Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the off beat. It was developed in Jamaica in the 1960s when Stranger Cole, Prince Buster, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, and Duke Reid formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. In the early 1960s, ska was the dominant music genre of Jamaica and was popular with British mods and with many skinheads.
Reel Big Fish is an American ska punk band from Orange County, California. The band gained mainstream recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s, during the third wave of ska with the release of the gold certified album Turn the Radio Off. Soon after, the band lost mainstream recognition but gained an underground cult following. As of 2006, the band was no longer signed to a major record label and has since been independent. After numerous line-up changes, frontman Aaron Barrett is the last remaining founding member still performing in the band.
Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida, formed in 1992. The band consists of Chris DeMakes, Roger Lima, Matt Yonker (drums), Buddy Schaub (trombone), and Peter "JR" Wasilewski (saxophone).
The Beat are a band founded in Birmingham, England, in 1978. Their music fuses Latin, ska, pop, soul, reggae and punk rock.
The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music.
Rx Bandits are an American four-piece band based in Seal Beach, California, United States. The band formed in 1995 in Orange County, California. They have appeared on the Vans Warped Tour, at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and at The Bamboozle.
The Aquabats are an American rock band formed in Huntington Beach, California in 1994. Throughout many fluctuations in the group's line-up, singer The MC Bat Commander and bassist Crash McLarson have remained the band's two constant fixtures. Since 2006, The Aquabats' members also include keyboardist Jimmy the Robot, drummer Ricky Fitness and guitarist Eaglebones Falconhawk.
Operation Ivy was an American punk rock band from Berkeley, California, United States, formed in May 1987. The band was stylistically important as one of the first bands to mix the elements of hardcore punk and ska into a new amalgam called ska punk and was critical to the emergence of Lookout Records and the so-called "East Bay Sound."
Skankin' Pickle was an American ska punk band formed in San Jose, California that was active from 1989 to 1997.
The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are an American swing and ska band established in Eugene, Oregon, in 1989. Formed by singer-songwriter Steve Perry and bassist Dan Schmid, the band has experienced numerous personnel changes over the course of its thirty-year history, with only Perry, Schmid and trumpeter Dana Heitman currently remaining from the original founding line-up.
The Lawrence Arms are an American punk rock band from Chicago, formed in 1999. They have released seven full-length albums and toured extensively.
Mike Park is a Korean American musician and progressive activist. His musical ventures include Skankin' Pickle for whom he both played the saxophone and sang, The Chinkees, The Bruce Lee Band, and Ogikubo Station, as well as an acoustic solo project under his own name. After his time with Skankin' Pickle he went on to found Asian Man Records, a label which he has run out of his garage in California since 1996 with only help from his parents and friends. Asian Man Records supports mostly ska and punk bands. Park will support any band as long as it is "anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-prejudice". Park has used Asian Man Records to release his own music, in addition to providing a start for smaller bands to allow them to grow, including Less Than Jake, Alkaline Trio, and The Lawrence Arms. In 1999 he formed the Plea for Peace Foundation an organization whose aim is "to promote the ideas of peace through the power of music", something which Park has been trying to do with his own bands and with the help of other groups.
Link 80 was an American punk rock/ska punk band from San Francisco's East Bay, United States.
Victor "Vic" Ruggiero, is a musician, songwriter and producer from New York City who has played in reggae, blues, ska and rocksteady bands since the early 1990s, including The Slackers, Stubborn All-Stars, SKAndalous All Stars, Crazy Baldhead and The Silencers. He has also performed with punk rock band Rancid, both live and in the studio. He has released four solo acoustic albums and continues to tour and record worldwide. Ruggiero is known primarily as a singer and organist, although he also plays piano, bass, banjo, cigar box guitar, guitar, harmonica and percussion.
Present Day Memories is an EP by the Chicago, Illinois punk rock band The Lawrence Arms and the San Francisco, California ska punk band The Chinkees, released in 2001 by Asian Man Records. It is considered a "split" CD in that each band contributes several songs. It is now out of print, however all of the Lawrence Arms tracks have been reissued on their B-sides album Cocktails & Dreams. This is the release that got Fat Mike interested in signing The Lawrence Arms to his label, Fat Wreck Chords.
