The first record from the Boston natives “Devil’s Night Out” was a sort of party album that melted ska and punk with a deeper vocal than most had heard at the time. This one had the most emphasis on the ska genre than their latter records, but they band shifted through many points on this record, so it’s hard to pigeon hole them into just one category.
Most notably, “Devil’s Night Out” would brand the term “ska-core” as a synonymous word with The Bosstones.
For the Japanese fans, they got two extra tracks that were previously released on the “Where’d You Go EP”. The tracks were “Enter Sandman” (Metallica cover) and “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love”.
The record was quite good, and had the original, full line up of players from the Boston ska band. The record came out on in 1990, at the tail end of the two-tone era of ska, and before the mid-late 90’s ska explosion on radio when grunge died. Originally released through TAANG! Records, this album didn’t really shake things up for the band, but it managed to introduce punk/ska underground to a new style of ska that wasn’t necessarily being pushed by other bands at the time.
The 1990’s brought out of the woodworks all sorts of ska bands. The third wave ska movement has since died off, with only the top bands still playing today. Most of them stopped playing traditional rock steady and ska, but still manage to have a following, including The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, and No Doubt, just to name a few. However, for the purists of ska music from the Jamaican tradition, there wasn’t much to be had in the third wave, but out came Hepcat and their third record continued their traditional of replicating and enhancing traditional ska motif’s. The fourth album from Hepcat was called “Push ‘N Shove” and was recorded in their hometown of Los Angeles and was released in the summer of 2000.
The music on their fourth record was somewhat derivative and was more steady and reggae, which was not the norm at the time. In fact, few people even called the release ska, and by the end of 1999, no one was listening to ska, at least not in mainstream pop culture music circles. With ska going out of fashion, and only diehard fans still talking the rude boy swagger, Hepcat’s material wasn’t as well received as their third record was.
This record had a classic remake of a Brenton Wood classic “Gimme A Little Sign”, and many original songs that got two-tone fans tapping away, and new school punk fans ignoring the wager of the Los Angeles ska revivalists. Despite the innovation and rave reviews that ska enthusiasts poured on “Push ‘N Shove” the band lost it’s buzz and decided to pursue other things. The new millennium wasn’t too favorable to ska music in general, that’s for sure.
The third record from Hepcat titled “Right on Time” was released in 1998 by Epitaph records and offered an amazing piece to the third wave ska pie. It was released at the peak of ska’s popularity in the 90’s, and found a lot more appeal than their preview two records. Regardless of the timing, it would have garnered some major head turns, as it was in fact the best of Hepcat’s offerings up to that date.
Once again, Hepcat avoided being pigeon holed as another 90’s ska group by closely resembling early ska, opposed to screaming, yelling, and trying to follow up punk rocks most popular acts at the time. One must remember that the late 90’s brought forth Greenday, Rancid, Offspring, and many more pop-punk and pop-ska bands.
While Hepcat’s other records featured a mixture of sounds and styles, this record is consistent throughout, sprinkling in what made them famous on two other records, while maintaining a good sensibility and tones. It’s definitely well recorded, and quite charming through all 13 tracks.
After hitting the ground with “Out of Nowhere”, two years later, Hepcat released “Scientific” with BYO records and it became a psuedo-hit for the ska music revivalists. The band could’ve been huge with this record, since it was the sophomore record, and they were based in Los Angeles, not too far away from touring acts and a large southern California ska music scene, but instead this took the needle off of most dub records. They did something that most bands don’t do with their second record; they didn’t conform to the pattern that would’ve made them mega-stars for a moment in time. They instead turned around and bucked the trends, offering one of the best 60’s inspired ska-jazz records of the modern era of ska music. While they had an upbeat sound, this horn heavy disc was not at all like other bands at the time. While it still has that classic, southern California ska formula, it is nothing like the cookie cutter records that were getting played on rock radio alongside other modern rock bands of the mid 90’s, while people were searching for the next big thing.
Hepcat’s Scientific, features some great jazz bass lines, long horn solos, and vocals that were not running a mile a minute, but rather offering a soul searching passion and prowess. You’d swear that this was a Studio One record not a mid 90’s third wave ska offering. It’s not always ska, but it sure stays close by, and the band sprinkles in rocksteady, reggae, dub, and a slowed down swagger that is only found in Jamaican classic ska. The disc even offers one of the most intriguing instrumentals found on a ska record, and would fit comfortably with any Skatalites record of yesteryear.
