“2-Tone Army” – The Toasters
(Words/music: Rob Hingley, available on Hard Band for Dead, Moon Ska Records 1996)

As a teenager discovering punk rock in the 1990s, ska music was unavoidable.  Too many factors put ska in front of me - friends kept playing records by Goldfinger and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones every time they picked me up and my musician friends gravitated toward any record with a horn section, especially if those records had a bit of edge to them.  The “third wave” of ska (the one mixed with skate-punk, for lack of a better term), seemed catered to teenagers of my generation – it was fast, fun, and rebellious enough – and while I never became as obsessed as some of my friends, I enjoyed my share of it.  Even thinking about the first Reel Big Fish album brings me back to the time when I first had my driver’s license, picking up my friends to go hang out somewhere and do nothing.

The Toasters’ “2-Tone Army” styles itself as a rally call for the 90’s ska revival.  “It’s a modern look, but it’s all about roots” seemed to sum it up, as “Bucket” Hingley sings at the end of the first verse, and his song certainly owes a debt to The Specials and The Beat, in particular with his vocal delivery.  The horn section gives the song its hook and its most distinctive melodic phrase, and it makes complete sense to have the song begin with this.  After all, it’s the sound of ska music that entranced so many; people heard the horns and the upbeat music and started paying attention.  Hingley may outline his movement’s philosophical tenants in the song, but I doubt more than a handful still play it because of the “nineties beat on a fifties sound” line, no matter how well it sums up the band’s style.  While ska devotees still follow their bands with unparalleled devotion, ska’s moment in the spotlight came and left as quickly as the song.  Still, it was cool to see bands with more horns players than guitarists (and I wonder if bands like these indirectly inspired some of the current bands doing creative arrangements with brass instruments) and it gave us a handful of fun singles.  Even if most listeners don’t remember The Toasters by name, “2-Tone Army” probably rings a bell, either as the theme to Nickelodeon’s Kablam, or just bringing back fond thoughts of the late 1990s in general.

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