The Interrupters---So Cal 5th generation Ska

[budda12ax7]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq2jJLswL8I

Totally pop and fun music.....love this stuff.

[leokula]

I watched them live in Brazil opening for Green Day... loved it!

[stevejamsecono]

This band seems really tight and knows how to write a tune and I don't want to bash on them or anyone for liking them, but stuff like this kind of bums me out sometimes.

I have really mixed feelings about the ska punk that made its way over here from England. You'd think with America's racial history that we would have been able to pull off a really sick hardcore/hip hop crossover in the early 80s which could have pushed forward with 2nd wave's racial integration goals with a more homegrown twist (since our POC population didn't skew as much from the Islands and Reggae didn't really hit here the same way as it did in the UK), but instead it seems like Americans just jived with Madness and the Clash more and it turned into music for white kids who like to wear bowling shoes and goofy Hawaiian shirts instead. On the one hand, it's really fun music and some of our contributions to the genre (No Doubt and Save Ferris being my favorite) had some great moments, but on the other it's kind of a let down to me that it's turned into what it has and become another like... retro-revival thing from a style/musical perspective instead of trying to be more artistically ambitious and integrating with a more up-to-date sensibility.

I came across a band a few years ago that I thought came close to doing something that would have been really cool and unique, but they seemed to pull out of doing it just as soon as they started to make some interesting headway. The band was called Hostage Calm and were a bunch of white boys from CT, but the combination they were brewing of melodic hardcore, latin rhythms, and beach boys (!!) harmonies was a really intriguing game of musical madlibs for a few sweet moments.

Heard best here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi_L6_Yz5U0
And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3fTNURIJJE

Sadly they opted out of this for more generic Springsteen punk of the Bouncing Souls/Gaslight Anthem/Mezingers variety on their subsequent albums, but it was pretty damn cool while it lasted and when I saw them play in a Baltimore, MD basement on that tour on an otherwise generic hardcore bill it blew my mind.

Anyway, tl;dr is: I'm sure I wouldn't be upset to see these guys at a show, but man do I wish American punk rock was less conservative of a musical tradition sometimes.

[Con-Tiki!]

just saw the Interrupters last weekend.
they were the highlight of a 6 act show that included 311 and Dirty Heads.
reminded me of stuff i used to listen to when i was in high school. The Specials, or maybe Madness...

Anyway, we left while it was still light out.
Apparently, shows like this are an excuse for suburban kids to get fucking baked and smell bad while their parents are busy somewhere else.
I have no patience for that level of unplugging.

Anyway, Interrupters were fun to watch.