Ska is Dead Tour

Cockroaches and ska music have a few things in common. Both are reviled by a large portion of the population and, despite repeated attempts to stamp each out, neither will ever be exterminated completely. Hence the ultimate irony of the recurring Ska Is Dead tour (now in its fourth edition):...

By Benjamin Leatherman

February 5, 2009

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Cockroaches and ska music have a few things in common. Both are reviled by a large portion of the population and, despite repeated attempts to stamp each out, neither will ever be exterminated completely. Hence the ultimate irony of the recurring Ska Is Dead tour (now in its fourth edition): the Jamaican-born musical style will seemingly never die off. Instead, it will continue to survive and evolve, infesting generation after generation. Just witness the chain of influence evident amongst the acts making up this year's tour: The Toasters, who formed during the birth of the third wave of ska-punk in the early '80s, helped pave the way for early-'90s bands like the Latin-tinged Voodoo Glow Skulls, the more traditional reggae/rocksteady Deal's Gone Bad, and San Diego's Buck-O-Nine — all of which likely inspired the local skankers of 2 Tone Lizard Kings. We're even willing to bet that like the mighty Periplaneta americana, ska will even survive the inevitable Armageddon (skarmageddon?) and will be blasting out of the iPods of those folks who'll be partying at ground zero.

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Benjamin Leatherman is a staff writer for Phoenix New Times where he focuses primarily on arts, culture, music, and nightlife. He began writing for New Times in 2003 and joined the staff full-time in 2005. Prior to that, he contributed to magazines such as Tips & Tricks and The Wrestler. Benjamin has earned multiple awards from the Arizona Press Club including an award for sports enterprise reporting in 2009 and an award for statewide arts reporting in 2014. He holds a bachelor’s of arts in journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Contact: Benjamin Leatherman

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