FISHBONE
With DOA, Kasuals, Crowned Kings
Monday, April 8
at the Rev

Fishbone is the lost link between the Two-Tone era and the recently deceased third-wave of ska. Played straight from the nuttsack, Fishbone plays a cocktail of two-tone, funk, hardcore punk and mixed nuts.

"When that big ska wave was going on," bassist Norwood Fisher reminisces, "at that moment when everybody was getting on the radio just because they were playing ska, we couldn’t get a record deal."

A band of black musicians playing what has become a predominantly white music – ska – Fishbone have had it rough. They were recently booted out of Hollywood Records, their Disney-owned label. Yeah, there’s a recipe for disaster.

"We wouldn’t have done another record with them anyway," says Fisher, who says the label wasn’t willing to back the band financially. "It was an enlightening experience, oh boy. I knew we’d have to be embarking on some other shit, whether it was on another label or ourselves."

The band was hung out to dry with a 30-minute EP ready for stores. The album, Fishbone’s Familyhood Nextperience, features three songs, including a 20-minute track and a duet with Primus. "That’s how we’re just coming into the independent round," says Fisher.

Finally out of the Disney zoo, Fishbone is ready for the next and nuttiest stage of their musical career: porn flick soundtracks. They recently scored the skin flick Nina, Shayla & Kylie’s Barcelona Home Video, and Fisher says they plan to do more.

"We’re gonna create a whole new level of the adult industry by fusing punk rock and ska and the other shit that we do, to porn," he says. This man has lofty goals for his band: "I want couples to fuck to Fishbone while porn is playing."

We probably aren’t going to see Fishbone cameos in the porn flicks; they’ve always been about making danceable music, whether that dance is the horizontal mambo or otherwise.

"We are a ska band at heart … but mostly we’re a dance band at heart, and everything else," says Norwood. "We definitely consider it a big part of what we do, that’s a form of music we love – but there’s a lot of other stuff. We love a lot of reggae. [And] we love punk rock music. That’s what we do."

Appearing in Edmonton with the crowned kings of post-wave ska, Crowned King, they’re splitting the bill with punksters DOA and the Kasuals. Don’t let this symphony of dissonance intimidate you; they want to lay on the mindfuck.

"It gives people the expand," Fisher says. "One thing this is about is when we talk about ‘nextperience’ and being on the ‘expansion team,’ it’s like open your mind to another idea, and that’s part of our lifestyle."