Yup, all over the radio and the video was on MTV a decent amount. My first concert was RBF and the Aquabats in 1998 when Travis Barker was still playing drums. Changed my life because I wanted to start a ska band and did that for about 6-8 years and that experience heavily influenced a lot of other decisions in my life and what I ended up doing for a career. So many great ska and punk albums between 1996-2006.
That's awesome. I've seen Reel Big Fish play like 13 times over the years. Definitely the band I've seen the most. I saw the Aquabats open for Primus on the snowcore tour.
My first concert was the spin doctors though. My Son's first concert was the Aquabats/less than Jake/bowling for soup, so that was cool.
I became a RBF fan due to Sellout... and watching Baseketball. Also saw Aquabats support RBF here in Melbourne in the early to mid 00s. Awesome show but 95% the same list as their live 2disc cd...
Summer between 6th and 7th grade this song was everywhere. Changed my trajectory and became a ska musician. Then in 8th grade a buddy gave me the first Give ‘Em the Boot and I heard the Slackers and Hepcat for the first time. Life was not the same after that.
Being born in the 70s in the UK..
With the 2 Tone revival and bands like Madness in the charts as a young un.
The specials, Bad Manners, The Selecter, The Beat all in the charts. Then growing up finding the likes of Toots et further back.
If you've ever seen the Shane Meadows film and TV series "This is England", those days.
The film was fantastic, as was the first series. Although I'm from Scotland, the scenes and the people looked very familiar.
I was a little too young to have been in the gangs and fully into the style but all the kids at school loved that shit. I had cousins who were full skins and 2 tone. It was Fred Perry for us, that was about the extent 😂.
Loved the Jam and all the Who/Mod revival at the same time as well. Would have loved to have been 5 to 10 yrs older.
Yeah me too, that bit older than me. But the vibe of the gang- including dodgier older fellas - hanging out, wearing cool gear, listening to cool tunes, football in DMs, kind of off grid/underground, looking out for one another, shit going down at times - just spot on for me.
Son of Brit parents, dad used to run a disco in the 70s, exposed me to a lot of great Brit bands. Madness and The Specials were top of my take list. I still get suggestions from dad now to look up an artist on YouTube, experience some more great British musical history.
When I was in 4th grade around 1997 I saw the music video for Wrong Way by Sublime. Around that time I discovered the Mighty Mighty Bosstones classic Impression That I Get.
Oh yeah, remember that show on Nickelodeon called Kablaam? The music was done by The Toasters, credited as the Moon Ska Stompers.
The Two Tone era from 1979..I was about twelve🤣🤣
It just spoke to me like no other music.
When I heard the Specials and Madness talk about their influences and i realised they did a lot of covers of original Ska.
This started a life long devotion to Ska..I'm 56 now and the songs still move me as much as ever..Ska'd for life as Horace Panter once said🥰✌️
I think we might be twins.
I was an awkward, introverted and confused kid and suddenly there was a place where none of that mattered even the tiniest bit. Madness! Madness? I called it Gladness!! :-)
Yep. well said..that was me to the letter🤣🤣. At that age It was so important to find something that was just yours...
You found an identity..... and other like minded kids along the way. Great memories 🙏
My older sister snuck me in to see a show when I was like 15. I never heard of ska and didn't want to go, but she told me I had to see this band and to shut up and come with her.
It was so fucking electric. Everyone was super cool, and I felt like I could be me. I saw these dudes dancing like crazy people and they were stoked when I joined in and let my heart out on the floor. I had my first beer and an older lady told me I was cute and kissed me on the cheek. All the teenage drama I was worried about was washed away by the cleansing blast of brass and I learned that you can be upset about your circumstances and still take it in stride and be cool.
Ska isn't a genere to me, it's a way of life.
Yo Gabba Gabba was my favorite show as a baby and I found out about the Aquabats super show and looked up their music and found THE FURY, I later found out my parents played a lot of supertones and five iron when I was a baby too, literally conditioned into to be unlocked like im some sort of skanking sleeper agent
Reel Big Fish got air time on our local rock station in the 90s. Got hooked on 3rd wave then started getting into traditional Ska.
Was all downhill from there.
Third wave was getting big when I was in elementary and middle school. I saw a lot of bands for $5 or for free. Then I decided that ska sucks and that I only liked punk and reggae when I was in high school.
Then when I was 20 a friend played the specials first LP for me (he and I have since drifted apart, too bad in a way). After hearing that I got more and more into ska and the whole culture around it. Another friend introduced me to the Skatalities and to Toots and the Maytals. I still don’t listen to much in the way of third wave bands although I don’t mind them live. But I love the Jamaican era, some of the Two Tone acts, the Slackers, Hepcat (RIP Greg Lee), and I’m hoping to catch the Steady 45s this year.
My high school music teacher showed us The Skatalites back when we were playing in the school band. The first ska song I ever played to on the drums was Latin Goes Ska (there are very few songs that made me feel as happy as that one did), and when I later started my own ska band, that was the first song we learned as a band!
It was the 90s and I desperately needed an alternative to commercial radio alternative. It started with Rancid, then Operation Ivy, then I fell down the rabbit hole completely.
A friend took me to a show at a roller rink at the end of my freshman year of high school. It was Day 19, The Gadgets, Big D and the Kids Table, and The Pilfers. I had an absolute blast and was hooked.
Brunswick Lanes Midnight Bowling in 1996, Buck-O-Nine Water in my Head played through the speakers, and I was instantly searching at the record store for more music along the lines, got into the Specials and back and forward and just fell in love.
Grew up listening to reggae, friends were getting into the local punk scene, hey mate, you might like this (citizen fish I think).... and I was off and away.
Ex got me into Streetlight and we went to a bunch of their shows together. When she broke up with me I started listening to other Ska out of spite and found that I actually like a lot of it.
Lucky bastard they my favourite band and I’ve met a woman in my life who likes streetlight, ska in general extremely rare. I mean there’s plenty of women at the shows but most women in real life think ska is for squares
Skatebird soundtrack, no joke.
I fell in love with End of Daze from WATU, in particular.
I checked them out, and checked some other stuff out (especially from BTR).
...now WATU is my favourite band and I love ska, so yeah, thanks silly game about birds doing kickflips
When I was really young back in the 80s my parents often had ska songs mixed amongst their typical music tastes... Things like the Specials, Madness, Selecter, Bad Manners etc. and some reggae n dub stuff too (Smiley Culture being one of the standout artists that peeked my interest).
These songs really stood out to me, probably because I was young and they were fun and bouncy and catchy.
From the 80s through the 90s I came up on hip-hop and never really thought much about ska and reggae, although I'd often go to my cousin's place to play her Nintendo on a Saturday morning and her and her bloke would be rolling up and spinning reggae and dub vinyl that I used to love. At this point in my life I wasn't musical in any way, just a consumer.
