The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Edna's Goldfish, "A Perfect Day" from Before You Knew Better… (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"You're always on my mind and I thought I'd just let you know,
That I'm not crazy, but I'm crazy for you…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Dan P. & the Bricks, "Kung Fu" from When We Were Fearless (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Dan P. is Dan Potthast, front man of SKAll-Stars MU330. Apart from MU330, he has several solo albums, but Dan P. & the Bricks is the only other ska band of his of which I am aware. Hooray!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the III Sunday o' Easter

The Third Sunday of Easter
Duvall, "Jesus Never Leaves Me" from Volume & Density (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The New York Citizens, "The National Front" from the Pounding the Pavement single (Rude Boy Bravo Charlie)

Skammentary: YouTube-link. The N.Y. Citizens are making their SKApril debut courtesy of a nomination from online acquaintance & brother Knight of Columbus Bravo Charlie, who played in Cleveland-basd ska band The Assassinators back in the Nineties, before I had even discovered ska during the Summer of Ska (1997). The N.Y. Citizens, who disbanded in 1994, were pioneers of third-wave ska in New York City ska bands in the late Eighties & early Nineties, alongside The Toasters & The Scofflaws.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Sunday, 18 April 2021
Hepcat, "Hooligans" from Out of Nowhere (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Dance Hall Crashers, "Go" from Lockjaw (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The Dance Hall Crashers are playing a show tonight in Chicago, with Fishbone at the House of Blues. I would have liked to have gone (I've never seen D.H.C. nor Fishbone in concert), but circumstances conspired against attending.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Thursday, 17 April 2025
Big D and the Kids Table, "Steady Riot" from Strictly Rude (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. "Steady Riot" was the first song selected from the SKArchives, because it's about what SKApril is all about.

"Music, a steady riot in my soul,
Music, a steady riot in my soul,
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me),
Always in me (always in me).

"Right, a steady, a steady riot!"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Mustard Plug, "Bang!" from Can't Contain It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Mustard Plug are SKApril's homegrown SKAll-Stars, hailing from Grand Rapids, the metropolis of West Michigan. It is becoming a Christmas tradition to see Mustard Plug play a show in Detroit on 26 December, which I did with my pal Red Patton in both 2024 & 2025.

"Bang!" stands in the long tradition of ska songs calling for peace, for an end to the violence in our neighborhoods & on our streets.

"This hasn't happened here before…

"This wasn't going on before…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Mustard Plug, "Miss Michigan" from Evildoers Beware! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Mad Caddies, "Road Rash" from Duck and Cover (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The Mad Caddies are beneficiaries of SKAffirmative Action. They enjoyed the SKApril limelight in 2012, only the second SKApril, & in subsequent years, but have not enjoyed that limelight since 2018. "Road Rash" is a worthy song—our charity does not extend so far as to inflict bad songs on our beloved readers—but I don't often listen to Duck and Cover, the only Mad Caddies album in my music library. SKAffirmative Action exists to help SKApril showcase the bredth of ska. Without it, & the other rules around SKApril,I would just replay my favorite songs by my favorite bands over & over again, & that's what the SKAfterParty & SKAugust are for.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Scofflaws, "Dr. Ring-A-Ding" from the Freedom Sounds: A Tribute to the Skatalites compilation (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: I'm grateful to the small community of rudies built up around SKApril who have helped me learn more about the East Coast's Third Wave ska scene of the late Eighties & Nineties, so very different from the West Coast ska that dominated my initial exposure to the genre.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Sunday, 15 April 2018
Suburban Legends, "Bright Spring Morning" from Rump Shaker (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

The Explorers' Club, № MCL

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
7 April 1926: Italian Duce Benito Mussolini was shot in Rome by Violet Gibson, an Anglo-Irishwoman, the first of three assassination attempts in 1926; he had just addressed an international conference of surgeons; the bullet only grazed Mussolini's nose, & he was able to carry on with his itinerary; Italian police saved Gibson from being lynched & she spent the rest of her life in a British insane asylum.

Commentary: In 2022, Dublin, Ireland unveiled a plaque honoring Gibson as a "committed anti-fascist," brushing aside her own Unionist political convictions (born & raised in Dublin, she refused to hold Irish citizenship after the Anglo-Irish War) & the inconvenient fact that her failed assassination boosted Mussolini's popularity, thus aiding the Fascist consolidation of power in Italy.

Lest we forget.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Friday, 14 April 2017
The Chinkees, "Big World" from Peace through Music (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Hacklers, "Get Out" from Between the Lines (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Get out, get out, get out of my head,
I can't take this pain…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Ska Cubano, "Jezebel" from ¡Ay Caramba! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Hippos, "The Sand" from Heads Are Gonna Roll (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Every year, I think The Hippos are through as SKAll-Stars—especially since the sixteen years of SKApril have featured every one of the ten songs on their only purely ska-punk album, Forget the World—& every year they manage to hang on. I admire their persistence, which is all the more remarkable since they started to abandon ska on the second of their three albums.

