Looking for Ska, learning material

ANIMALBEATS

Silver Member
Starting in a Ska band, looking for any material that will aid my learnning
 
GO SKA! Very underrated genre, I mean come on, rock and jazz in 1? Is there anything better for a drummer?

Anyway, I would just listen to some bands. I prefer...
The Specials
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Reel Big Fish
Streetlight Manifesto
Catch 22
Less than Jake
and Big D and the Kids Table

Your gonna want to build up your hi hat speed and get used to triplets.
 
I actually was looking to start a ska-oriented project, and I've been listening to a lot of those bands.

Looking forward to suggestions here.
 
It seems that this whole discussion is about the third wave of ska, also known as punk-ska. You should start trying to discover the roots of ska. How it came to be from rock-steady and reggae. It will help your interpretation of third wave stuff tremendously.
 
If you are looking for a punk ska band, then Streetlight Manifesto is perfect. Not only are they punk ska, but they are incredible. If you are not looking for punk ska, then look into Five Iron Frenzy, or some of The Aquabats earlier stuff (late 90's, early 2000's - by the way on one of their albums, Travis Barker drummed for them before going over to Blink). Another lesser known ska band with this same sort of sound is Jefferies Fan Club (JFC). My favorite ska album is probably Streetlight Manifesto's rendition of Keasby Nights. It really is the essence of a good ska album. I guess just listen to the other bands mentioned, get steady hi hat time, and be very comfortable with playing cymbal time on the off beats (like on the "+" 's. Don't do this all the time but it can offer a really good ska feel).
 
The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, Men at Work, any Reggae, early Fishbone, The Special AKA, The Toasters, The English Beat....
 
The perfect music for reggae/ska drumming is Rebelution.
Winsley Finley(Drummer) uses a mixtrue of Fusion/Rock and its perfect.
I got into the same thing with my Reggae band.
 
Bob Marley, Peter Tosh - great hi-hat work at a slower speed.
English Beat
The Specials
No Doubt - there first record has some excellent drum work on it. If you listen to any of
their other work you are wasting your time. (personal opinion!)

Just a few off the top of my head.
Good Luck!
 
The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, Men at Work, any Reggae, early Fishbone, The Special AKA, The Toasters, The English Beat....

The Toasters! Yes! THE BEST. Hands down the strongest horn section for second wave ska. Incredible horn lines and lots of diversity in their music (i.e. all the songs don't sound the same). I got into ska because of 3rd wave acts like RBF and Mad Caddies and Bosstones (and I still really like all those bands, plus more), but the Toasters are better than all of them. For all you 3rd Wavers, give them a listen...I assure you they are not that "boring old ska" that you might be thinking!

I'm in a ska band now that is trying to be more "roots" than 3rd wave. No distortion. Just good songwriting to get us through. We just threw a demo up on our myspace yesterday. I know this isn't the right thread for this, but check us out and let me know what you think.

myspace.com/DNOska

Definitely love this thread, good to see some people still listening to ska. I have a feeling it could be coming back around in the next couple years.
 
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