Tuesday was a punk and emo band formed by three ex-members of Chicago ska punk band Slapstick after the latter's breakup in 1996. The band's initial line-up consisted of Dan Andriano (bass/vocals), Matt Stamps (guitar), and Rob Kellenberger (drums/vocals). They released a demo on 1133 in 1996, before releasing an EP, titled Early Summer, on Asian Man Records in 1997. Later that same year, they released their first and only album, Freewheelin. While recording this album in California, the members of Tuesday also served as the backing band for Mike Park for the first album by The Chinkees, The Chinkees Are Coming. Also during this time, Rob and Matt were in college, and Dan found himself with extra free time. He started playing with other bands on the side including an instrumental band called Dulcet Tone, and eventually Alkaline Trio, after their original bass player Rob Doran departed. In early 1998, Tyler Wiseman from Dulcet Tone joined as a second guitarist for Tuesday to help expand the band's sound and tour in support of Freewheelin. They toured the U.S. in spring and the summer of 1998. They continued to write songs throughout this period intended for a follow-up album. With other members of the band devoting more time to family and college, and Dan enjoying success with the Alkaline Trio, Tuesday faded away as an active band sometime in 1999.
Slapstick is an American punk-ska fusion band from the Chicago area that was primarily active from 1993 to 1996. Started by a group of friends from the Elgin area, the group took inspiration from Operation Ivy and the guttural punk vocals of Crimpshrine. Though they had made the decision to break up a couple of weeks beforehand, their original final show was October 5, 1996 at the Metro with Less Than Jake and Skankin' Pickle. Since disbanding, Slapstick has periodically reunited to perform shows for various reasons, including benefits and anniversaries. The band is known for being the root of the "Slapstick Family Tree", a group of musical projects which spawned from members of Slapstick, including Alkaline Trio, The Lawrence Arms, The Broadways, Tuesday, Duvall, Colossal, The Honor System and The Falcon.
The Bruce Lee Band is the name given to the releases of Mike Park and his backing band which up until 2005 included members of Less Than Jake and the Rx Bandits. As of 2014, the collective consisted of touring and recording members from Skankin' Pickle, MU330, Hard Girls, The Chinkees, Bomb the Music Industry, The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, among others.
The Chinkees are an American ska punk band fronted by Mike Park. The group debuted with 1998's The Chinkees Are Coming!, and followed with 1999's Peace Through Music and 2002's Searching for a Brighter Future before a greatest hits album was released in 2003. According to the liner notes for the band's debut album The Chinkees Are Coming!, the music was recorded by members of the band Tuesday with vocals provided by Mike Park. Subsequent albums were recorded all or in part by members Park, Miya Osaki, Greg Alesandro, Jason Thinh, and Steve Choi, as well as "guest" musicians, including Slapstick and Tuesday drummer Rob Kellenberger and Link 80's Steve Borth, often with members trading and playing different instruments than listed. All of the members were involved with the ska/punk scene. Jason Thinh was from the band Short Round, Miya was a member of the Santa Cruz punk trio The Muggs, Greg Alesandro a member of San Jose band Statue Man, and Steve Choi later becoming a keyboardist and guitarist for Rx Bandits in 1999.
Subb was a Canadian ska punk band formed in November 1992 in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Since their beginning in the early 1990s, the band released four full-length albums, one EP and one split CD on the labels Stomp Records and Underworld Records. Though they experienced several lineup changes over the years, founding members Mart Charron and Stef Gauthier remained in the group. The band's musical style initially blended elements of punk rock, ska, and hardcore into a genre popularly known as ska punk or "ska-core," which characterized their first two albums. In 2002 they shifted gears, moving away from this sound and producing an album with a heavy pop punk influence. After a brief hiatus in 2003, the band moved back towards their ska, punk and hardcore elements.
