People were already ready to declare the US ska boom dead by the end of the 1990s, but 1) regardless of the mainstream’s interest in the genre, ska never died, and 2) ska did seem to get a brief second wind–or at least a last gasp–in the American mainstream in 2003. Some of the biggest and most crucial ’90s ska-punk bands approached ska with a rejuvenated energy in ’03, and released some of their biggest-ever hits that year. At the same time, a new ska underground was starting to take shape, with bands ranging from ska-core to trad-ska that would help keep American ska alive throughout the 2000s and 2010s. It was an exciting year for ska, with a lot of great records, and in celebration of their 20th anniversaries, I’ve put together a list of 10 classics from that pivotal period.
The list is admittedly heavy on American ska-punk, but it’s got a couple bands from around the world, and a handful of records from all across the wide-ranging ska spectrum. It’s also just a small snapshot of all the ska that came out that year. Read on for the list in alphabetical order, and let us know your favorite ska albums from 2003…
Infamous Jake & the Pinstripe Mafia – This Is the Beginning of the End
Kill Normal
You maybe had to look a little harder for great ska bands in that period in between third wave ska’s mainstream boom and the genre’s more recent resurgence, but they were there and Infamous Jake & the Pinstripe Mafia were one of them. The Amherst, MA band were staples of the Northeast ska-punk underground alongside bands like Connecticut legends The Flaming Tsunamis, who they ended up sharing members and co-founding Kill Normal Records with, and whose “PPC” they covered on their first and only full-length, This Is the Beginning of the End. They also crossed paths back in the day with Jeff Rosenstock, whose band Bomb the Music Industry! would later include an Infamous Jake cover on Asbestos Records’ Shine Some Light benefit comp for Infamous Jake’s Dan Lang-Gunn. Like The Flaming Tsunamis, Infamous Jake & the Pinstripe Mafia had a knack for blending real-deal ska, aggressive punk/hardcore, and melodies that are both super catchy and still timeless. They also took their music a lot more seriously than you might’ve guessed from a band called “Infamous Jake & the Pinstripe Mafia.” They hit way harder than a lot of the ska bands who had blown up a few years earlier, and this ageless record could come out today and still take the ska and punk worlds by storm.
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Less Than Jake – Anthem
Sire
After two back-to-back classics on Capitol Records (1996’s Losing Streak and 1998’s Hello Rockview), Less Than Jake left their major label, went through some lineup changes, and entered into a one-album deal with Fat Wreck Chords for 2000’s Borders & Boundaries, an album that toned down the band’s ska side and veered more into “pop punk with horns.” (They also toured that year with Bon Jovi, which even 20+ years later still seems stranger than fiction.) Given the mainstream’s waning interest in ska, it might’ve seemed like Less Than Jake were destined to retreat back to the punk underground that they came from. But as fate would have it, Craig Aaronson–the same A&R person who signed them to Capitol in the ’90s–was at that point working at Sire/Warner and he wanted to give Less Than Jake another major label opportunity. The result was Anthem, and it ended up birthing the biggest hit of Less Than Jake’s career.
They hit the studio with longtime Green Day producer Rob Cavallo, and the sessions resulted in one of the best-sounding records Less Than Jake ever made, including a re-recording of Borders & Boundaries‘ “Look What Happened” that trumps the original. It would also be their first album with former Spring Heeled Jack saxophonist Peter “JR” Wasilewski, solidifying the lineup they’d have until founding drummer/lyricist Vinnie Fiorello departed LTJ in 2018. Like Borders & Boundaries, it does veer more towards “pop punk with horns” than ska-punk, but with some very notable exceptions, including the eternal circle-pit-inducing fan fave “Plastic Cup Politics” and the band’s aforementioned biggest hit: the clean, trad-ska/reggae/rocksteady-sounding “The Science of Selling Yourself Short.” It would’ve sounded like the feel-good hit of the summer if not for its depression-fueled lyrics, and it’s got one of the most undeniable hooks in Less Than Jake’s discography. Even the haters bop their heads when they hear it.
Regardless of its exact subgenre, Anthem has some of the strongest songwriting and best performances of Less Than Jake’s career. It’s full of fan favorites, Roger Lima and Chris DeMakes’ voices and harmonies have never sounded better, and the horn section of JR and Buddy Schaub is at the top of its game. Rob Cavallo’s production really brought out the best in the band, but even if you yearn for the rawer production of the Losing Streak days, it’s tough to deny that LTJ were firing on all cylinders for this one.
