Please Send Me More Wonderful Ska!
A few years back, I used to live in a very beautiful city called Victoria, BC. I loved it there, but in the name of getting myself a proper job/income, I moved to the Canadian West Coast hub of Vancouver. Victoria doesn’t get enough cred in the international scene, but it has put out some great talent. Yes, Nelly Furtado has brought the spot light to Vancouver Island, but that’s not enough in my very humble opinion. Let me tell you a little about the the music scene, as I remember it, in Victoria, Canada.
Despite my interweb persona, I have always been a bit of a home body, preferring my stereo and loved ones to the clubs and bars. But, in my hay day, there was one band that lured me out of my shell… that was The Bombasts. This 9 (or was it 11?) piece ska band was unreal! They would fill the stage at Steamers, with their brass and well dressed musicians. Soon after the dance floor was packed, and the evening would fly by far too quickly.
Is was amazing to me how the many musicians on stage were able to keep in time with each other, while creating such fun and wonderful music filled moments. I wanted to live on that dance floor.
That time was many years ago, and I have yet to hear another ska track with as much energy as was on that dance floor. I suppose there is no way to record the energy of a live performance, even the recording The Bombasts did of Castro back in the day doesn’t compare to the experience of the live performance. It is still great ska though! Sadly, The Bombasts broke up while I was still living on the island. All that is left is the memory, mine, and that of many others I expect.
Please download and listen to The Bombasts’ Castrato, because it is great, and it is the only thing left of something greater.
If you have some Ska music that is as great as this, please, tell me about it… Better yet, send it to me !
1John
wrote on 21 February 2009 at 4:54
Great stuff. When were they about?
2marilyn
wrote on 21 February 2009 at 9:15
Hi John… I’m glad you like it! The Bombasts were around in the late 90s, 1997-98 if I recall correctly.
3Zsolt Sándor
wrote on 19 June 2009 at 14:38
hey, this is so crazy! i was the singer and one of the song-writers for The Bombasts. just happened to have a nostalgic day and googled the band to see what's out there – and lo and behold!
can't say how happy it makes me to have found your post marylin, so good to know we made you happy for the time we were young rude boys in victoria… thanks!
just uploaded all our tracks to last.fm btw… enjoy!
as for what's left, many members of the band went on to play in other great bands as well… jules our drummer has played with danuel tate of 'cobblestone jazz' fame in many collaborations, christian our bass player is still at it and plays with whoever/whenever he can in victoria, jonny eng our percussionist plays with i think the swinging bachelors, our sax/trumpet playing brothers went on to study jazz at u of toronto only to quit music altogether and concentrate on other efforts… tom (trumpet) and i had a band together in toronto, called the addicts, you can find one of our tracks on "Still Standing: A North American Ska Uprising (disc 2)" on Megalith Records. i also played drums with a great ska-jazz band called The Nightshift at the same time in Toronto. You can check out a track at radio3.cbc.ca/bands/THE-NIGHTSHIFT . the latest musical project i was involved in – aside from going solo as a singer/songwriter, you can check out my stuff under Zsolt Sándor on last.fm as well – was a lovely little rocksteady band called The Droptones in Victoria. Limited Droptones stuff is online at myspace.com/droptones
i live in the uk now, so hopefully there'll be some new project over here sometime soon as well…
in the meantime, if you're interested in anything else, further tracks whatever, just drop me a line at towncat@gmail.com
cheers,
`zsolt