New Music Crush: The Friday Prophets + interview

Umeå, European capital of culture 2014, is famous in the alternative music world at least, for spawning Refused, Meshuggah and several hardcore punk bands who were very serious about social issues and probably weren't that fun to hang out with at parties. Luckily, a beacon of hope has emerged, in the form of The Friday Prophets, who retain the sense of social justice of their predecessors, while mercifully allowing for a sense of humour and personality to shine through their European-style punk devotion.

What I like about these guys is that they are both as earnest about punk and ska as Europeans can be, but they are also having fun with it. Punk Rock Flu is all a European punk rock song should be. Imagine if Billie Joe Armstrong was born in Sweden, away from American things such as 'sarcasm' and 'irony', in a town where punk rock is serious business. You're halfway to understanding The Friday Prophets.



Regardless of the words I spew out here, my new found love of The Friday Prophets is actually very simple to explain. They're just a bunch of relatively regular dudes, playing really good ska influenced punk rock. I spoke to singer/guitarist Mattias about the Umeå scene, punk rock and clichés! They have just released a slightly baffling video for their song 'Amsterdam' and apparently the band themselves aren't sure what the message behind it actually is. Check it out!

GDAC: Why do you think Umeå produces so many alternative bands?

M: I haven't really thought about this very much. But I think in the 90's Umeå had a wave of straight edge and vegan hardcore bands that stirred the pot and an important ingredient was the band "Refused". The punk- and hardcore scene became a popular subculture, probably because people where fed up with how the meat production industry was run and they wanted to make healthy and active choices about their lives. From what I know, Umeå has for a long time been a very democratic and egalitarian city (compared to other places) where most people embrace equality. And since the world is not equal (in many aspects) the struggle continues and it's reflecting in what's happening on the music scene.

Did you get to see the famous Umea bands growing up?

I was born in 1988 so I was too young to understand what was going on in Umeå in the 90's. But now in my later years I sometimes enjoy seeing local bands like "Lesra" and "Håll Det Äkta", and about a year ago I saw Refused play their last gig here in Umeå. That was probably the best show I've ever seen.

What drew you to punk and ska?

The mentality of it. Many punk rockers challenge authority and question conventional beliefs and ways of being. It may sound like a teenage rebellion cliché but the fundamental philosophy of it is just as accurate as ever to me. I may not display it by wearing provocative clothing and a mohawk, I think it's more reflecting in what I do and what I believe. You can rebel on the inside without having the devil-may-care exterior.

How did the band get together?

The Friday Prophets started in 2010 and I had been playing punk/rock with our bass-player Isac since 2007 I think. We met through his sister. Simon, the drummer joined the band in 2011, I believe. And Edvin, our lead guitar player just started showing up when we rehearsed and wanted to join the band. He wouldn't take no for answer, luckily neither would we. I realized he was viciously more talented than me when it came to playing guitar.

Is there a story behind the name?

I wanted the band to be called something with "Friday" in it because then the plan at first was to play party oriented punk. So we typed in Friday in one of those band name generator sites and suddenly there it was: "The Friday Prophets". I love the band name, I think we all do even though it may not represent what the band is about.  

What are your influences? Are there ska-punk bands in particular you like, or do you like bands dedicated to each specific genre?

There are so many influential components and they do not only come in the shape of music. I take inspiration from people, books, articles, movies, philosophy, relationships etc. It's hard to find a common denominator for all of these things and at the risk of sounding cliché I would say everyday life is the biggest influence. When something inspires me a creative switch is turned on within me. Then of course there's a reason why our sound is the way it is and those reasons  are Bad Religion, The Bouncing Souls, Green Day, The Descendents, Against Me!, Rise Against and NOFX. Our ska-punk influences comes from bands like Streetlight Manifesto and Less Than Jake.

I get the impression, and I could be wrong, that the band is an escape from everyday life for you guys, is that the case?

I can only speak for myself, but yeah when I was younger it sort of was. That was when I started to write songs about apathy and feeling detached from society, which later became songs like "Good Things", "Daffy's Futility Routine" and "Wasted Days". But I wouldn't say that that's the case now. I enjoy everyday life most of the time and the band is an valuable part of it. Not because I have to escape from it, rather because I wanna add one more meaningful ingredient to it. 