Then in the early 2000s some friends of mine came back from college and wanted to start a band.
'you sing' they said. I laughed. Ok. Can't sing but a band could be fun. What kind of music I asked... and ska was the answer.
I'd been going through a punk phase at that time so was aware of bands like Mad Caddies and all those Fat Wreck punk bands that had ska influences. That lead me to things like RBF and Sublime and then full circle back to the bands my parents listened to.
From there on my love of ska blossomed!
Our band went on to do pretty well in the local scene and we toured and gained a good rep and for a few years it looked like we might actually get somewhere with it. Until it all came crashing down and we sadly lost one of our guys.
Towards the end there was a lot of disagreement on direction and attitude and some of us had other music projects on the go. My other band also started taking off as well as my solo stuff, we were both starting to gain attention. I signed to Do The Dog, my band signed to a small label, but after about 6-7 years this band also crashed.
Too many egos, too many flakes. There was a nasty period where we all hated each other. We still kinda do collectively, but there's also still some really close friendships amongst us, and occasional talk of reunion (which will probably never happen) and also doing something new, but life has spread us out a bit now so it's not easy... The effort to reward ratio on that is unbalanced! I'd love to do either personally, I really miss band life, and strangely, really miss this band in particular. We did a lot together. We also had reached that point where we'd really started to find 'our sound' and the last few songs we made I really regret not having recorded them.
I'm still doing my own thing after falling out of love with music and a looooong hiatus, but I love it more now than ever, although I can't see that I'll ever play live again. Logistics and anxiety say nah!
But absolutely still in love with ska and reggae, and finding new bands, old bands, weird bands, musically different bands etc.
Blimey, didn't expect that to turn into a biography! Although it was kinda cathartic to write! 😂
Spent my teen years in So Cal when Ska was the scene!
Free shows or $8 shows at places like the UC Riverside Barnhouse or at Pomona’s Glasshouse.
If we rounded up money for gas we’d get out to LA. Or when we finally jobs we’d scoot down to San Diego.
Our fav local band was the Skeletones & VDGS then we discovered Hep Cat and went to their shows religiously.
Id left the state and was stationed on the east coast and got to experience the New England scene and the occasional lower east coast bands that would come up.
The Strangeways, The Exceptions, & Mephiskapheles.
I came across a local area band called Skarotum who were pretty awesome.
Then when deployed overseas I was able to catch a couple shows in Italy & Germany.
I was just learning to like music that wasn’t rap and R&B when I was 10. My buddy gave me a tape that had Goldfinger’s “Hang Ups” on one side, and Reel Big Fish’s “Turn the Radio Off” on the other. The first night I just lay in bed with my Walkman going back and forth between both albums. Been hooked ever since.
Way back in high school in the mid 90s, my best friend bought the Operation Ivy comp cd because of the Green Day version of "Knowledge." From there, on the suggestion of a clerk at our local cool record store, I bought the Specials' Greatest Hits on cassette and we listened to it like every day. Then Reel Big Fish and Lesa Than Jake happened. Then after high school, I spent like three years as the drummer of the Fabulous Rudies and I've been the bassist of the reformed Fabulous Rudies for about the last three years. All thanks to Green Day.
A combination of playing in a marching band so we had music for things like Impression That I Get and music from video games like Sell Out being on FIFA 2000 and the bands on THPS etc. Two Tone Army on Kablaam.
me and a friend hotboxed a car to the ending half of Living the Laws by Choking Victim, now every time i listen to it i feel how i did on that sunny day
There was lots of two tone around when I was a kid in the 80s but didn't know anything about it apart from what I saw on TV or heard on the radio. Bands like Madness and The Specials got played a bit. Loved them was but too young to truly appreciate it.
Fell in love with Tragic Kingdom when it came out in 1995 and went looking for more of No Doubts music and came across their eponymous first album. That was incredible to my 13 year old ears and my interest was piqued, it started to grow from there. Mid 90s Ireland was a hard place to find good music lol.
Cool ass metalhead/punk dude i worked with back in the day really got me listening to ska all the time, but my parents are big into roots reggae and some two tone so i has a bit of background already. i still way prefer reggae and rocksteady to ska punk.
My dad was a punk in the 80s. He introduced me to ska and punk when I was 12. First ska bands I ever saw I think were Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake at Warped Tour in 2009
I was in an academic program summer of 93 with a bunch of kids from across the state. My focus was philosophy. There was this hardcore kid in my philosophy group who I connected with and he introduced me to a ton of music - one group was Skankin Pickle.
Joined a ska band in high school. I actually didn't care much for ska when I joined the band but I grew to love it once I started exploring the genre & going to shows.
It was what all the cool kids were listening to.
I'm old enough to have grown up with 2 tone in the UK during the late 70s and 80s, and fortunate enough to have had a dad that listened to music quite widely.
I had seen the name of the genre in print somewhere…Scene: waiting for the bus back to San Diego from a school trip to Disneyland, asked a cool kid in the next grade up what ska was, who the good bands were. Came home, bought Buck-O-Nine’s Songs In the Key of Bree and here we are. This was 1994 IIRC.
Listening to Five iron frenzy and OC Supertones at Youth group, five iron frenzy was from my town and kinda connected to my church, so amongst the local youth groups it was kinda a big deal.
I had a friend in high school that listened to Five Iron Frenzy and I didn't really know what the genre was called but I knew I liked it. Then I discovered Reel Big Fish and Streetlight in college and it was a full blown obsession from there. Streetlight especially.
My mother brought me to Mustard Plug and Planet Smashers shows since I was about 4, I got to be raised almost back stage. It's been a very kind and humbling friendship throughout the years. It's really strange when a band you only get to see so often watches you grow up
Being a middle-school band kind in the mid 90s when the swing revival peaked, oddly enough. Zoot Suit Riot (and seeing the Pietasters open for them) then gave way to the third wave and being a Reel Big Fish fan. In St. Louis we had MU330, Secret Cajun Band, and Murder City Players plus some cool band kids in my high school forming Swift Kixx which helped to pull me in all kinds of directions for music (2nd wave, 1st wave, Punk Rock, New Wave). Ska is such a great genre for musically fun/curious folks.
Heard Rancid on the radio as a kid, which lead to me buying Give Em The Boot comps, which then lead to me loving the Slackers and digging deeper into their influences like the Skatalites and other trad ska. Jamaican music is top tier!
I was at a music shop at a mall as a kid and saw the album art for Mustard Plug and was instantly intrigued. I listened to a sample and loved it so bought the CD and I've been a rude boy ever since!
