The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Американдық ска-панк тобының тарихы

American ska punk band
the ska punk band

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (informally referred to as The Bosstones and often stylized as The Mighty Mighty BossToneS) were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer ("Bosstone") Ben Carr remained constant members. The band's final line up also included drummer Joe Sirois, saxophonist Leon Silva, guitarist Lawrence Katz, keyboardist John Goetchius, and trombonist Chris Rhodes. The Bosstones are often credited as one of the progenitors of the genre of ska punk and the creators of its subgenre ska core, which mixes elements of ska with hardcore punk. Starting with the release of their 1989 debut Devil's Night Out, the band toured and recorded extensively throughout the 1990s, becoming influential in the development of the American third wave ska scene and was one of the first bands to popularize the genre in the musical mainstream. They reached their commercial peak with their platinum selling 1997 album Let's Face It and its hit single "The Impression That I Get". The band was also notable for being featured in the 1995 film Clueless as the frat party house band. The band had released seven studio albums, three EPs and a live album by the time they announced a hiatus in December 2003. In 2007, the Bosstones reunited to resume recording and touring, and released four more studio albums between 2009 and 2021. From 1994 to 2002, and again from 2007 to 2019, they hosted the annual Hometown Throwdown music festival, held annually around Christmas time in Cambridge and later Boston. On January 27, 2022, the band announced their disbandment. Bassist Joe Gittleman played with local hardcore band Gang Green, while vocalist Dicky Barrett was a member of Impact Unit and, later on, Cheapskates. The Cheapskates lineup went through frequent changes and would feature members of Gang Green on occasion. It was through Cheapskates that a core lineup coalesced around Barrett, Gittleman, Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton (saxophone), Nate Albert (guitar), Josh Dalsimer (drums), Tim Bridwell (trumpet) and Ben Carr (a ubiquitous, dancing non musician onstage presence, later credited as "Bosstone"). Before the hiatus announcement, Gittleman had already formed a side project band named Avoid One Thing featuring members of Darkbuster, the Raging Teens and Spring Heeled Jack. The band released two albums for SideOneDummy before announcing their own hiatus in 2005. Sirois recorded and toured with Nate Albert's next band, Kickovers, and also played drums for the Street Dogs and Frank Black. Rhodes went on to play with The Toasters until his departure in 2006. Rhodes had just joined Bim Skala Bim before the Bosstones' hiatus came to an end and left Bim Skala Bim as a result. He also performed with former Spring Heeled Jack bandmate Rick Omonte in The Mountain Movers and as a fill in trombonist for Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, and NOFX. Fleysher continued his pursuit of a professional pilot's license. In 2005, after taking classes near his home in South Florida and working as a flight instructor in his spare time, he was hired as an airline pilot for CommutAir, a Continental Airlines regional affiliate based in Plattsburgh, New York. After a short stint with the company, he began flying as a charter pilot in Los Angeles, California. Burton and his family moved to Los Angeles where he became active in the movie business. Besides working for a Hollywood agent, he wrote several scripts and developed projects for television. He also contributed saxophone for a Cypress Hill song. In 2007, he appeared in the film Crazy, which was inspired by the life of Hank Garland. Katz formed a band named Resistant. Katz has also played guitar on several motion picture soundtracks including Aquamarine, The Good Night and London, the latter recorded in collaboration with The Crystal Method.

