COMPLIED BY LEAH AMBROSINO

A Better Place, A Better Timeby Streetlight Manifesto

on Everything Goes Numb

INTRODUCTION TO GENRE

What the hell is “ska?”

Ska is a genre of music that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950’s. Its history is commonly referred to in three “waves;” the original Jamaican roots during the 60s (First Wave), the 2 Tone revival in England during the late 70s (Second Wave), and the ska movement that moved to the United States in the 90s (Third Wave.) Ska music is characterized by walking bass lines and rhythms on the upbeat, derived from Ameri-can jazz, blues, Caribbean mento and calypso. Instru-ments include trumpet, saxophone, drums, guitar and bass. Ska influenced the development of genres such as rocksteady, and later, reggae. Skanking, a two step dance that originated 1950s Jamaican dance halls is still performed at live shows around the world.

Skanking: A Lesson By Tony Verity

NOT JUST A SKA BAND

IdentityStreetlight Manifesto is typically categorized as third wave ska-punk. “Everyone kind of puts the whole ska thing on us,” says Tomas Kalnoky of Streetlight, “there’s so many influences to us musically that it’d be kind of unfair to narrow things down and say that we’re a ska band. Also, there’s such a stigma with the ska bands. People really expect you to play in a very specific or narrow way, especially traditional ska bands. It’s almost like there’s a set of rules you have to follow, from how to you dress to how you play your instrument. We’ve always been ‘do whatever you want’ kind of people when it comes to those things...some people dig us, some people hate us.”

Dear Sergioby Streetlight Manifestoon Keasbey Nights

BACKGROUND

A Streetlight History Lesson

Streetlight Manifesto started as a group of guys in their twenties jamming out in a basement in mid-2002. “While we were working on our first record, we never could have imagined that the music we were putting together would start a chain reaction in our lives that would result in our traveling the world for a decade, playing in countries we only read about, taking on the lives of full-time touring musi-cians.” (smanifesto.tumblr.com) Streetlight currently has seven members, Tomas Kalroky on vocals and guitar being the only member that remains of the original six: Jamie Egan on trumpet and trombone, Pete Sibilia on tenor saxo-phone, Dan Ross on baritone sax, Josh Ansley on bass and Stuart Karmatz on drums.

Setbacks included Streetlight’s ever-changing range of band members, as well as over thousands of dol-lars worth of equipment stolen while on tour in 2005. Despite this, the band has not stopped play-ing and has been touring on and off for 10 years now.

2003: Everything Goes NumbCapturing the tremendous energy of the band, Everything Goes

Numb created a core fanbase for Streetlight and went farther than the band imagined it would.

2006: Keasbey NightsA re-recording of Catch 22’s album under the same

name, Tomas Kalnoky (former member of Catch 22) decided to re-record the album with Streetlight

Manifesto to improve the album’s sound quality. The name is a reference to Keasbey, New Jersey.

2007: Somewhere in the BetweenContained tracks “We Will Fall Together” and

“Would You Be Impressed?” which would go on to be the band’s first two music videos.

2010: 99 Songs of Revolution:Vol.199 Songs of Revolution was a project that was

created to feature 99 cover songs spread over 8albums by 4 artists including Bandits of the Acoustic

Revolution and Streetlight Manifesto. Showcases ska versions of contemporary pop covers like “Me &

Julio Down By the School Yard” and “Red Rubber Ball.”

2013: The Hands That ThieveOriginally set to be released in the summer of 2012, The Hands That Thieve was released April 30, 2013 despite “legal issues” and disputes with Streetlight’s

label, Victory records. Victory has a history of political disputes with the band and canceled the release of The Hand That Thieves, an acoustic version of The Hands That Thieve

that was set to be released by Toh Kay (Tomas Kalnoky)

Albums

SkaScene.com. "The History of Ska." SkaScene.com: Global Ska Music Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013.vi

Bibliography

On Tour

In April 2005, the band left the United States to begin their first tour overseas. In October they were robbed of over $80,000 worth of equipment in Jacksonville, Florida. A month later they were robbed again in Paris, France, losing more equipment. The tour they were currently on was renamed the Please Stop Robbing Us Tour. Streetlight spent the summer of 2006 opening for Reel Big Fish and continued to tour with them up until the release of Somewhere in the Between in November. Their current tour is “The End of the Begin-ning,” named in leu of the announcement that the band “will no longer be touring year round, nor will we be touring much at all anymore.”

