Homage to Ska-Punk (albeit small)
And a Toasters Anecdote

I always enjoy hearing other people's stories about how they first discovered or got into ska, but when it comes to mine, I've always felt a bit embarrassed. This is mainly because I no longer enjoy all the music or support the bands I did a few years ago, but when I think about it, most people's ska stories are quite similar.

I'm a child of ska-punk and though I'd like to be able to say I'm a child of early sixties Jamaican ska, it wouldn't be true, and many others are in the same boat. It was bands such as The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Porkers and Area 7 that I first related to the word ska. Likewise, people twenty years my senior would have first associated ska with bands such as The Specials and Madness. Finally I'm coming to terms with my introductions to ska music. Now I've admitted it, I can give ska-punk the credit it deserves. This involves two things. Firstly, that it introduced me and many others to ska, leading to finding about the local scene, 2-tone, traditional ska and then reggae, rocksteady, dancehall and soul. And secondly, that about one in six ska-punk songs I actually still enjoy. I'm not going to say talk of a new MU33O album excites me, but if a song is good, even if it is fast and distorted, I can respect that.

With that aside, there's one small anecdote I find easier to tell about my ska discoveries and that's because the band involved remains one of my favourite, on record at least. Living in the ska baron that is Wollongong and having little exposure to ska (I'm not even sure I knew it was called ska then), I was in a record stall in the mall, when I saw a CD by this band called The Toasters. I'm not sure what the appeal was, the skull on the front of the Hard Band For Dead album didn't exactly shout upbeat, dance music with accompanying horn lines and Jamaican chatting, but I took it to the counter, had a listen and I bought the CD. The rest as they say, is history. Unlike bands like Reel Big Fish and Save Ferris which were quickly discarded as I sought ska that were more suited to my tastes, The Toasters have always been a regular in my CD player. From the faster, infectious songs such as "Talk is Cheap" and "I Wasn't Going to Call You Anyway" to the rawer, slower songs such as Haitian Frustration and "Brixton Beat" (Much better than their own cover - East Side Beat), The Toasters are one band I don't get sick of listening to, even after listening to their CDs on countless occasions. Like Madness, Laurel Aitken, The Skatalites and The Specials, The Toasters are a band that although I'm unlikely to ever see them live, will offer me timeless enjoyment and played a large part in shaping my musical tastes.

Glen Smyth

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