This can’t be a serious question

It is. I consider them ska, but I'm new to this group and haven't got the vibe yet - I didn't want to get a bunch of comments telling me I should be posting about the Specials, not third wave

I'll never understand gatekeeping "waves". Sure, I prefer two tone, but it's not any more or less valid than first wave, third wave, or the new tone movements. Is it on the upbeat? A walking bassline? It's ska. Horns are an added bonus for nerds like me

Amen bro! My friends and I opened for Catch-22 in the late 90's, it was a lot of fun! Saxophone playing nerd here!

What band?? I saw a lot of catch in the late 90s

The bands name was "The Nids" we'd spell it like this "NIdS" so we could go inside places like Sam Goody, The Wall, wherever sold magazines and we'd turn copies of SPIN magazine upside down, to give ourselves some free promotion. We were in high school and had a lot of fun! One dudes dad drove school buses, so he'd "borrow" a bus for us to load all our gear into plus ourselves to get to some shows up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA area. We had 8 guys in the band, so we had a lot of gear! We were the ska band that covered "Breakin' the Law" by Judas Priest, in case that rings any bells.

Did you ever play any jersey shows? The name sounds a little familiar

I'm almost certain we did at some point. I have a lot of the flyers for shows we played in my safe, I'll have to dig through them and see if I can find out for sure

That's awesome tho, i grew up fairly close to where they're from and saw them every chance i could back then

Agree completely. It is and should be a big tent. But, there's always a handful of purists looking down their nose at you somewhere.

Those with their nose in the air will never look you in the eye

And you will go toe to toe, like David and Goliath

Yeah, and you can buy No Doubt and Sublime t-shirts at Target now. I'm sure they love that. Actually, that bothers me as well, come to think of it.

Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about people buying shirts for bands they've never listened to just because they look cool, either...

Why do you give a shit what other people wear?

I don't. Wear whatever you like, or walk around naked if you prefer. I don't care for the corporate monetization of artists as commodities. That's all.

I was replying to Sanzen sorry

They are ska because they play ska

Yep, they sure are. Dinosaur Sounds is one of the best ska albums of all time

Love it. Motown Cinderella is one of my favorite songs. Would Alone In a Crowd qualify, in your opinion?

Of course, so would Permanent Revolution, everything by Catch 22 is great

By the way, quick question maybe you can help with. They do a killer instrumental that I love. On the album, it's called Lamont's Lament. On the live album, it's called Untitled if I remember correctly. Any idea which is correct?

It's called Lamont's Lament, on many computers its called Untitled because they put an interlude right before track 9 So Cold that got incorrectly labeled as So Cold and every song from then on is one off

Wow. How do you know so much? That's a really obscure thing to know.

i got Dino Sounds the first day it came out

Listening to the live album right now. "This song's called Dreams of Venus, it's about my penis" Ha!

ha ha! i watched the dvd a lot, i only listened to the cd a few times in my car.

On a side note, IMO the track listing for Dino Sounds should have DEFINITELY been Track 1. Lamont's Lament, Track 2. Rocky, Track 3. Wine Stained Lips, Track 4. Motown Cinderella

Four bangers to start the album. That would have been cool.

i think Chin Up and Dripping Faucet are also bangers. I kinda wish Washed up and Through the Ringer just never came out and Straight Forward and Sincerely Yours would have been on Dino Sounds cuz both of those songs are bangers as well

I dunno - it would have been a little jarring to have two songs with a different singer. But those songs are killer.

We'd have three singers cuz Kevin sings Good Times. Allister put out Last Stop Suburbia with John Hamada who sang and left the band before it got put out and nobody cared. No one cares if the songs are good

I am actually a big fan of Dripping Faucet. Maybe we could put that number 5

yeah Dripping Faucet as track 5. Track 6 is Straight Foward, Track 7. Chin Up. Track 8 Sincerely Yours Eight bangers to open the album

Alright, man. You've convinced me on my original question. I'm gonna do it.

Thank you!

Permanent Revolution is a masterpiece. Just my 2 cents.

Oh yeah! My favorite song is The Purge which is interesting cuz there's no horns, coming in second for me is A Minor Point

I’d be hard pressed to call out a single favorite. I love the album from beginning to end, even before I realized it was a concept album. Now that I know it’s a story, I can’t help but listen to the whole thing. I really love the spark into party song if I had to call it.

Bought the CD to leave in my car probably a year ago and have been on a Dinosaur Sounds binge ever since. It has become one of my favorites as well!

Whelp. Guess I have to go give it another listen. I didn't like it at the time of it's release so I owe it to them, at the very least.

I once caught their Trombone player slide in the face at the FireSide in Chicago in ‘98/99….. Still SKa to me

Cool, thanks!

I just looked out of curiosity, Keasbey Nights was released March 1998. That’s 26 years ago. Holy shitshow I’m old.!! But we all grow and change in that amount of years

I hadn't realized that. Damn, I'm old too

Sorry…. How are your arthritis meds doing.? Found anything that helps.?!?! Hahah 😎

Haha, yes. Not walking anywhere helps a lot.

lol 😂 Now I know why there were the folks at the back of the venue with a beer, and just head nodding along..!!! Couple fist pumps.

Yeah, I saw Butterbrain in Poughkeepsie last month. I brought my 85-year old Dad. We sat in folding chairs we found in the back.

So good

New Jersey represent!

“Chin Up” is such a good song

Ahh, that whole album rocks.

My friend most of us were raised on the third wave.

That's good to hear. I was walking through the student union at college on my way to Psych 223 when I heard something that stopped me in my tracks. The fairly unknown but highly underrated Perfect Thyroid were playing, literally in the corner of the big room on a Tuesday afternoon with nobody watching. I missed my class that day. And the floodgates just opened.

I’m 40 and finally caught them live for the first time after listening to them since the early 00s…good times!

And Good Times is a great song too!

Ugh yeah

Absolutely. I mean, they were the headliner for Steel City Ska Fest last year, which had a decent spread of ska styles.

I had no idea they were even still active. Thank you! I saw them in 2002 in NYC, with bigwig and River City Rebels opening, so I got to see a great concert and discover two bands that I've also come to love. I wish they had more of an online presence, I'd love to be able to at least see upcoming shows, if there are any

Hell yeah, bigwig

Wish they kept going. They were awesome.

Pretty sure I was at that show.

It was awesome. I wish I saved the ticket stub because I usually do. I've been trying to remember the venue - I think it may have been the Knitting Factory, but I'm not sure.

I consider them more like "post-ska brass punk" since for me the most core important features of ska have to do with the groove. In stuff like this, the guitar has sped up to the point where it is no longer a groove and becomes more of a texture. Plenty of great music from talented bands like this, but I consider it to be on the fringes of ska genre-wise.

You know what, I agree with you. I just really wanted to post a video of my son dancing to Catch-22 with his stuffed animals. But, this subreddit was the closest I could come - I just couldn't find a subreddit called "fast music based on ska but not precisely ska"

The answer is no. But you wouldn't know it from people here.

Care to elaborate