What are your goals and plans as a band?

We don't have any grand plans or goals, we're all studying so we try to find time for the band when we can

because we all enjoy it very much. We sort of have a "let's take it step-by-step attitude" and time will tell

where that will take us. My goal is to try to keep The Friday Prophets alive for as long as possible simply because I love writing and playing music.

Symphony of Distraction Interview

Symphony of Distraction are, for my money, the best skate punk band of the modern era. Guitarist and vocalist, Jay, talked to me about the band, the shape of punk today, and what it's like to be an aging punk rocker.

Mr Sparkle!

What are SOD doing these days, are you writing any new material? 

Nothing specific right now. After we finished the last record and did a short tour, I moved to New York City, so I live across the country from everyone else in the band. We’ve had some conversations about doing some recording in the not too distant future, but as of yet nothing specific is planned.

What is the song writing process for you guys?

Steve and I split the song writing. When we had some song ideas, we’d get together and get right to recording guitar parts. We found that being able to listen to the guitar tracks helped us really hear the songs better than just playing them over and over. We were pretty much writing the songs all the way until they were done. The whole writing and recording happened in parallel. There weren’t any songs where I finished the lyrics more than a few minutes before I started recording the vocals. It’s a much better process for me than trying to write a whole record up front and not really hear any of it until I get into the studio. There’s so many times that I thought I had written a really great song and didn’t realize it sucked until I started recording it. Recording as you write helps avoid that situation

Some of your lyrics deal with frustrations and insecurities of every day life. Are your lyrics an important part of a cathartic process or do you just need to fill in the songs?

For me the lyrics definitely come secondary to the music, but I still consider them an important part. Bad lyrics can ruin an otherwise good song, so I always keep that in mind when I’m trying to rush through lyric writing. I think Steve takes it more seriously because a lot of his songs relate to what’s going on in his life when he writes them. I usually have a couple of lines of words that I find work well with a melody and then write around them. It creates for some random topics..

Speaking of which, 'New Cliches' struck a particularly loud chord with me. How are you finding becoming an adult and an adult punk guy?

I kind of relate getting older in the punk scene to the stages of grief. At first you’re in denial, then you’re angry and finally you just have to accept it. You get older and there’s nothing you can do about it. Punk rock is definitely a young person’s game but that doesn’t mean you have to stop listening to it or stop going to shows. For me growing older just meant that I didn’t have the urge to throw it in everyone’s face all the time anymore. I don’t need to have blue hair and piercings and wear a Sex Pistols shirt so that some stranger can tell how cool I am. The best part of aging is that you truly, honestly just stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks.

In terms of new music, personally I don't really get the whole hipster, retro, cassette tape trend, but I know that older people at the time hated bands like Nofx and Strung Out so I try not to get overly concerned about it..

Yeah, I had a conversation with someone not too long ago that was trying to tell me that cassette tapes sound better than CDs. I wanted to slap him in the face. I could see cassettes being cool from a collector’s standpoint, but to say they sound better is just stupid. But you’re right, everybody thinks that their generation of music is better than the next so it’s gets really hard to judge what’s legitimately appealing to the youth as you get older.

What are your thoughts on the future of the music industry and how do you feel about piracy?

Piracy is a bummer. It hurts the musicians, and I think it hurts the listener too. You can definitely have too much of a good thing. I’ve heard people brag about how they have 50 thousand songs in their mp3 library. Almost all of which are pirated. What’s the point of having 50 thousand songs? You can’t ever listen to them. It just perpetuates the short attention span that everybody has. So now you basically have access to all music and don’t give a shit about any of it. That being said, I’ve pirated some music that I was excited to hear and didn’t want to wait til the release date. So I’m not claiming innocence, but I’d happily give up access to free music if it meant that everybody else did too.

Who are your biggest influences and favourite bands, past and present?