LOREM IPSUM

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3. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex commodo consequat.

4. Duis aute irure dolor in in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

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UntitledLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ligula suspendisse nulla pretium, rhoncus tempor placerat fermentum, enim integer ad vestibu-lum volutpat. Nisl rhoncus turpis est, vel elit, congue wisi enim nunc ultricies sit, magna tincidunt. Maecenas aliquam maecenas ligula nostra, accumsan taciti. Sociis mauris in inte-ger, a dolor netus non dui aliquet, sagittis felis sodales, dolor sociis mauris, vel eu est libero cras. Interdum at. Eget habi-tasse elementum est, ipsum purus pede porttitor class, ut lo-rem adipiscing, aliquet sed auctor, imperdiet arcu per diam dapibus libero duis. Enim eros in vel, volutpat nec pellen-tesque leo, temporibus scelerisque nec.

Ac dolor ac adipiscing amet bibendum nullam, massa lacus molestie ut libero nec, diam et, pharetra sodales eget, feugiat ullamcorper id tempor eget id vitae. Mauris pretium eget aliquet, lectus tincidunt. Porttitor mollis imperdiet libero se-nectus pulvinar. Etiam molestie mauris ligula eget laoreet, ve-hicula eleifend. Repellat orci eget erat et, sem cum, ultricies sollicitudin amet eleifend dolor nullam erat, malesuada est leo ac. Varius natoque turpis elementum est. Duis montes, tellus lobortis lacus amet arcu et. In vitae vel, wisi at, id praesent bibendum libero faucibus porta egestas, quisque praesent ip-sum fermentum placerat tempor.

Curabitur auctor, erat mollis sed fusce, turpis vivamus a dic-tumst congue magnis. Aliquam amet ullamcorper dignissim molestie, sed mollis. Tortor vitae tortor eros wisi facilisis.Consectetuer arcu ipsum ornare pellentesque ve-hicula, in vehicula diam, ornare magna erat felis wisi a risus. Justo fermentum id. Malesuada eleifend, tortor eros.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, ligula suspendisse nulla pretium, rhoncus tempor placerat fermentum, enim integer ad vestibu-lum volutpat. Nisl rhoncus turpis est, vel elit, congue wisi enim nunc ultricies sit, magna tincidunt. Maecenas aliquam maecenas ligula nostra, accumsan taciti. Sociis mauris in inte-ger, a dolor netus non dui aliquet, sagittis felis sodales, dolor sociis mauris, vel eu est libero cras. Interdum at. Eget habi-tasse elementum est, ipsum purus pede porttitor class, ut lo-rem adipiscing, aliquet sed auctor, imperdiet arcu per diam dapibus libero duis. Enim eros in vel, volutpat nec pellen-tesque leo, temporibus scelerisque nec.

Ac dolor ac adipiscing amet bibendum nullam, massa lacus molestie ut libero nec, diam et, pharetra sodales eget, feugiat ullamcorper id tempor eget id vitae. Mauris pretium eget aliquet, lectus tincidunt. Porttitor mollis imperdiet libero se-nectus pulvinar. Etiam molestie mauris ligula eget laoreet, ve-hicula eleifend. Repellat orci eget erat et, sem cum, ultricies sollicitudin amet eleifend dolor nullam erat, malesuada est leo ac. Varius natoque turpis elementum est. Duis montes, tellus lobortis lacus amet arcu et. In vitae vel, wisi at, id praesent bibendum libero faucibus porta egestas, quisque praesent ip-sum fermentum placerat tempor. Curabitur auctor, erat mollis sed fusce, turpis vivamus a dictumst congue magnis. Aliquam amet ullamcorper dignissim molestie, sed mollis. Tortor vitae tortor eros wisi facilisis. Consectetuer arcu ipsum ornare pel-lentesque vehicula, in vehicula diam, ornare magna erat felis wisi a risus. Justo fermentum id. Malesuada eleifend, tortor molestie, a fusce a vel et. Mauris at suspendisse, neque ali-

