#theboxboys

[vinylanswer]

Much to my surprise, I’ve been working my way through Ska Boom, a new book that recounts the history of American Ska from the 1970s through the early 1990s, all told oral-history style. To be honest, I bought it solely for The Untouchables chapter, as I have every record they ever put out, but knew almost nothing about the band (that’s founder Clyde Grimes on the book cover, BTW). I devoured that chapter—which took a while because the whole book is 9-pt. type—and then on a whim read the chapter on The Hooters, since they started out as a ska band before writing mid-tempo rock hits like “And We Danced.” This past weekend at Generation Records in NYC, I coincidentally came across a 7” by The Boxboys, who have their own chapter (and who were an inspiration to The Untouchables), so I picked that up and read that chapter, too, and have since read about The Scofflaws, Beat Brigade, Bim Skala Bim and a few others. So for a book I only intended to read one chapter of, I’ve dug in and really enjoyed it.