Every year, new artists emerge, ready to be Los Angeles’ next great musical discovery, making their rounds through small club tours across the city. Inspired by the hippie enclaves of Topanga, the backyard punk scene of East L.A. or the coastal grunge of Venice Beach, each act has its own distinct sound. This week, A&E; columnist Kristy Pirone discusses Van Nuys ska punk band the Interrupters.
Nothing screams the ’90s quite like ska music. But ska punk might be the next ’90s relic to be revived in 2015, judging by Los Angeles-based band the Interrupters.
Ska music originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, characterized by upbeat rhythms and walking bass lines. Ska music has split into subgenres like the punk-influenced skacore, and was a precursor to other forms of music such as reggae and rocksteady.
Ska punk quartet the Interrupters will play at the Roxy Theatre on Saturday following the release of their self-titled debut album in August, awakening the ska revival no one asked for but some might want.
The repetitive, upbeat bass lines characteristic of ska music come out full force on the Interrupters’ self-titled debut, a fun LP that suffers from overly simplistic lyrics that don’t really say anything new.
Songs like the brain-melting “Family,” featuring Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, and the laughably literal “Can’t Be Trusted” are too repetitive to be listened to without an eye-roll – the line “can’t be trusted” repeats multiple times in the song usually followed by some type of “can’t trust the world” lament – showing that the Interrupters have a long way to go musically.
Still, shorter track “Liberty” and the distinct “White Noise” transcend the overused punk themes that bog down the album, being a combination of perfectly danceable 2 Tone relics and fresh hints of a new wave of ska punk through its gravelly vocals and poppy hooks. Meanwhile, tracks like “Easy on You” could easily find a place on the soundtrack for classic ’90s films like “Clueless,” or at least “Good Burger.”
Although the Interrupters’ sound is reminiscent of decades past, the band was formed in 2012 and is fronted by lead singer Aimee “Interrupter” – aka Aimee Allen, a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who was discovered by Randy Jackson in 2002.
Kevin, Justin and Jesse Bivona, three brothers from the Van Nuys area of the San Fernando Valley, round out the band as the guitarist, bassist and drummer, respectively.
Van Nuys is an area with a surprising amount of ska punk shows and ska musicians floating around. This new insurgence of ska music in the Valley could be inspired by the resurgence of reggae that stemmed from the national popularity of Magic!’s “Rude.” Either way, Van Nuys seems to be the place that the next wave of ska is destined to reveal itself.
The Interrupters seem to crave the revitalization of ska punk’s popularity in California. Ska music reached the height of its popularity in California during the ’90s, when artists like the quintessential L.A. band Sublime came to prominence. The Interrupters were influenced by the many L.A. forefathers of skacore, and the band has come at a time when the backyard punk scene of East L.A. is experiencing new heights of popularity.
Punk subgenres from the frenetic sounds of street punk to the more relaxed chaos of skacore have been on the rise in unofficial shows in East L.A. backyards since the ’70s, where rock outfit Los Lobos got their start. These shows re-entered the public eye in the 2010s featuring small DIY punk shows and bands with names like Corrupted Youth and the Stomp Outz.
The correlation between the Interrupters inception and Los Angeles’ punk revival scene are too close to be a coincidence, whether the Interrupters realize it or not. Hopefully with time the potential in Van Nuys’ the Interrupters will meld with the inventive passions found across town in East L.A. to bring about a musical punk revolution.
Although the Interrupters don’t have the songwriting ability of veteran L.A. bands like No Doubt, they provide a rare opportunity for UCLA students to see a young, new ska band out of Los Angeles and broaden their musical horizons, experiencing a genre that is an important part of Los Angeles’ history.
The nostalgia and pep of the Interrupters should make for a good show, and if this whole ska-revival takes off, UCLA students who attend the show can say they were there for the beginning of a musical revolution. But judging by the amount of growing that the Interrupters have to do as a band, I wouldn’t bet on it.
— Kristy Pirone