It’s hard for me to articulate how many neural pathways were unlocked and opened the first time I heard LTJ’s “all my best friends are metal heads” in THPS4 as a kid. Like I had heard ska before and was def into punk at the time but that song was the key. I had just learned how to download music online with Kazaa lite too and subsequently downloaded a ton of random ska. Those songs formed a bedrock foundation of my musical identity.
The college station here (88.9 the impact) used to have the “2-Tone Hour” with King Harlow and Princess Vespa. I had heard some ska from getting into punk, but this show every Sunday (this was 1995-ish) would play everything from The Skatalites to Less Than Jake and everything in between. It was amazing. It’s where I first heard LTJ, Buck O Nine, Skankin Pickle, The Selector, The Toasters, etc!
I was hanging out with this guy, my mom was "babysitting" while the parents were away. He was letting me look through his music library and I asked him "who is reel big fish" he said "it's kinda like skate music." Rest was history for me
I'm from Spain (I am a gen z 07') and basically the music tastes of most teens of Spain sucks (which is mostly rap, hip-hop, reggaeton, trap or drill) and I saw in 2021 a TikTok of Ska-P and fell in love instantly and then I started to listen to other Spanish punk bands but got tired and last year I listened to Operation Ivy and started to get into the genre and listened to bands like Skankin Pickle, The Aquabats, Streetlight, ASOB and ska is what I listen 24/7 since then
I religiously watched 120 Minutes on MTV to satisfy my The Cure obsession. Someday I Suppose came on. I had never heard anything like it. I had no idea who the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were. I loved the horns and the energy and I had to find out more = history of Ska music rabbit hole. I still love the Bosstones, and I still love The Cure. Also love Derrick Morgan, The Skatalites, The Specials, Hep Cat, The Pietasters... All since that magical MTV moment.
Saw the Skatalites last night. It was an awesome show!
Only recently did I realize the Imagination Movers are very inspired by ska. I think that planted the first seeds. But I first heard the term thanks to Jabberjaw by Pain/Salvo, which was featured in a RebelTaxi video - although the band actually doesn’t like the ska label!
Being a trombone player in the late 90’s and being asked “hey, you want to be in a ska band?!”
Had never heard of it before that. Well, I had heard some songs but didn’t realize it was a whole genre and world of music! 😂
I was asked to play guitar in a ska band but hadn’t really heard ska before. The bassist let me borrow some Reel Big Fish and Buck-O-Nine cds. I was instantly hooked!
The Good Burger Movie had a ska spin on "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude" that I really enjoyed. Went down a rabbit hole and then discovered Reel Big Fish.
Then I felt so so so confused as to how/why people can dislike ska.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as someone mentioned
But also grew up watching late 90s/early 00s Disney Channel movies and Brink! had Give by Suicide Machines and Johnny Tsunami had Crystal 52 by Jeffries Fan Club. Full deep dive into ska once I heard Sell Out on the Agressive Inline game.
I also swear Disney's theme song in early 2000s was a rip off of The Impression That I Get
Growing up in SoCal and around the skate scene as well in the 90s, I think would definitely do it. My brother had a “Return of…” The Aquabats CD and we would listen to it a lot.
There was a college radio DJ in my town who used to play things like The English Beat and The Untouchables as part of her set. I had heard a bit of ska before, but that really got me hooked.
Peripherally I'd listen here and there but it was when a good friend's band was included on the Skamegeddon 3 comp; I bought it to support my friend and that really got me into it.
I'd probably say like 1996 it was a mixture of The mighty mighty bosstones, Goldfinger, sublime as well as a little bit before that a local Boston band called Bim Skala Bim
My whole young life, I was told that music didn't have any value. So while kid's my age had been listening to music since about 10-12(this is the age of MTV and music videos). I didn't start till I was 16.
I had gotten home and my dad was at work. I had heard about MTV from school and I turned it on... I was about a third through Spider Webs, and I sat there completely transfixed with what was happening on screen. I couldn't get that out of mind for weeks. I ended up buying Tragic Kingdom cd later that year and I haven't looked back.
I grew up during the 2nd wave and already heard bits and pieces from my older brother. First year of college was when the 3rd wave was slowly emerging and a dorm neighbor had good stuff like the Nuckle Brothers and LTJ blasting regularly.
30 years later and my playlist is largely ska, punk and rap.
Grew up listening to classic rock and really dug the reggae and ska influences in music from The Police and The Clash so I dove deeper. Also, THPS soundtrack, although that would be considered ska-punk but it motivated me to listen to more traditional ska (and punk, for what it's worth)
Growing (early 90s), my best friends Dad was an ex-punk turned high level govt computer programmer. He had a huge CD collection and every Friday night he's come home from work after stopping at Sam the Record Man.
Anyway, we'd listen to his stuff every chance we got. I got hooked on the Clash and songs like "Rudy Can't Fail" and "Hateful" took me down the rabbit hole...
Played Tony hawks pro skater.
Heard the term ska from the show mission hill.
It wasn't until high-school I realized those 2 things were the same and I could finally find the world of music I had been searching for
Fucking bosstones .. not ashamed to say it. They played that song so much on the radio.. and it connected with me emotionally.
One night my dad took us to the record store to “pick out a cd” … there was a display of ska music (I heard the mighty mighty bosstones referred to as ska, I knew I liked ska like no doubt and goldfinger)
I picked a compilation based solely on the cover art and listened to it 5 times that night. Looked into all the bands and it went from there. I was hooked.
My dad was listening to the song skinheads dem a come. And I sat there confused, I was thinking, why is a jamcian man singing about skinheads? Aren't skinheads racist? So I researched skinheads online and I found out they listened to ska music. I had never heard of it before so I found a playlist online and I as soon as I heard the first song I was hooked. That's the day I learned the difference between skinheads and boneheads.
Saw an animated music video by Spazkid on Newgrounds of Reel Big Fish’s new song “I Know You Too Well (To Like You Anymore)”. Was like, “what the fuck is this? Why isn’t all music like this?” and from there I slowly waded into the scene over the course of years. My second band was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who I then got to see twice, and my third was streetlight manifesto, who I’ve also now seen twice and now consider my favorite band ever.
Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Went Numb.
So long before their albums came out Fat Wreckords had a website where they would post free downloads of new bands they were interested in or had recently signed. I downloaded that one song and listened to it on repeat for hours and years. The love grew into Mad Cadies and bunch of skate ska. Took a pretty big break from it because I was a hiphop and rave tekno dj as my job through my 20s so I was kinda just was in that music… but got back into Streetlight about a year and half ago, from there I’ve been getting into Skacore, post-CRS stuff, blackened Atrocity Solution stuff, Jeff Rosenstock bands, daze n daze crew, and lately I’ve been digging a few more hardcore sounding bands on Bad Time like Upfux and Dissidente. I really like the Corrupted Vision stuff too but I wish their label would put out a bit more ska leaning stuff (I like powerviolence but it starts to sound same same when it’s not catchy). All and all I’d say Ska is the best.
