In Defense of Ska October 2021 Newsletter
Just a quick newsletter this month because I’m in the thralls of a couple of heinous deadlines. But I couldn’t not post about our October episodes. Look at the guests we managed to wrangle this month. Holy shit! If you haven’t already listened to all four of these episodes, please do so immediately!
At the beginning of the month, we brought on Augusta Koch from Cayetana, Gladie, and, who we later learned, did vocals for the band DUH in the brilliant horror film Uncle Peckerhead. Mike Park called me one day and insisted we have her on the podcast. (Whatever Mike Park says, you do!) He told me, “She has real ska roots.” Indeed! She sang lead vocals for The Blue Bananas. Everything you’d expect from a high school ska band.
Our second episode will certainly go down in the podcast hall of fame. Max Collins from Eve 6, took some time away from running the most powerful Twitter account on the planet to tell us about his recent ska collaboration with We Are The Union: A cover of Op Ivy’s “Sound System.” It’s great! The whole project was hush-hush, but WATU told us about it months before it dropped. So, we were able to chat with Max before it got released. He predicted he would be a social pariah! Turns out, he was wrong! Ska Twitter loved it!
IDOS author Aaron Carnes skanking with Max Collins. Drawing by David Buist
We also had on Dave McWane from Big D and the Kids Table, as they celebrated the release of their new album, Do Your Art. Big D is an interesting band in that they rose to prominence during the mid-2000s, a time-period that is often referred to as the “ska wasteland” (Ok, I just made that up, but the sentiment is true). Dave tells us what it was like to be pushing hard with a ska band while most of mainstream culture was making fun of the genre. He also tells us the compelling story about surviving cancer!
And probably one of my favorite episodes we’ve done, Greg Lee and Greg Narvas from the band Hepcat joined us. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like Hepcat. Their trad ska beats, soulful vocals, and cool style is undeniable. For this episode, the two Gregs discussed the 80s LA ska scene. Both were part of it in a major way. And it impacted them on their journey to create Hepcat. They were a product of everything LA’s ska scene was, and everything it was not.
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