How/Why Did You Discover Ska?

[Skibz McCullock]

I'm most curious about the young people on this board...since ska hasn't seen the mainstream for at least a decade, exactly how did you come to discover the genre? Why did you become a fan of it? How have you been getting your source of ska music (not a lot of ska is readily available at Best Buy, ya know)?

And, of course, the pre-internet and pre-Generation Y crowd is free to share their tales, as well. Their stories always seem to be the most interesting.

My tale's not as interesting, so I'll keep it brief: I was never really much into music until about the 9th grade, when I heard the strains of 'The Impression That I Get' in a variety of movies and television shows (rentals and reruns, though...I'm way too young), tracked down the BossToneS, and, through the magic of Amazon.com Recommendations, discovered ska punk. I did my homework (including looking up every single CD on Amazon labeled under 'ska'), and the rest is history.

[ilona]

Well I was a total punk kid throughout my freshman/sophomore year. I started dating this kid who was obsessed with ska during my sophomore year and he dragged me to ska is dead 3. Up until that point I have never even heard the word "ska" and only ska band I knew was Less Than Jake. I didn't even know they were ska though. Lame... I know... But after Ska Is Dead 3 I loved the music more than anything else.

I would pick ska anyday over punk. I guess that ex was good for something? Hahah

[Luigi8922]

Kinda interesting story actually.
During my underclassmen years of high school, I was a huge gamer (actually I still am) but it was during those years I discovered the antics of a gamer/comedy/skit called mega64 (imagine the show Jackass, but with more nerdy references.) Anyway, I loved them so much, that I decided to download the theme song so I could constantly be reminded of their hilarity. I did some digging, and it turned out that the opening theme was actually an unreleased B-side track from The Aquabats called "Sequence Erase". I was intrigued and listened to more of their stuff and loved it. Browsing their site, I eventually came across the word "ska" and initially thought it was some sort of exotic word for "clown" until I googled it.I then proceeded to *ahem* "borrow" some songs from the Internet using only the word "ska" in the search bar. among those songs where Reel Big Fish's "Take on Me", Catch 22's "Dear Sergio", and Goldfinger's "Superman." It all blew my mind away! never could I have fathomed that you could mix rock and reggae and a brass line together and make it sound like so good! Of course all my friends, who just happen to be hardcore metalheads, didn't agree with me so much, but that is when I decided that Ska would be my music of choice in a world filled with considerable less awesome genres of music.

[Klaus Vanderson]

Up until I was about 15 I didn't listen to music much at all, when I did listen to music it was class rock. My brother, who was working for an airline, found a case of cds in the lost and found they set there for a few months without being claimed so he gave them to me. Inside said case was all kinds of great punk music, like over 50 cds in this thing. So I got very much into punk music. A few years later I was listening to Less Than Jake's "Borders and Boundaries", which was in there as well, and which I really liked. I'd heard them referred to as ska, even though there is no ska on that album, and I was interested. One day I went looking around on purevolume for ska bands. I heard Streetlight Manifesto. At the same time my friend and drummer was getting into ska as well. So when Ska is Dead 2 came around we went. I bought Streetlight's album and it's been mainly ska for me ever since.

[JohnnyVegas]

The Bosstones, when I was grade 8 I was really into punk, I had just sort of came across them thinkin' they we're just anther punk band. I didn't find out they were 'ska' for like another two years. After that I started getting into rivalist stuff like Hepcat, Slackers, Stubborn, an all that jazz. That's what I'm into now even though I go back to some of the third wave stuff that got me into it. Catch 22, Mustard Plug, Mephiskapheles, that sorta thing

[Steven Denney Shafer II]

I listened to some on Radio Disney of all things, of course, I thought ska was punk with horns all the way up to 4-5 years ago where a buddy was like "check these bands out" and I got way into it leading up to the obsession I have now.. Kind of a boring story, but it's true.

[Andrew Lyons]

I saw a video for "One Step Beyond" by Madness on MTV in 1982. And I was instantly hooked.

Then in high school, my tastes changed, and I got into Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails.

