In Defense of Ska Ep. 27: Laura Jane Grace (Against Me)

In Defense of Ska

It’s been a rough year and a half. This past April—in response to our collective trauma—Laura Jane Grace tweeted that the “current ska revival is a sign of just how emotionally vulnerable we all are after the past year.” A perfect sentiment for the moment we’re in. While a lot of people have been using ska as a cheap punchline, her tweet honed in on just how meaningful and earnest the music is, and why it is matters to people in dark times. Clearly a true ska fan.

That wasn’t her only recent ska tweet. There were a few about Operation Ivy in there too. So, we needed to bring her on the show and talk about the genre. Her history with ska goes back to her early days in the South Florida punk scene where rude boys and rude girls co-mingled with punks, skinheads, and every other alternative subculture.

On this episode of In Defense of Ska, we go deep into her ska history, learn about which ska bands made the trek down to Florida, which didn’t, and we hear about which band gave her mixed feelings about the genre. We also talk about We Are The Union and geek out on Operation Ivy for a while. And of course, we discuss why an Op Ivy reunion would be so healing for everyone after 2020.

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If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music.

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024.

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023.

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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