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Teenage West-land >> For the Undercovers, third-wave ska is almost nostalgia by CHRIS YURKIW
"Me and Dave our drummer got really high and went to see them at the Loyola talent show. They came on stage and David Bolger, the singer, is wearing this weird mask and he's all spooked out and they're all tense. They had these horn players, and at the time I'd never seen horns in popular music, and it was like, 'What the hell is this?' "And then they started playing these furious lines--this really mad, up-tempo ska, and all these rude boys and punks and weird people started dancing--and I was just blown away. It was chaotic and I loved it. I mean, before they came on it was like two girls and an acoustic guitar playing Cranberries songs." Cranberries. Backyards. Wall-to-wall carpet. Driveway sealer. Mom. Dad. TV. Cable TV. Big cable TV. Ah! West Island. Dollard. Lachine. You know how this story goes: when you grow up in garageland, one of the ways to escape is to start a garage band. "That was, like, five years ago," says Fletcher. "It was '93, so that band was on the heavier, darker side of things. But we got sick of that shit. We wanted to have more meaning instead of always being down sorta thing. So we were like, 'Fuck this! This isn't cool!' And we decided we wanted to play ska. We wanted to get into the Montreal music scene and not be like these losers doing whatever." Fortunately, when you're inspired by a Montreal (ska) band to get into the Montreal (ska) scene, there's a Montreal (ska) label waiting to lend you a hand. After just their first show, the Undercovers approached the burgeoning Stomp imprint, and before they knew it they were rubbing shoulders with the Gangstas. A track on Stomp's comp The All-Skanadian Club Vol. III led to their debut album, Some People, which was produced by Gus "Morgentaler" Coriandoli and released in August. They already hate half of the songs on it--a good sign. Of course, being teens means that the Undercovers have a later take on the vaunted "third wave of ska," one that's less tied to "roots" and more in line with the second-wave, British ska-pop of the early '80s. "We've got a lot of the ska kinda thing," says Tim, "but we tend to take it in a new wave direction. I'm fascinated by the sound of the '80s, like the Smiths, the Police, and Elvis Costello. It's got a futuristic sound to it. "I would have loved to have been 17 in the late '70s or early '80s--I just find it so legendary. the Clash, the Specials, the Westway, London, Brixton, the riots. There was a lot of tension between the cops and the authoritarian government and the people who wanted to be free. I can relate totally with that." Wall-to-wall carpet. Driveway sealer. Mom. Dad... "There was one day where me and Dave went downtown kinda thing, just sat down on the sidewalk on a summer day kinda thing, and we were like have a smoke kinda thing. And we just sat there in the sun and we were like, 'Man, this is amazing. This is so cool. We can just sit here, like totally vibing, and we're part of Montreal now. Being in this band, it makes you feel part of something. We're part of this city and we're so proud of it. At Cabaret with Gangster Politics, the Vendettas and Dial 5 For Jive on Thursday, November 26, 8pm, $7
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"I always tell the guys in Gangster Politics that they totally changed my life," says Tim Fletcher, vocalist, guitarist and only member of the local ska-pop sextet the Undercovers to have hit the big 2-0.