Syracuse Ska Forum

Lots of good ska bands have quietly dissapeared the last few years...

What happened to the Adjusters? or NYSJE?

Playing at the Knitting Factory on Jan. 20th.

It's a side project for pretty much everyone in the band, so it must be difficult to coordinate schedules.

Twitch is correct. NYSJE has always been a side project of those involved, since all of them are in other bands as well. But another aspect is that NYSJE plays far more shows in Europe than the US. Same with EST, Stingers ATX and numerous other trad ska bands. It's just far more lucrative.

The Adjusters have never officially broken up to my knowledge, but they'd be far more likely to play shows in Europe, where their overt socialism is quite normal and welcome, than the US, where it's always caused serious friction. Their last album, "Otis Redding Will Save America" (a gem, I might add) was only released in Europe on Grover Records, because honestly, that's where all the serious interest in them is.

My general experience has been that the far more political nature of European ska bands seems to turn off a lot of American ska fans, most notably the younger ones in love with bands like RBF. I want to be wrong about that, but I don't think I am.

Any other bands you're curious about? You'd be surprised how few have actually broken up and are just in various states of semi-hibernation.

Thanks Skadanny and Twitch for giving me the scoop. How bout the Scofflaws? their singer was interesting and talented.

i saw the scofflaws open for desmond dekker on his 1st U.S. show in providence, RI years ago and thought they were great. i think i saw them years later at chucks and thought they were ok. havn't seen em since. a

Another band that is still around, but not as active lately. I'm surprised you didn't notice when Snow White posted on this very Forum about the NYC show The Scofflaws headlined just last month with Tri-State also on the bill. Use the little "search" button at the top and you can pull it up, if you're interested.

That one slipped though my fingers. I'd love to see the Scofflaws again, th last time I saw them their singer was going on all these crazy sounding rants between verses, in "nude beach" he kept saying "La Playa Nudee" between sung lyrics, got a kick out of that.

Well, Sammy is still the lead singer for The Scofflaws, but I've heard all the other members are new. They still play all their old songs and the new guys apparently pull it off well. Just don't tour anymore.

BTW, when I was at a Red House party once (the former Red House next to SU, not the new place downtown), I was wearing a Scofflaws button and a girl made a point of telling me that Sammy had been her bus driver growing up on Long Island. "Oh, how was he?" "Really REALLY wierd!!!"

Yeah, I heard the same thing about my Scofflaws patch when I was in Plattsburgh. Apparently he'd tell kids to come to shows and that he might still be drunk in the morning on the way to school.

That would be one awesome bus driver. Not the DWI part, but the off-the-wall part.

some web critics

http://www.full-albums.net/albums_review-the-scofflaws.asp