The Pietasters | |
---|---|
![]() The Pietasters performing at the 2007 International Ska Circus | |
Background information | |
Origin | Washington, D.C., United States |
Genres | Ska, rocksteady, soul, punk rock |
Years active | 1990–present |
Labels | Slug Tone! Records, Moon Ska, Epitaph, Hellcat, Fueled by Ramen, Indication Records |
Members | Stephen Jackson Alan Makranczy Jeremy Roberts Carlos Linares Rob Steward Dan Schneider Dave Vermillion Joe Ross |
Website | www.thepietasters.com |
The Pietasters are an American eight-piece ska/soul band from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia.
In 1990, Stephen Jackson and Chris Watt met at Virginia Tech, through mutual friend Tal Bayer, who was attending nearby Radford University, and they formed a ska band called the Slugs with their former schoolmate Tom Goodin, [1] and an architecture classmate, Ben Gauslin. They changed their name to the Dancecrashers for a few months, before taking the name the Pietasters.
The newly formed band convinced the local college booking agency to bring the band Bad Manners from England to perform at the Virginia Tech auditorium, with themselves as the opening act. This was their first public performance, following shows they had staged in the living room of Jackson and Watt's rental house. The two bands later toured the U.S. and Europe together. [2]
In the early 1990s, a similar band from the DC area, the Skunks, asked the Pietasters to play a local ska night at a bar in Georgetown, which was followed by a series of shows at dive bars in DC, Maryland and Virginia. The manager of one of the bars, Nick Nichols, befriended the band and helped them record their first record, The Pietasters , also known as Piestomp. [3]
In the summer of 1993, the Pietasters set out on their first national tour in a used school bus they had bought for $900. By the end of the tour, almost all of the original members quit the band, with only trumpeter Carlos Linares and lead singer Steve Jackson now remaining as original members.
The Pietasters recruited Jeremy Roberts, Toby Hansen, and Alan Makranczy as their new horn players, Rob Steward (Covington) on drums, and Paul Ackerman on keys. Tom Goodin remained on guitar. The new line-up continued to tour, and soon came to the attention of Bucket Hingley, front man of the Toasters and owner of Moon Ska Records, who invited the Pietasters to join a tour package called "Skavoovie 94" with the Toasters and the Scofflaws. [4] [5] They also performed with artists including No Doubt, the Dance Hall Crashers, Hepcat, Let's Go Bowling, and the Skatalites. By the end of the tour, the Pietasters began recording Oolooloo on Moon Ska with Victor Rice producing.
Oolooloo came out in the summer of 1995, after which bassist Chris Watt left the Pietasters to perform with Eastern Standard Time, [6] and Todd Eckhart moved from rhythm guitar to bass.
In 1995, the lead singer of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Dicky Barrett, approached the band at a show in Providence, Rhode Island, while they were considering breaking up, and offered to take them on the road over the next few years. [7]
As the Pietasters continued to tour, they recorded Strapped Live! between stops in the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the Black Cat in Washington, DC., which was released in 1996. [8] Throughout this period, the Pietasters had been recording new songs and covers, and re-recording older tracks. The results ended up as a new/compilation album, Comply.
Meanwhile, the band filmed their first video in 1996, a live video filmed at the Scooter Rally and F'n Rock Party they produced at an old outdoor soul venue called Wilmer's Alley in Brandywine, Maryland. The video was filmed by Burning Toast Productions and featured scenes of the festival and live performance of the Pietasters playing their Jimmy Holiday cover, "The New Breed".
