DB Up in Your Ear: How to Start A Ska-Punk Band

About.com has a "how to" on starting a ska-punk band.

Here are a few highlights from the checklist they present:

1. Buy a cheap guitar.
2. Buy four thousand dollars worth of effects.
3. Borrow the largest speaker stack you can find.
4. Stick an obligatory checker-board sticker on your guitar.
5. Take one or two guitar lessons.

The article is rather insulting to one of my favorite sub-genres of music (it goes on to advice that it helps to have a love for songs about beer). First off, what ska-punk out there uses thousands of dollars worth of effects? The checker-board sticker advisory is kind of funny, but otherwise I'm between somewhat and very put off.

I found the article whilst cruising around the Net looking for blogs that focused on ska-punk. Besides a few blurbs/rants here and there, I didn't really find anything, which was surprising. If I had the time, I'd love to devote an entire to site to bands such as the following, which in some way fall under the umbrella of ska-punk... he said with a tone of reverence:

- Aquabats
- Bouncing Souls
- Buck-O-Nine
- Dance Hall Crashers
- Fishbone
- Less Than Jake
- Mephiskapheles
- The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones
- Murphy's Law
- Operation Ivy
- Rancid
- Reel Big Fish
- Sublime
- Suicide Machines
- Voodoo Glow Skulls

There are some truly outstanding bands on that there above list, and I defy anyone to tell me different (in fact, I invite it: see below for more details...).

I apologize for the trend toward lists the last few days, but it's kind of an end-of-the year compulsion, isn't it? I'm actually gearing up an album-of-the-year post, so everyone has that to look forward to as well.

As the one year mark of Dumpster Bust: The Blog approaches in a few days, I'll get into where things are going, with a focus upon the often strange shifts in subject matter you see (and will likely see more of on DB: Dean and the Democratic National Committee for a few days, strange literary non-fiction rants, forays into music and television criticism, etc.

As always, I/we like to hear from everyone out there, so:

Please always always always feel free to pipe in with your comments by clicking on the Comment link below every post. If you're not registered with Blogger.com, you can post anonymously. It would be great if you signed your name or handle, but the getting the communication going is the cool/important part.