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(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.



People who liked this also liked:
Filthy Thieving Bastards - My Pappy Was a PistolAFI - The Art Of DrowningRefused - The Shape of Punk to ComeHot Water Music - A Flight and a CrashThe Weakerthans - Left and LeavingPropagandhi - Less Talk, More RockLess Than Jake - Hello RockviewLess Than Jake - Losing StreakSleater-Kinney - The WoodsBouncing Souls - Anchors Aweigh



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    Posted by Shindo on 2003-05-07 22:24:02
    My Score:

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

    Posted by Shindo on 2003-05-07 22:22:48
    My Score:

    "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

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 7, 2003 at 3:36 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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

    Posted by lieutenant on 2003-05-05 21:42:30
    My Score:

    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.

    Posted by lieutenant on 2003-05-05 21:40:38
    My Score:

    Okay, you have got me a bit confused.

    The reviewer, Adam, is not Shindo, correct?

    Posted by lieutenant on 2003-05-05 21:34:57
    My Score:

    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".

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 5, 2003 at 8:25 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

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

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 5, 2003 at 9:06 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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.

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 5, 2003 at 3:52 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    this place smells very 15ish

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 4, 2003 at 11:29 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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...

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 4, 2003 at 9:52 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    explain your nazi theory please.

    Posted by Kurt_F on 2003-05-04 15:43:10
    My Score:

    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

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 4, 2003 at 10:05 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Ska is for Nazis.

    Posted by shindo on 2003-05-04 10:01:03
    My Score:

    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

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 9:01 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Hey! sergio!

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 8:54 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 6:19 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    "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

    Posted by GregSka on 2003-05-03 18:16:32
    My Score:

    that was my post below

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 6:06 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 3:43 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

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

    Posted by Melvyl on 2003-05-03 12:15:21
    My Score:

    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.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 3, 2003 at 11:37 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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.

    Posted by fallingtopieces on 2003-05-03 04:28:05
    My Score:

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

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 10:57 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    no its not, the cd cover is small as shit

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 10:40 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    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.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 6:25 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Gah! that cover art is so huge! i'm going to go blind!!!!

    Posted by shindo on 2003-05-02 17:21:16
    My Score:

    ...but there was no ILL mention of them either, which is good.

    Posted by CanadianPunkRawker on 2003-05-02 17:19:23
    My Score:

    Not even any mention of the Mad Bombers Society or The Operators....shame

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 5:03 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    SKA SUCKS !!!!

    Posted by GregSka on 2003-05-02 15:12:05
    My Score:

    I cant wait until I can have this cd! Whats with all the hate ska-punk bands have been getting lately?

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