While backstage at a show in Los Angeles during a tour with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Tim Armstrong, guitarist with Rancid, and his business partner, Chris Qualiana, [9] approached the band and asked if they would join a new label they were creating, Hellcat Records, also featuring the Slackers, Hepcat and Dropkick Murphys. [10] [11] [12] [13]
After clearing the move with Moon Ska, the Pietasters signed with Hellcat, a subsidiary of Epitaph Records, and their next album, Willis was recorded and released in 1997, produced by Brett Gurewitz, owner of Epitaph Records and guitarist for Bad Religion. [14] The band recorded their second video, "Stone Feeling", to support this album, another live video with the assistance of Burning Toast Productions, filmed at a venue in Washington, D.C., and another video for "Out All Night", also filmed in Washington, D.C., and directed by Grady Cooper. [15] [16] They toured the U.S., followed by their first European tour, as well as making appearances on the Warped Tour and opening or headlining for the Reverend Horton Heat, the Ramones, the Cherry Poppin Daddies, Bad Brains, Ozomatli, the Bouncing Souls, Dropkick Murphy's, Murphy's Law, Fugazi, They Might Be Giants, H2O, the Skatalites and Flogging Molly.
Their song "Out All Night" was featured in the videogames Street Sk8er for the PlayStation, and NCAA Football 06 .
In 1999, the Pietasters went back to the studio to record Awesome Mix Tape No. 6 for Epitaph's Hellcat Records, again recorded and produced by Brett Gurewitz, with portions of the album recorded at Tim Armstrong's house. [17] The album was named after the mix-tape from Boogie Nights . [18] The Pietasters recorded another video, "Yesterday's Over", to support the album. They finished the album and toured Europe with the Warped Tour, then the US again with the Pilfers and Spring Heeled Jack, ending 1999 with a period opening for Joe Strummer. Paul Ackerman and Tom Goodin left the band, as did bassist Todd Eckhardt, who was replaced by Jorge Pezzimenti. Erick Morgan, formerly of the Skunks, took over keys, and Toby Hansen replaced Tom Goodin on guitar. [19] [20] [21] [22]
In late 2001, the Pietasters were recording their next album when they learned that former bassist, Todd Eckhardt, had died of a viral heart infection. The Bouncing Souls included "Todd's Song" on their album Anchor's Away in his memory. The Pietasters released a new album in 2002 entitled Turbo , Eckhardt's nickname. [14] The album caught the attention of James Brown, who asked the Pietasters to be his backing band at a sold-out concert in Washington DC in December 2002. [23]
In 2003, the Pietasters released their live DVD, Live at the 9:30 Club .
In 2006, the Pietasters played the International Ska Circus in Las Vegas.
On August 21, 2007, the Pietasters released a new studio album entitled All Day .
In 2010, the Pietasters performed at the 9:30 Club's 30th anniversary in Washington, D.C., and were introduced by Henry Rollins.
In November 2011, Connecticut's Asbestos Records and Chicago's Underground Communiqué Records launched a fundraiser on Kickstarter to release Oolooloo on vinyl, among other third-wave ska classics from Pilfers, Edna's Goldfish, and Suburban Legends. [24]
On April 20, 2020, the band announced that former keyboard player Erick Morgan had died on April 18 of pneumonia. [25]
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.
Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in Berkeley, California in 1991. Founded by Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman, former members of the band Operation Ivy, Rancid is often credited as being among the wave of bands that revived mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States during the mid-1990s. Over its 33-year career, Rancid has retained much of its original fan-base, most of which was connected to its underground musical roots.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer ("Bosstone") Ben Carr remained constant members. The band's final line-up also included drummer Joe Sirois, saxophonist Leon Silva, guitarist Lawrence Katz, keyboardist John Goetchius, and trombonist Chris Rhodes.
Operation Ivy was an American punk rock band from Berkeley, California, formed in May 1987. They were critical to the emergence of Lookout Records and the so-called "East Bay Sound."
Hepcat is a ska and reggae band formed in southern California in 1989. Their soulful harmonies and mellow rhythms were unlike those of contemporaries and more akin to musicians from the heyday of 1960s Jamaican ska with elements of soul, jazz and R&B.
