The next Electric Avenue show coming up this Saturday, November 10, 2012 at Characters NYC in the heart of New York City is "A Night of Ska Punk" featuring two purveyors of the genre from Brooklyn -- The Pandemics (led by Bigger Thomas trombonist Chris Malone) and Los Skarroneros -- for the incredibly low price of $6.00!
The ska punk genre remains unique in its ability to fuse with a variety of other sounds while maintaining some semblance of ska roots at its base. The Pandemics hew to the type of ska punk perfected by their biggest influences -- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Less Than Jake -- featuring lots and lots of horns and crunching guitars that is balanced by their love of ska and reggae. Los Skarroneros (who take their name from the Spanish word carroñero (a scavenging bird), but also the colloquial Spanish word ñero, which means a person from a poor working class neighborhood) play a rough and ready mix of ska and punk music which reflects their shared Mexican heritage and their working class/immigrant view of the world.
This show is also an opportunity to bring together the diverse Anglo and Latino ska scenes in New York City -- something which would have seemed to be a no brainer, but which in fact has happened less than you would think. It has occurred to me that the dawning of anti-immigrant political reality during the election on the right can be a clarion call for the beginnings of a new American-styled 2-Tone, (or 3-Tone - black, white and brown!) musical and political response, that is bi-lingual, but built on bringing together the rich musical variety of ska in all its forms. One of the amazing qualities of ska is its mutability. It has easily incorporated a variety of musical styles over time. As someone once said to me, "Ska is ska. It really doesn't matter what language the singer is singing". How true.
Electric Avenue is brought to you by my fellow New York City-based ska blogger Duff Guide To Ska (Steve Shafer) and I to support the ska and reggae scene and most importantly, bring ska and reggae music back to Manhattan, where it was born with The Toasters, Beat Brigade and N.Y. Citizens in the early 80's. Electric Avenue is a non-profit venture--all of the cover charge at the door will be split equally between the bands. We don't plan to take a cut, nor does the venue, so you can be assured that if you come out to see a show, the money you pay will directly support the band's playing that night.
Hope to see you at the show!
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