Weekend - Isaac Green and the Skalars
The New York Times, 9/19/97
ISAAC GREEN AND THE SKALARS, Wetlands, 161 Hudson Street, SoHo, (212) 966-4225. With ska influenced
bands like No Doubt, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and No Doubt running up and down the pop charts,
one hopes that their coattails are long enough for the more traditional ska bands across the
country to grab onto. On Sunday afternoon at 1 at Wetlands in an event put together by Moon Records
(New York's premier ska label), nine varied bands duke it out in a battle of blaring horns,
skittering guitars and some of the easiest rhythms to dance to this side of the macarena.
One of the most anticipated acts is Isaac Green and the Skalars, from St. Louis. Though
they can get trite in the lyric department, the Skalars are young, fresh and pop-minded,
offering a slower, rootsier break from all the punk-based ska in circulation. Admission is $10.
-Strauss
Isaac Green and the Skalars
Skoolin' With the Skalars
Alternative Press Magazine, July 1997
Some records have that sense of joy that makes you shrug off the working week every time you hear them.
And the Skalars have got it. They've also come up with one of the great couplets of the year
in "I admit he's quite a coward/but at least now I'm empowered." If that doesn't make you
smile, you're a bitter person. Of course, the Skalars have a great secret weapon: not just one
female vocalist, but three, so you get songs like "I Love You," which sounds like something
out of the golden girl-group era. And they have some excellent musical taste,
skanking up some Memphis soul ("Bleechwood 4-5789") and jump blues ("Bloodshot Eyes") to full
effect. What makes it all the more amazing is that they're from St. Louis, hardly known as the hotbed
of anything, let alone stonking ska. Maybe it's the start of a new era, and the Midwest will
rise again. I mean, if ska is playing well there, it'll play anywhere. And it should.
Quite what Isaac Green does, I don't know, since he's credited with "steps and shouts,"
but he's put together a great band.
-Chris Nickson
Isaac Green and the Skalars Refreshingly, Isaac Green & the Skalars don't fall into either of these categories, yet
they still manage to incorporate elements of the two into their own sound.
Oh sure, there're sweet, melodic ska tunes, like the band's cover of Coxsone Dodd's "I Love You,"
but then there're also punchy, hectic numbers like "Phat Steaks."
The vocals are the album's real standout; they're handled primarily by the band's three
female saxaphone players, who harmonize like nobody's business. Lead vocalist Jessica
Butler's warm contralto is especially pleasing. These vocal stylings are occasionally interrupted
by a hoarse, barking male voice, which is that of Isaac Green himself. Ike primarily handles
percussion and m.c. duties for the band, but does contribute his amusingly-lousy vocals to a few of the album's tunes.
Surprisingly enough, he and the female singers usually manage to strike an appealing balance,
especially on "The Row," a raucous tribute to the local college's frat row. The only other
vocals are done by trombonist Evan Shaw, who performs with gusto on the rockabilly-flavored cover,
"Bloodshot Eyes." There's only one instrumental, but it does give the horn players (and the drummer!)
room to stretch out.
Ahhh, the horn players. The horn lines are rock-solid, but fairly unmemorable; catchy melodies,
but there really aren't any solos that grab you. The album's other standout are the extremely
clever lyrics. They run the gamut from an angry, snotty tune about the local rich kid ("Spoiled Brat")
to a tune about... umm, desire ("Puppet Lover") to wonderfully cheesy angst ("High School") to
a tune about Isaac Green's own legendary ego. ("Ike's Ride," tacked onto the end of the album.)
In fact, the only really disappointing track on the album is "Junbok," their surprisingly lukewarm
remake of a song they originally released as a 7-inch single.
What can I say? At a time when most ska bands can be easily pigeonholed into one subcategory or another,
Isaac Green & the Skalars are fresh-sounding and inventive while never straying
far from the roots of the music. If you like any kind of ska, chances are you'll like this - and
make sure to catch the band live, as they do a killer cover of Minor Threat's "Good Guys Don't Wear White."
Skoolin' With the Skalars
Lollipop Magazine, June 1997
The ska music scene has been experiencing a kind of schism lately; yu've got your "traditional" ska
bannds, who adhere strictly to the holy commandments of ska as laid down by the Skatalites,
Prince Buster, and other such luminaries; and you've got the "ska-punk/skacore" crowd, whose
only requirement is an accented upbeat, an occasional horn or two, and a tempo of at least 5,000 bpm.
-Michael D. Toole
New Music Report:
Isaac Green and the Skalars - Skoolin' With the Skalars
Lollipop Magazine, June 1997
St. Louis ska band Isaac Green and the Skalars (pronounce it "scholars," get it?) present a fresh,
clean kind of ska on their debut release, Skoolin' With the Skalars. Each of the album's
12 tracks has a zesty humour that mirrors the equally joyous music. Out of the nine members, four
play brass instruments (three different kinds of saxes and a trombone) that create the classic
ska sound. Four of the members are credited with vocals (Green's tagline is "steps and shouts,"
which technically makes five), and having so many vocalists make the songs that much more interesting,
especially on the female/male interplay of "The Row." Primarily, however, the vocals are handled
by a female vocalist whose singing is clean and sprightly. The hand mainly writes its own songs,
from the cutely ironic "Spoiled Brat" ("Don't kid yourself, it's not easy having wealth") to the
wise "Don't Count" ("Don't count on getting what you want/but appreciate it when it comes").
