My favorite ska band is Less Than Jake, which I haven’t seen mentioned here yet…maybe I just missed it.
Make sure you check out Suburban Legends. Less known, very awesome.
Streetlight Manifesto, Reel Big Fish, Catch 22, and Aquabats are all solid.
I’ve seen most of these bands live, and Suburban Legends definitely put on the best show. Very energetic, and even some crazy stuff like throwing trombones across the stage.
Another great modern ska band is The Slackers. They have more of a Ska revival feel, but very soulful and fun.
Also in the pop field, Lily Allen has a cool taste of ska in her songs, and some attitude to boot. She’s actually performed on stage with members of The Specials and recorded a nice cover of “Blank Expression”.
Tim Armstrong’s solo record, A Poet’s Life, is fantastic. The Aggrolites play as his backup band for a lot of it.
not accessible from France alas!
I know only of the skatalites : their music is a perfect match for my flugelhorn …But I will need simple but strong bass rythm for my brass band ( our bass saxhorns like simple and strong things)… any idea of something?
Ska shows are some of the funnest of all time too, I might add…I went to a Reel Big Fish show once and it was the best live concert I’ve ever been to.
And there used to be a local ska band here called the Skalds, they did a lot of ska covers of regular songs, like Pretty Fly for a White Guy and We Didn’t Start the Fire…their concerts were hella fun!!