If you recall the old show “Punkorama” from Epitaph records, you might recall a video from The Pietasters for the track “Yesterday’s Over”. It was a comedic video that really pushed the seven piece East Coast Ska unit to sell over 70,000 copies of their record. Awesome Mix Tape #6 by The Pietasters came out on Hellcat Records around 1999 and it was an instant classic for most ska fans. To put things into perspective, you have to remember that there was a small ska boom in the late 90’s. This record came out around the same time Reel Big Fish got onto mtv, Less Than Jake was headlining big ska shows, The Supertones, Five Iron Frenzy, The Hippos, The Toasters, The Israelites, Hepcat, and so many more bands were enjoying near mainstream success like it was 1985 all over again. This fourth wave of ska was definitely a flash in the pan, but it left a lasting impression on everyone who heard the records.
The Pietasters toured through 1999 for Awesome Mix Tape #6 in the UK on the mega Warped tour, and eventually toured with the likes of Pilfers and Spring Heeled Jack, and even a great run with Clash famed member, Joe Strummer.
The first single from Awesome Mix Tape #6 was an instant sing along classic for me, and the video was hilarious. It showcased how sexy ska could be, as well as poking fun of culture and stereotypes. Below is the official video that used to run on Punkorama tv from The Pietasters Awesome Mix Tape #6:
The video got me interested into this band, and it definitely pushed that record to good sales overall. I would highly recommend this record, as it has sing a long songs full of ska, but moreover it has a sense of adult topics and interesting songs that are not always seen in ska music. I wouldn’t call it ska-core like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but I definitely would liken it to some B-side Rancid Reggae songs.
The Pietasters are still around today and are still touring every now and again. They aren’t as popular as they were 1999, but they are still kicking, and like many other ska bands today, hit the road every now and again for headlining tours around the nation. Keep your eyes open, and pick up this great record.
I was 13 years old when The Bosstones hit the ground running with their blend of ska and punk. Moreover they brought with them a “core” genre that made their sound heavier than traditional ska movements, and that’s solely on the shoulders of their singer, Dicky Barrett. I know, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones didn’t first show up to the scene in 1997, they had been around for years and put out some solid records before they hit the mainstream success of “Let’s Face It” which is roughly 30 minutes of the best third wave ska you’re going to hear, to this day.
To properly put this record into proper perspective you have to remember that MTV was heavily pushing punk and ska. Not only that, this style of music was getting major notice from labels that had recently signed the likes of Reel Big Fish, Sublime, The Hippos, Save Ferris, Less Than Jake, Let’s Go Bowling, and many others, rescuing the genre from relative obscurity and heavy weight crossover acts like No Doubt. Meanwhile, Christian ska was once again showcasing another arm of third wave and fourth wave ska with bands like The Orange County Supertones and Five Iron Frenzy enjoying crossover success into a secular world that would later pen them out of the history books. However, true ska fans will recognize their contributions to the modern wave of ska in the late 90’s as more than a flash in the pan of religiously toned music.
Outside of the realms of ska music, the genre was enjoying some great buzz from Transworld, Slap, and Thrasher Magazine. The video that they were putting out, mainly of underground and street skateboarding, featured bands on the Epitaph, Hell Cat, and Fat Wreck Chords label. But it wasn’t until Big Brother magazine gave away copies of Buck O Nine’s demo tape with purchase of every magazine that skateboarding and ska got into bed together. It was ska music that drove a lot of mix tapes and skate videos of the late 90’s, generating interest from a hardcore skateboarding culture that was strictly divided into punk, hip hop, or metal music fandom. With more interest in ska coming from the action sports world, it was no surprise that Vans got into the mix too.
While Vans skateboard shoes weren’t exactly playing to the ska crowd, the ska world would rock the checkered vans like no other musical genre. The sales of Vans checkered print vans and the classic two tone Rude Boys were a welcome part of the success, even if mainly indirectly to the third wave of ska that made this record so important.
That’s where I found them. In the ska section that record stores were now putting money into, if only for a while, I picked up Let’s Face It and enjoy it to this day. The record features more distortion on their guitars through choruses that were radio friendly and full of life. It wasn’t until MTV played the now classic video for “The Impression That I Get” that the band enjoyed mainstream success. While some might argue that The Bosstones were already enjoying a nice ride with the success of The Clueless soundtrack, most of the fans that got behind the Bosstones in the late 90’s (mainly fairweather ska fans and posers) didn’t hear the band until the single was released and created major buzz around the band and their genre fellows.