Voodoo Glow Skulls are an American ska punk band formed in 1988 in Riverside, California, by brothers Frank, Eddie, and Jorge Casillas and their longtime friend Jerry O'Neill. Voodoo Glow Skulls first played at backyard parties and later at Spanky's Café in their hometown of Riverside, where they played shows with the Angry Samoans, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Firehose, Murphy's Law, and The Dickies.
Bim Skala Bim is a ska band formed in Boston that was influenced by the bands in England's two-tone movement as well as artists such as the Clash, UB40 and Bob Marley. Their "Boston Blue Beat" sound, a mix of upbeat two-tone ska, rock 'n' roll, and calypso with a substantial reggae undertone, made them, along with The Toasters, some of the first bands kickstarting the third wave of ska in the 1980s. Other bands quickly followed their example, resulting in a lively scene in Boston and much of the United States.
Pilfers are an American ska band formed in 1997, when former Toasters vocalist, Coolie Ranx, at the urging of Pietaster's vocalist Steve Jackson, joined with former Bim Skala Bim trombonist, Vinny Nobile. To complete the lineup, they recruited the Skinnerbox rhythm section of Anna Milat-Meyer on bass and James Blanck on drums, as well as guitar player, Nick Bacon of The Erratics.
Spring Heeled Jack is a third wave ska band based out of New Haven, Connecticut. The band was formed by guitarist/vocalist Ron Ragona and drummer Dave Karcich in 1991. After a short breakup, Ragona and Karcich reformed the band with a new lineup. This lineup went on to record two albums before announcing a hiatus in 2000. While the band members moved on to perform in several new bands, their intention was to play the occasional reunion show. This plan would never come to fruition as a cerebral aneurysm would be cause for Karcich's death in 2002. In 2015, several band members returned to reform the band full-time. A third studio album, Sound Salvation, followed in 2017.
Joe Gittleman is an American musician, best known as the bass guitar player for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. His proficiency on bass earned him the nickname "the Bass Fiddleman."
Turbo is the fifth album by the ska/soul band The Pietasters. It was released in 2002.
Willis is an album by the ska/soul band the Pietasters, released in 1997. It was released during the mid- to late-1990s ska explosion, and reached No. 44 on the Heatseekers chart.
Oolooloo is the second album by the ska/soul band the Pietasters, released in 1995.
SGR was an American ska-core band from Voorhees, New Jersey, United States, that formed as a five piece act in 1996, during the United States third wave ska boom. The band's catalog spans four albums, a live recording, and a handful of compilation appearances. The band's last live show took place in June 2007.
Strapped Live! is a live album by the ska/soul band The Pietasters, recorded at two shows in 1995 and released in 1996.
Aimee Allen is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. She is currently the lead vocalist for the ska-punk band the Interrupters under the moniker Aimee Interrupter. As a singer-songwriter, she has collaborated with Mark Ronson, Sublime with Rome, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Linda Perry, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Jimmy Cliff, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Travis Barker, Dirty Heads, and Tom Morello.
The discography of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, an American ska punk band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts, consists of eleven studio albums, ten EPs and twenty two singles, among other recordings.
Victims of Circumstance is an American punk-ska band, known for blending pop-hooks with a unique style of ska. Founded in 2005 in Clearwater, Florida, United States, the current line-up includes band members Michael Smyth, Glenn Stewart (drums), Lindsey Pittard (bass), Jason Atheney (saxophone), and Devin Johnson (trumpet).
The Interrupters are an American ska punk band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2011. The band comprises lead vocalist Aimee Interrupter, drummer Jesse Bivona, bassist Justin Bivona, and guitarist Kevin Bivona. They have released four studio albums. The latest, In the Wild, was released in 2022, along with the album's lead single, "Raised by Wolves".
When God Was Great is the eleventh and final studio album by the Boston ska punk band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. It was released in 2021 on Hellcat, the band's only album with the label. The album was co-produced by Hellcat founder and Rancid member Tim Armstrong. The album was preceded by the singles and music videos for "The Final Parade", "I Don't Believe in Anything" and "The Killing of Georgie ".