As I’m sure you can tell by the music, we’re mid 90s skate punk nerds. Fat Wreck, Epitaph, Vagrant bands. Bands like Weezer, Green Day and Ben Folds Five. Really anyone that could write a great melody is what I was into in my most obsessive music phase. These days it’s more rare that I feel like a band would be a huge influence to me when I’m writing punk music. My writing habits are too hard wired at this point. I can still get inspired by a song, but it’s much more random how that happens now. It could be a Britney Spears song I hear in a movie that triggers a melody idea for me. Then I take that and just throw it over my old influences.

Had you guys got a set sound in mind when you started the band, and how did the band come together?

Steve was in SecondShot when it first started. We always wrote well together, but it just wasn’t working out at that point for other reasons and Steve got kicked out and went on to do some other projects. We didn’t talk for a couple years. When we finally did, we got drunk and talked about the idea of trying to record an EP by ourselves. Neither of us had any recording experience and I never really thought we’d do it. Some time later, I decided I wanted to demo out some songs and bought some cheap recording gear. After learning a bit, we got together and recorded the guitar parts to a song that Steve was messing around with, and we thought it sounded good. So we decided to go for it. Steve had been in a band called Allergic to Idiots that had Jimmy and Pat in it. We just recruited them to fill out the band and made the EP.

As far as the sound, we were pretty specific. All fast. We weren’t going to try to bother with making the record balanced. We wanted to do all fast songs, and that’s how the EP ended up being. There are a couple mid tempo songs on Call It Off, but it’s still generally a really fast record.

How did the name come about? Are you all just fans of Dave Mustaine and his work?

No. It’s a terrible band name and we came up with it when we were really drunk and thought it was funny.

To me, your music is exactly how punk from California and West coast America should sound. So, I gotta say, it's pretty weird that you guys seem more appreciated in Asia than at home. What was your Asian tour like and why do you think skate punk is still so popular there?

Yeah, when we first moved to the Bay Area, we thought that since it was the home of Fat Wreck, that people would be crazy for that style of music, but it just wasn’t the case at all. I think maybe southern California would have been better for us, but who knows. Asian tour was awesome. I love going over there. They have great fans. They come to the show before the first band starts, and don’t leave til the show is over. I don’t have an answer to why skate punk still does well over there.

What is it about this kind of punk that attracts you? Is there any other genres that you listen to or would like to play?

The attraction to punk music for me has always been that the songs are more streamlined than a lot of other types of music. You have a good melody and some good music behind it, you repeat it 3 times and you’re done. Obviously that’s a huge generalization and not many of our songs actually do that, but I’ve always loved how punk songs eliminate a lot of fluff from a song so that the core idea of a is the most important thing. As far as other genres, I tried to learn piano when I was young and failed miserably. So now I actually play a lot of jazz piano. I’m not sure if I like it or It’s just a personal challenge, but lately, that’s where most of my musical energy has been going. Once I’m good enough, I want to have a band that plays old punk songs in jazz style. No idea if that will ever happen.

(Image source: Symphony of Distraction Facebook)

The new A Day To Remember video is fun

For the last year or so I've started to feel my age whenever I checked out newer pop punk bands, and not for the reasons you might think. Y'see kids, in my day, pop punk bands were fun. They dyed their hair stupid colours and their videos were a vehicle to show how funny and rebellious they were compared to the rest of their suburban friends!

So needless to say, I'm happy that A Day To Remember are keeping the faith, with their video for Right Back At It Again.



Sure, the lyrics rhyme 'school' and 'cool', and the video is essentially a three minute version of a gag from the My Friends Over You video by New Found Glory, but we gotta take our victories (sorry) where we can find them.

The Wonder Years - 28 NOVEMBER @ Bóveda, Barcelona - review by buh!

Is there anything more endearing than an enthusiastic Euro talking emotively about their passions? Skatepunkers Spanish forum member, and friend of this blog, buh! (not his real name..) agreed to share his experiences from The Wonder Years show in Barcelona. Would they wear sombreros and play some flamenco songs? Would they take a stance against bull fighting? Would they appear to have any fun at all? Let's hand over to buh! to find out... 

It was pretty cool because my last show was in May so I was thirsty haha. I wanted to have a nice singalong show and I went there with no expectations at all. Not really into the new album so I showed up and just let the thing go.

TWY got on stage fastly (and) started playing without saying hello. Soupy just showed up right before the first chord, there was no presence of them before the venue opened and they were nowhere to be found...Bad point.
 