Of the three covers, "Beechwood 4-5789" will be the most familiar, and it fares well set to a frentic
ska pace. The songs range in tempo from the super-fast "Phat Steaks" to the slowed-down cover of
Leroy Sibbles' "I Love You."
-Megan Frampton
Road Skalars:
"We've only been on tour for two weeks, and I've already totaled the van,"
Green confesses. "We were driving all night from Boise to Seattle, and
about four in the morning, I hit an ice patch and the van flipped over."
Fortunately, neither Green nor the Skalars--trombonist Evan Shaw,
saxophonist/vocalist Jessica Butler, guitarist Ethan D'Ercole, drummer Dave
Sharma, organist Jason Brody, DJ Wade and bassist Willie Horton (no
relation to the convicted felon used in ads for President George Bush's
1988 presidential campaign)--were seriously injured in the accident, and
the band's equipment survived largely intact. But in order to continue
publicizing Skoolin' With the Skalars, their auspicious debut CD, the
musicians needed to find a new set of wheels. And that was easier said than
done. "We couldn't get a rental van because none of us are 25," Green
explains. "So right now we're all riding in the back of a Penske moving
truck. We've got couches and rugs--it's a pretty nice setup. We've even
decorated the walls nicely by drawing pictures of what it might look like
in the outside world."
Despite these improvements, being boxed up in a windowless space for hour
after hour has not been much fun: Green notes that a bout of carsickness
struck him while rolling along a winding California highway. But such
unpleasantness has not diverted the players from their chosen course. The
Skalars remain committed to bringing their intriguing blend of traditional
two-tone and Jamaican club-style ska to the masses, wherever they may be.
Green co-founded the Skalars when he was a freshman at Washington
University in St. Louis, a few years after being introduced to ska. "When I
was fifteen, I took all these art classes with a really weird girl with
dyed black hair," he recalls. "I found out that she was a skinhead, and I
told her, 'I don't know if I can associate with Nazis.' And she said, 'I'm
not a Nazi' and went off on me." The pair agreed to disagree about
politics, but they found common ground when the young woman started talking
about her favorite musical style. "I was like, 'Ska? What are you talking
about?'" Green continues. "Then she gave me a tape by the Specials, and I
knew I'd found the answer to all my problems with popular music at the
time."
The Skalars were the natural offshoot of Green's new discovery, but the
band took a while to get moving; it "floundered around" for a few years,
Green admits. The release of a Skalars seven-inch single changed that and
led to a brief Midwestern tour with another neo-ska combo, the Pietasters.
The jaunt was just as rocky as the Skalars' latest excursion--"The
Pietasters even had a gun pulled on them by a promoter," Green reveals--and
after getting back home, the group nearly split up. Green credits Butler,
an original Skalar who returned to the fold after a lengthy hiatus, with
preventing a divorce. "She went to France for a year while we were still
terrible," he explains. "By the time she came back, someone else was
singing, but Jessica was really a better singer."
Butler's addition helped solidify the Skalars' female-fronted sound--an
approach that helps set the band apart from most Midwestern ska
practitioners. "When we started the band, we wanted a girl singer partly
because we didn't want that testosterone style of music," Green remarks. Of
course, No Doubt, headed up by Gwen Stefani, dabbles in ska, too, but its
pop/new wave approach is much less genuine than the one taken by Green and
company. Likewise, their reliance on Jamaican ska and rock-steady
influences helps differentiate them from skacore, a subgenre that is
grounded in hardcore and punk. One of the reasons for the Skalars'
authenticity, Green says, is the fact that "six out of seven members of the
band were college-radio DJs" who were able to explore original Jamaican
masters on the job.
Thus far, the high caliber of Skoolin', issued last year by Moon Ska
Records, has not translated into massive record sales. Still, Green
believes that the music's future is bright. "I think it's much more
satisfying to see a ska band," he says. "It works on a lot of levels. The
music's melodic, it's danceable and catchy, and it's rather upbeat, so you
don't have to go there and get all depressed. It's something you can look
forward to going out to see." In his view, the Skalars' interest in the
roots of ska only adds to their appeal.
"There's a whole new crop of young bands that are eager to play ska for a
living," Green adds--and while the Skalars are obviously part of this
movement, they're keeping their fingers crossed that they won't be
traveling around the country like so many pieces of used furniture for much
longer. "I'm hoping this moving-truck thing is a one-shot deal," he admits.
"I mean, all that can stop us now is if we get pulled over, since I'm
pretty sure what we're doing is illegal. If a cop does pull us over, we're
going to pull the door shut real quick and just hope he doesn't check in."
Life can get a little bumpy when you're
traveling in the back of a rental truck
Denver Westword, 4/17/97
Most acts that are part of the so-called third wave of ska promote
themselves using a simple formula for success: touring, touring, touring.
But Isaac Green and the Skalars, among the best of this new generation,
recently discovered that the road can sometimes be rough.
-Joshua Green