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The Planet Smashers – Mighty
Stomp
Since forming in 1993, The Planet Smashers helped put Canadian ska-punk on the map, and the record label that vocalist Matt Collyer started, Stomp Records, remains one of the most important ska labels worldwide. They’ve never stopped putting out music and they’ve had consistently great output the whole time, and 2003’s Mighty is up there with any of their best work. It’s really got it all–the production is clear and humble, the choruses are catchy, the horns are on point, and this record is a great example of how good The Planet Smashers were at being unserious without ever coming off too silly. They do have some more serious moments, like the politically-minded “Explosive” which features Neville Staple of The Specials, and Mighty balances out the ska-punk rippers with reminders that The Planet Smashers have a real knack for traditional ska instrumentation too.
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RX Bandits – The Resignation
Drive-Thru
Having started out in the mid ’90s as a full-on ska-punk band, Orange County’s RX Bandits weren’t just a ska band by 2003’s The Resignation, but they weren’t just any other genre either. They’d come up with a fusion that pulled from ska, reggae, punk, post-hardcore, progressive rock, and more, and 20 years later, I’ve still never heard another album that sounds like The Resignation. Every member of this band is virtuosic and extremely creative, and that’s on full display on The Resignation. Mind-bending guitar riffs and drum patterns are set against a fiery horn section and the unmistakable voice of Matthew Embree, who can go from reggae-inflected singing to a gritty post-hardcore yell at the drop of a hat. RX Bandits use their intricate arrangements as a vessel to tackle topics like war, racism, and sexism with politically-conscious lyrics that were as impactful in 2003 as they are in 2023. It’s rare to find a record this deep, complex, and innovative that’s also this hard-hitting and easy to latch onto.
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Rancid – Indestructible
Hellcat/Epitaph
Rancid helped usher in the third wave ska boom with their ska-infused single “Time Bomb” off of their 1995 breakthrough record …And Out Come the Wolves, and they leaned even further into their love of Jamaican music with 1998’s Life Won’t Wait, before eschewing ska and reggae entirely in favor of short, fast, and loud hardcore punk on their 2000 self-titled record. Similar to Less Than Jake, it might’ve seemed like Rancid were aligning themselves with the mainstream’s decreased interest in ska, but instead they made one of their biggest records, brought back the ska, and released their biggest ska hit since “Time Bomb” with 2003’s Indestructible. The record was met with some sellout accusations because it had distribution by Warner and a music video starring members of Good Charlotte, but those grumbles from punk purists were drowned out by some of the most enduring songwriting of Rancid’s career. Said hit “Fall Back Down” and the album’s other single “Red Hot Moon” are two of the most ska, most catchy songs Rancid have ever written, and the former remains a fan-fave staple of Rancid’s live show to this day. Those two songs coming so early in the record threaten to overshadow the rest of the 19-song LP, but when you keep listening, you’re treated to a consistently great helping of punk and ska-leaning punk rippers that sound like no other band in the world.
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The Slackers – Close My Eyes
Hellcat
With an album cover that references 9/11, it was clear before you even clicked play that the mood of early aughts NYC had impacted hometown ska heroes The Slackers’ 2003 LP Close My Eyes, and it comes through even louder and more clearly on “Real War,” a ’70s-style reggae protest anthem sung by Marc Lyn. That mood permeates other songs–the rest sung by Vic Ruggiero–less explicitly, and Vic mixes in personal themes as well. Musically speaking, The Slackers have always been in a lane of their own and Close My Eyes is no exception. The Slackers are punk as fuck, but there’s not a single “ska-punk” song in this record. Close My Eyes is a great example of The Slackers’ ability to throw it back to original 1960s Jamaican ska, with Studio One-style production and an approach to ska that keeps it connected to its roots in American jazz, soul, and rock & roll. Close My Eyes was entirely out of step with the prominent trends of 2003, and even in its most retro-sounding moments, The Slackers always put a distinct spin on things that kept Close My Eyes sounding like no other artist in the world.
