Ska is a volatile musical genre. One year there are bands like Big D and the Kids Table and Streetlight Manifesto touring all over and the next year ska’s at the bottom of the barrel and none of the popular bands are putting out new records. Ruder Than You is not your average ska band. After two decades, they’re still here and they’re still skankin’ the night away. The band will be celebrating their anniversary with a show at the Trocadero this Friday with Rudie Crew, Bigger Thomas and more great bands. Plan on all the stops being pulled out as RTY alumni come back to the band to celebrate being almost old enough to go to a bar.
We talked to singer/sax player Doug Dubrosky about ska, being in a band for 20 years and who helps keep the scene alive today.
P: It’s really hard for any band to make it 20 years, how did you do it?
Doug Dubrosky: It hasn’t been easy. Due to membership changes over the years the band has had to reinvent itself at least three major times. We went from being a 5-piece to being a 9-piece then back to a 6-piece. Some of the members that previously left have come and gone again since. Our current lineup has been together for more than 10 years and has two original members (myself and bassist Don Pancoe who had left for several years then returned again). There are other players that substitute and guest with us routinely whom I consider to be fully paid-up members – drummer John Woodman for example. We all recognize the importance of having the band in our lives and have been around long enough to know how fragile bands can be, so we treat each other with the highest level of respect and professionalism which seems to be working for keeping the harmony. Besides, the band has basically taken on a life of its own and I honestly don’t think we could kill the thing if we tried at this point.
P: Do you think because ska has a constant underground audience, that helped you maintain the band?
DD: We maintain the band for our own selfish interests in that we simply love the high we get playing this music to rabid fans. The interesting thing about the underground audience is that it is huge when you look globally but tiny when you look at any given city. There’s probably a couple dozen solid underground ska-heads that make it out to the bigger show but the vast majority are just average music fans that appreciate good music and an electric live show. The underground ska audience does help to sustain a solid base level of national and international web buzz and record sales though which is definitely very helpful.
P: If you were booking the greatest ska festival of all time, who would be on it?
DD: The Skatalites, The Specials, Fishbone, and a contemporary third wave all star band, something like Stubborn Allstars. I’d have Ruder Than You in there too. If I had a second stage I’d probably add Bim Skala Bim and Skankin’ Pickle.
P: Any surprises planned for the show?
DD: We’re giving away tons of free stuff to folks that get there early and we a very rare special guest appearance by former vocalist Dave Schneck who left the band in 1994. We’re also filming the show for DVD release.
P: How are you celebrating 20 years besides this show?
DD: We are recording a brand new CD and getting ready to release some limited-run DVDs with old and new video footage. We’re also running around to play some of our favorite old venues in the region such as the Chameleon Club in Lancaster (May 15th) and small Philly rooms like Silk City.
P: Back in the beginning of the band what made you move to Philadelphia?
DD: Ruder Than You started in 1989 when we were students at Penn State in State College, PA. We didn't want to be life-long college-bar musicians so we began seeking better musical and career opportunities upon graduation. The move to Philly had a lot to do with a couple of our members having roots here. Obviously it helped that Philly is a music town with a big market and lots of venues - a great place for a young band.
P: What was your favorite tour you ever did?
DD: Our first big tour was an 8 week national tour to Seattle and back to support our second CD “Horny for Ska" on Moon Records around 1993. That was an amazing time because it was just on the very early edge of what was termed the Third Wave of Ska. The level of interest in ska music was growing exponentially by the week and you could feel it just about to blow up. We hooked up with other classic 3rd Wave band The Pietasters, Mephiskapheles and Mustard Plug a number of times during that tour, learned a lot from those guys and fed off each-other's energy which was thru the roof.
P: What influenced the recent "God's Ghetto" EP?
DD: God's Ghetto is a bit of a musical departure for the band. The band's sound has always drawn from pretty diverse musical areas, sometimes straight ska, sometimes dancehall reggae or dub, and often rock influences and punkier stuff - often hybrids of these in the same song. We decided to record a set of songs that were more dancehall reggae and old-school funky hip-hop. Most of the writing was done by our singer Freddie 3D Weaver who was born and bread in South Philly. The lyrics in the title track are about reminiscing of when he was a kid growing up in the city. Few Dollars More is about what somebody might do for somebody else behind closed doors, for the right price! It's a splendid "dirty" song in the early reggae tradition.
P: What are the new songs sounding like?
DD: The material is much more ska oriented, faster stuff, more jumpy, jumpy kind of thing interspersed with a couple roots reggae songs. We're recording one song that we've played for 15 years but never recorded called "Brand New Day", which is our rude boy and rude girl anthem.
P: Where do you think you guys fit in with the new breed of ska bands like Big D and Streetlight
Manifesto?
DD: Those bands seem to have a relatively consistent ska-punk sound that you can pretty much count on from song to song. Ruder has always cast a very wide musical net, sometimes I think to our disadvantage when it comes to "marketing" our music to a certain musical-demographic. We enjoy sharing stages with roots reggae and dub bands and with ska and punk bands. We pick a different set from our repertoire of about 4-hours worth of material on any given night (and to keep ourselves sane by not playing the same songs every time).
P: Why should someone who had no idea about Ruder Than you come out to a show?
DD: If you love live music and you like to get wild and dance and just loose your mind with some crazy music and people you are going to vibe with RTY. If you already like ska and reggae then we're going to be best friends forever.
P: What do you love most about ska and why?
DD: Ska is a very physical kind of music for me and when I hear a ska high-hat rhythm and a guitar playing upbeats and some poppin' horns it just makes my body move. And I believe that when you move your body to some music it registers it differently in the brain and soul in a much stronger way. Ska music also has so much history dating from the First Wave of Jamaican ska in the early 60s which was started by the Skatalites up through the Second Wave around 1980 which featured The Specials and English Beat. It just makes me proud to be able to continue the ska music legacy.
P: What do you think about the current ska scene and groups like PhillySka that keep it alive?
DD: Ska is in a bit of a lull right now. We're between waves, so to speak. There aren't any ska mega-stars at the moment to drive an interest in ska like there was with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the mid 1990s. Those of us who play the music and who are fans of the music tend to group together and maintain a strong cult following. Things are good now because it seems like the musical barriers have been broker down somewhat and musicians are mixing and matching various kinds of ska and reggae with other music and the diversity of sounds is healthy and refreshing. Groups like www.PhillySka.com are formed and run by people who love the music and who want to share it with others. How can you not love that - especially when you're just a ska brother from Philly?
Posted by Steve Ciccarelli @ 9:59 AM
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