It may be the final week of Ska-ctober, but the skankin' is still just beginning.
After a Pietasters show last weekend at the HUB Ballroom, next on the skagenda is "Skalloween," an all-ages ska festival at 10 p.m. Tuesday at Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave. The Toasters will headline, with locals The Ska Blazers opening up.
Friday will herald the return of State Skallege's own Ruder Than You to Cafe 210 West, 210 W. College Ave., followed by another Crowbar feature on Nov. 8, and an event on Nov. 11 in East Halls' Le Club sponsored by WEHR-FM.
In 1989, five Penn State students formed Ruder Than You. They are now a Philadelphia-based nine-piece with four horn players. The group is excited about returning to its point of origin amid a flourishing wave of ska.
"It's amazing the number of ska bands from coast to coast," said Ruder Than You singer/tenor sax player Doug Dubrowsky. "Almost every town has got its own ska band. It has cropped up in the last couple years."
When the band first started, it played Thursdays at The Brewery, 233 E. Beaver Ave.
Ruder Than You left town in December 1990, and returns to perform here, usually at Cafe, about four times per year for the past five years. Their most recent return was last month.
"They relocated to Philadelphia in pursuit of enlarging their musical career," said Cafe owner Hal McCullough, explaining that their performance here next Friday will launch a full spring tour.
The group has released one fulllength album, Big Step, and is working on a new one, tentatively titled Horny For Ska.
The basic definition of ska music is a Jamaican-originated, R&B/swing/early rock-influenced predecessor to reggae that was mixed with indigenous Caribbean music.
Dubrowsky, however, provides a more elaborate definition.
"There's basically been three waves of ska," Dubrowsky said. "It started in Jamaica in the '60s. The band that epitomized the movement was The Skatelites."
"There was a resurgence, or second wave of ska around '79 or '80 in England, during the punk era. That was called the 2-Tone movement. The third wave is in the U.S.," Dubrowsky said, referring to the recent growth of American ska.
From coast to coast, hordes of new ska bands have been increasing in underground popularity, and have begun to influence more recognized mainstream groups, such as Rancid and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
The current wae of ska has been lassoed by indie label Moon Ska NYC that releases and/or distributes almost all the ska in the world.
"If there's ska in the world, it's pretty much guaranteed that we have our finger in it," Moon executive Noah Wildman said.
Moon was founded in 1983 by Rob "Buck" Hingley, frontman of Ameriska flagship band The Toasters.
Moon has handled worldwide ska monoliths such as East Coast bands The Scof flaws and the NY Citizens, Let's Go Bowling and Dance Hall Crashers from the West Coast, Washington, D.C.'s The Pietasters, Germany's The Busters and Australia's The Porkers. Moon Ska NYC has even released Latin ska compilation albums.
"Our tag is the number one ska label," Wildman said. "If you want ska, we've got it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. We don't handle anything but ska. It's just ska, ska, and more ska."
"I just saw that (The Pietasters) were on Moon, and I thought that they were good," said Ryan Scofield (junior-chemical engineering).
Other significant US ska labels are Boston-based BIB Records, known for artist Bim Skala Bim, and California-based Dill Records, known for The Skankin' Pickle, but even they sometimes distribute products through Moon, Wildman said.
"Moon outsizes them by 1,000 percent," he said.
But despite having a practical monopoly over the world's ska market, Moon Ska NYC remains true to the DIY ethic.
"We have 100 percent artistic control," Wildman said, adding that about four people run the entire company.
"Buck (Hingley) is the leader of the Toasters and the president/dictator of Moon Records."
Solely owned by Hingley, Moon Ska NYC distributes exclusively through indie organizations and does its own band-scouting.
But with the current ska growth rate, Moon may be asked to shed its indie-hood.
Moon made a deal with Celluloid Records in the mid-'80s, but soon withdrew due to being "ripped off" and "steered for a dead end," Wildman said.
"As the hype for the next big thing grows, I suppose we'll be made more major label offers," he said, adding that no aesthetic interference will be tolerated.
"Ska music is really the only type of alternative music left," said Moon president/Toasters frontman Buck Hingley. "It's the last frontier. We'll fight tooth and nail to keep it real."
Moon Ska NYC artists Let's Go Bowling and Mephiskapheles will be featured at the Nov. 8 Crowbar show, and Mephiskapheles will headline the WEHR-FM show at Le Club on Nov. 11.
The East Halls show will also feature The Blue Meanies and Spring Heeled Jack in their only local appearances, and locals 2,000 Flushes.
Due to a confusion, The Blue Meanies had originally also been slated for both shows, but will now only play at Le Club.
"The Blue Meanies (will play exclusively on campus) to make the show more special at Penn State," booking agent Sarah Vaughn said, adding that Let's Go Bowling was slated exclusively at Crowbar. The concern was that if too many bands played at both shows, many fans would attend one and not the other. Because the WEHR show is four days after Crowbar, it was feared that fans would be deterred from it, Vale said.
"It was meant to be part of a larger interest," said WEHR music director Eric Schwartz, regarding the coordination of the show in East Halls with other local skancerts.
"There's a lot of hard work gone into creating this scene," Hingley said. "A lot of bands forget where they came from. I'd like to see a little less ego and a little more hard work."