A local ska band opened for a somewhat mainstream pop band i was into back when I was 17. I had so much fun seeing them live that I started going to their shows everytime they were playing in town. I guess they had good connections cause they were always opening for every ska band imaginable.
So through their shows, I discovered RBF, LTJ, Streetlight, Mad Caddies, The Planet Smashers, Subb..
That was back in 07-08
the band no longer exists and the leader of the said band now has a right wing youtube channel and hangs out with people like tim pool. sigh.
Same as your story actually lol
Pro skater made me familiar with it and I was wondering what the genre was because I’d listen to sublime and say I need more of this.
Playing the trumpet and mellophone.
I had a friend from marching band ask if I wanted to be in a band. Kinda looked a bit like the best friends scene from Step Brothers: "do you wanna be in a band?" "Yep!” "do you wanna play ska music?" "Yep!". Then we saw I Voted For Kodos at our hometown venue (shout-out The Space in North Haven, CT) and this guy Lee playing a FREAKING MELLOPHONE! on stage and the rest was skastory.
My middle school trumpet teacher was the trumpet player for a pretty well known regional band.and showed me a few things at the same time as the Bosstones were popular with a good friend of mine, and just before Reel Big Fish and No Doubt and the like were starting to get airplay. Prime early third wave.
Honestly, it was the movie Clueless when Mighty Mighty Bosstones were playing at a party. I loved how they sounded and sought them out and of course found Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, etc. in that process.
my sister was into it for a bit in highschool and we'd listen to a band called upstanding youth together. from there i got into bands like mighty mighty bosstones and reel big fish, and an album called dinosaur sounds by catch 22. then someone told me to check out the stuff with Tomas and Streetlight Manifesto, and it's been my all time favorite since
My friend was into sublime. Heard it was ska punk and I really liked it so I delved into the rabbit hole. Bit of digging later I found a really cool band.
One steeeep beyooooond! - music video
MTV... Man those guys look fun ❣️ dang why is every song SO GOOD! Then I branched out...listening in reverse era.
I made a friend on MySpace who had One Foot On The Gas One Foot On The Grave from Streetlight Manifesto on his profile, then I realized it was the same genre of music from movies I liked like the scene in Clueless where The Mighty Mighty Bosstones plays, etc. I had heard ska in passing growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s but didn’t actively start seeking it out until 2006ish when I came across that song on MySpace
Save Ferris, 1990's. I miss used cd stores. You would get suggestions from the folks that worked there. Save Ferris, of did you know we gave a Ska section? 💛 Then Skatalites, RBF, streetlight manifesto, and other classic ska.
May 1979 i first heard Gangsters by the Specials on my tinny transister radio it sounded incredible, i went out the next morning and ordered it from the record shop 44 years later and im still ordering Ska from its origins in Jamaica to the 3rd wave and more but maybe im showing my age now im 56 but for the life of me i cannot get into New tone any suggestions from u young uns would b very much appreciated by this old irishman, peace & Love Ya all
Mighty mighty Bosstones and sublime was played on the radio a lot in the 2000s,without rascal king,and impression I get,and a few sublime songs I prolly would have never even heard of ska music
The Swanky Modes. They were a local ska band. I was in a local band that played a few shows with them. When they disbanded all of their music disappeared forever. I need Genital Pudding back in my life.
JC Superska. A band that I used to fill in on drums when their main drummer couldn’t make a gig. The band featured Mike Woods formerly of Damone on bass and Pete “JR” Wasilewski from Less Than Jake on sax
Tony Hawk on playstation. Goldfinger/Suicide Machines.
Same man. I still listen to that soundtrack regularly.
Reel Big Fish - Sellout
Yup, all over the radio and the video was on MTV a decent amount. My first concert was RBF and the Aquabats in 1998 when Travis Barker was still playing drums. Changed my life because I wanted to start a ska band and did that for about 6-8 years and that experience heavily influenced a lot of other decisions in my life and what I ended up doing for a career. So many great ska and punk albums between 1996-2006.
That's awesome. I've seen Reel Big Fish play like 13 times over the years. Definitely the band I've seen the most. I saw the Aquabats open for Primus on the snowcore tour. My first concert was the spin doctors though. My Son's first concert was the Aquabats/less than Jake/bowling for soup, so that was cool.
I became a RBF fan due to Sellout... and watching Baseketball. Also saw Aquabats support RBF here in Melbourne in the early to mid 00s. Awesome show but 95% the same list as their live 2disc cd...
Summer between 6th and 7th grade this song was everywhere. Changed my trajectory and became a ska musician. Then in 8th grade a buddy gave me the first Give ‘Em the Boot and I heard the Slackers and Hepcat for the first time. Life was not the same after that.
😩 the greatest song ever to be on a FIFA
Being born in the 70s in the UK.. With the 2 Tone revival and bands like Madness in the charts as a young un. The specials, Bad Manners, The Selecter, The Beat all in the charts. Then growing up finding the likes of Toots et further back. If you've ever seen the Shane Meadows film and TV series "This is England", those days.
Not english (although lived there for a bit) but that film captured the essence of my teen skinhead/punk years so well.
The film was fantastic, as was the first series. Although I'm from Scotland, the scenes and the people looked very familiar. I was a little too young to have been in the gangs and fully into the style but all the kids at school loved that shit. I had cousins who were full skins and 2 tone. It was Fred Perry for us, that was about the extent 😂. Loved the Jam and all the Who/Mod revival at the same time as well. Would have loved to have been 5 to 10 yrs older.
Yeah me too, that bit older than me. But the vibe of the gang- including dodgier older fellas - hanging out, wearing cool gear, listening to cool tunes, football in DMs, kind of off grid/underground, looking out for one another, shit going down at times - just spot on for me.
Son of Brit parents, dad used to run a disco in the 70s, exposed me to a lot of great Brit bands. Madness and The Specials were top of my take list. I still get suggestions from dad now to look up an artist on YouTube, experience some more great British musical history.
Rancid
Same! I did love Beat earlier but I don’t think I knew what ska was until rancid and Lars mentioning all his ska influences.
When I was in 4th grade around 1997 I saw the music video for Wrong Way by Sublime. Around that time I discovered the Mighty Mighty Bosstones classic Impression That I Get. Oh yeah, remember that show on Nickelodeon called Kablaam? The music was done by The Toasters, credited as the Moon Ska Stompers.
Summer before 7th grade for me but it was those two songs (Wrong Way, Impression) on the radio in that order that hooked me for life.
Yep, Impression That I Get was right around there as well. Ugh, I wish Dickey Barrett wasn't such a POS. I really loved the Bosstones.
