SkaSource.com

In honor of the Montreal Canadiens (my 3rd favorite Canadian hockey team) knocking the Bruins out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I thought I would check out what’s going on in the Montreal ska scene. I quickly found SkaMontreal.com. It’s a very nicely put-together site that covers the ska music scene in Montreal very thoroughly.

SkaMontreal.com features news blurbs, a calendar, lots of links, and an album review section that covers current ska releases from bands such as Streetlight Manifesto, Voodoo Glowskulls, Mustard Plug and Buck-O-Nine.

Surprisingly, the site loaded up in English, but there is a handy link along the top nav bar (francais) that will flip you into the French version.

For you MySpace fanatics, Ska Montreal has recently launched a MySpace page at www.myspace.com/skamontreal.

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San Diego ska band Buck-O-Nine has posted on their MySpace page that they will be supporting punk rock band Rancid on the first two shows of Rancid’s North American Tour 2008. Buck-O-Nine will make the trek from southern California to Tucson, AZ and El Paso, TX for the shows on June 10 and 11. Tour information posted on the Rancid website shows east coast counterparts Big D and the Kids Table playing the support role on some east coast dates, as well as some east coast hardcore legends such as Murphy’s Law (anyone remember “The Murphy’s Law Ska Song”?), Sick of it All, and H20. Asian Man Records labelmates Bomb the Music Industry will also play support at one of the NYC shows, during a streak that sees Rancid playing five nights in a row at the NY Fillmore.

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At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss We Are The Union’s sound as derivative of the ska-pop-punk sound that predominated ska’s 1990’s surge. However, once you start listening to the album a bit more in depth, you realize that these guys have some serious musical chops, and with “Who We Are” the band has managed to put together a cohesive piece of work, with songs that flow nicely between the various musical styles these guys fuse together. On the surface, musical comparisons to Less Than Jake are inevitable, yet the band manages to take the ”fast-punk-with-horns” sound and sprinkle in a more hardcore feel. When they do play ska, as in the song “War on Everything,” they play it blazingly fast, and with the skill and style that make it a nice compliment to other songs on the album. If you’re looking for an album that is predominantly ska, this may disappoint you, but if you like your ska alongside catchy, fast music with lots of horns, you’ll enjoy this; even more so after a couple of listens.

According to the band’s PureVolume page, We Are The Union originate from Ann Arbor, Michigan. In my opinion, the mid-west is responsible for giving us many of the ska-punk movement’s better, if sometime underrated, bands over the past 10-20 years. Bands such as Gangster Fun, Suicide Machines, Slapstick, Blue Meanies, Mustard Plug and MU330 immediately come to mind when I think of the mid-west, and if “Who We Are” is a sign of things to come, We Are The Union should be able to carry on a legacy of well-respected ska/ska-punk/ska-core bands to sprout up from America’s heartland.

There is a definite youthful feel in the tone and emotions of this album, and this is a positive thing, because the band comes across as drawing from older punk, hardcore and ska sounds, as well as bringing in some more modern production value and musical styles. Even though they sound young, they sound seasoned, and it is this combination that perhaps what makes the album work.

Download We Are The Union’s album, “Who We Are” for free at PureVolume.com/wearetheunion

The band is currently playing the hell out of the mid-west and east coast. Tour Dates: www.myspace.com/wearetheunion

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