In 1999, a co-worker of mine let me listen to some Johnny Socko and I was hooked once more.

[Sockhops&Sodapops]

at the very young and fragile age of 11 i fell upon my older brothers Moonshot compilation and i fell in love with it. for about one year straight i would listen to punk bands like Drop Kick Murphy's, Dead Kennedy's and that CD. i later found bands like Reel Big Fish and Catch 22 but more recently i have fallen back i love with those bands from the original compilation like The Toaster and The scofflaws.

and for the record i now absolutely hate Catch 22 and streetlight Manifesto!!

[CurtW]

I was on tour with a Drum and Bugle Corps (DIII 04) when i was 15. We were passing through Texas (2 days of absoluteboredom) to get back home to florida when i became bored with the mainstream alternative music i was listening to over and over again. i asked if anyone had any CD's and some guy lent me his Trojan Ska Box Set. I was hooked by the 1st track , "In the mood for Ska." (which is a cover of the jazz chart "im in the mood for love") .By the time i got to florida i was a Ska fan.

I actually came around to Punk/Oi! music from ska instead of the other way around, weird huh?

[Steven Denney Shafer II]

You and me both, brother.

[redlandsskakid]

i was raised listening to rap, hip-hop, R&B, and soul(which i still listen to) i met this kid in 7th grade(who is now one of my best friends) he told me that my music sucked and that i needed to listen to something better. so he gave me a cassette tape(i know old school) and it had a picture of a girl with a gun in her hand pointing it at some guy. and it said Reel Big Fish. i listened to it all day after school and i have been hooked to ska music ever since.

[Roots]

Saw this yesterday and had to think about it...it was so long ago.

I guess it went like this:

It was 1981 and my friend and I went to Circle City for the first time. It was "Mod Night" - of course back then Mod and Ska was fused into one scene. The DJ spun (yeah vinyl) The Specials, The English Beat, Selecter, Bad Manners and Madness all night. The scene was hot with the place pack to capacity. Young birds dancing everywhere and looking good.

I loved the beat - it went nicely with my Reggae tendancies. Positive mon!

I was hooked and was soon living the lifestyle (Mod/Ska). Became a regular at Circle City, The Concert Factory, Radio City and any other club that were cool to us. Bought a scooter the next year.

Soon after we formed The Concords. There must have been 30-40 of us or so at any one time wreaking havoc on Orange County for about 5 years.

Glad to see there is still a scene. Looking forward to posting here regularly.

IRIE

[Brixton Beat]

So back around 1995/96, I was in highschool, and ska was just setting to blow up here bigtime! KROQ was playing Sublime's Date Rape, the Bosstones were in the movie Clueless, and MTV would be showing Rancid's Timebomb video. Oh, and don't forget No Doubt's Just A Girl and Spiderwebs. Well, at that time every single one of these bands was like something from another planet! No one was playing anything like this in mainstream rock/pop. (Actually, I remember thinking No Doubt was from some other country, not literally my own "backyard".) So yeah, I was obsessed from the get-go. I scoured radio waves and record stores trying to find all the "ska" available. That is, all the ska-punk, ska-core, pop-ska, "3rd wave". At that point, I knew nothing of trad/1st wave, or 2-Tone. However, one of the first ska CDs I actually bought was The Ethiopians "Train to Skaville" (1st wave), 'cause the CD had "ska" in the title, and it was in a 99 cent bargin bin at Walmart. (I initially didn't much care for it.) Soon then, I stumbled upon the Ska Parade radio show on KUCI, which supplied at least a weekly fix of ska, and was pretty much my holy grail.

Anyway, by the end of 1996 I was hangin' with the "rudies", going to the ska shows, and pretty much chin-deep in ska! Eventually, I would learn to appreciate the earlier incarnations of the genre... especially through bands like Hepcat, the Slackers, the Israelites, Desmond Dekker, the Specials, and the Selecter.

Now, over a decade later, the '97 Ska Explosion (as many called it) came and went, but I'm still skankin', and it's good to know ska's still standin'!!