I did an experiment during the month of January. January is usually a difficult month for many, considering the emotional come down from the holidays, the continuing cold weather, and the near perpetual grey skies over the state of Ohio (where I live). I wanted to see if I could radically affect the way I experienced the month by listening almost exclusively to one genre of music. And I chose the most joyful (and divisive) music I could think of: ska. I then decided to christen the month “Ska-Nuary,” a title I’m fairly certain I was the only person to use. That’s fine, I accept it. If you’re just now coming upon this, be sure to check out the other three articles for the full journey.
For the final week of this experiment, I decided to focus solely on ska cover songs. Now, there are two types of cover songs. First, there are cover songs where the new artist tries to be as faithful to the original as possible. Secondly, there are cover songs where the covering artist tries to reinvent the song according to their own genre sensibilities. For me, I find faithful covers to be incredibly boring. If option is to listen to the OG or a version that sounds exactly the same, I’m going to pick the original every time. I’m much more impressed when an artist can take a song and flip it according to their own styles and talents while still retaining the core of what people liked about the song in the first place.
Ska groups covering other peoples’ songs is a time-honored tradition ever since The Specials took “Rudy (A Message To You)” from Dandy Livingston and ushered in a new era of Ska with Two-Tone. And ska is a genre uniquely positioned to do cover songs. Many of its musicians are trained in music theory (aka band nerds). And the with the upstroked guitars, vocal harmonies, and horns doing countermelodies offers, it is a simple (yet complex) way to flip the script on the original.
Now, all of this can be a double-edged sword. Just like with punk cover songs, all you have to do is speed up the tempo, add some syncopation and horns, and voila, you’ve got a cover! That doesn’t guarantee it’s any good (or has artistic merit). But it will make sure that even the most lackluster band has a part in the show where people are singing along. For example, my high school grunge band covered “Tale as Old as Time” from Beauty and the Beast. It was always a crowd pleaser.
I listened to a variety of ska covers this week, going back to some classics (Five Iron Frenzy “It’s Not Unusual,” Reel Big Fish “Take On Me”) and discovering artists new to me (Victims of Circumstance). One of the best discoveries I made was The Holophonics. They have done an incredible number of cover albums and have also covered complete albums. I was blown away by their version of Jimmy Eat World’s classic emo album Clarity. It is one of my favorite albums and could easily be turned into something silly or frivolous by adding horns and upstrokes. But it’s clear from my listening that The Holophonics understood and respected the original even while adapting it.
So my listening pleasure (and yours), I made a playlist with some of my favorite ska covers. You can listen below. I’m also going to highlight several songs and artists that brought a lot of joy to my heart this last week (and hopefully will to yours as well).
Save Ferris-“Come On Eileen”
This is the godmother of all ska covers. Save Ferris made their big screen debut in 10 Things I Hate About You and reintroduced a whole new generation of listeners to the classic track by Dexy’s MIdnight Riders. And simultaneously they brought a huge amount of attention to 3rd wave ska. Unfortunately, doing this cover sealed the fate for Save Ferris being a one-hit wonder. But man, it’s a serious hit.
Streetlight Manifesto-“Red Rubber Ball”
Ska-punk band Streetlight Manifesto released an entire covers album in 2010 called 99 Songs of Revolution Volume 1. They cover everyone from The Postal Service and Radiohead to The Dead Milkmen and NOFX. My favorite from the collection is a cover of “Red Rubber Ball” by The Cyrkle. I grew up listening to Oldies radio and this was a song in regular rotation. In fact, I only recently found out that it wasn’t actually Simon and Garfunkel song but had been written by Paul Simon and recorded by a different band. While I was training for my first marathon last spring, this track was on regular rotation and helped me push through many long and hard miles. “I think it’s gonna be alright, yea the worst is over now, the morning sun is shining like a red-rubber ball.”
Skatune Network-“Dammit”
Skatune Network, the brainchild behind Jeremy Hunter (of JER and We are The Union) is a YouTube phenomenon. Hunter covers well-known pop songs, 2000’s pop-punk/emo/mallcore, and video game soundtracks. They include an array of guests (although they play most/all the instruments). The videography is really well done, and the music is nostalgic. But Hunter is also an incredible vocalist/musician and does justice to the idea of taking a well-loved song and giving it new life. It was hard to pick a favorite (and getting on their channel is a definite YouTube rabbit hole), but I definitely love their cover of Blink 182’s classic coming-of-age anthem “Dammit.”
The Berlin Project-“Gin and Juice”
I don’t quite remember how this ever came across my radar. In the early days of the internet, my friend had Napster and would download random punk songs and make us mix cd’s. One of these had a cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice.” I’m confident the artist was probably mislabeled as “Sublime,” so it wasn’t until years later I found it was done by a group called The Berlin Project. There’s not much available on the group, and the song isn’t available on any streaming platforms. But thanks to Youtube, I can still enjoy it for nostalgia’s sake. I recognize it’s somewhat problematic for an all-white group subverting a classic street song into a white boy nerd anthem. But it is fun, and I think Snoop can appreciate that. So, here you go.
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