quam faucibus adipiscing, vivamus in. Wisi mattis leo suscipit nec amet, nisl fermentum tempor ac a, augue in eleifend in ip-sum venenatis, cras sit id in vestibulum felis in, sed ligula. In sodales suspendisse mauris quam etiam erat, quia tellus con-vallis eros rhoncus diam orci, porta lectus esse adipiscing po-suere et, nisl arcu vitae laoreet. Morbi integer molestie, amet suspendisse morbi, amet maecenas, a maecenas mauris neque proin nisl mollis. Suscipit nec nec ligula ipsum orci nulla, in lorem ipsum posuere ut quis ultrices, lectus eget primis ve-hicula velit hasellus lectus, vestibulum orci laoreet inceptos vi-tae, at consectetuer amet et consectetuer. Congue porta sceler-isque praesent at, lacus vestibulum et at dignissim cras urna, ante convallis turpis duis lectus sed aliquet, at tempus et ultri-cies. Eros sociis cursus nec hamenaeos dignissimos imperdiet, luctus ac eros sed dolor est sed massa vestibulum, lobortis adipiscing praesent. Nec eros eu ridiculus libero felis.

Donec arcu risus diam amet sit. Congue tortor cursus risus ves-tibulum commodo nisl, luctus augue amet quis aenean maece-nas sit, donec velit iusto, morbi felis elit et nibh. Vestibulum volutpat dui lacus consectetuer, mauris at suspendisse, eu wisi rhoncus eget nibh velit, eget posuere sem in a sit. Sociosqu ne-tus semper aenean suspendisse dictum, arcu enim conubia leo nulla ac nibh, purus hendrerit ut mattis nec maecenas, quo ac, vivamus praesent metus eget viverra ante. Mauris at suspen-disse, neque aliquam faucibus adipiscing, vivamus in. Wisi mattis leo. Natoque placerat sed sit hendrerit, dapibus velit molestiae leo a, ut lorem sit et lacus aliquam. Sodales nulla ante auctor excepturi wisi, dolor lacinia dignissim eros.

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OH NO!

Record Label It is well known by fans that Streetlight Manifesto

has had many disputes over record sales and royal-ties with Victory Records, the record label they are

currently signed to. The lat-est conflict resulted in Vic-

tory withholding published copies Streetlight’s latest al-bum, preventing the band from fulfilling their pre-

order release.

SkaScene.com. "The History of Ska." SkaScene.com: Global Ska Music Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013.xi

Bibliography

The End of the Beginning

The End of the Beginning Tour is the last remaining tour of Streetlight Manifesto. “We’ve solidified plans to tour our well-traveled asses off for one last year, until the end of 2013, at which time we will be not necessar-ily be moving on from the band, but changing our approach to what we do with the majority of our time. More specifically, we will no longer be touring year round, nor will we be touring much at all anymore. We have decided to step away from the table before we get sick of our favorite meal; we’ve seen enough bands over the years grow old playing the same songs for decades, going through the motions, slowly fading, and more depressingly, continuing on for all the wrong reasons. We’re moving on to preserve what we created, to be able to look back on it proudly, before we find ourselves looking around and realizing that we’ve become what we swore we’d never be. In the last few years, we’ve all hit the 30 year mark, and we’re ready to try some new things; some of us are ready to do a little bit of the ol’ settling down, some of us are excited to pursue dif-ferent musical avenues, and some of us just want to live a slightly less hectic lifestyle. We’re doing this now for all of these reasons, not to men-tion 10 years is nice, neat chunk of time to devote oneself to something before moving on. Doing this next year, at 11 years wouldn’t be nearly as dramatic, nor as poetic...Who knows, maybe now that we won’t be tour-ing all the time, we can squeeze out records a bit faster than our usual snail’s pace.” Streetlight promises this last tour will be some of the best shows they have ever put on.

Chris. Streetlight Logo. Digital image. Maroonersrock.com. N.p., 31 July 2012. Web. 4 June 2013.

Horns. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 14 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013.

Karaoke. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013.

Kloc, Brian. Tom with the crowd. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 4 June 2013.

SkaScene.com. "The History of Ska." SkaScene.com: Global Ska Music Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 June 2013.

Streetlight Manifesto. "The End of the Beginning Tour." Streetlight Manifesto. N.p., Apr. 2013. Web. 05 June 2013.

Streetlight Manifesto. Streetlight Manifesto Vinyls. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 4 June 2013.

Streetlight with banner. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 11 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013.

Two horns identity. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013.

Wochniak, Peter. Pop's Feb 16th. Digital image. Smanifesto.tumblr.com. Tumblr, 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 4 June 2013.

xiii

Bibliography