Latest Posts

Tonight: The Aquabats

Everyone has their cultural/musical touchstones and if I were to point to one of my earlier ones (we are talking late 90s’) I would have to point to the Aquabats. In Middle School, I found very little to identify with in the alternative music that circulated among 13 year olds in ’98, I was not particularly dark or edgy but I was still alienated all the same, it was just a goofier kind (see: young nerd). So when I heard the Aquabats, specifically their first two albums, something clicked. Awash in a campy California aesthetic that was equal parts 60s’ Batman as it was third wave ska, I was instantly drawn to their songs of martians, powdered milk and forlorn crushes bathed in blaring poppy horns and rapid tempos. Even if I started to lose track of them as time went on and my taste shifted, I still returned to[...]