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.
Two-tone or 2 tone, also known as ska-rock and ska revival, is a genre of British popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s that fused traditional Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae music with elements of punk rock and new wave music. Its name derives from 2 Tone Records, a record label founded in 1979 by Jerry Dammers of the Specials, and references a desire to transcend and defuse racial tensions in Thatcher-era Britain: many two-tone groups, such as the Specials, the Selecter and the Beat, featured a mix of black, white, and multiracial people.
Goldfinger is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1994. In their early years, the band was considered a contributor to the movement of third-wave ska, a mid-1990s revitalization in the popularity of ska, evidenced in their first three albums: Goldfinger (1996), Hang-Ups (1997) and Stomping Ground (2000). However, the releases of Open Your Eyes (2002) and Disconnection Notice (2005) saw the band shed most of the ska influence, and they have been more commonly placed in the punk rock genre in later years. They have since released three more albums: Hello Destiny... (2008), The Knife (2017) and Never Look Back (2020). The band is also noted for their support for animal rights.
Ska punk is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid-1990s.
GrimSkunk is a rock band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with punk, rock, progressive and world music influences. Its style is self-described as "world punk" It is regarded as being part of the foundation of the Quebec alternative scene, having influenced many young musicians and bands.
Mojo Records was a California-based record label founded in 1995 by producer Jay Rifkin. It became a joint venture with Universal Records in 1996 and then sold to the Zomba Group in 2001, who placed it under their subsidiary Jive Records. The label has been largely inactive since Zomba was purchased and restructured under BMG in 2003, save for a few reissues of older material. The final releases from the label were Reel Big Fish's We're Not Happy 'til You're Not Happy and Goldfinger's The Best of Goldfinger in early 2005.
Big D and the Kids Table is a ska punk band formed in October 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts, when its members converged in college. Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and SideOneDummy. The band has been noted for its strict DIY work ethic, such as engineering, producing, and releasing their own albums and videos and self-promotion of their own shows.
The Planet Smashers are a Canadian ska punk band from Montreal. Since their formation in 1993, they have been a staple of the Montreal music scene. During the third wave of ska, they performed nationally and later internationally, with tours in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Founding member Matt Collyer helped establish Stomp Records in 1994, which featured many ska and ska punk bands, including Montreal's The Kingpins, The Flatliners, The Know How, and Bedouin Soundclash. Their music has been used in the Japanese flash series Catman, Canadian show Radio Free Roscoe, and MTV's Undergrads. Lyrics by The Planet Smashers often deal with topics such as love, partying and good times, and sometimes use tongue-in-cheek innuendo.
Bedouin Soundclash is a Canadian band based in Toronto and consisting of vocalist and guitarist Jay Malinowski, bass player Eon Sinclair, and various session musicians. Their sound has been described as a combination of reggae and ska. Bedouin Soundclash was formed in 2001 and has released six studio albums, most recently in 2022.
Mighty is an album by the Planet Smashers. It was the first of five albums featuring drummer Scott Russell, and it is the only Planet Smashers album featuring trombonist J.O. Begin.
The Creepshow is a Canadian rock band from Burlington, Ontario. The band formed in 2005 when the four original members got together with the purpose of starting a psychobilly band. The Creepshow writes the majority of their songs about horror films.
Squad Five-O is an American punk rock band from Savannah, Georgia no longer formally touring or recording, but rather only performing occasional weekend concerts. Like their initial ska-punk stylings, their name was derived from a cross between the television shows Hawaii Five-O and The Mod Squad. Between 1997 and 2006 the band grew lyrically and in popularity, and also shifted its style significantly. Over the course of their career they moved from a small indie Christian label to the major label Capitol Records and released five albums in the process.
The Know How is a third wave ska band from Gainesville, Florida, formed in 1998. Their musical style blends ska and pop punk and prominently features a Moog synthesizer, alongside more typical ska instrumentation.
The Kingpins featuring Lorraine Muller - The Queen of Ska was a ska band from Montreal, Quebec that created Stomp Records label with fellow Montreal Ska band The Planet Smashers. The last Kingpins tour took place in 2004, after which the members of the band reformed under the name Lo and the Magnetics founded by Muller in order to reflect the drastic line-up changes that had taken place since the band's inception in 1994. During their ten-year reign, the band toured extensively in Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and Japan. They are known for their danceable ska rhythms, and their catchy song-writing abilities in both English and French.
The Flatliners are a Canadian punk rock band from Richmond Hill, Ontario. Since their formation in 2002, the band has been a growing influence in the Toronto punk/ska movement, with consistently well-received albums and live shows.
The Johnstones was a ska punk band from Ajax, Ontario, Canada formed in 2002 and signed to the Union Label Group. In 2006, they signed to Stomp Records of Montreal, released the full-length album Word is Bond and began touring Canada and the U.S.
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 were 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.
The first punk rock bands in Canada emerged during the late 1970s, in the wake of the US bands Ramones, The New York Dolls, and Blondie, and the UK band Sex Pistols. The Viletones, the Diodes and the Demics were among the pioneers, together with the Skulls from Vancouver, and Hamilton's Teenage Head, whose records and live shows earned them the nickname "Canada's Ramones". Vibrant local punk scenes sprung up in Toronto and Vancouver and other Canadian cities.
The Frenetics were a Canadian Punk rock band formed in 1999 in Montreal, Quebec.
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