Denver ska-punk vets Five Iron Frenzy return with first album in 7 years (listen)
Denver ska-punk veterans Five Iron Frenzy put out a new song on last year’s Ska Against Racism, and then they began crowd-funding their first album in seven years, which is called Until This Shakes Apart and is out today. The new record sounds as sharp as Five Iron Frenzy did in the ’90s, but it’s totally a product of 2021 and clearly inspired by the social/political injustice that’s come to the forefront of mainstream news in recent years. From a recent feature on Denver publication Westword:
Seven years have passed since Five Iron Frenzy, Denver’s preeminent Christian ska band, dropped an album. But now, thanks to a muscular Kickstarter campaign, the bandmates have most of what will be called Until This Shakes Apart in the can. The new record addresses immigration, gun laws, the current presidential administration and the general state of society.
“We’ve always been down to talk about that stuff,” says tenor saxophonist Leanor Ortega Till. “We’re not going to stop now. It’s one of those interesting times in history where you kind of have to pick a side in some ways. You can’t just be in the middle. There’s no middle.”
Until This Shakes Apart is a pretty damn good comeback, with rippin’ ska-punk rhythms and slower, dubby grooves that are as hard-hitting as the powerful lyrical content. Hear it for yourself by streaming it below.
Tracklist
In Through the Out Door
Lonesome for Her Heroes
So We Sing
Bullfight for an Empty Ring
Renegades
Tyrannis
Auld Lanxiety
Homelessly Devoted to You
One Heart Hypnosis
While Supplies Last
Wildcat
Like Something I missed
Huerfano
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The Year In Ska: Albums Not to Miss From 2020
Ska Against Racism
In 1998, Mike Park put on the Ska Against Racism tour with the goal of bringing back the anti-racist politics of ska at the height of the genre's mainstream success in America. "I felt like [ska] was becoming so manufactured as this fun wacky circus music and the original politics were gone from the 2 tone movement," Mike told us earlier this year. "The whole 2 tone idea is black and white equality. Did kids even know that?" Now, 22 years later and with the help of Bad Time Records and Ska Punk Daily, the Ska Against Racism name was revived for a new 28-song compilation featuring some of the bands from the original tour (Less Than Jake, Mustard Plug, Five Iron Frenzy, and MU330) alongside other veterans (Tim Armstrong/Jesse Michaels, The Suicide Machines, The Chinkees, Hepcat, Buck O' Nine, Left Alone, Big D and the Kids Table, etc) and a slew of newer bands who are keeping ska alive today (Kill Lincoln, We Are The Union, JER, Catbite, The Best of the Worst, Omnigone, The Skints, The Interrupters, Half Past Two, Bite Me Bambi, etc). It not only connects the established veterans with the new guard and functions as a who's who of the current ska scene, it's also a mission statement for today's ska scene and a declaration of the values that these bands stand for. "Mike [Park] wanted to bring [the politics] back for his generation, and I feel like now we need to make that statement again," Mike Sosinski from Bad Time Records/Kill Lincoln told us. "It's almost like a waypoint that people can look to in time and be like, alright, ska in this generation, this is where we're at, and it's no longer just anti-racism, it's anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-sexism, it's just acceptance of everything but hate."
The compilation will benefit The Movement for Black Lives, The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, The Alpha Institute, The Conscious Kid, and Black Girls Code in perpetuity, and the anti-racist, anti-bigotry message lies not just in the benefit aspect but also in a lot of these songs. From covers of classic anti-racist ska anthems that remain depressingly still relevant today (Kill Lincoln doing Skankin' Pickle's "David Duke Is Running For President," The Doped Up Dollies doing The Specials' "Racist Friend") to newly-written protest songs (JER's "Breaking News! Local Punk Denies Existence of Systematic Racism," The Best of the Worst's "Illusion of Choice," Omnigone's "Swallow Poison," Mustard Plug's "Unite and Fight," etc), the message of Ska Against Racism goes much deeper than just the album title. And with so many genuinely great songs that are exclusive to this comp, Ska Against Racism is just as essential as the albums by all the bands featured. Comps aren't as popular in the streaming era as they were in the CD, cassette, and vinyl eras, but Ska Against Racism is poised to become one of those scene-defining comps like Mike Park curations Misfits of Ska and Plea For Peace were two decades ago.