Muse Music Online

N E W S

Provo bands keep ska music alive

November 29, 2003

Can you imagine No Doubt coming to play concerts in Provo? It wasn't unheard of in the early '90s when ska was the main face of the Utah County music scene. In fact, big-name ska bands used to make frequent stops in Provo.

But when popular local ska bands Swim Herschel Swim, Stretch Armstrong and My Man Friday quit playing, ska gradually fizzled out.

Gone for more than five years, ska is making a comeback in Provo. Now holiday concerts like Skalloween and Skanksgiving, as well as local showcases at Muse Music are putting ska back on the map.

"Provo used to be looked at as the ska capitol of the U.S.," said Corey Fox, manager of Muse Music. "The ironic thing is whenever ska is popular here, it's not popular everywhere else. Now there's been a ska resurgence in Provo and ska is not really popular throughout the rest of the country."

Fox said the 2002 Skalloween show that reunited Stretch Armstrong and My Man Friday re-ignited public interest in ska.

He said 21/2 White Guys continue to be a staple of the Utah ska scene, and the 10 newcomers of the high school band Sauce represent the second-generation ska wave.

Jesse Stewart, member of the ska band Earth Bound and creator of Utahska.com, said he has a theory about why people stopped going to local ska shows in the early '90s.

"Too many people were trying to copy Stretch Armstrong and My Man Friday," he said. "Everyone was like a bunch of sheep following the masses. Then Stretch dropped out and the ska lifeline got cut off."

Stewart said he thinks most ska music gets worse as time goes on.

"There was a big ska push in the '70s, '80s and '90s," Stewart said. "And every time the music was different and more perverted from its original form. It's kind of sad."

Stewart said authenticity is a problem with bands which he said "pretend" to play ska music.

"It's kind of a depressing thought," he said. "But people think that if you have the ska suit, you must be a ska band."

Kurt Gordon, a member of 2 1/2 White Guys, said when his band started playing four years ago, it was not easy to get people interested in ska again.

"Everyone chuckled, like 'yeah right, a bunch of whities playing reggae,'" Gordon said.

Source: The Daily Universe

http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/47077