Everything Goes Numb
Ah, 1997: the year of ska. Well, ska in the mainstream at least. Ska (thrid-wave) is defined as being up-stroked guitar, and walking bass lines over an up-beat drum beat. Horns? optional.
One of the most coveted albums of this time period and one that would go on to re-define ska-punk was Catch-22's Keasbey Nights. It showed that ska could be taken seriously and not brushed off as some, goofball, phase in music. This wonderful album of sorts had fast punk mixed with blazing horn lines and scathing social commentary. At the forefront of this album's writing process was singer/guitarist Tomas Kalnoky. Some call this man a ska mastermind, and right-fully so. He wrote this album in his late teen years, which is amazing considering most legendary ska albums were written at a much later age.
Well, anyways...a few years after this album came out, Tomas left the band to pursue schooling and other things, and no-one really knew what had happened.
Fastfoward to 2003.
Tomas returns with other former members of Catch-22 and the band One Cool Guy, to form Streetlight Manifesto. Their debut album? A masterpiece of ska-punk titled: Everything Goes Numb. This time Tomas is back with the same brand of fast punk and ska, but with a new element: A horn section that sounds more like a orchestral brass and woodwind quartet, rather than a group of annoying, typical sounding, trumpet heavy, brass and sax players.
This change allows for intricate, moving sax lines and beautiful layers of sound. This of course led to more dark sounding songs futher serving the notion that ska doesn't always have to be happy and goofy.
Now we know Tomas' music is amazing, but oh the lyrics!
Lines like: "Hemmingway never seemed to mind the banalities of a normal life, and I find it gets harder every time. So he aimed a shotgun into the blue, placed his face inbetween the two, and sighed: Here's To Life!" and "Don't forget your family regardless of what you choose to do, you can't decide and they're all screaming 'why won't you?' I'll start the engine but I can't take this ride for you, I'll draw your bath and i'll load your gun, but I hope so bad that you'll bathe and hunt." , show Tomas' way with words, and his anti-suicide stance.
Throughout this album there are elements of Russian music as well as old fashioned Reggae, and everything is placed so perfectly together to make one unforgettable album. This, like Keasbey Nights before it, shows that serious ska-punk still exists in a world of rediculous band names and their songs about old people and robots.
So I say thank you Streetlight Manifesto, you've finally given us that something amazing that no-one can laugh at.