They played 5 songs from the new album and I just liked 2 of those...boring moments... But at least they played some truly great songs like Coffee Eyes, Came Out Swinging (as the last one) Melrose Diner, Don't Let Me Cave In and Washington Square Park. Those were the highlights for me, no doubt. So much emotion I just run out of voice. Man, that was passionate.

In between songs there was Soupy motivational and posi speech...talking about "you can do whatever you want if you really fight hard to achieve it even though the world will be against you" kinda stuff. Really nice and heartfelt yes, but I would have loved 2 songs more instead of him talking...

Whatever...just 12 songs...less than 45 min of music? Oh c'mon!! That was really disappointing.

Fun fact: Soupy touched his hair more then 16 times during the show. At moments he was just about to cry, red eyed and looking kind of anxious. Passion, or he just gets into the role too much? 

The sound was good and they played nice. The 3 guitar thing is unnecessary for me but...


The crowd was nice but too small...less then 50 people haha. Really sad. And there was a lot of kids who didn't know the old songs... I even yelled 'PLAY KEYSTONE STATE, KEYSTONE STATE DUDE CORE!!' two times but they looked the other way or didn't listen!

The moment they ended the set Soupy jumped offstage and vanished out the exit door. I was hoping for them to get a little bit closer to the fans but whatever haha.

New Music Crush: The Jealous Sound

The fact that I have gotten into The Jealous Sound is further proof that I am becoming an old person. That I found them when searching through dubstep-influenced metalcore on Rise Records is little consolation. Still, they’re an excellent band, one that could easily, eh, ‘rise’ to Jimmy Eat World heights with some persistence.

Achieving personal yet darkly poetic lyrics without sounding like a douchebag is something that not many can do, and I’d put TJS up with the boys from Alkaline Trio. High praise indeed. Of course TJS have ‘been around the block’ both as individuals and as musicians, with an impressive back catalogue of releases from various indie bands in the 90s and 00s.

I love the flow of this song. Nothing feels forced, instead it all builds up naturally to a crescendo chorus, then descends smoothly into the verse, then back to the chorus. You can tell the songwriters have been writing songs for a long time, there is a maturity and confidence in letting the different pieces come together.

Speaking of maturity, the guys are pretty damn old looking! Are they tired gig parents, waiting for their kid to get out of the pit? Are they band parents, proud and bewildered as their child plays breakdowns to teenage girls? Nope, they’re one of the bands, they’re on next! In a lot of ways they are everything Rise Records would be seen not to represent, so kudos to both band and label, for getting there and taking a (calculated, I’m sure) risk, respectively.

Top 10 Teenage Tunes: Mike from Flagpolers

Mike is the bass player and occasional vocalist of the predominantly Irish expat band Flagpolers. Not only that, but he is a mean vegan cook and the owner of five denim vests (but don't let that put you off him). He has also been a classmate, roommate and bandmate to myself, and introduced me to some of the best (and worst) punk I've heard, over the year!

Flagpolers have just released a new video, which captures their zany tour antics in the underground punk scene. - Alanso



I love nostalia shit! I’ll try to rip off Aidan’s list by keeping it in somewhat of an order of how I went along and became even more Punk.

Blink 182 - Adam's Song



I know if it wasn’t for this band I would never have gotten into punk and never started playing bass. I first got into them when I was maybe 11 or 12.  My older brother Brian bought the CD and I’d listen to it on repeat thinking I was the punkest thing in town. Adam’s song was always my favorite, I loved the funny songs and love songs, but this one always gave me goose bumps, I’ll always love Blink.

NOFX- Frano Un American



Haven’t listened to this song in a long time and actually am not into NOFX anymore, mostly because watching footage of NOFX made me angry watching Fat Mike talk to his fans like they're shit. But this was the first song I ever heard that had animal rights lyrics,  I was maybe 14 or 15 when I got into them but when this song came out I instantly started thinking about going Veg, I lived in a small village in rural Ireland and knew nothing of animal rights and thought of all vegetarians as hippies until this. I later went veg at 16 which then lead onto me becoming vegan which were the best choices I ever made. Although Fat Mike eats meat now anyways, at the time these lyrics opened my mind a lot.

