Anyways, a few weeks ago, I had said something about writing another post about ska music (ok, so it was almost two months ago, and I promised it in the next week, but those have been a busy two months). This is that post.
In the halcyon days of 2000-2002, I was in my first go-round at college, but heading home almost every other weekend to practice with my band. A ska band known as hyrule (we got the name from a video game - "The Legend of Zelda").
I played the saxophone in the group, which usually consisted of 6 members. Though occasionally there were as many as 7 or 8 people, and once as few as 4. I thought we were pretty okay for what we were, I mean, we played with a lot of national groups, like Against All Authority, MU330, The Honor System, The Wunder Years, and N.I.L.8 (who even had a sticker visible in the movie High Fidelity!). We usually had a good number of kids at our shows, whether they were at the Old YMCA in Muscatine or Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City. But most of all, we had fun.
Our trombone player set state high school records for passing yards and touchdowns in a season, our trumpet player wore an old school Nintendo controller as a belt in his homecoming court speech (in which he won and became king), our bassist who tried coke at least once, our drummer who was about 3 years younger than most everyone else in the band, I was 2-3 years older than the others, and our guitar player who had a huge Pez dispenser collection, which he hid around his room during practices. I wish I had more pictures to share, but I've been through 2 motherboards and 3 or 4 hard drives since those days, so most of what I had on my computer is gone. I have a ton of pictures in hard copy, but I don't have the patience, or a scanner to put them on my computer again.
Something that has survived, however is our "CD," cleverly called (demo). (It was never really meant as a demo, we didn't send it to any labels or anything, as we finished it about a week or two before our last show.) So for the first time in 5 years, here is the hyrule CD, available online! (Thanks to Jad for giving me a space to upload the songs!)
1. anthropogenic tradition is no excuse for obstinate folly
2. the hold up
3. well well well
4. keep walking
5. try
6. winter months
7. maple
My personal favorites are 1, 3, and 4 (sorry KP, no slowfuse, we should have recorded that one just for you).
The band broke up in the summer of '02, since most of the members were going off to school in different places (or, in our bassist's case, the Navy for about 2 weeks before being kicked out). Andy, our guitarist/singer, still has a band; he's a member of Raccoo-oo-oon (although they're on a temporary hiatus while he's out in LA for a few months, they're going to Spain sometime soon to play some huge festival, and I am incredibly jealous.). I'll never forget the band, though, because of the fun that was had, and the songs that we did record. And also, because of the tattoo that I got that tied in with my love for the Zelda video game series (I'm a dork, so what?) as well as the time spent in the band.
Just a quick story about another band I was in, this one during high school. KP and I, along with our friend Grant, joined up with some other guys in a band called Tredd-Safe (or maybe it was Tread-Safe, I don't remember. . .). At first it was to do a cover of Less Than Jake's "My Own Flag," but then we kept playing with them and added horn parts to some of their older songs. As far as we know, we were the first ska band in Muscatine to have a horn section. Not that it's that impressive of a thing, I'm pretty sure hyrule was the last ska band in Muscatine to have a horn section, but still kind of neat, I guess. I think the "scene" was thriving at that point, and I think it's all but dead now. It's too bad, it was really fun while it lasted.