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Vostok 1

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 65th Anniversary of Vostok 1
Public Service Broadcasting, "Gagarin" from The Race for Space (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Happy Yuri's Night, space cadets! Hyperlinks: Cosmonautics Day, International Day of Human Space Flight, & Yuri's Night.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Vostok 1
№ DCCCX: The Sixtieth Anniversary of Vostok 1

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 12 April 2025
The Rocksteady Conspiracy, "Jerk Chicken" from Rough & Sweet (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Divine Mercy Sunday

The Second Sunday of Easter (The Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Mike Hilliker & Melanie Rea, "Lord, Have Mercy" from the Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Skameleon, "Hot Ska" from Ska Makes Everything Better (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: A ska-punk cover of the Donna Summer song "Hot Stuff." Skameleon are a cover band, musical chameleons who cover songs from across the spectrum of rock & roll, because ska makes everything better.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Tuesday, 11 April 2017
Reel Big Fish, "Everything Sucks" from Turn the Radio Off (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Saturday in the Octave of Easter
Sarah Kroger, "O God Beyond All Praising" from Origin: A Beauty Initiative within F.O.C.U.S. (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club Special: April 1916

Operation AXIOM: The World War
In April 1916, the "world blood-pump" at Verdun continued & Irish nationalists rebelled against the British Empire; in the "Chemists' War," offense (poison gas) still held the advantage over defense (gas masks); & the Anglo-Indian force besieged at Kut surrendered to the Ottomans, who treated the defeated commander as a celebrity & let most of his men die of maltreatment.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the World War: April 1916
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCII: The Battle of Verdun, Part III: "They shall not pass!" (10 April-31 May 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCIV: The Easter Rising (24-29 April 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCIII: Poison gas cloud attacks near Hulluch, France (27-29 April 1916)
"The Explorers' Club," № CDXCV: The Siege of Kut, Part IV: The British surrendered (29 April 1916)

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Skamotts, "Giant Panda" from Pleasure Isle (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: An instrumental piece.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Bombskare, "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" from The Day the Earth Stood Stupid (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" was my introduction to Bombskare. If I remember correctly, I found the video for "Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?" on the YouTubes.

Why are we highlighting the R.B.D.S.O.T.D. from 30 April 2019 on 10 April 2026? Because, attentive reader, in 2019 SKApril was postponed by my participation in the Exodus 90 exercise, the disciplines of which forbade listening to music. In subsequent years, the disciplines would be amended to permit music that "lifted the heart & mind to God." SKApril IX began on Easter Sunday, 21 April, & continued for thirty days into May. Even if the total prohibition on music had remained, I would not have obeyed it; I learned the bitter lesson in 2019 that ska lifts my heart & my mind. Curse me as a addict if you wish, but I believe man's musical talents are gifts from God meant to raise out minds, hearts, & spirits. I'm a more joyous, more charitable person when I listen to ska.

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Friday in the Octave of Easter
O.C.P. Session Choir, "O God Beyond All Praising" from Glory & Praise: Third Edition, Vol. 27 (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

RX Bandits, "Now or Never" from Halfway Between Here and There (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Usually, SKApril is planned out methodically, to avoid repeating bands & songs. Today, however, "Now or Never" has been running through my head like any normal R.B.D.S.O.T.D. Neat!

"I can't wait forever,
Maybe I can't wait all night,
Last time that she kissed me,
Her boyfriend blacked my eye…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Go Blue!

Project PUFFIN: Team 104
N.C.A.A. Tournament, Frozen Four
(№ 1) Michigan v. Denver (№ 2)
31-7-1, B1G 20-6-1

The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Victors" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (Mike Papa Wolverine)

Commentary: I have not watched much of the valiant Wolverines of Team 104, in large measure because there's not much college hockey on television & I have not tried to attend a game at the venerable Yost Ice Arena. (I ought to do that next winter.) The valiant Wolverines are the № 1 overall seed, but have not been able to advance from the Frozen Four to the national championship game in quite a long time. Denver has overtaken Michigan as the most frequent National Champions (ten times); the valiant Wolverines have been stuck on nine since 1998, my freshman year.

Go Blue!

