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All Music Guide:
The New Jersey ska-punk outfit Streetlight Manifesto grew out of two similar late-'90s groups from the region, One Cool Guy and Catch-22. Delivering a brassy, upbeat brand of third wave ska -- complete with punk-styled melodies courtesy of vocalist Tomas Kalnoky -- the band made its debut in 2003 with Everything Goes Numb. Two years of touring followed as Streetlight Manifesto played countless shows alongside Whole Wheat Bread, Mu330, Bedouin Soundclash, and Gym Class Heroes. However, personnel changes and equipment theft proved to be frequent setbacks. In October 2005, the band was robbed of nearly $80,000 worth of equipment and possessions from its van, only to suffer another robbery while on tour in Europe the very next month. Streetlight Manifesto ended 2005 by touring alongside the Tossers on the brief (and appropriately titled) Please Stop Robbing Us Tour.
Keasbey Nights, a re-recorded version of the 1998 Catch-22 album, was released in March 2006, and the band spent the summer opening for Reel Big Fish and MxPx on a national co-headlining tour. Streetlight Manifesto continued to tour with Reel Big Fish for much of the remaining year, as well as a large chunk of 2007. Frequent concert dates didn't preclude the band from returning to the studio, however, and Streetlight Manifesto released the full-length album Somewhere in the Between in November 2007. For 99 Songs of Revolution, Vol. 1, the seven-piece took a break from writing new material and compiled an album of ska versions of contemporary pop covers. Victory Records released it as the first in a series in March of 2010.
Wikipedia:
Streetlight Manifesto is an American skapunk band with very strong punk influences that is often credited with starting the fourth wave of ska. They have very notable ska, jazz, latin, and traditional Eastern European music influences. They hail from New Brunswick, New Jersey and are fronted by Tomas Kalnoky, who originally started Catch 22 (and later had Streetlight Manifesto cover the songs he wrote with Catch 22).
They released their first album, Everything Goes Numb, which was distributed by Victory Records, on August 26, 2003. The band headlined and sold out their first concert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on December 9, 2003. Several of Streetlight Manifesto's members were well known in the New Jersey third wave ska community for their roles in past ska punk bands from that area, primarily Kalnoky's Catch 22 and fellow New Jersey band One Cool Guy. As of October 4, 2009, the lineup consists of songwriter Tomas Kalnoky on guitar and lead vocals, Mike Brown on alto and baritone sax, Jim Conti on alto and tenor sax, Pete McCullough on bass guitar, Matt Stewart on trumpet, Nadav Nirenberg on trombone, and Chris Thatcher on drums.
History
Formation
Kalnoky, Ansley, and Egan had previously been members of Catch 22. In 2001, Kalnoky gathered a large number of musicians—including Ansley and Egan, several members of One Cool Guy, his brother Achilles, and several of Achilles' orchestra friends—to perform on the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution EP, A Call to Arms. Included on the five track independently released CD is "Here's to Life", a song which Streetlight Manifesto reworked and included on Everything Goes Numb, and a new version of Catch 22's "Dear Sergio", which includes a whole new verse. Both Streetlight and the Bandits are members of The RISC Group, a collaboration of artists to self produce and retain rights to their music.
Recording to touring
Streetlight Manifesto's first recording consisted of a four-track demo EP, featuring the songs "Everything Went Numb", "Point/Counterpoint", "The Saddest Song" and "We Are the Few", all of which were re-recorded for their debut album. The line-up that recorded the demo consisted almost entirely of musicians from Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution: Josh Ansley (bass guitar), Jamie Egan (trombone & trumpet), Tomas Kalnoky (guitar & vocals), Stuart Karmatz (drums), Dan Ross (alto & baritone saxophone) and Pete Sibilia (tenor saxophone). The band was signed to Victory Records, the same label as Catch 22.
After the demo was recorded Karmatz left and was replaced by Paul Lowndes and Jim Conti took the place of Pete Sibilia. This line-up then recorded Everything Goes Numb, but changed again before the band could perform any live shows, Jamie Egan played both trumpet and trombone, but as he would not be able to do this live Mike Soprano joined on trombone. Paul Lowndes had no intention to tour and was replaced by Chris Thatcher.
More lineup changes and continued touring
In September 2004, Ansley announced his departure to pursue an acting career. The next departure was Egan, who left on January 22, 2005, before Streetlight Manifesto began the Ska Is Dead 2 tour, headlining alongside MU330 and the Voodoo Glow Skulls. Delano Bonner came in to play trumpet starting on January 25, 2005, performing at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Dan Ross had planned to leave after the Ska Is Dead 2 tour to pursue a business career, and was forced to leave early just before the end of the tour due to a family crisis. He has been replaced by Mike Brown, whose first concert was at the start of the European tour. Brown's first concert in the United States was on May 31, 2005 in Baltimore.
In April 2005, the band headed overseas to Europe for their first tour outside North America despite personnel difficulties, including visa trouble for various members. Then in October 2005, in Orlando, Florida, the band's van was broken into; in total around $80,000 worth of instruments, merchandise, and personal belongings were stolen. Following the burglary and theft, the band was forced to cancel their following four shows. In November 2005, they were robbed again, in Paris, France, and the band lost "the one expensive piece of equipment that wasn't stolen in last month's debacle, a 24 track hard drive recorder we've been using to document our live shows." Sometime between December 3, 2006 and July 3, 2007, Delano Bonner left the band. Sometime before the recording of Somewhere in the Between, Matt Stewart took over for Bonner.
Somewhere in the Between
Streetlight Manifesto's second album, Somewhere in the Between, was released in November 2007 through Victory Records.
99 Songs of Revolution
99 Songs of Revolution is a collaborative project that consists of two full-length CDs by Streetlight Manifesto, two full-length CDs by the Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution; as well as four other albums, two each by two other Streetlight-related artists. The project consists entirely of cover songs. Volume No. 1 of the project was released by Streetlight Manifesto on March 16, 2010.
Musical influences and style
Kalnoky writes the band's songs on an acoustic guitar and then fleshes out the song structure on the computer and hums basic hornlines, after which the rest of the band comes in and adds their parts. He has cited the soundtrack of the film Stand By Me as his biggest musical influence, and stated that he looks to the 1950s and 1960s for inspiration when writing. He has specifically cited Louis Jordan, Nirvana, The Drifters, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and The Martino Latino Experience as influences. For Somewhere in the Between he sought to "branch out in different directions", adding "eastern European and gypsy sounds" to give the album "a world influence".
