You start putting on more and more shows you'll meet more and more bands and eventualy the scene will get bigger in your area and big bands will come in. There is a ska show once a week in my state now because the local kids have built the scene up.  

[AnonymousJoe]

Theres a big problem with trying to make shows here, The venues force the bands to sell tix, so whoever sells the most tix will get the slot. The problem is that this means that bands that are older with more experience but also have other jobs dont have the time to sell tix like crappy high school bands do, not saying all high school bands are bad (look at the vagabonds and patent pending while they were high school bands) I'm saying if a band of people who can barely play there instruments can sell 40 tix they'll get in instead of the good band that can only sell 20. Not to mention there are barely any ska bands because most people here play punk instead. Also there's only one venue here and it sucks.

And to Slag, I recognize bands are getting older but bands are filling the gaps as well, look at megalith, they have plenty of bands that are filling the gaps, they just signed go jimmy go for example. Not to mention theres still catch 22 who went missing in 2007 practically. I think this is the end of the 3rd wave.  

[Guns of Navarone]

Kingshortpants

If you want to blame someone blame yourself. Its easier today than ever before to meet bands and get in contact with them. Once you know a couple bands you can start putting shows together. Your problem there is all you did was list big bands ska is a small time thing these days, we're just waiting for a wave. You start putting on more and more shows you'll meet more and more bands and eventualy the scene will get bigger in your area and big bands will come in. There is a ska show once a week in my state now because the local kids have built the scene up.

sorry, but that doesn't mean s**t. I mean there may be up to 2 ska shows a week in my area. like s**t we're playing 2 shows next week. but that doesn't mean that the scene is alive here. its pretty dead, hardly anyone at local shows anymore. still tons of people at streetlight though ofcourse. idk. haven't been a ska show in st. pete in a while so next month when theres 2, it should be interesting to see if people come.

http://www.floridaska.com

the picture on there is from 2 years ago. thats when our scene was amazing. but then everything died b/c the venues were being dicks. now the good venue for ska is in tampa and its DIY. amazing place, we host shows there all the time, but its not much.

Oh and btw whoever said the last big national was streetlight and suburban legends. how about the english beat???...and rx bandits. but no one cares about them.  

[Kingshortpants]

Thats what I'm talking about guns, the shows at actual venues have nothing but if you go to a church, ymca, or a lodge the place is sold out and over crowded because we put it on.

Joe if a band is worth seeing they can sell tickets. I know a 3 kid band that hadnt played a show yet and sold 130 tickets and then played such a good show they got to play with the kotton mouth kings. They put out a demo they distributed it and they they made the effort. Thats what being a band and having a scene is all about. if you expect a scene to always be there its not going to happen. When your young you show up and it happens thats fine but then you find out that it was the older people keeping it going eventualy the grow up and it becomes your responcibility to keep your scene alive.  

[AnonymousJoe]

What I'm saying though is that the venues are dicks here and only give to who sell the most which ends up being the high school bands with little experience. And I honestly didnt know the beat and RX bandits did a tour if I had known I would have been there.  

[Guns of Navarone]

Kingshortpants

Thats what I'm talking about guns, the shows at actual venues have nothing but if you go to a church, ymca, or a lodge the place is sold out and over crowded because we put it on.

Joe if a band is worth seeing they can sell tickets. I know a 3 kid band that hadnt played a show yet and sold 130 tickets and then played such a good show they got to play with the kotton mouth kings. They put out a demo they distributed it and they they made the effort. Thats what being a band and having a scene is all about. if you expect a scene to always be there its not going to happen. When your young you show up and it happens thats fine but then you find out that it was the older people keeping it going eventualy the grow up and it becomes your responcibility to keep your scene alive.

well venues aren't the problem. we have an amazing DIY venue run by one of the best people ever. the problem is just people don't show up anymore. local shows have died.  

[Slag10]

AnonymousJoe

And to Slag, I recognize bands are getting older but bands are filling the gaps as well, look at megalith, they have plenty of bands that are filling the gaps, they just signed go jimmy go for example. Not to mention theres still catch 22 who went missing in 2007 practically. I think this is the end of the 3rd wave.

megalith's roster is pretty much all established bands though. you got toasters and bigger thomas, two seriously old us bands plus HCS(inspector 7 2.0) and bomb town. GJG is also a fairly well established band. i was playing their albums 3 years ago on the radio. its not like 98 when if you threw a rock in a crowd you could hit a guy who played in a ska band.

our area used to be a very active scene. Southern Ska was one of largest ska e-zines, and booked tons of shows in the area. it folded in 2005, and the TN scene now has about 2 shows a month total. thats dead no matter how you slice it  

[Guns of Navarone]

Slag10

AnonymousJoe

And to Slag, I recognize bands are getting older but bands are filling the gaps as well, look at megalith, they have plenty of bands that are filling the gaps, they just signed go jimmy go for example. Not to mention theres still catch 22 who went missing in 2007 practically. I think this is the end of the 3rd wave.

megalith's roster is pretty much all established bands though. you got toasters and bigger thomas, two seriously old us bands plus HCS(inspector 7 2.0) and bomb town. GJG is also a fairly well established band. i was playing their albums 3 years ago on the radio. its not like 98 when if you threw a rock in a crowd you could hit a guy who played in a ska band.

our area used to be a very active scene. Southern Ska was one of largest ska e-zines, and booked tons of shows in the area. it folded in 2005, and the TN scene now has about 2 shows a month total. thats dead no matter how you slice it

not if you slice it on the half of the month without shows... then its like a show every week. and thats pretty good.

mhm.  

[Slag10]

your math is silly. scream  

[Guns of Navarone]

Slag10

your math is silly. scream

I like my math =]

I hate other peoples math. ******** calc 3.