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Streetlight Manifesto – Everything Goes Numb
Victory
After NJ’s Catch 22 released one of the best and most classic ska-punk albums ever with their 1998 debut LP Keasbey Nights, lead singer/songwriter Tomas Kalnoky left the band, followed shortly after by bassist Josh Ansley and horn player James Egan. Catch 22 continued putting out records with a new lineup, but–with all due respect to those records–it wasn’t until Tomas, Josh, and James reconvened in Streetlight Manifesto and released their 2003 debut LP Everything Goes Numb that Keasbey Nights was given a true sequel. The gritty, super-fast vocals and vivid lyricism that made Keasbey Nights such a gem are all here, and Tomas had clearly evolved his craft in the five years between the two albums. Tomas (who also produced it) avoided the production techniques of the time in favor of a rawer aesthetic that makes it sound separate from any particular era, and there’s plenty of high-speed ska-punk on this record, but Streetlight also change it up with songs that veer into Eastern European music, slower reggae, folk punk, and stuff that doesn’t really fit into any established subgenre. Streetlight were always in a lane of their own and that’s part of why they persevered even throughout ska’s darkest ages.
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The Suicide Machines – A Match and Some Gasoline
SideOneDummy
After putting out their instant-classic 1996 ska-punk debut Destruction by Definition and its likeminded 1998 follow-up Battle Hymns, The Suicide Machines dealt with some inner-band creative differences that led to them toning down their ska-punk side and making two poppier records, 2000’s self-titled LP and 2001’s Steal This Record. It was a period that singer Jason Navarro later told Punk News was “a pretty uncomfortable time for me, because I was fighting with everyone because they were writing songs that sounded like the Beatles and I just wanted to write punk songs,” though he also said the backlash against those records was never as bad as people thought. They were also going through some lineup changes–drummer Derek Grant left after Battle Hymns (he’d go on to drum for Alkaline Trio for 22 years) and bassist Royce Nunley left to start his own band Blueprint 76 after Steal This Record–and The Suicide Machines also parted ways with their major label Hollywood Records after putting out the The Least Worst of the Suicide Machines comp in 2002. They then went to an independent punk label, SideOneDummy, recruited new bassist Rich Tschirhart (ex-Bourgeois Filth), and returned with A Match and Some Gasoline, which marked a return to form and a step forward. Produced with Descendents’ Bill Stevenson and his Blasting Room studio partner Jason Livermore, it was a great-sounding record with a lot more punk grit than the previous two, and it found them churning out ska-punk rippers that stood tall next to Destruction by Definition. The often-political band used their new and improved sound to directly respond to the horrors of post-9/11, Bush-era America, putting The Suicide Machines on the musically and lyrically focused path that they’re still on today. The album birthed one of the band’s biggest fan favorites, the upbeat, introspective ska banger “High Anxiety,” and there’s so much greatness where that song came from, from other ska anthems like “Did You Ever Get A Feeling of Dread?” to high-speed hardcore rippers like “Beat My Head Against The Wall.” Clocking in at just around a half hour, it’s a lean album that flies by without a single dud.
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Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – High Numbers
Avex Trax
At this point, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra are basically an institution. They’ve been going strong since 1985, they’re insanely prolific, and they’ve made almost every type of ska you can imagine. For 2003’s High Numbers, they took a page out of ska pioneers The Skatalites’ book and filled the LP with jazz-informed ska instrumentals, and they flirt with other styles of music, ranging from surf rock to Westerns, from laid-back to skronky. The album isn’t entirely instrumental; it also has a handful of cool toasting parts and poppier vocal-led songs like “A Quick Drunkard,” “銀河と迷路,” and “蟻たちの夜.” As one of the most varied-sounding albums on this list, it keeps you on your toes for its entire 53-minute runtime and it has a little something for everyone.
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Westbound Train – Searching For A Melody
Stubborn Records/Megalith
Boston’s Westbound Train formed at the tail-end of the US’ mainstream ska boom, but they turned away from the ska-punk of the era and took things back to the early Jamaican era (they were named after Dennis Brown’s 1973 hit, after all), with a soulful approach to ska and reggae that was closer in spirit to US bands like The Slackers, Hepcat, and The Aggrolites, all three of them they’d soon be labelmates with on Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records. But before Hellcat included WBT on 2004’s Give ‘Em the Boot IV and ultimately signed them, they released their debut album Searching For A Melody. (The internet seems torn on its actual release date, but it looks like it was technically first released on Stubborn All-Stars leader King Django’s Stubborn Records in 2002 and then given a wider release on Toasters singer Robert “Bucket” Hingley’s Megalith Records in 2003.) Their third album and Hellcat debut Transitions (2006) became their breakthrough, but the band’s addictive style was already fully realized here. The ska and soul vibes are old school but not old-fashioned, the melodies are timeless, and the record really grooves. It also came at a great time for American ska; if you were starting to tire of the oversaturated ska-punk mainstream, this remarkable update on trad-ska was a refreshing alternative.
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