Rancid- Old Friend



Still my favorite song of all time. Just recently got “Good morning Heartache“ tattooed on me actually after listening to this jammer for over a decade. I saw Rancid 10 years ago and then again last month and still to me they wrote the best songs ever written. I always loved the simplicity of the lyrics in Old Friend.

Minor Threat- Straight Edge



Up until Minor Threat I thought you were meant to start drinking at 15. Even though I never had any interest I assumed it was some sort of milestone that everyone had to do. Especially living in Dunmore, Ireland. Which is what anyone underage only seemed to do in shitty little youth discos.  As I had no money I used to just download Minor Threat’s complete discography through my old dial up internet which took about 2 hours for a 1 minute song!  After hearing this song I claimed Edge pretty much right after, People have a lot of views about Straight Edge and most of them are completely wrong. So fuck them this song rules and changed my life.


Oxymoron-  Run From Reality



Around 16 I started getting into more Street and Oi! Stuff because I preferred the simplicity of the music and lyrics. The attitude that I didn’t find in a lot of punk I was listening to at the time. I still love the 'Fuck The Cops' and 'Be a Punk' mentality that I found in bands in Oxymoron. I bought all their CDs and listened to them on repeat and still do. Classic band.

The Rebel Spell- I See Fire



I got a compilation CD in Razorcake when I was maybe 17, It was pretty good but The Rebel Spell were by far the best band on it. So I went home and with my chubby little fingers I ordered the cheapest Rebel Spell I could find on Interpunk. I thought Todd’s lyrics were amazing and still do, The fact he could sing so fast and still never fuck up, he's a lyrical genius. I used to e-mail them all the time when I was younger and didn’t know much about doing shows, asking them to come play Ireland. Then years later I was living in Galway and setting up shows with my bud Dan in Us Vs Them and they e-mailed me asking to help them with an Irish tour. It was one of the best days ever! I booked them the tour and they came and slept on my floor for 3 nights and it still blows me away how great DIY is. I now live in the same city as them and they’ve became my great friends. If only my 16 yearr old self knew! Love this song and band so much.

Only Fumes and Corpses- Resolution



Possibly the biggest influence on me when it comes to being involved with DIY Punk. I love this band so much and was blessed that we’re from the same city so I got to see them more than anyone else. I always felt like a member of the band and I shared a jam space with them and many of shows. When you’re younger you imagine all the best shows are played elsewhere but when I moved up to Galway it blew my mind that the best gigs you’ll ever go to are in the back of a small pub in your own city. Those shows were my everything when I first moved up to the city, My favorite memories of Galway were Only Fumes & Corpses shows. It makes me sad thinking about it now, they’ve recently ended and it’s a great loss to Ireland.

Foreveraftermath - Ok The Night



There wasn’t much footage of Foreveraftermath on the ol' Youtube so I found the best I could. They were from Ballina, which is like an hour and a half from Galway but I got to see all their Galway shows when they came. Their record was one of the best albums ever made. The first band I was ever in was meant to be a complete rip off of this band just because we all loved them so much. My bros and I even traveled up to Ballina to see their last show and where all the lyrics were written about. Everyone in this band went on to make other amazing bands but Foreveraftermath were my first. And ya never forget your first filthy shag.

The Lobotomies- Don’t Look Back



I think I was maybe 17 when I first heard the Lobotomies, Up until then I only listened to bands who were from elsewhere because living in the middle of nowhere in Dunmore you expect that all the best bands are from elsewhere. So when I first saw The Lobotomies I thought they were the best thing ever and still do. They all looked and acted like they didn’t give a fuck but were the nicest people I’ve ever known. The first night they played they stayed in my living room, They were the first of many dirty punks to sleep on my floor and it completely since then changed how I view music. Your best friends could be your favorite band. I’ve toured with these handsome boys and played some of my favorite shows with them, I love them all so much and every band they’ve done after.