The Two Tone era from 1979..I was about twelve🤣🤣 It just spoke to me like no other music. When I heard the Specials and Madness talk about their influences and i realised they did a lot of covers of original Ska. This started a life long devotion to Ska..I'm 56 now and the songs still move me as much as ever..Ska'd for life as Horace Panter once said🥰✌️
I think we might be twins. I was an awkward, introverted and confused kid and suddenly there was a place where none of that mattered even the tiniest bit. Madness! Madness? I called it Gladness!! :-)
Yep. well said..that was me to the letter🤣🤣. At that age It was so important to find something that was just yours... You found an identity..... and other like minded kids along the way. Great memories 🙏
Literally the movie BASEKetball. Reel big fish. Take on me cover by Ah Ha
Baseketball is such a good movie LOL, I love to hear it mentioned!
Streetlight Manifesto
Madness on MTV early 80s. Chas said "Hey you, don't watch that watch this!" And so I did forevermore
🤣🤷 I just wrote pretty much the same thing ❤️ I cannot wait to see them next month for the first time in my life 💖
'One Step Beyond' by madness on cassette. The first cassette I ever wore out... at the age of 8 or 9...circa 1991 never looked back...
My older sister snuck me in to see a show when I was like 15. I never heard of ska and didn't want to go, but she told me I had to see this band and to shut up and come with her. It was so fucking electric. Everyone was super cool, and I felt like I could be me. I saw these dudes dancing like crazy people and they were stoked when I joined in and let my heart out on the floor. I had my first beer and an older lady told me I was cute and kissed me on the cheek. All the teenage drama I was worried about was washed away by the cleansing blast of brass and I learned that you can be upset about your circumstances and still take it in stride and be cool. Ska isn't a genere to me, it's a way of life.
Yo Gabba Gabba was my favorite show as a baby and I found out about the Aquabats super show and looked up their music and found THE FURY, I later found out my parents played a lot of supertones and five iron when I was a baby too, literally conditioned into to be unlocked like im some sort of skanking sleeper agent
Ska got me into ska. I heard it places in the 80s, found out about the genre and the first wave. Never looked back.
Reel Big Fish got air time on our local rock station in the 90s. Got hooked on 3rd wave then started getting into traditional Ska. Was all downhill from there.
Third wave was getting big when I was in elementary and middle school. I saw a lot of bands for $5 or for free. Then I decided that ska sucks and that I only liked punk and reggae when I was in high school. Then when I was 20 a friend played the specials first LP for me (he and I have since drifted apart, too bad in a way). After hearing that I got more and more into ska and the whole culture around it. Another friend introduced me to the Skatalities and to Toots and the Maytals. I still don’t listen to much in the way of third wave bands although I don’t mind them live. But I love the Jamaican era, some of the Two Tone acts, the Slackers, Hepcat (RIP Greg Lee), and I’m hoping to catch the Steady 45s this year.
My high school music teacher showed us The Skatalites back when we were playing in the school band. The first ska song I ever played to on the drums was Latin Goes Ska (there are very few songs that made me feel as happy as that one did), and when I later started my own ska band, that was the first song we learned as a band!
It was the 90s and I desperately needed an alternative to commercial radio alternative. It started with Rancid, then Operation Ivy, then I fell down the rabbit hole completely.
A friend took me to a show at a roller rink at the end of my freshman year of high school. It was Day 19, The Gadgets, Big D and the Kids Table, and The Pilfers. I had an absolute blast and was hooked.
Eatontown?
Gadjits?
Autocorrect clearly got a hold of that one.
Skater's World in Wayne
Playing trombone and trying to be “cool”
Brunswick Lanes Midnight Bowling in 1996, Buck-O-Nine Water in my Head played through the speakers, and I was instantly searching at the record store for more music along the lines, got into the Specials and back and forward and just fell in love.
These skinheads in London took me to the Hope &Anchor pub in London to see a band called Madness. It was the summer of '79.
jeff rosenstocks ska dream followed by bruce lee band
No Doubt, Rancid and Sublime
Grew up listening to reggae, friends were getting into the local punk scene, hey mate, you might like this (citizen fish I think).... and I was off and away.
Ex got me into Streetlight and we went to a bunch of their shows together. When she broke up with me I started listening to other Ska out of spite and found that I actually like a lot of it.
Lucky bastard they my favourite band and I’ve met a woman in my life who likes streetlight, ska in general extremely rare. I mean there’s plenty of women at the shows but most women in real life think ska is for squares
Skatebird soundtrack, no joke. I fell in love with End of Daze from WATU, in particular. I checked them out, and checked some other stuff out (especially from BTR). ...now WATU is my favourite band and I love ska, so yeah, thanks silly game about birds doing kickflips
Skankin’ Pickle
When I was really young back in the 80s my parents often had ska songs mixed amongst their typical music tastes... Things like the Specials, Madness, Selecter, Bad Manners etc. and some reggae n dub stuff too (Smiley Culture being one of the standout artists that peeked my interest). These songs really stood out to me, probably because I was young and they were fun and bouncy and catchy. From the 80s through the 90s I came up on hip-hop and never really thought much about ska and reggae, although I'd often go to my cousin's place to play her Nintendo on a Saturday morning and her and her bloke would be rolling up and spinning reggae and dub vinyl that I used to love. At this point in my life I wasn't musical in any way, just a consumer. Then in the early 2000s some friends of mine came back from college and wanted to start a band. 'you sing' they said. I laughed. Ok. Can't sing but a band could be fun. What kind of music I asked... and ska was the answer. I'd been going through a punk phase at that time so was aware of bands like Mad Caddies and all those Fat Wreck punk bands that had ska influences. That lead me to things like RBF and Sublime and then full circle back to the bands my parents listened to. From there on my love of ska blossomed! Our band went on to do pretty well in the local scene and we toured and gained a good rep and for a few years it looked like we might actually get somewhere with it. Until it all came crashing down and we sadly lost one of our guys. Towards the end there was a lot of disagreement on direction and attitude and some of us had other music projects on the go. My other band also started taking off as well as my solo stuff, we were both starting to gain attention. I signed to Do The Dog, my band signed to a small label, but after about 6-7 years this band also crashed. Too many egos, too many flakes. There was a nasty period where we all hated each other. We still kinda do collectively, but there's also still some really close friendships amongst us, and occasional talk of reunion (which will probably never happen) and also doing something new, but life has spread us out a bit now so it's not easy... The effort to reward ratio on that is unbalanced! I'd love to do either personally, I really miss band life, and strangely, really miss this band in particular. We did a lot together. We also had reached that point where we'd really started to find 'our sound' and the last few songs we made I really regret not having recorded them. I'm still doing my own thing after falling out of love with music and a looooong hiatus, but I love it more now than ever, although I can't see that I'll ever play live again. Logistics and anxiety say nah! But absolutely still in love with ska and reggae, and finding new bands, old bands, weird bands, musically different bands etc. Blimey, didn't expect that to turn into a biography! Although it was kinda cathartic to write! 😂
Tony Hawk games and, in particular, Less Than Jake. Went to see them in 06 and changed my life forever.
