In Defense of Ska February 2022 Newsletter

February has been a great month. We thank everyone that continues to listen to us. And anyone that has signed up for our Patreon, which helps us keep the show sustainable and consistent. We are a fully DIY project with no network support. So your help means the world to us.

This month, our bonus Patreon content took a big step forward. We are officially calling our weekly post-episode content “Behind The Curtain.” Some will have extended interviews with the guest, some will have discussions from Adam and me about the episode, though most will be a combination of the two. In one episode, we got into a great conversation about what makes a good cover song with Jeremy Hunter (Skatune Network) and Lili Trifilio (Beach Bunny).

For February’s monthly bonus Patreon episode, the great Ted Leo was nice enough to chat with us about 2 Tone legends Madness for an hour. You can hear a preview here. Oh, and how did I forget to mention our first-ever sponsors, Hey Coffee? Hey Coffee is owned and managed by Greg Rodrigue and D-Ray from the New Orleans ska band Bad Operation. You can order their coffee and have it delivered to your home. (15% off your order if you use the code DEFENDSKA)

Enough of that! Let’s talk about the episodes.

We began the month with an in-depth conversation with YouTube personality and music critic Anthony Fantano. I don’t always agree with his opinion, but I appreciate that he’s authentic in what he thinks. We wanted to talk to him because he really loved Jeff Rosenstock’s SKA DREAM album, gave a positive review of Catbite’s Nice One, and randomly shared Flying Raccoon Suit’s excellent Afterglow record. He had a lot of opinions on the current state of ska and gave us a painful, but honest breakdown of how the algorithms prevent DIY artists from getting the attention they often deserve.

We were then joined by Adam’s old Link 80 bandmate Steve Borth. I particularly enjoyed this conversation because we covered Link 80’s early years during our interview with original guitarist Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (who by the way directed the most recent Scream movie!) Steve joined the band later, so this gave us a chance to discuss the Struggle Continues era of the band. We also discuss his time in RX Bandits (Which was also discussed during our Steve Choi interview). And we learned all about his father’s career in the 70s/80s as a touring Christian musician!

Jeremy Hunter is our first guest to appear on the show a 2nd time. The first time, we broke down their career in detail (and talked about their time working at Waffle House). On this episode, we also brought on Lili Trifilio from the band Beach Bunny, and we discussed Jer’s full ska cover of the Beach Bunny record Honeymoon, which they called Honeyrude. We discussed the project from all angles and really dug into the creative process of writing music and transposing songs to ska.

For our final February episode, we chat with comedian Kyle Kinane. He’s been a vocal punk rock fan for a while. But on this episode, we learn about his short stint as a sax player in the band The Skabeatles. He also tells us about growing up in the Chicago punk and ska scene and catching lots of cool shows from bands like Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug, and Skankin Pickle. And high on his list of favorite groups was Slapstick, a band he saw play more times than he can recall. Don’t worry, we also talk about the time he blacked out on Drunk History.

Please like and subscribe to “In Defense of Ska” wherever you download podcasts. You can also sign up for this newsletter for monthly updates on the show.