Bob Seger - Night Moves



Not punk but one of my favorite songs ever, Probably because my Dad who’s the best man and biggest punk ever used to play in on repeat since I was a baby. I love this song so much I even got it tattooed across my toes and want to get a second tat in honor of it. I love all of Bob Segers stuff, He has a genius way of making every song sound nostalgic and I’m a big fan of nostalgia. He hails from where I lived as a child in Michigan so I find a certain closeness to him singing about driving through cornfields and Michigan summertime. When Flagpolers were playing shows up north I met this great old dude playing this song on the beach and we sang it together, it really made me smile like a fat child again.

Moshup Monday: The Wonder Year vs Paramore

Moshup: n. A song comprised of elements of two or more pre-existing pieces of music that RAWWWWK.

As a music nerd, I love seeing patterns and loops that can be used in multiple songs. Eg. singing 'my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard' over any song that has 4/4 rhythm will work. Try it. Take the opening riff of Smells Like Teen Spirit by the Nirvanas and sing that over it.

Anyway, I've been sidetracked... Some people think DJs are just lazy, leech-type creatures who push buttons and have no musical talent. Wrong! Some of them have talent and if you can't admit that then you sir, are jealous. While I enjoy a ridiculous dance remix as much as the next occasional weekend binge drinker, even better to me are remixes that use elements of alternative/rock songs.

Enter Dr Brixx, who has made a pretty seemless mix of The Wonder Years and Paramore. The intro is a bit forced, but the rest of the song, espeically the bridge are really good.


If anything, it makes me a little sad to hear how TWY could sound if Soupy hand't turned into such a miserable moanbag!

Hookie sound alot like early blink 182

Lots of bands try to sound like blink-182. Some unintentionally sound more like blink than they mean to. And somewhere in between is Hookie!

Holy Tom Delonge, Batman! The guys from Hamden, Connecticut say they are influenced by MxPx, Home Grown, Inspection 12 and NOFX, but it is impossible not to hear strains of blink in this. In fact, if someone told me this was a b-side from Cheshire Cat, I'd believe them!

While the band, who are still in their teens, are trying to distance themselves from blink, I wouldn't be so hasty. blink have gone from pariahs to godfathers of the melodic punk world, whether that one GG Allin fan on your street likes it or not!

And also, they don't actually suck, at least  not as much as they'd like you to believe they do. Sure, the recording is crude at best and it sounds like they're using instruments from WalMart, but it's a catchy song underneath all of that and lots of people do like this stuff. What set blink-182 apart was the desire to grow as songwriters. Sure, they maintained the 'loveable loser with ADHD' persona, but their output got steadily better over the years.* If Hookie can expand their MP3 collection, stick to demos for a while, and invest some time and money into their band, who knows where they could end up.

*Until the self-titled album, that was a small dip..
*Also, finding Travis Barker was like winning a musical lottery. Like seriously, that man is ridiculous at taking some shitty riffs and making it a song. A song that can be played on the radio!

New Tunes: Cliffhanger

Cliffhanger are a pretty slick pop punk band from Chicago, who have no qualms about bringing the pop, but are also old enough to remember when punk was on film and game soundtracks in the nineties. They blend new, shiny pop punk, with 'Epifat' melodic punk and for the most part this works really well.

The excessively titled They Used to Call Me "Anal Girl" is the best offering on their three track EP, 'Ignite'.





Songs that have a catchy pre-chorus and chorus = $$$. Plus I've had the 'You used to say' part stuck in my head all week. Thanks, guys.

Their preferred choice of song, City Skyline, was a slight let down to me as it started with Alkaline Trio type vibes, however I get the feeling the singer gets uncomfortable at the thought of his friends smoking, and he only drinks on special occasions and always in moderation. What I'm getting at is that they sound very polished, in that 'might actually get some airplay and female fans' way. So while skate punks in their late 20s like myself might want something with a bit more bite, the people who matter when it comes to merch/music sales, ie. young teen girls, will probably lose their tiny minds over this.

Plus, the fuckers sneak in a breakdown towards the end so the dudes at their shows feel more macho.

'Just Ignite' is a none-too-subtle subtle reference to a band on the brink of going places in terms of music and success, and I hope they follow through on their potential.

As they have their shit together, you can check them out on Soundcloud or any other form of social media there is out there. Get to it, so you can say you knew them before they got big!

