Music Major Still Holding Out Hope for Ska Class

Earlier this week, Off Leash news got a chance to speak with Darron Barenett, a concerned student hoping to publicize a struggle he’s facing at the University of Washington. Darron is a music major set to graduate at the end of this year, but he expresses worries that the university has not fulfilled a key aspect of his education: a proper examination of ska music and its history.

Naturally, when loonies like Darron write in mistaking us for a real newspaper we have to reel in that big fish right away. So off I went to meet up with Darron and bring light to his ridiculous little struggle. He had agreed to meet me for an interview at a coffee shop near his apartment and upon entering the “Mephisto's Cafe,” there was absolutely no doubt in my mind I had found someone truly committed. From the beat up Chuck Taylors, to the pinstripe pants, past his wallet chain jingling like the world’s tackiest sleigh bells, up the cheap black vest covering an old Hot Topic tee, all the way up to the bad fedora covering his somehow already balding head; I knew that this was someone more than happy to tell me about the differences between all three waves of ska music.

“I just wish that more had been said, you know,” Darron had told me, “The genre has such a rich history and there’s so many amazing bands people have never heard of. I feel like I was lucky enough to pick it up along the way but without focused attention in academia, I genuinely fear the culture will die out.”

“Pick it up?” I asked him in reply as a waiter came by with our cherry-poppin’ danishes, which Darron had told me were the specials of the cafe.

“Pick it up.” He continued on.

To those lost or uninitiated, ska is a musical genre with early roots in British music of the 1960’s as musical influences from all over the globe coalesced into a sonic phenomenon driven by walking basslines, lively horn sections, and never getting laid in your entire goddamn life. Here in the states, however, ska has a slightly different face, as the largest popularity ska achieved here was during the so called “third wave” in the 1990’s. This ska-punk sub-hybrid managed to attain some fairly widespread recognition here, even if none of us were alive to remember it. Enough momentum was gathered to launch the career of Gwen Stefani and many others, such as that guy from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones or those other guys in No Doubt that weren’t Gwen Stefani.

“The passion is still there, I’m sure of it.” Darron stared off at nothing through the windows of the cafe, wistfully remembering the fierce skanking (the dance) days of his youth, “I just think if we had a real class here devoted to educating people about this history or teaching the fundamentals of the music we would see another cultural revolution. The youth would be back out in the streets, you know. We’d be seeing manifestos pasted onto all the streetlights from here to Ravenna!”

After the interview I could only admire the commitment Darron had to his cause, and while it's hard for me to personally say whether an academic approach would truly give the revival he wanted, maybe we should be learning about the other Goldfinger. Off Leash News reached out to director of the music department Joël-François Durand for comment, but received no response. The impression that I got was that maybe the toasters out there raising a glass to fond memories of youth well wasted are making a good point. But then again, it sure is hard to take these schmucks seriously.