Wasted Days

This is my way of wasting time at work. I should be writing. Instead, I'm blogging. Which is like writing, except worthless and even more narcissistic. I don't know why anyone would care about my opinions, particularly those on music, yet I feel compelled to share them with all of you.

The blog title is not only a reference to the amount of time I imagine wasting while doing this, but also a homage to the title track of an album by The Slackers. For those who haven't heard The Slackers before, I highly recommend you check them out. In my mind, they’re the best ska band on the planet. I know many of you hear the word "ska" and think late 90's No Doubt, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Reel Big Fish -- they were the staples of the brief period in which ska music received mainstream radio play. They also have a stigma of being a bit cheesy and dated. I can assure you, The Slackers are neither cheesy nor dated.

I guess they're part of the third wave of ska (think the aforementioned bands, The Toasters, Operation Ivy, Sublime, etc.), but they draw pretty heavily on the first wave ska and rocksteady. Like most classic reggae, rocksteady, and ska, their sound is punctuated by syncopated guitar and walking basslines. Their saxophonist and trombonist are top notch. And their lead singer and piano player (Vic Ruggiero) is about as good of a front man as any band I've seen in the past couple years. They have an old school fifties rock and roll vibe to their sound. Think about the music coming out of the jukebox at a soda fountain in the fifties and then add a dash of reggae and some badass horns and that's pretty much The Slacker's sound.
They put on an incredible live show. I've seen them twice in the past year at The Troubadour (In my opinion, the best place to see live music in LA) and I was blown away not only by their obvious talent, but also, how much fun a ska show could be.



I should mention that my buddy Vein turned me onto The Slackers. Vein has probably turned me onto more bands than anyone I know and I'm sure he'd be annoyed if I didn't give him some credit. Vein, thanks for having some really good taste in music and some really bad taste in style -- get a haircut you hippie. If you want, you can catch his reggae show every Thursday from 1-4 (EST) on WERW 1570 AM (www.werw.org).