Because the band left the possibility of playing together again open, rumors and speculation frequently circulated that a reunion was inevitable. The hiatus of Joe Gittleman's band, Avoid One Thing, fueled further speculation of such a reunion. During an Alternative Press Acoustic Session, members of fellow Boston area ska band Big D and the Kids Table hinted that the Bosstones were in fact reuniting for another Hometown Throwdown. Jerry Mattes, the creator of the band's bulldog mascot, also acknowledged the chances of a reunion and announced that he was designing a new logo for the band. On October 11, 2007, on Boston Radio Station WBCN, Dicky Barrett confirmed what he called "the worst kept secret in Boston": the announcement that the Bosstones would indeed play a tenth official Hometown Throwdown at Cambridge's famed Middle East club on December 26–30, 2007. Barrett would not confirm any long term plans for the band. Soon after Barrett's announcement, Gittleman declared that the band intended to record three new songs to be included on an upcoming collection of unreleased material and vinyl B sides. The album, titled Medium Rare, was released on December 18, 2007. The three new songs marked the first new material recorded since the 2002 release of A Jackknife to a Swan. After the 2007 Throwdown, the Bosstones played a few shows every couple of months. At two of the March shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel served as a guest star on bass clarinet during "The Impression That I Get". Former saxophonist Lenear rejoined the band, replacing Fleysher, whose job prevented him from being able to play with the band. Despite the activity, the Bosstones remained non committal on whether they would record and release a studio album. They did make it known that they would no longer tour at the frequency they were known for in the past. On May 15, 2008, it was reported that the Bosstones would be embarking on a short United States tour in July with the Dropkick Murphys. During the tour, the Bosstones made three stops at Boston Red Sox minor league ballparks. On October 20, 2008, their website announced that they would return to the Middle East in Cambridge to play an eleventh Hometown Throwdown on December 26–29. In late 2008, the game Rock Band 2 was released and featured a re recorded version of "Where'd You Go?" that the band had recorded earlier in the year. On November 4, 2008, a MySpace blog announced the recording of a new album, and streamed two new songs, "The Impossible Dream" and "Next to Nothing". On July 29, 2009, the band announced the completion of tracking for the album. On October 16, 2009, the album title was announced to be Pin Points and Gin Joints and a free download of the song "Graffiti Worth Reading" was made available. The release date was later stated as December 8, 2009. The band continued to tour through the summer of 2009 with shows in Buffalo, New York, Providence, Rhode Island, Asbury Park, New Jersey, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, California, Anaheim, California, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and Victoria, British Columbia where they performed at the Victoria Ska Fest with Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Slackers and Chris Murray. The band toured during the summer of 2010 with Teenage Bottlerocket and the Flatliners. They also hosted their annual Hometown Throwdown festival over three nights in December 2010. In August 2011, Chris Rhodes posted a Facebook update stating that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones had begun work on their next album. The album, titled The Magic of Youth, was released on December 6, 2011. March 2017 saw the release of their first recording in six years with a limited edition vinyl 7" featuring a cover version of the Burt Bacharach song, "What the World Needs Now Is Love" backed with the track "I Won’t Go Out Like That". In the time between releases, the lineup saw the addition of former Cherry Poppin' Daddies keyboard player, John Goetchius in 2008 and Leon Silva in 2016 to replace Kevin Lenear who had departed the band for a second time earlier that same year. In September 2017, Tim Burton announced in a post Riot Fest interview that the band was working on a new album set for release in early 2018. According to guitarist Lawrence Katz and producer Ted Hutt's Instagram accounts, recording started on Friday, November 17 at Kingsize Soundlabs in Los Angeles, California. The new album's title was announced to be While We're at It. While We're at It, the band's tenth album, was released on June 15, 2018. It is the final part of a musical trilogy that began with Pin Points and Gin Joints in 2009 followed by The Magic of Youth in 2011. For the initial 2018 tour dates supporting the album, Silva could not participate due to his commitments performing with Justin Timberlake. To temporarily fill in for Silva, the band brought in Roman Fleysher and Peter "JR" Wasilewski of Less Than Jake to play saxophone on select dates. On January 25, 2021, it was announced that the Mighty Mighty Bosstones had signed a new record contract with Hellcat Records. In conjunction with the announcement, the band released a new single titled, "The Final Parade" which features guest appearances by Jamaican singer Stranger Cole and members of Rancid, The Interrupters, Fishbone, Stiff Little Fingers, The Suicide Machines, Less Than Jake, Murphy's Law, H2O, Goldfinger, Sonic Boom Six, The Toasters, Bim Skala Bim, Big D and the Kids Table, Doped Up Dollies, The Aggrolites, Dance Hall Crashers, The Aquabats, Buck O Nine, The Porkers, The Pietasters, Los Skanarles, Buster Shuffle, Kemuri, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and The Specials. In March 2021, the band announced their first album since signing to Hellcat Records, When God Was Great, would be released on May 7, 2021, and released the album's second single "I Don't Believe in Anything". The album's third single, "The Killing of King Georgie (Part III)", a song about the murder of George Floyd, was released on April 21, 2021. On January 27, 2022, the band announced that they had split up. The statement shared by the band reads: "After decades of brotherhood, touring the world and making great records together we have decided not to continue on as a band. Above all, we want to express our sincere gratitude to every single one of you who have supported us. We could not have done any of it without you. Love Always, The Mighty Mighty BossToneS." Although the band chose to keep their reasoning for the split private, speculation suggested that it was over Barrett's stance on COVID 19 vaccines and his participation in the production of a video promoting the "Defeat the Mandates" anti vaccination mandate rally held by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In February 2022, Barrett was a guest on The Highwire with Del Bigtree podcast where he confirmed that it was his anti vaccination views that had made the rest of the band uncomfortable.

Big Rig Records started as a vanity label in 1993 due to the band's desire to release their records on vinyl. While the band wanted to release their albums on vinyl, the label had ceased pressing albums in that format. A partnership between Mercury and the band resulted in the label continuing to handle the conventional CD and cassette versions of the albums while allowing the band's Big Rig label to focus on the vinyl editions. The new label immediately issued re releases of Don't Know How To Party and Ska Core, The Devil, and More on colored vinyl. Besides the band's own albums, additional releases include the first CD release of Dicky Barrett's previous band Impact Unit, as well as Vow Of Poverty by the Boston punk band Mung, and Half Hour Of Power by Sum 41. Additionally, the label also released a benefit compilation featuring various artists titled Safe And Sound: A Benefit In Response To The Brookline Clinic Violence, as well as, You Decide: Warped Tour 2000 Sampler, a sampler of bands featured on the 2000 Vans Warped Tour. The first new release under this partnership was Question the Answers and it continued through Pay Attention, the band's final album with the Island Def Jam Music Group, the label formed after the merger of Mercury Records, Island Records, and Def Jam Recordings. After leaving Mercury, the vinyl release of A Jackknife to a Swan was handled directly by SideOneDummy, the band's label at the time. Since the band's return from hiatus, Big Rig has been run exclusively by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones as their own independent record label, handling all of their new releases up until 2021's When God Was Great, which was released on Hellcat Records.

The band has been typically aligned with ska punk. The L. A. Times, described their sound as "blending the brassy after beat groove of ska with the uncompromising intensity of hard core punk". The Tampa Bay Times described it similarly as an "eclectic swirl of good time music fuses the perky pick it up sound of pre reggae ska with monstrous hard core guitars." AllMusic credited them as being "one of the first bands to cross high energy ska with hardcore punk and hard rock guitars", and "[laying] a great deal of the groundwork for the mid to late '90s ska explosion, helping shift its tone toward party music." The Boston Herald said that they "were one of the first bands to cross high energy ska with hardcore punk and heavy metal. ".