Boston blue-beats

Local ska from the Allstonians, Skavoovie, and Bim Skala Bim

by Brett Milano

Everybody seems to be into ska nowadays, and that's not necessarily good news for the Boston bands who were doing ska before it became this year's grunge. Yes, they're playing higher-profile gigs than ever before, and better-paying ones. In fact, two local ska groups -- the Allstonians and Skavoovie & the Epitones -- are headlining their own CD-release gigs within two days of each other this week. It's just that next year they'll all have to live through the inevitable ska backlash. Meanwhile, local skasters must bear the indignity of comparison with certain trendy LA bands whom nobody around here seems to like much. A mixed blessing? No doubt.

"The first time I heard No Doubt on the radio, my first thought was `Madonna,' " notes Daryl "D-Train" Morrow, tenor-saxophonist of the Allstonians, whose The Allston Beat is out on NYC's Moon Ska Records, and who'll play T.T. the Bear's Place this Saturday. "Then I heard other people say, `There's this new ska band called No Doubt,' and I thought, `Well, sorta' -- not to knock them, but to me they're a pop group. But whatever exposure we might get as a result of their success isn't bad. It gives you more of a focus to keep doing what you set out to do. We've gotten more requests to play lately, and the number of ska bands springing up is phenomenal. But that'll probably just winnow out some of the less sincere bands."

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Ska enters the mainstream

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"What worries me about No Doubt is that people might hear them and say, `This is ska? I guess I don't like it,' " adds Jesse Farber, trumpeter of Skavoovie & the Epitones, who celebrate the release of their new Ripe (also on Moon Ska) tonight (July 10) at the Middle East. "But there's no way that some of their success hasn't spilled over to us," adds the group's sax player, Jon Natchez. "When we started playing in 1992, people were still saying, `What is that music?' It's definitely not as underground as it used to be."

"Sure, it's going to peak at a certain point, and peaking means that you go down from there," says Dan Vitale, leader of one of Boston's veteran ska outfits, Bim Skala Bim. "But that doesn't bother me. The bands that are jumping the bandwagon might not last, but the bands who've been around a long time will still be here."

If No Doubt cynicism runs heavy around town, nobody's saying a bad word about the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who were just another no-account ska band throwing metallic punk into the mix seven years ago. And nobody's denying that Bim Skala Bim did a lot to spearhead the local scene -- least of all Bim themselves.

"I'm not boasting when I say that Boston was the original scene that most of this stuff evolved out of," says Vitale. "There are more bands in California now, but the Bosstones and Bim Skala Bim are still around and still innovating. And I'd argue that with anybody."

What's clear is that all three bands picked a good time to put new CDs on the racks. Meanwhile, two new discs compiled by Vitale have been released on Bim's DVS label. Mash It Up #4 is the latest installment in the series of local ska wrap-ups; Joint Ventures in Ska features local and national bands singing the praises of pot. The latter is now being reserviced after a limited run last winter, during which it was named "Best Weed Album of '96" by High Times -- though I'm not sure what the competition was.

The Allstonians remain my favorite of the current generation of locals, mainly because of their emphasis on songwriting. Morrow lists the Beatles, Elvis Costello, and XTC as influences. I'd add Madness to that list. But the Allstonians are also the most volatile skasters in town, having recently changed half of their personnel for the second time. Five of the original 10 members jumped ship in '94, costing the band custody of their local hit, "B-Train to Allston." And the line-up that recorded The Allston Beat fell apart before its release, with drummer Robert Place, bassist Jonathan Noel, guitarist Roger Fisk, and trombonist John Leonard all leaving. (Keyboardist/main songwriter Nigel Knucklehead is sticking around.)

"It was just differences over the direction of the band, and the tensions that built up sort of boiled over," Morrow says. "I'd have to say that the tempo is a lot slower with the new line-up, there's a different feel to it. And the vocals have improved a little since there's more cooperation. But this time most of the songwriters stayed, so we only lost three songs."

The band's habit of sticking Allston references into their songs -- "B-Train" included genuine Green Line sound effects -- may have started as shtick, but it's turned into a legitimate hook for their songwriting. The new disc is nothing less than a concept album about life in that funky suburb. They get all the details right -- various songs refer to the college kids walking down Brighton Ave, the downstairs couple whose fights keep you awake, the strange girl next door who never gets out of bed, the spoiled brat who blasts his stereo at 3 a.m., and the drinking buddies you meet after work at the Model Café. Think of it as a local answer to the love/hate relationship with London that Madness always had.

