Ska bands get a lot of unnecessary shit. No one knows this better than Jeremy Hunter (AKA JER, of Skatune Network fame), who has been at the forefront of a major ska punk resurgence over past few years—and on the front lines of a major effort to redefine the genre.
If one were to seek out the center of ska-related discourse these days, JER’s Twitter presence—built on years of incredible covers through their Skatune Network moniker—is most definitely it. They’re constantly hyping up fresh, exciting artists as a reminder that ska didn’t just up and die in the 90s. They reply (and demolish!) every critic that wrongly labels ska as a quirky-white-guy genre, never wasting a second to reiterate ska’s Jamaican origin by the likes of artists like The Skatalites. Ska punk circles are especially diverse these days, filled with more and more queer voices as new two-tone bands continue to pop up; JER’s artistry, among it all, is quite possibly the most exciting expansion that ska (let alone any long-existing genre) could ever hope for.
So: to kick off their self-proclaimed Ska Gay Summer / Ska Trans Boy Summer (which we fully endorse here at Riot Fest), JER has put together a playlist of their essential ska songs, both old and new, spanning the genre’s past to its exciting present. And if you’re looking to hear the future of ska, you’d be a fool to miss JER and Kill Lincoln at Reggies Rock Club this Thursday, June 2 (tickets available HERE). Enjoy!
[yarpp]
