We are treated with respect in Boston but still, as a ska band, you are sort of treated as the little brother, the "not-so-serious" musicians because you play a silly, happy music called ska. Personally, I would love to see all the serious musicians try their hand at playing ska/rocksteady/reggae the proper way. It isn't as simple as it sounds. We usually have a great time with other bands, though.

"A real musician should be influenced by all genres of music."

Well, let's start off with the obvious. When it comes to playing ska/rocksteady/reggae, the Skatalites and Lee Perry are our biggest influences. However, there are other influences that come into play since we are not pure purists. Many in the band listen to classical, jazz and many other forms of music.

How about this: Beatles, XTC, Frank Sinatra, punk, new wave...a real musician should be influenced by all genres of music or else he becomes a member of a band like The Romantics, nothing wrong with that band but they write the same stuff over and over and over and over and...

My brother left the band in March of 1999. It was his choice as far as we can tell. Believe you me, we miss him dearly. He had a unique sense of humor and wrote great lyrics and melodies and he could keep the audience on our side even when the band was having an "off" night. Not that Dtrain can't. King K had that special charisma...we like to call it whiskey. Really, we've been trying to get him to come back and perform. Plus we miss the road trips with him and wearing Depends together.

Fuck yes. We went from playing every weekend, three nights to once in a while. Some of it was our choice because we were being offered cut rate shows. If the crowd didn't turn out, why would a club pay you? Music is now very trend driven and once a style isn't hip anymore, the kids move on to something else. So now the kids look down their noses at ska even though they don't understand it.

The hype lost us the true ska fans also. What self-respecting skin or scooter owner wants to hang with the trendies? You know the ones...they think ska history started with The Toasters.

When ska was big, every club booked ska every weekend and ruined it. What happens is this: the bigger demand for bands to play clubs, the bigger the number of ska bands to fill those dates. The bigger the number of ska bands, the bigger the chances are that the band will suck. The bigger chances are that the band will suck, the more likely the crowds stop going to ska shows. When the crowds decrease, so do the shows. This goes on ad infinitum until every dime possible has been squeezed out of the genre.

Personally? I'll get each guy to write you a list but...The Wolftones (Irish), The Divine Comedy, Blur, Slim Smith, Lee Perry, XTC, The Beatles...Bill Evans, Louis Armstrong...

Hey, the more the merrier. I have no problem with any band or, for that matter, any type of music as long as they are good. We are great friends with Big D and the Kids's Table — they aren't traditional ska but they offer a great version of ska-core.

And you are very right about the discovery of traditional ska through the other forms, but that usually takes a while for a Jamaican music afficianado's tastes to mature. I didn't like reggae at first and only after I listened to a lot of ska did I start to understand reggae.

[Moon Records owner] Bucket did a great job of keeping ska alive and promoting it for a lot of years. He should be proud of what he did. However, there is a time to move on and the folding of Moon was inevitable in hindsight. A company that makes its money on one style of music is tough to keep going. Again, Buck did it for a long time.

But, the dissolution of Moon clears the shelves of all the fakes and wannabes that played ska very badly. Gone, hopefully, will be the stupid lyrics with words like "skankin" and stories of Rudy Rudeman and his rudies...God that shit sucked. Unimaginative horn lines and no harmonies. Toasters who couldn't toast, singers who couldn't sing — Moon helped them all. And the weight of all that talentless crap pulled Moon down to its death.

I'm not trying to be mean to anybody but a lot of ska was shite. It was the bandwagon that everybody tried to jump on until the wheels fell off the wagon. It was easy to write shitty ska songs. Just mention beer, rudegirls and how much you hate the government! Shake and pour.

Like rats from a sinking ship, most of these bands disavowed being ska bands...I heard rumors that some bands after making a name on the back of ska music said that they were never ska bands to begin with! A lot of the band members hate it when I am this honest because someone will inevitably take offense and they will be mad at us...they were probably in one of the bands that sucked!  next »