Suggestions
Suggestions
Ska emerged in urban Jamaica in the late 1950s and early 1960s, drawing on North American rhythm and blues alongside jazz and Jamaican rhythmic traditions. It moved at an upbeat, energetic tempo over a syncopated pulse from the hi-hat and snare drum. Don Drummond and the Skatalites popularised it, and reggae descends from it. The later ska-punk hybrid belongs to ska’s international afterlife and not to its beginnings.
New Jersey’s Hub City Stompers have spent more than fifteen years on a rough, sarcastic take on skinhead sounds, ska shot through with oi and reggae. Stray Bullets, fronted by Jon Cauztik of the Have Nots, write politically charged songs, and “Peace Signs” is about summer in the city and the street violence that comes with it. The Best of the Worst gave “Painted Fools” away as a free download in their tenth year, ska run through hardcore.