Welcome to part two of my experiment in defeating seasonal depression with ska. Be sure to read Part One in which I share why I decided to take on this crazy experiment. In this second week of Ska-Nuary I wanted to go back to my personal roots in Ska.  

My roots in ska go back over twenty years now to my life as an awkward junior high boy with gel spiked hair, raging hormones, and a taste in music that was shaping my personality. During that time, I was introduced to two critical albums that cemented my love for ska music: Five Iron Frenzy’s “Proof That The Youth Are Revolting” and Reel Big Fish’s “Turn The Radio Off.”

It all started with Five Iron Frenzy. My friend and I had learned about this Christian Ska band and immediately fell in love. As youth group kids, we resonated with the faith-oriented message that some of their songs had. But we also gravitated towards their pure goofiness.  They talked about stinky feet, farting, dinosaurs, giants, and wallet chains.  We were kids with a deep love for Weird Al Yankovic, so their juvenile brand of humor fit right into our collective wheelhouse. To this day, he still calls me Combat Chuck whenever we talk.

One year we decided to do a Five Iron Frenzy CD exchange for Christmas. It was 2001.Wal-Mart still had a vast and varied CD selection. So I purchased their newest album “Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo.” In return, he gave me their live album “Proof That the Youth Are Revolting.” I still believe this is one of the best live albums, ever. The mixture of humorous and serious songs, the on-point instrumentation, and the sense of humor throughout makes it feel like a fully fleshed out narrative experience. The band only had two albums and an EP out when they recorded this record. But they also incorporated several cuts from the forthcoming “All the Hype That Money Can Buy,” including the Columbine-themed “A New Hope.”

I cannot overemphasize the influence this album has had on my life. I can scat all the horn lines and quote all of the skits in between songs. The way their lead singer Reese Roper interacted with the band and the audience inspired the way I wanted to be when I was in different bands. I took his sense of humor into my approach as the front man for a Southern Metalcore band in college. This probably wasn’t the best choice, to be honest. The scene at the time notoriously had little to no sense of humor. Starting a show with “We are a Garth Brooks cover band from Knoxville, Tennessee” or “We’re a three piece acapella group (there were five of us)” got a lot more blank stares and crossed arms than garnered any kind of interest in our band.

That same year I had made a new friend who would introduce me to the world of punk music outside of CCM. He had green hair and wore fishnet shirts. He showed me bands like NOFX and Dinosaur Jr. And he let me borrow his various Punk-O-Rama compilation albums. For my birthday that following June, he gave me “Turn the Radio Off” by Reel Big Fish. Upon taking off the aluminum foil wrapped around the CD, I was immediately taken in by the cover art: a snarling girl was holding a man at gunpoint.

I didn’t recognize the band or the album. But I trusted my friend, so I popped the CD into the boombox. I was immediately hooked by the horn lines, the upstroked guitars, and shout along choruses. Like Five Iron, Reel Big Fish emphasized humor. Songs like “Everything Sucks,” “Sell Out,” and “She’s Got a Girlfriend Now” had a sarcastic and even cynical sense of humor. And the hooks were undeniable.

I realized a few tracks in I had heard the song “Beer” and seen the band on the Matt Parker and Trey Stone movie BASEketball. From there on out, “Turn The Radio Off” became my first day of summer album. As soon as school let out for summer break, I’d pop that bad boy into my Sony Discman and sing along to lines like “I’ll never be a rock and roll star” even while I dreamed of being a rock and roll star while push mowing my parents lawn.

This week, I went back and listened to “Proof That The Youth Are Revolting” and “Turn The Radio Off,” as well as dived into both bands discographies. Five Iron Frenzy and Reel Big Fish are both part of the 3^rd Wave punk-ska movement, a fact I didn’t know at the time. And they are similar in their musical styles and sense of humor. So it makes total sense why I grasped onto them so tightly. Both records still hold up, which is saying a lot because there are plenty of albums from that time in life that do not.

Both albums also provided a lot of levity during at time of mental depression I was experiencing as a youth. There were not many accessible mental health resources at the time, and myself and many teens in my place were being labeled as “emo” and not taken seriously. I was not getting the help I needed. I didn’t even know help could be gotten. So, instead, I turned to music. My hero at the time was Kurt Cobain. Nirvana’s music was my poetry, therapy, and playbook. This was not great for an emotional kid with self-esteem issues and later-to-be-diagnosed clinical depression. Simultaneously listening to ska gave me one outlook on life that wasn’t so bleak. Ska bands like Five Iron Frenzy and Reel Big Fish could look right in the face of all of the challenges in life and laugh. And if they could laugh, then maybe I could too.

 I enjoyed the trip down memory lane this last week. Both bands helped to put a serious dent in seasonal depression, coupled with the stresses of work, family life, and the post-holiday blues. Honestly, it’s hard to feel down when marching around the office shouting “Kingdom of the Dinosaurs!” (Five Iron Frenzy). Or when singing about Snoop Doggy-Dogg or dancing to a ska cover of “Take on Me” (Reel Big Fish).

If you haven’t listened to either of these records yet, do yourself a favor and give them a spin. That is, unless you HATE fun. And if that’s the case, then why on earth did you read so far into this article? This next week I will be taking on the roots of Ska and Two-Tone. Won’t you join me?