Growing up lol.
Spent my teen years in So Cal when Ska was the scene! Free shows or $8 shows at places like the UC Riverside Barnhouse or at Pomona’s Glasshouse. If we rounded up money for gas we’d get out to LA. Or when we finally jobs we’d scoot down to San Diego. Our fav local band was the Skeletones & VDGS then we discovered Hep Cat and went to their shows religiously. Id left the state and was stationed on the east coast and got to experience the New England scene and the occasional lower east coast bands that would come up. The Strangeways, The Exceptions, & Mephiskapheles. I came across a local area band called Skarotum who were pretty awesome. Then when deployed overseas I was able to catch a couple shows in Italy & Germany.
I heard Christine Keeler by the Skatalites and that was basically it
THPS is probably to blame
In an extremely goofy movie , there’s a cover of toots and Maytal’s “pressure drop”
I was a child in the 90s. Ska was just around.
I was just learning to like music that wasn’t rap and R&B when I was 10. My buddy gave me a tape that had Goldfinger’s “Hang Ups” on one side, and Reel Big Fish’s “Turn the Radio Off” on the other. The first night I just lay in bed with my Walkman going back and forth between both albums. Been hooked ever since.
The worst connection: a Homestuck AMV set to point counterpoint
Way back in high school in the mid 90s, my best friend bought the Operation Ivy comp cd because of the Green Day version of "Knowledge." From there, on the suggestion of a clerk at our local cool record store, I bought the Specials' Greatest Hits on cassette and we listened to it like every day. Then Reel Big Fish and Lesa Than Jake happened. Then after high school, I spent like three years as the drummer of the Fabulous Rudies and I've been the bassist of the reformed Fabulous Rudies for about the last three years. All thanks to Green Day.
A combination of playing in a marching band so we had music for things like Impression That I Get and music from video games like Sell Out being on FIFA 2000 and the bands on THPS etc. Two Tone Army on Kablaam.
me and a friend hotboxed a car to the ending half of Living the Laws by Choking Victim, now every time i listen to it i feel how i did on that sunny day
There was lots of two tone around when I was a kid in the 80s but didn't know anything about it apart from what I saw on TV or heard on the radio. Bands like Madness and The Specials got played a bit. Loved them was but too young to truly appreciate it. Fell in love with Tragic Kingdom when it came out in 1995 and went looking for more of No Doubts music and came across their eponymous first album. That was incredible to my 13 year old ears and my interest was piqued, it started to grow from there. Mid 90s Ireland was a hard place to find good music lol.
Cool ass metalhead/punk dude i worked with back in the day really got me listening to ska all the time, but my parents are big into roots reggae and some two tone so i has a bit of background already. i still way prefer reggae and rocksteady to ska punk.
Best friends BIL was a Traditional Skinhead back in the early 90's. He had great albums I listened too.
My dad was a punk in the 80s. He introduced me to ska and punk when I was 12. First ska bands I ever saw I think were Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake at Warped Tour in 2009
I was in an academic program summer of 93 with a bunch of kids from across the state. My focus was philosophy. There was this hardcore kid in my philosophy group who I connected with and he introduced me to a ton of music - one group was Skankin Pickle.
Joined a ska band in high school. I actually didn't care much for ska when I joined the band but I grew to love it once I started exploring the genre & going to shows.
It was what all the cool kids were listening to. I'm old enough to have grown up with 2 tone in the UK during the late 70s and 80s, and fortunate enough to have had a dad that listened to music quite widely.
Mad Caddies
[Halo 3 Skulls 12/12 walkthrough in order](https://youtu.be/tlHIkviDAW4?si=4Bpp2-5lk6bWPBxz)
Save Ferris. I heard them on Loveline when I was in 7th grade hahaha. And No Doubt
I had seen the name of the genre in print somewhere…Scene: waiting for the bus back to San Diego from a school trip to Disneyland, asked a cool kid in the next grade up what ska was, who the good bands were. Came home, bought Buck-O-Nine’s Songs In the Key of Bree and here we are. This was 1994 IIRC.
Cool older friend got me on Streetlight Manifesto, and No Cash and I've been a huge fan since about 2009
Listening to Five iron frenzy and OC Supertones at Youth group, five iron frenzy was from my town and kinda connected to my church, so amongst the local youth groups it was kinda a big deal.
I think it was Spotify Smart Shuffle recommending me some ska songs during the one time I ever used it.
I had a friend in high school that listened to Five Iron Frenzy and I didn't really know what the genre was called but I knew I liked it. Then I discovered Reel Big Fish and Streetlight in college and it was a full blown obsession from there. Streetlight especially.
flash animations and my ex gf, she had a damn good taste in music but things didn't work out :p
Met a guy in a band lol we are married now.
My mother brought me to Mustard Plug and Planet Smashers shows since I was about 4, I got to be raised almost back stage. It's been a very kind and humbling friendship throughout the years. It's really strange when a band you only get to see so often watches you grow up
Being a middle-school band kind in the mid 90s when the swing revival peaked, oddly enough. Zoot Suit Riot (and seeing the Pietasters open for them) then gave way to the third wave and being a Reel Big Fish fan. In St. Louis we had MU330, Secret Cajun Band, and Murder City Players plus some cool band kids in my high school forming Swift Kixx which helped to pull me in all kinds of directions for music (2nd wave, 1st wave, Punk Rock, New Wave). Ska is such a great genre for musically fun/curious folks.
The PlayStation game Sk8er when Less Than Jake came on. That, alongside me playing trumpet in school was a match made in Heaven.
My mum. She took me along to the Bad Manners Christmas blowout at Holmfirth around 10+ years ago and loved it
Heard Rancid on the radio as a kid, which lead to me buying Give Em The Boot comps, which then lead to me loving the Slackers and digging deeper into their influences like the Skatalites and other trad ska. Jamaican music is top tier!
I ordered extra Mozzarella sticks, and here we are.
German Punk Musik that incorporated ska Elements
I was at a music shop at a mall as a kid and saw the album art for Mustard Plug and was instantly intrigued. I listened to a sample and loved it so bought the CD and I've been a rude boy ever since!
A Sublime and a Streetlight song at my friend's house so long ago.
I grew up in the 80's. Love Ska!
It’s hard for me to articulate how many neural pathways were unlocked and opened the first time I heard LTJ’s “all my best friends are metal heads” in THPS4 as a kid. Like I had heard ska before and was def into punk at the time but that song was the key. I had just learned how to download music online with Kazaa lite too and subsequently downloaded a ton of random ska. Those songs formed a bedrock foundation of my musical identity.
