The English Beat, Fishbone And Outlaw Nation

To call the English Beat a ska band would be like calling the Beatles a Merseybeat act -- accurate as far as it goes, though hardly going far enough. One of the few bands in the 2-Tone movement to extend its integrationist approach to matters of musical style, the Beat (as the band was known in Britain) drew equally from Motown, '60s rock, music hall, and punk to develop a sound that was rich and allusive but always put the songs first.
Fishbone was formed from a disparate, all-black oddball crew at a South Central Los Angeles junior high in 1979. Playing an orgasmic urban gumbo of punk, funk, and ska, the six-man band became a favorite of the L.A. postpunk scene; eventually, the group would become a notoriously powerful live act, opening for the Beastie Boys on their Licensed to Ill tour and coheadlining club tours with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Fishbone's albums have some great moments, but they neither capture the excitement of the band's shows nor hold much commercial appeal; the band still plays to sold-out crowds, but it remains one of the shoulda-beens of '80s alternative rock. www.myspace.com/officialbeatspace