Skinnerbox
Arizona Daily Wildcat, 10/27/97
A while ago I saw King Django and Skinnerbox play in a tiny club in Tempe. I am fairly obsessed
with Django... it is beyond my capabilities to understand how such a sweet, unassuming fat man
can sing just like the devil himself. Later that month I saw Reel Big Fish at the Ballroom when
they played with the Pietasters. Perhaps it's just my own prejudice, or perhaps stupidity, but
I couldn't see how Reel Big Fish, while definitely energetic and obviously talented, stacked up
to King Django, hunched over the blue lights, growling out old Desmond Dekker lyrics in the
smoothest voice ever created to a tiny dark room crammed with wide-eyed rudies holding cheap
cigars and gaping at him.
Skinnerbox
- What You Can Do, What You Can't
Alternative Press Magazine, September 1997
The Legendary Skinnerbox, it says on the sleeve, and rightly so. If you've spent more than a
minute on the ska scene, you'll know they're the original NY rudies, the men who kept the flame
burning even when it was just a candle in the window. So a new album is always welcome, even
when it's a surprise like this, where ska is as much the jumping-off point as the foundation
itself. They're having fun, which means you're going to have a blast. Call it the Skinnerbox
guarantee: Your feet won't stay still, and you'll have a smile on your face. Everything from
2Tone to roots to ska-punk, soul and beyond. They do it, and they do it right. Right? Right.
Skinnerbox - What You Can Do, What You Can't Ska has become boring.
The musicians who make up Skinnerbox: veterans such as vocalist Jeff "King Django" Baker,
tenor saxophonist Erkin "El Wood" Husey and Danny Dulin on trumpet - all of whom performed in
Stubborn All-Stars - realize this isn't the correct path ska was meant to take.
The back cover reads, "Thus, this album is more deeply soul-and-skank-laden than many young
bands can even conceive of, especially if they've got MTV dreams on the brain...And make no
mistake, children - this is the way it was always supposed to be done, from the start."
Skinnerbox isn't afraid to put out a song like "Baby" - a chillin', sweety-pie love song that
you can relax to with your significant mate - and then whip out the metal-induced "Nex Finga,"
which will get you both messin' in your Depends.
The 16-piece band combines the traditional with the conceptual; reggae with thrash - outdoing
all the trash.
At Meijer, 6200 S. Pennsylvania Ave., a carton of Depends will cost you $15.99
for the regular kind and $16.99 for the extra-absorbancy. This record is well
worth the price to replace your adult undies.
MSU State News, August 27, 1997
Your music industry is currently being saturated with a load of generic ska bands, such as Reel
Big Fish, who play catchy, yet uninspiring music - spurting feces and rot out of their horns
to please the masses. They wear their neat little buttons and play their checkered drums, just
like The Man taught them. As if record executives corralled a bunch of sheep-like bands and
prodded them until they "baaad" in an acceptable manner.
-Paul Wheatley
A Matter of Record
Skinnerbox: What you can do, What you can't
This is Ska (The Video, Internet and Ska-Zine Combo),
July 1997
Look out! King Django is back in town. The legendary Skinnerbox are back with their most varied
release to date. The stubborn boys of NYC venture into Ska, Punk, Rocksteady, Jazz and Latin-Ska
on 17 brand new tracks. The record flows very well for the amount of different styles and transitions.
King Django is his own silly self again and he is still the Boss DJ. Don't be scared off by the
variety of material covered on this album. It is an awesome release and it stays very true to what
Ska music has always been about, blending music and pushing it forward.