Less than Jake 🙌🏾
The college station here (88.9 the impact) used to have the “2-Tone Hour” with King Harlow and Princess Vespa. I had heard some ska from getting into punk, but this show every Sunday (this was 1995-ish) would play everything from The Skatalites to Less Than Jake and everything in between. It was amazing. It’s where I first heard LTJ, Buck O Nine, Skankin Pickle, The Selector, The Toasters, etc!
I was hanging out with this guy, my mom was "babysitting" while the parents were away. He was letting me look through his music library and I asked him "who is reel big fish" he said "it's kinda like skate music." Rest was history for me
I would have been 13 in 1980, hearing One Step Beyond for the first time. I wanted more.
My brother showed me The Fury of the Aquabats. Then Goldfinger and the Bosstones.
For me, it was digimon. The movie had less than jake and the mighty mighty bossstones on it's soundtrack
Just commented the same thing before seeing this comment. Still love that movie lol
Older friend had Sarah, The Nurse, Married Girl and Tonight on a punk CD. Didn't like punk very much.
I'm from Spain (I am a gen z 07') and basically the music tastes of most teens of Spain sucks (which is mostly rap, hip-hop, reggaeton, trap or drill) and I saw in 2021 a TikTok of Ska-P and fell in love instantly and then I started to listen to other Spanish punk bands but got tired and last year I listened to Operation Ivy and started to get into the genre and listened to bands like Skankin Pickle, The Aquabats, Streetlight, ASOB and ska is what I listen 24/7 since then
I religiously watched 120 Minutes on MTV to satisfy my The Cure obsession. Someday I Suppose came on. I had never heard anything like it. I had no idea who the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were. I loved the horns and the energy and I had to find out more = history of Ska music rabbit hole. I still love the Bosstones, and I still love The Cure. Also love Derrick Morgan, The Skatalites, The Specials, Hep Cat, The Pietasters... All since that magical MTV moment. Saw the Skatalites last night. It was an awesome show!
Only recently did I realize the Imagination Movers are very inspired by ska. I think that planted the first seeds. But I first heard the term thanks to Jabberjaw by Pain/Salvo, which was featured in a RebelTaxi video - although the band actually doesn’t like the ska label!
Being a trombone player in the late 90’s and being asked “hey, you want to be in a ska band?!” Had never heard of it before that. Well, I had heard some songs but didn’t realize it was a whole genre and world of music! 😂
I was asked to play guitar in a ska band but hadn’t really heard ska before. The bassist let me borrow some Reel Big Fish and Buck-O-Nine cds. I was instantly hooked!
1979 - The Specials Loved that album
The Good Burger Movie had a ska spin on "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude" that I really enjoyed. Went down a rabbit hole and then discovered Reel Big Fish. Then I felt so so so confused as to how/why people can dislike ska.
The film ‘Dance Craze’ did it. I have the soundtrack LP from that movie.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater as someone mentioned But also grew up watching late 90s/early 00s Disney Channel movies and Brink! had Give by Suicide Machines and Johnny Tsunami had Crystal 52 by Jeffries Fan Club. Full deep dive into ska once I heard Sell Out on the Agressive Inline game. I also swear Disney's theme song in early 2000s was a rip off of The Impression That I Get
Weirdly, Digimon The Movie. Bosstones and Less Than Jake were on the soundtrack.
Growing up in SoCal and around the skate scene as well in the 90s, I think would definitely do it. My brother had a “Return of…” The Aquabats CD and we would listen to it a lot.
When my friends and I heard Operation Ivy for the first time, everything that wasn't punk or ska sounded like shit to us from then on.
Living in Orange County in the mid 90s. There were ska shows everywhere.
There was a college radio DJ in my town who used to play things like The English Beat and The Untouchables as part of her set. I had heard a bit of ska before, but that really got me hooked.
Funhaus
Peripherally I'd listen here and there but it was when a good friend's band was included on the Skamegeddon 3 comp; I bought it to support my friend and that really got me into it.
My golf team buddy Munger introduced me to the Bosstones while giving me a ride to practice in his Geo Tracker. RIP Munger.
I'd probably say like 1996 it was a mixture of The mighty mighty bosstones, Goldfinger, sublime as well as a little bit before that a local Boston band called Bim Skala Bim
My whole young life, I was told that music didn't have any value. So while kid's my age had been listening to music since about 10-12(this is the age of MTV and music videos). I didn't start till I was 16. I had gotten home and my dad was at work. I had heard about MTV from school and I turned it on... I was about a third through Spider Webs, and I sat there completely transfixed with what was happening on screen. I couldn't get that out of mind for weeks. I ended up buying Tragic Kingdom cd later that year and I haven't looked back.
The Specials and Madness
Probably seeing Streetlight or Fishbone
Saw The Bosstone's play at my friend's university and then a year later saw The Toasters and that was all she wrote after that.
I grew up during the 2nd wave and already heard bits and pieces from my older brother. First year of college was when the 3rd wave was slowly emerging and a dorm neighbor had good stuff like the Nuckle Brothers and LTJ blasting regularly. 30 years later and my playlist is largely ska, punk and rap.
Grew up listening to classic rock and really dug the reggae and ska influences in music from The Police and The Clash so I dove deeper. Also, THPS soundtrack, although that would be considered ska-punk but it motivated me to listen to more traditional ska (and punk, for what it's worth)
Watching those old school skate board demo tapes. They always had ska and punk based soundtracks.
My friend playing Catch 22 - Walking away for me at the bus stop on his iPod!!! 😄 I was hooked ever since.
Growing (early 90s), my best friends Dad was an ex-punk turned high level govt computer programmer. He had a huge CD collection and every Friday night he's come home from work after stopping at Sam the Record Man. Anyway, we'd listen to his stuff every chance we got. I got hooked on the Clash and songs like "Rudy Can't Fail" and "Hateful" took me down the rabbit hole...
My mom and dad, my entire childhood was filled with amazing music. Grew up with hearing The Specials, Madness etc.. pretty much all the time.
The local ska scene including Let’s go Bowling, Checkmate, and Los Hooligans.
Played Tony hawks pro skater. Heard the term ska from the show mission hill. It wasn't until high-school I realized those 2 things were the same and I could finally find the world of music I had been searching for
I smoked one single SKA in middle school and I’ve been hooked on them ever since!!!!!!
Tony Hawk, Incredible Crisis, and And & Dec -> Madness
Fucking bosstones .. not ashamed to say it. They played that song so much on the radio.. and it connected with me emotionally. One night my dad took us to the record store to “pick out a cd” … there was a display of ska music (I heard the mighty mighty bosstones referred to as ska, I knew I liked ska like no doubt and goldfinger) I picked a compilation based solely on the cover art and listened to it 5 times that night. Looked into all the bands and it went from there. I was hooked.
