Ska

Reel Big Fish to Headline Viva Ska Vegas

It's not often that we try to alert your attention to a festival that's going on across state lines. But given our county's undeniable ska roots, we'd be crazy to let you skip Viva Ska Vegas, a day-long deluge of third wave ska bands that represent an entire era of music that refuses to be blown awa ... More >>

The Five Must-See Shows in OC This Week

Monday, March 18 The Vespertines The Constellation Room Long Beach's Vespertines do prickly prog-psych in a way that teaches you to expect the unexpected--and to expect the introspective, the contemplative and the explosive, too. (Plus, expect a trumpet--sure, it might startle you when it blooms ou ... More >>

Reel Big Fish

House of Blues

Voodoo Glow Skulls

Juke Joint

Top 25 Greatest Orange County Bands of All Time: The Complete List

Go ahead, call us a bunch of culture-less, lily-white suburbanites with a partiality to flip-flops and right-wing politics. Those kind of labels never cease to amuse us. Because one thing that instantly dooms most of the tired cliches ascribed to OC is the music--the one-of-a-kind frustration, aggre ... More >>

Top 25 Greatest Orange County Bands of All Time: 14-6

14. Reel Big FishZany, wacky, ska-rooted (though they rock harder now) Reel Big Fish elevate self-deprecation to an art form, thanks to a malcontent lead singer in Aaron Barrett, who beats you to the punch with peppy lyrics like "I'll never be anything, anything at all." He lays down these anti-What ... More >>

The English Beat Are Still the Big Shots of 2 Tone Ska

Front man Dave Wakeling Explains how a bunch of UK punks became kings of island riddim

The Guy Who Got No Doubt Discovered Needs Your Help With His New Book

Tazy Phyllipz has literally made a career out of helping unknown bands grow their audiences. If you don't believe me, just ask No Doubt, Sublime and Maroon 5 - three groups who received airplay on Phyllipz's radio program The Ska Parade long before corporate America knew what a hollaback girl was. ... More >>

Sublime vs. No Doubt? Manager/producer Miguel Happoldt Says 'No Doubt was like Richie Cunningham and Sublime was like Fonzie'

See Also: *No Doubt Talk About Being Rockstar Parents*Happy 25th Anniversary, No Doubt! A Look at the First Show's Venue, Lineup, Flyers and Benefit--And Where Everyone is Now*No Doubt in Their Own WordsNo Doubt is back with a retro-new wave album called Push and Shove  afte ... More >>

No Doubt In Their Own Words

An oral history of OC's greatest band and their newest album, 'Push and Shove'

Just a Girl: Crushing on Gwen Stefani in the Early Days of No Doubt

See Also: *No Doubt Talk About Being Rockstar Parents*Happy 25th Anniversary, No Doubt! A Look at the First Show's Venue, Lineup, Flyers and Benefit--And Where Everyone is Now*Tony Kanal Talks About No Doubt's New AlbumNo Doubt is back with a retro-new wave album called Push and ... More >>

Reel Big Fish Keep Skanking for Good Times' Sake

Their sunny, Huntington Beach-bred ska endures with 'Candy Coated Fury'

Reel Big Fish

City National Grove of Anaheim

My Superhero

Glasshouse

Just How Many Times Did Ska Legends the English Beat Say 'Fellator' In One Song?

By the late 1980s ska was tired and in need of a heart and lung transplant. Orange County would, in fact, become home to the biggest and most influential of so-called third wave of ska revivals (there was also one in New York) because it had two things vital to the development of any such trend: inv ... More >>

Happy 25th Anniversary, No Doubt! A Look at the First Show's Venue, Lineup, Flyers and Benefit--And Where Everyone is Now

​Twenty five years ago today, No Doubt played their first show at Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, opening for ska legends the Untouchables. (They played second among 14 bands.)According to the No Doubt fansite Beacon Street Online (who first published the poster today), the band's official site m ... More >>

Reel Big Fish

Fox Pomona

Starpool

Yost

Ska Parade's Tazy Phyllipz Remembers Bradley Nowell

Sublime frontman Bradley Nowell, who died 15 years ago this month, left behind a legacy that is intrinsically tied to Long Beach and the rest of Orange County. This week's cover story pays tribute to the man who put Garden Grove on the map, who sang about the perils of date rape and invented the s ... More >>

Buck-O-Nine

Alex's Bar

RIP, Lloyd Knibb of the Skatalites

[Mental Notes] Also, the Vandals make a movie and ask you to do the same!

UPDATED with Cause of Death: R.I.P., Lloyd Knibb, Skatalites Drummer

​UPDATED, May 13, 9:51 a.m.: Lloyd Knibb's wife Enid said her husband died from liver cancer late Thursday. According to the Associated Press, "Knibb had been receiving treatment in the U.S. but returned to Jamaica this week. Knibb's manager, Ken Stewart, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that he wa ... More >>

Ska Parade Celebrates its 20th Anniversary at Slidebar Tonight

Myspace.com​Long-running radio show the Ska Parade is in the midst of celebrating its 20th anniversary, which means the program is older than some of its listeners. It also means a birthday party is in order, so SP head honcho Tazy Phyllipz decided to celebrate by hitting the road with the Ska Par ... More >>

The Toasters

Slide Bar

Rx Bandits

House of Blues

Reel Big Fish to Tour with Goldfinger and Aquabats!

