Holy shit I can't believe I forgot to post this! My extreme apologies everyone; yes you read the title of this post correctly, The Planet Smashers made a "Stomp" in Toronto last night for The Stomp 15th Anniversary Party at the Opera House and let me tell you, it was nothing short of a skankin good time.
The Expos, Flatfoot 56, and The Brains brought a lot to the table as opening bands- nothing against The Brains, from what I can tell they are extremely intelligent musicians, just not my style. I totally dug the bass player standing on top of his stand up bass- that was intense! Aha. Flatfoot was also pretty intense; I love the tiny ankles of the Mandalin player in comparison to the rest of him- hillarious.
The albums for the bands that attended the show can be found here:
Download - Planet Smashers Discography:
Ska, Horns, Montreal, Canada
Download - The Expos - Black Water [2009]
Reggae, Soul, Indie, Softcore
Download - Flatfoot 56 - Jungle of the Midwest Sea [2007]
Celtic Punk, Rock
Download - The Brains - Hell N' Back:
Psychobilly, Punk, Quebec, Canada
Looking forward to seeing ya'll at the next show! Apparently The Aquabats are coming to the area mid March. I'll be sure to post it!
"At a time when labels seem to be dropping like flies, any milestone is worth celebrating, let alone a 15th anniversary.
Yes, it's been 15 years since venerable Montreal ska label Stomp Records released All Skanadian Club Vol. 1 compilation as Stomp 001 back in 1994.
"It was always supposed to be a hobby and here we are today," says Stomp president Matt Collyer. "We stumbled into [it]. It wasn't supposed to happen. We picked the name at the last second. There wasn't even a logo on the first pressing."
Stomp has since helped launch the careers of countless Canadian ska and punk acts, including Collyer's own Planet Smashers, who co-headline the label's "15 Year Anniversary Rage'r" this weekend in Toronto and Montreal.
Collyer has witnessed a lot of ups and downs over Stomp's decade-and-a-half run. The label was at the vanguard of the mid-'90s ska revival, and managed to weather the eventual backlash.
"It was really heavy in the states, the backlash against ska bands," he recalls. "The [Planet] Smashers, we didn't go down for almost three years. From the end of '99 to the end of 2002, we didn't play a show in America. It was a wasteland, and we didn't want to be associated with the death of it."
The label's fortunes were helped by a strategic — and musically appropriate — merger brokered in 2000 between Stomp and Montreal punk label 2112, creating the Union Label Group.
"[We] realized that if we want to stick around we're going to have to branch out and do different types of music," he says.
The Stomp logo and catalogue numbers still continue to grace the label's ska and reggae releases, and Stomp has also branched out and signed several psychobilly and garage rock bands.
"It's really changed a lot over the last few years."
As for The Planet Smashers, Collyer assures fans that we haven't seen the last of the band.
"We're kicking around new titles and we're talking about going and recording," he says.
"We're excited about doing something again, but we're never going to be the hardcore touring band that we were. It was fun when we did it, but we're not going go out and do something that we don't really enjoy just to pay the bills. But we'll play shows. We're going to continue doing that cause it's fun.""
Planet Smashers Live! - Gives you a slight feel of how the atmosphere was! :)
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