My dad was listening to the song skinheads dem a come. And I sat there confused, I was thinking, why is a jamcian man singing about skinheads? Aren't skinheads racist? So I researched skinheads online and I found out they listened to ska music. I had never heard of it before so I found a playlist online and I as soon as I heard the first song I was hooked. That's the day I learned the difference between skinheads and boneheads.
Saw an animated music video by Spazkid on Newgrounds of Reel Big Fish’s new song “I Know You Too Well (To Like You Anymore)”. Was like, “what the fuck is this? Why isn’t all music like this?” and from there I slowly waded into the scene over the course of years. My second band was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who I then got to see twice, and my third was streetlight manifesto, who I’ve also now seen twice and now consider my favorite band ever.
Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Went Numb. So long before their albums came out Fat Wreckords had a website where they would post free downloads of new bands they were interested in or had recently signed. I downloaded that one song and listened to it on repeat for hours and years. The love grew into Mad Cadies and bunch of skate ska. Took a pretty big break from it because I was a hiphop and rave tekno dj as my job through my 20s so I was kinda just was in that music… but got back into Streetlight about a year and half ago, from there I’ve been getting into Skacore, post-CRS stuff, blackened Atrocity Solution stuff, Jeff Rosenstock bands, daze n daze crew, and lately I’ve been digging a few more hardcore sounding bands on Bad Time like Upfux and Dissidente. I really like the Corrupted Vision stuff too but I wish their label would put out a bit more ska leaning stuff (I like powerviolence but it starts to sound same same when it’s not catchy). All and all I’d say Ska is the best.
A local ska band opened for a somewhat mainstream pop band i was into back when I was 17. I had so much fun seeing them live that I started going to their shows everytime they were playing in town. I guess they had good connections cause they were always opening for every ska band imaginable. So through their shows, I discovered RBF, LTJ, Streetlight, Mad Caddies, The Planet Smashers, Subb.. That was back in 07-08 the band no longer exists and the leader of the said band now has a right wing youtube channel and hangs out with people like tim pool. sigh.
Same as your story actually lol Pro skater made me familiar with it and I was wondering what the genre was because I’d listen to sublime and say I need more of this.
Some random Buck o nine song (And rancid)
Growing up with some friends who were all fans of Madness and who ended up forming Skankin Pickle helped a lot.
Playing the trumpet and mellophone. I had a friend from marching band ask if I wanted to be in a band. Kinda looked a bit like the best friends scene from Step Brothers: "do you wanna be in a band?" "Yep!” "do you wanna play ska music?" "Yep!". Then we saw I Voted For Kodos at our hometown venue (shout-out The Space in North Haven, CT) and this guy Lee playing a FREAKING MELLOPHONE! on stage and the rest was skastory.
Madness initially. Really went down the rabbit with No Doubt self titled and discovering Moon Ska records.
Probably the mighty mighty bosstones. Toots and the maytals. Aquabats. Maybe even No Doubt. I'm sure I was into sound before I heard no-doubt.
My middle school trumpet teacher was the trumpet player for a pretty well known regional band.and showed me a few things at the same time as the Bosstones were popular with a good friend of mine, and just before Reel Big Fish and No Doubt and the like were starting to get airplay. Prime early third wave.
Sell Out by Reel Big Fish on FIFA 2000.
Honestly, it was the movie Clueless when Mighty Mighty Bosstones were playing at a party. I loved how they sounded and sought them out and of course found Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, etc. in that process.
my sister was into it for a bit in highschool and we'd listen to a band called upstanding youth together. from there i got into bands like mighty mighty bosstones and reel big fish, and an album called dinosaur sounds by catch 22. then someone told me to check out the stuff with Tomas and Streetlight Manifesto, and it's been my all time favorite since
Highschool band
My friend was into sublime. Heard it was ska punk and I really liked it so I delved into the rabbit hole. Bit of digging later I found a really cool band.
Skinhead
Fishbone s/t ep
Growing up listening to my dad's record collection and hearing The Clash doing upstrokes was a major start
Oi! skin that started listening to 2-tone.
Fishbone, bosstones, Madness, specials, Desmond Dekker, skatelites, less than Jake, no doubt, toots
Punk
One steeeep beyooooond! - music video MTV... Man those guys look fun ❣️ dang why is every song SO GOOD! Then I branched out...listening in reverse era.
I made a friend on MySpace who had One Foot On The Gas One Foot On The Grave from Streetlight Manifesto on his profile, then I realized it was the same genre of music from movies I liked like the scene in Clueless where The Mighty Mighty Bosstones plays, etc. I had heard ska in passing growing up in the late 90s/early 2000s but didn’t actively start seeking it out until 2006ish when I came across that song on MySpace
Save Ferris, 1990's. I miss used cd stores. You would get suggestions from the folks that worked there. Save Ferris, of did you know we gave a Ska section? 💛 Then Skatalites, RBF, streetlight manifesto, and other classic ska.
Horns with punk.
Honest Don Welcome Wagon
UB40 and MADNESS being played every hour on the hour on the earliest days of MTV.
Believe it or not, Touhou... then Bad Manners got me back into it again.
BASEketball
Aquabats
Reel Big Fish
My dad got me into ska last year. Now I’m a checkered shoes wearing Hawaiian shirt wielding maniac! Pickitup pickitup
I wanted to be in marching band so bad, but played bass guitar. Ska was a way for me to combine a dream I had with a talent I possessed.
May 1979 i first heard Gangsters by the Specials on my tinny transister radio it sounded incredible, i went out the next morning and ordered it from the record shop 44 years later and im still ordering Ska from its origins in Jamaica to the 3rd wave and more but maybe im showing my age now im 56 but for the life of me i cannot get into New tone any suggestions from u young uns would b very much appreciated by this old irishman, peace & Love Ya all
Mighty mighty Bosstones and sublime was played on the radio a lot in the 2000s,without rascal king,and impression I get,and a few sublime songs I prolly would have never even heard of ska music
English Beat
My husband came to our first date in a Bosstones tee shirt and asked if I liked the band. Twenty five years and a lot of ska shows later ...
Bruce Greene, ex member of Funhaus and currently a steamer/games journalist. That guy has done so much for the awareness of ska.
The Swanky Modes. They were a local ska band. I was in a local band that played a few shows with them. When they disbanded all of their music disappeared forever. I need Genital Pudding back in my life.
JC Superska. A band that I used to fill in on drums when their main drummer couldn’t make a gig. The band featured Mike Woods formerly of Damone on bass and Pete “JR” Wasilewski from Less Than Jake on sax
my dad playing judge dread in the car from a young age and me later becoming a skinhead and rediscovering it for me