Some of the Allstonians appreciate ska as a subculture. Others just think the music sounds good. Morrow says that mix is typical of their audiences. "About a third of the people we play to are legit skinheads -- not violent ones, just that they're into the fashion. There's also a scooter subculture where the music plays a big part in their lives. For me the attraction is that the music is infectious -- that's cliché'd, but it really does grab you. As a performer who's played a lot of different stuff, it's super-gratifying to have people dance. And it's good to see the crossover, where you can see skate punks mixing with hippies."

Skavoovie's Natchez agrees. "Boston's unique in that most cities have a really cliquey ska scene, with everybody trying to be an insider. You see that Two Tone style, and the girls with checkered shirts, much more than you do here. We've played Los Angeles a couple of times and had people in the other bands tell us, `You aren't really going to wear sneakers on stage, are you?' "

One wouldn't mistake Skavoovie for a punk-ska band, and they're not hiding the fact that most of them are well-behaved college students. But they usually get around that by aiming for a jazzy, Skatalites-influenced sound. There's a lot of solid playing on Ripe, which includes a ska version of Jimmy Liggins's R&B nugget "Drunk" (with Monster Mike Welch on guitar) and a few timely excursions into lounge ska.

"There are a lot of conventions to ska," trumpeter Farber points out. "By the nature of the music, you'll always have some connection to the Skatalites or to Two Tone. Some bands will say, `Yeah, we're just a bunch of wacky kids,' but I like to think we take our music more seriously than that."

What about the ska version of Kiss's "Rock'n'Roll All Night" that Skavoovie have been known to pull out during shows?

"We can't help things like that. We don't want to be a bunch of stiffs up there."

Besides, acting goofy on stage remains a time-honored part of the ska tradition -- look at the Bosstones or Madness, who installed dancing fans as full-time bandmembers. "On-stage shenanigans are always going to happen when you get a band with a few horn players in it," Morrow notes.

If the ideas expressed on Joint Ventures in Ska are any indication, ska bands have something else in common as well. The music on the disc ranges from slower reggae (Bim's spacier-than-usual "Legalization") to dancehall rudery (long-running UK character Judge Dread contributes the self-explanatory "Look a Pussy") to traditional ska (a live track by another veteran UK band, the Selecter) to punk ska (Johnny Socko, an Indiana band whose track is big dumb fun). But the songs' subject matter is consistent. The liner notes helpfully mention that hemp is good for making paint, for treating arthritis, and as a source of fuel. They don't mention, however, that smoking the stuff is also rumored to be fun.

"Musicians like to smoke pot," Vitale explains. "That shouldn't be a revelation to anybody. I don't believe that it's a drug for children, but I'd advocate it over cigarettes or alcohol any day of the week. The disc is partly to explain how harmless it really is, and how only greed is keeping it from being legalized."

Vitale emphasizes that the environmental tone of his liner notes is more than a smokescreen. "Traditionally it's believed that pot brings you closer to the earth and to natural things around you. I believe that to be true, and I believe that people who smoke pot are generally more aware."

The cynic in me wants to add that they're also generally more stoned, but I feel too good-natured right now. Listening to a lot of ska will do that.

COMING UP

The Team Dresch spinoff Vegas Beat play the Middle East tonight (Thursday); Barrence Whitfield plays the Attic in Newton, and Stevie Ray disciples Jeff Pitchell & Texas Flood are at the House of Blues . . . On Friday, Serum are at the Linwood, Hovercraft (minus Eddie Vedder) are at the Middle East, Blue and Popgun headline with an art show at T.T. the Bear's Place, neo-psychedelics Astral Park are at the Hard Rock, and the Lazy Boy Rockers are at the Tam. . . . Saturday finds punk icons Jim Carroll and Richard Hell doing a spoken-word gig at Mama Kin, major-label hypees the Caulfields at Bill's Bar, Mung and the Maggots at the Middle East, and blues great Junior Wells at the House of Blues . . . You will of course be there for Guided by Voices at the Paradise Tuesday . . . and on Wednesday Girl on Top play Club Bohemia and dEUS are at Bill's Bar.