​ The press release called the event an "all-out bash of the ska punk titans," and we'd have to agree. In a previous interview with OC Weekly, Reel Big Fish front man Aaron Barrett said they'd performed in Brazil with Goldfinger earlier this year; it was so much fun they decided to set out and do ... More >>

Locally Grown Finale Featuring Reel Big Fish at the Grove of Anaheim

Meg Strouse/OC Weekly​Check out our Reel Big Fish slideshow here!Chase Long Beach, Starpool, Suburban Legends, Reel Big FishSeptember 18, 2010Grove of AnaheimThird-wave ska, that unapologetically goofy genre, was born and raised in Orange County. Turn on the radio in the mid-1990s, and there was n ... More >>

Exclusive: Don't Call Reel Big Fish's Aaron Barrett the 'Skafather'

​In this week's story about Reel Big Fish, Aaron Barrett talked about Orange County's old ska scene, and how that's propelled their career. But ultra-charming Reel Big Fish front man also talked about a few other things--regarding karaoke, his iPod and the term "skafather," which came from an OC R ... More >>

Ska's Not Dead

Orange County purveyors are still skankin' to the beat

See and Be Scenes

The many subspecies of OC bands in their natural habitats

Is Ska Dead? Meagan Christy of Chase Long Beach Weighs In

www.myspace.com/chaselongbeach​Meagan Christy, Chase Long Beach's trumpet player, doesn't mince words about the ska scene in Long Beach. "We like to play at DiPiazza's, when our friends in ska bands from other states roll through, they play there. It's kinda small but everyone goes nuts." Other th ... More >>

SunGod Summer Sunfest Organizer 2Mex: Flexing his Fan Base, Fucking with People's Heads

2Mex's fan base will destroy you. Just look what they did to that deer.​2Mex is the kinda guy who likes to put his money where his mouth is. Two months before the November release of his new album, My Fan Base Will Destroy You (on Sage Francis' label, Strange Famous Records), this vetera ... More >>

Giant Orange Festival

Orange County Great Park

Interview: Half Past Two Is Way Past Ska

​You could probably call Half Past Two the band that Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish built. Notwithstanding the fact that members of the band have been together since they were members of the Los Alamitos High School marching band, ska veteran Barrett has been instrumental in their development. He ... More >>

Exclusive: Toots and the Maytals Interview

​If you're sorely missing classic reggae in your life, it might be wise to plan a trip to Hermosa Beach to see Toots and the Maytals perform at Saint Rocke on Saturday, May 15. Read Drew Tewksbury's interview with the legend after the jump.

Last Night: Reel Big Fish at House of Blues, Anaheim

The Hype: A homecoming show for Reel Big Fish at the House of Blues Anaheim along with musical comrades Starpool and Chase Long Beach was a guaranteed sell out.Andrew YoussefReel Big Fish Live at House of Blues, AnaheimThe Show: I was taken aback by the energy of the sold-out crowd as the horn secti ... More >>

Reel Big Fish Are Ska-Punk Survivors

The English Beat

The Coach House

Ska Still Being Performed in Orange County (At Least Tonight)

​If there's one thing that I've learned about Orange County during my time here, it's that in the early-to-mid '90s, ska was apparently the only genre that bands were allowed to play. Sadly, the "scene" seems to be pretty quiet these days, but for tonight at least, that changes with the "ska circu ... More >>

(Tragic) Kingdom Come Again, Leaving No Doubt Who Rules OC

Friday Night: No Doubt, Paramore, the Sounds at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

Andrew YoussefDon't be fooled! This picture is from Saturday's show!​Friday night at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater--the first of No Doubt's four sold-out hometown shows and the beginning of the end of the band's reunion tour--I sat in my seat the Irvine venue not quite knowing what to expect from ... More >>

Reel Big Fish, English Beat

The Grove of Anaheim

INCOMING: Reel Big Fish, Frank Sinatra Jr. at the Grove of Anaheim

Ska is dead? Guess not! Huntington Beach's Reel Big Fish, famous for riding that third wave of ska in the late '90s (with hits like "Sell Out" and uh...well, "Sell Out" was really big!), are coming to the Grove of Anaheim on Aug 2. Opening up? Two-tone ska revival band The English Beat. Flummoxed by ... More >>

Posthumous

Ska is Dead Tour

The English Beat at The Coach House

[Locals Only] Not a Chance

Last Night: English Beat, RX Bandits at The Grove

In the decades since the sounds of ska infiltrated Orange County, the local music scene has definitely gone through some changes. Live music junkies have been left to fend for themselves in a sea of emo, screamo, hardcore and other intricately titled audible slop. But last night at The Grove in An ... More >>

Beat Skank

The English Beat