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Various

All-Skanadian Club 4 (2003)
Union Label Group

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Adam
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on May 2nd 2003

(forgive me if I tell a bit of a story here)

In high school we were all ska kids. Not that we dressed the part, but in terms of musical preference the four or five of us who occupied a few square meters of hallway space every day were the “rudest” people we knew. We were all slightly too young to be heavily impacted by Nirvava and had not yet got together with the Green Day / Offspring crowd. We’d be passing around the early Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake records, attending as many Bosstones or Planet Smashers shows as we could get to and generally earning the contempt of the popular crowd with their dance music and whatnot.

The All-Skanadian Club CDs were fascinating little artifacts in our social group, collections of (to us) obscure indie artists, all sharing our nationality and taking the ska genera in different directions. Of course we grew away from it, as all kids to with the music of their youth, and now my roommate and I trade insults as I blast Hüsker Dü from my room to drown out the Pink Floyd coming from his.

My roommate wandered into my room, probably to make fun of the Cure record I was playing, and in my pile of promos he sees volume FOUR of the All Skanadian Club. For a few brief seconds it was like high school again as we excitedly looked over the tracklisting of a series we thought long gone.

Volume four of the Club is a really strong collection of tracks; it’s great to see that after the glut of `97 there’s still such a viable collection of bands across the country. With the lack of punk influences here fans of The Slackers or the Toasters will feel right at home. The Afterbeat kicks things off with the traditional vibes of “Me and You.” Other standouts include Los Furios’ “Running In Circles,” King Konqueror’s bombastic “Hush Up” and album tracks from Stomp’s General Rudie and The Planet Smashers. Relaxed moments come with King Kong Girio’s “Angry At The Girl” and The Nightshift’s jazzy instrumental “Arch Enemy.” Female vocalists steal the show with The Wedgewoods’ “On The Junk” and especially Ten Too Many’s “Love Song.” Canadian skafather Chris Murray finishes things off with a live duet with Lorraine Muller (of The Kingpins) titled “Johnny Rocksteady.” The low profile track sounds like it was recorded from the back of the bar. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in atmosphere.

This is a great collection of songs with fairly consistent quality and only a few slight misses (I enjoyed the ska-punk tracks far less than the trad stuff). Make sure you get your hands on this before even thinking of complaining about a lack of good ska records this spring.

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Shindo (May 7, 2003)

lieutenant: Adam is Shindo is Adam is Shindo...

Shindo (May 7, 2003)

"The Planet Smashers were ass, third-rate Aquabats impersonators when ska was cool."

...yeahhh... For some of us who didn't run away when it stopped being "cool", the Planet Smashers never went anywhere. They released a great album last year and their upcoming one has guests from the Specials on it... but naw, why would Neville associate with Aquabats impersonators.

The Smashers have always been here, I saw them at least 3 times last year and I'm going to their show on monday.

So sorry Cos, your comment gets no dice from moi.

adam

Anonymous (May 7, 2003)

Oh Christ c'mon..

Now, I know some of you guys who run this site are Canadian and proud of it, and really, I'm with you on that. But really, All Skanadian Club VOLUME 4? THE PLANET SMASHERS? The Planet Smashers were ass, third-rate Aquabats impersonators when ska was cool. The only thing worth listening to on this CD is Chris Murray, and you can find his music in better places than this.

If you're going to review Canadian music, couldn't you pick up a No Means No CD or something? Cause if we're gonna throwback to running reviews on regional bands we loved in high school, then I'll have to bust out my Mealticket CDs, maybe the Dillinquints comp (my friend's band is on there) and then things will just get really ugly from there...

--Cos

lieutenant (May 5, 2003)

No, nevermind. I believe there are or have been a number of Adam's commenting on this website, however there is only one that have Rancid 2000 a perfect score.

lieutenant (May 5, 2003)

Okay, you have got me a bit confused.

The reviewer, Adam, is not Shindo, correct?

lieutenant (May 5, 2003)

this place smells very 15ish

You might have been referencing another conversation, but that is exactly what I felt when I began to read about how "skinheads aren't all nazis".

Anonymous (May 5, 2003)

How come there's always some scenester trash that needs to tell us all whats cool and what sucks ass? Fuck off.

Anonymous (May 5, 2003)

Spitvalves are absolute crap. The most uninteresting, generic band I've seen in ages. Please drop the word "ska" in referencing them. Same goes with Capdown. YAWN.

Anonymous (May 5, 2003)

this place smells very 15ish

Anonymous (May 4, 2003)

Don't forget that man. Skinhead not signifing nazi all the time. The good term for nazi skinhead is bonehead. The special are skinhead but there black, so...

Anonymous (May 4, 2003)

explain your nazi theory please.

Kurt_F (May 4, 2003)

The Spitvalves are really good, my band had the privalege of opening for them and Voodoo Glowskulls recently. The Spitvalves blew them away though. Thier singer looks kinda like Fred Durst, oh well though.

anyways, www.mp3.com/thirdgradescuffle

Anonymous (May 4, 2003)

Ska is for Nazis.

shindo (May 4, 2003)

If you read some propagandhi interviews you'll learn that they DONT hate ska. They wrote that song to anger some Winnipeg skinheads who were fucking things up at their shows and who were heavily into ska at the time. They didnt even plan to include it on "How To Clean..."

adam

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

Hey! sergio!

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

ooohhh very deep lyrics! propagandhi fucking sucks! the bands are only in it for the bucks?!?! propagandhi shouldn't be talking see as how theyre canadians who bitch about american policy because its profitable to do so

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

"ska sucks
ska revival isn't cool you stupid fuck
the bands are only in it for the bucks
and if you don't believe me you're a schmuck"

-Propagahndi

GregSka (May 3, 2003)

that was my post below

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

Yeah LATELY. As in at first it was fans jumping onto the great emo-hardcore bandwagon and now its fans jumping onto the trad ska bandwagon, claiming they never cared for the ska-punk bands that got them hooked to the genre in the first place. I'll never fault someone for liking something, but when they turn around and start shit-talking it then that person's got problems.
Note: this isn't aimed at anyone on this board

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

i honestly dont see how you people still listen to ska, for real..haha.it honestly amazes me

Melvyl (May 3, 2003)

Capdown is not my favourite skapunk band, i've seen them atleast 10 times and they're always fun and stuff, but their cd's aren't as good.

But Big D and the kidsa table are really fucking good, so are the spitvalves and farse, farse are great, really great, another uk band for you.

Anonymous (May 3, 2003)

Gregska: Lately? get with the times dude. As for Capdown being best skapunk band, thats right. Big D And The Kids Table is great also.

fallingtopieces (May 3, 2003)

Capdown is the best ska band out there right now, of course nobody has their cds availble.

Anonymous (May 2, 2003)

no its not, the cd cover is small as shit

Anonymous (May 2, 2003)

Has anyone seen the new LTJ e-card?

Man, they totally pissed all over "Look What Happened".

That CD is going to blow chunks. I'm so dissapointed in them.