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Wednesday, 9 April 2014
The Skatalites, "The James Bond Theme" from Ball of Fire (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Daniel Schmit, "Christ Is Risen" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Green Bay, Wisconsin" from While We're At It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones furnished the very first song for the very first SKApril, "The Impression That I Get" on 1 April 2011. They were a band from 1983-2004 & 2007-2022, & on hiatus 2004-2007, before they finally broke up in the beginning of 2022 over, of all the stupid things, pandemic politics. This past Christmas, at a Mustard Plug show in Detroit, I learned Dicky Barrett is trying to effect a reunion & had asked for patience. It's long past time for the living part of life to begin.

"She drew a war tribe skull with a Sharpie fine point marker
On the back of her army green Fred Perry parka,
Drove her Vespa motor scooter overnight right through the valley
To the Lake Geneva motor scooter rally,
Checked into the Château Royal Inn,
She had to let the living part of life begin…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Abruptors, "Don't Worry" from the Buffalo Ska single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The Abruptors made their SKApril debut in 2025 & in the year since "Don't Worry" has been the R.D.S.O.T.D. not once, not twice, but thrice—once during the SKAfter Party & twice during the ordinary course of events.

"Don't worry, it'll be all right,
Don't worry, I'll keep you safe at night,
Don't worry, I'll listen what you say,
Don't worry, yeah, there will come a day…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Friday, 8 April 2022
Rancid, "Time Bomb" from …And Out Came the Wolves (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
The Festival Choir and Hosanna Chorus, "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" from 100 Church Classics (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age
The Halley Armada, an internationally coordinated series of space probes to study Halley's Comet: Vega 1 & Vega 2 (U.S.S.R. & France, launched 15 & 21 December 1984), Giotto (European Space Agency, launched 2 July 1985), & Sakigake & Suisei (Japan, launched 7 January & 18 August 1985); all five probes made their closest approaches to Halley's Comet between 6-14 March 1986.

Commentary: The American observatory Spartan Halley was destroyed in the Challenger disaster. The cancelled Space Shuttle mission S.T.S.-61-E (planned to launch 6 March 1986) was also scheduled to conduct observations of Halley's Comet using the ASTRO-1 payload.

An existing space probe, launched in 1978 as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, was retasked & renamed the International Cometary Explorer, passing through the tails of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985 & Comet Halley in March 1986.

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Thursday, 7 April 2011
Save Ferris, "The World Is New" from It Means Everything (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Scroll down for the R.B.D.S.O.T.D., way down. "The World Is New" was part of that very first SKApril. I like to think my younger self would be pleased SKApril is still going strong, having both endured & expanded into the SKAfter Party, SKAugust, & the SKArchives.

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Daniel Schmit, "'O Death, Christ Is Risen' Overture" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: An instrumental piano piece. Lovely.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Bite Me Bambi, "Gaslighter's Anthem" from Eat This (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The worse he treats her, but more she wants him. It's an old story; a story I've never understood, but an old story all the same.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Go Blue!

Project OSPREY: Team 109
N.C.A.A. Tournament, National Championship Game
(№ 1) Michigan v. Connecticut (№ 2)
36-3, B1G 19-1

The University of Michigan Marching Band, "Varsity" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (Mike Papa Wolverine)

Commentary: Everything went to plan on Saturday night: I actively participated in the Easter Vigil & the valiant Wolverines wallopped the epithetless Wildcats. The valiant Wolverines have not lost a national semifinal game (the Final Four) since 1964, but have won only one National Championship, finish as national runners-up in 1965, 1976, 1992, 1993, 2013, & 2018. Team 109 feels different, feels special. As special as 1989? Tonight will tell. I'm confident of victory, but I'm neither playing not coaching; I'm not even attending the game in person. The one time I was inside Corporate Sponsor Stadium in Indianapolis, though, was for the 2021 B1G Championship Game in football, which the valiant Wolverines of Team 142 won 42-3 over the tenacious Hawkeyes of Iowa.

Go Blue!

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 6 April 2024
The Ska Flames, "Tokyo Shot" from Ska Fever (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Bonus! Easter Octave Song o' the Day

Monday in the Octave of Easter
Beverly Hills All Saints' Church CHoir, Craig Phillips, Thomas Foster, & Beverly Hills All Saints' Brass Emsemble, "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" from Easter (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Happy Easter! The glory of Christ's Resurrection is such that Easter Sunday extends eight days, through the following Sunday, & the broader Eastertide lasts all fifty days from the Resurrection 'til the day of Pentecost. We fast for the "forty" days of Lent, then we feast for the fifty days of Easter. Christ is risen! Alleluia!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Bruce Lee Band, "Gerry Is Strong" from The Bruce Lee Band (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Back in the day, we also presumed that the eponymous Gerry was Gerry Lundquist from MU330, but I have no idea if that's true. Yes, MU330 have often put the band in Mike Park's The Bruce Lee Band, as have members of Less Than Jake & the RX Bandits. It's probably true. I don't know.