Most Popular

"Most Popular" tools sponsored by:

Recent Articles

Recent Articles by Jason Heller

National Features >

  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times

    Sexual Healing

    For Florida's sole remaining sex surrogate, love is a many splintered thing.

    By Michael J. Mooney

  • City Pages

    Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteer

    It's not just giant companies cashing in on America's defense industry.

    By Jeff Severns Guntzel

  • The Pitch

    Supersizing Sonic

    How a throwaway idea at the Barkley ad agency became the "Sonic Guys."

    By Justin Kendall

  • Houston Press

    Temples of Tex-Mex

    A diner's guide to Texas's oldest Mexican restaurants.

    By Robb Walsh

The Slackers

Wednesday, May 10, Bluebird Theater, 303-322-2308.

By Jason Heller

Published on May 04, 2006

Ska! Say it. Sounds funny, huh? And not just because the genre has become one of the most beloved-turned-maligned styles in history since disco. Ska, at its core, is unpretentious, buoyant and just plain goofy. But it has deep soul and jazz attached to its calypso roots, a fact that hasn't been forgotten by the Slackers. Formed fifteen years ago in New York City -- then a hotbed for retrofitted ska -- the horn-packing sextet eventually signed to Epitaph Records (and, later, Rancid's Hellcat imprint), releasing a string of discs featuring singer Glen Pines's impassioned rasp that paid homage to the traditional ska and rocksteady eras of the Skatalites and the Paragons. The group's new album, Peculiar, is yet another solid slab of Slackers that integrates '60s R&B and Bo Diddley stomp, as well as some deadly serious protest lyrics. Fads and punchlines may come and go, but the Slackers abide.



Westword Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff
Backpage.com