In Defense of Ska Ep 186: Matt Collyer (The Planet Smashers, Stomp Records)

In Defense of Ska

Ska had a presence in Canada since the ’80s. Two early important bands were Me Mom and Morgentaler and King Apparatus. That 2nd band scored a #1 hit on Canadian radio in 1991 with the 2 Tone-inspired tune, “Made For TV.” But in the second half of the ’90s, a new group of ska bands would define Canadian ska. Most of them were on Canada’s biggest ska label, Stomp Records. One of the biggest bands from this bunch, The Planet Smashers, was led by Matt Collyer, a founder of Stomp Records.

Today we go deep into the history of Canadian ska by talking to Matt. We talk about the Planet Smashers’ formation, blowing up with their 1999 record Life Of The Party, and why they ended up touring the US so much in the 2000s (And what brought their US touring to a grinding halt!)

We also talk about some critical Stomp Records bands like Bedouin Soundclash, The Flatliners and we also talk about the influential early Canadian ska comp, All Skanadian Club (1996), an early Stomp release.

We talk about how Stomp weathered ska’s popularity dying, Planet Smashers’ major label offers, Canadian grants, and get the details on The Planet Smashers 4 (later 5) very strict band rules.

Also, we learn about something called Timbits!

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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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