Why clarify?
Well, during a phone call with Fishbone’s Chris Dowd last week in honor of their upcoming Van Buren show, he asked me, “When was the last time you listened to a Fishbone record?” Then he added, “Be honest.”
This was a tough question.
Here I am, interviewing this super cool guy from a band I loved as a teenager, but I realized that I had not seen the band play live nor listened to them on purpose since I was in my 20s, and Dowd wanted an answer. My twenties happened during the 1990s, so I sheepishly told him it had been a long, long time. I even added, “Decades.”
Bands that you haven’t really listened to for decades can easily find themselves in the nostalgia bin in your brain.
Personally, I have some really fond memories of seeing Fishbone in 1986 at the Metro, for example, on the same night fellow LA legends, The Three O’Clock, played the Mason Jar. Thanks to the help of a cab ride, my friend and I were able to catch both shows, and I would be hard pressed to say that one band was better than the other.
For many people, Fishbone probably represents a time and place in their lives. The band’s first EP, the self-titled “Fishbone,” has seven tracks of pure, ecstatic mayhem and was a staple at parties around Phoenix for years after its 1985 release. I still have my copy on vinyl from back in the day and will be playing a bit more often after hearing their new record, “Stockholm Syndrome.”
(L-R) Christopher Dowd, Angelo Moore, Tracey "Spacey T" Singleton, James Jones, John "JS" Williams II and Hassan Hurd of Fishbone attend An Evening with Fishbone at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on May 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Timothy Norris/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Some might even call it a “banger.”
Dowd asked me his question, though, to prove a point.
“Angelo (Moore) is such a great writer, but even in that, when the band’s chemistry changes and two of the main writers leave for various reasons, the band changed sonically and creatively,” says Dowd.
After Dowd left, as well as fellow OG members Kendall Jones (Guitar/vocals) Walter Kibby II (trumpet/vocals), and John Norwood Fisher (bass/vocals), Fishbone released three more studio albums and a handful of singles and EPs between 1994 and 2018, but without the relative commercial success of their early seminal work. The only constant in Fishbone’s 46-year career was Moore.
For Moore, Fishbone has always been part of his life.
“I was 15 or 16 years old, or something like that. We did a lot of talent shows and stuff around the area. I went to El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California,” says Moore. The band would congregate at Fisher’s apartment in South Central Los Angeles to practice in those early days, which meant a long commute for the teenage Moore.
“I would ride the bus for two and a half hours from Woodland Hills into LA to practice with the guys at Norwood Fisher’s mama’s apartment. We’d all get in there, working songs out in what we called ‘The aquarium,’ but nobody complained. When I think about back then, we didn’t give a fuck about anyone complaining or not. We just wanted to play,” says Moore.
Dowd recalled some of the early influences that helped set Fishbone apart from many other young people making music in the black community at the time.
“I would say that Fishbone initially started when Kendall Jones and myself were in the 7th grade. We lived at the same address, but two blocks from each other, our friendship was sparked over the first (self-titled) B-52s record and Devo’s “Q: Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!” I bought the B-52s and Kendall used to come over and hang out and I would put speakers out on my balcony and put the record. All the kids on my block would be dancing,” says Dowd.
The two young dudes would buy records and trade them back and forth, although Dowd admitted that he didn’t want to relinquish the Devo record until Graves told him that he had purchased XTC’s Drums and Wires. If you listen to the early Fishbone music, you can hear the influence of these three bands and the influence of first-wave ska, Motown and soul music.
Fishbone was not always treated with the respect the band deserved, though, in relation to their musical diversity.
“We were playing rock music, as well as a lot of funk, soul, and jazz. Eventually, reggae and ska came into the picture. When you start to play the kind of music that society says, ‘well, this isn’t your lane or the genre you’re supposed to be playing because of the color of your skin,’ that’s when you start to say, ‘Well, why do I gotta follow that rule when it’s all just music?” says Moore.
“Stockholm Syndrome” celebrates how to mix genres with style, power, and grace. It is also reminiscent of the band’s early work while staying completely current regarding the often biting, socially conscious lyrics that Moore has become known for over his career.
“Fishbone’s motto is fuck racism and fuck you if you don’t like it. All the shit we’ve been talking about the last decade is unfortunately coming to fruition. We shouldn’t have to make songs like ‘Racist Piece of Shit’ and ‘Last Call for America’ (which features vocals from the one and only George Clinton). You know, ‘Gelato the Clown’ is an anti-bullying song. We’ve got bullies in school yards and bullies in the government, so there’s no escape,” says Moore.
Thanks to Fishbone, though, there is hope for a better tomorrow. If anything, the band doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all, and according to Moore, the band has some pretty cool surprises in store at the merch table, too.
Fishbone opens for Less Than Jake on Friday, July 25, 2025, at The Van Buren in Phoenix. Tickets start at $48. The Suicide Machines and Catbite are also on the bill.