Good Songs to Skateboard to (from Yahoo Answers)

Sumo skaters fall over a lot, I'd imagine.

After being re-immersed in early 00s skate punk nostalgia through Aggressive Inline, I went snooping about on the Google machine to see if I could find some other gems I had overlooked or forgotten. There I found the lolfactory that is Yahoo Answers and a question dedicated to skate songs, posed in 2006.

Some of the answers are standard, some are a little out of left field, some are questionable and some are just plain baffling.

This is the top answer. The answer the questioner was most pleased with. While I would include some SOAD in my desert mp3s, 'Pizza Pie' or Chic 'n' Stu as it's actually named, would not be one of them. Personal preferences aside, who the hell would skate to this schizophrenic clusterfudge??

Then there’s some Placebo, a great band to skate to. If by ‘skate’ you mean ‘drink yourself to sleep in the dark’.

The ‘source’ is also adorable. But let's move on.

Drunken Lullabies is a bit more like it. A steady, upbeat rhythm and a pace that gets the heart pumping and you legs push and kicking! Of course, there is a skateboarder in the video, so it’s not the most imaginative, but it’s on the right track, at least.

I don't listen to classic rock so I don't really know much of Suicidal Tendencies, but I see how the song could work for skating. If course it does have the fucking word 'skate' in the title, so give yourself a round of applause Rachel C, you really excelled yourself with this one! This video is interesting as it shows metal and punk bands exploited impressionable teenagers in the 80s too. UGH DAD I HATE DOING HOMEWORK.

This cautionary tale is the story of a kid 30 year old man who had a future until he got a skateboard, and now he likes to skateboard. So, let that be a lesson to you.

Just when you think Yahoo users have redeemed themselves slightly, *record scratch* Whaaaaat? ‘Lincoln Park’?! And while we're here, I was into Hybrid Theory as much as the next teenager, but I really don’t get how they are a skate band. I mean, I know they were totes angry and anti-conformity, just like skateboarding is (screw you, mom and dad!) but they are terrible skate music. Plus, this is 2006, five years after Hybrid Theory. 

Well for whatever reason, Linkin Park were linked with skateboarding, something that I find baffling, but vital knowledge all the same. 

The 'nothing extreme' footnote kills me.

So unfortunately, I don't think I've found an untapped resource of songs to skate to. If you know any, holla at me!

Latvia has a ska band called Band Mango

Up until now the only thing I knew about Latvia was, ehm...well, besides the capital being Riga and the fact that most people there have a classic Baltic pallor, I knew feck all about Latvia! 

But it turns out the Northern European country has a ska punk scene, or at least one ska punk band, called Band Mango. Or sometimes they’re called Band MANGO. I love this shit! The fact that there’s ska in Ireland, a wet, cold rock in the Atlantic is amazing, but ska in a tiny country where the weather is LITERALLY BALTIC?! Amazeballs!

The antics in this video are so similar to how my first bands in rural Ireland acted is scary.  

• Tiny band room to jam in?  Check!
• Lots of walking around outside and hanging around old buildings? Check!
• Skateboarding in an area that is not conducive to skateboarding? Check!

All joking aside, this is really good. I mean, where in the hell did a Latvian Patrick Stump come from?

While this song is probably the best ‘something everyone can enjoy’ single from their EP ‘Lifelong Contract’, there’s also some great Streetlight Manifesto- inspired stuff that zips between intricate brass-led ska, punk and riff-heavy rock.

Readers of this blog know I have a soft spot for European bands with amusing names and questionable English. Band member Jānis (one of two Jānis’ in the group) filled me in with some crucial info and it was hard to tell if he was being funny on purpose, unintentionally hilarious, or if he was fucking with me! 

“We’re one of the most common phenomenons in Latvia,” he says, “taking (a) solid third place just after bad weather and potatoes with cottage cheese.” Well, there you have it.

The band is completed by Konstantins, Ieva, Krists and Reinis. R they a band r a group of vampires, lol. Just kidding guys. But srsly, your names sound like badass vampires.

Band Mango are on Soundcloud and Facebook, check them out.

Another fun fact about Latvia, their currency is Latvian Lats. I love it.