The band enjoyed the success as “The Impression That I Get” hit #1 on the Billboard Charts, which also led to “Royal Oil” charting at #22, and “The Rascal King” hitting #7 on the charts. The album didn’t hit #1 on the charts but at #23 and remains the only record from Boston’s biggest ska band to crack the top 50. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones released several records after “Let’s Face It” before going on hiatus, and recently coming back for a west coast tour.
Here is the #1 Single from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “The Impression That I Get”:
Less Than Jake toured off of their third studio release like crazy, and four years later they found themselves in an interesting position. They had left Capitol Records and were sitting around with new music. That’s when Fat Mike (Fat Wreck Chords) decided to get the boys in Less Than Jake on a one record deal and go for a new release. The new release would find the band toned down and a little less “punk” in terms of speed and more focused on melody. That’s not to say the record isn’t good, it just had a noticeable audible tone and range lower than the previous records had found them. Borders and Boundaries hit the ground running in October 2000 and they toured consistently for it.
The cover art for “Borders and Boundaries” features a map of the area around their home city of Gainesville, Florida, while the booklet “cover” art features a photograph of trombonist Pete Anna saluting the Statue of Liberty. Included on some copies is a spinning wheel which tells you the distance between Gainesville and eight places around the world; Sydney, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Tokyo, London, Paramus, NJ, and Ljubljana, Slovenia.
This was the last studio record that featured Derron Nuhfer on Saxophone and Pete Anna on Trombone.
The band put the record out and it seemed to do well, getting to top 200 chart at number #103. While the record seemed like a step backward sonically, it still managed to make some great songs, and while it produced only one single, it was quite the single; “Gainesville Rock City” an homage to their home town really made waves. The video received major play on MTV2 (which now only plays reruns of viva la bam), helping the band get some mainstream coverage.
Here’s the video for the track “Gainsville Rock City” :
The band produced some of my personal favorite tracks, from the opening through. While some are misses, most of them are solid and the record can be heard through without skipping, and it seems complete. Standout tracks for me are definitely “Magnetic North”, “Bad Scene and a Basement Show”, “Gainesville Rock City”, and my definitive favorite, “Hell Looks A Lot Like L.A.”.
The interesting thing about this record is not so much the independent sound, the fact that in 2002, the album was re-released in the UK with more tracks. The original album has 15 tracks, but the import/export version has 22 tracks with most of them being live tracks. If you haven’t heard Less Than Jake’s Borders and Boundaries, you’re missing out.
By the time Less Than Jake hit their stride with this third record, they were already a household name. They had hit the road with so many different bands that they were veterans of the scene. Their brand of ska core won over fans across the nation, and by the time they hit the studio, they already had a ton of ideas to build upon. While their first two records were quite good, this one was the first album recorded for a major label.
Titled “Losing Streak” and produced by Howard Benson, the album would go forward to represent the bands endless array of pop hooks with punk ska prowess. Capitol Records would get a lot of good stuff out Less Than Jake, including some hits from the punksters that were featured in many different video games, soundtracks and so much more.
The most notable of tracks, for new comers, definitely had to be “Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore” and “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts” both songs were hits from the “Pezcore” album. However, they had some major originals to go along with those, including standout tracks like: “Automatic”, “Sugar in Your Gas Tank”, “Dopeman”, “How’s My Driving, Doug Hastings”, and one of my personal favorites, “Shindo”.
The song “Shindo” sticks out huge for me, considering that it was one of the songs that I related to heavily on a lyrical level:
Something’s out there
and it takes me away
from a world too small to stay
something’s out there
And with that anthem, I moved away from Los Angeles, California and enjoy a life in another town…a boring town, but a town none the less.
The band made a music video for the track “Dopeman” but of course it was controversial and it didn’t really help get them into the mtv world. The video is below:
Less Than Jake’s “Losing Streak” is a cool record and an essential ska record that pushed the limits of the band and the genre alike. It catapulted the band into the mainstream, and led the way for many other ska bands to take a piece of the overall ska pie of the late 90’s. The album was releasd in 1996 and has since been one of ska’s perennial favorites amongst the fourth wave of skacore bands.
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