In the realm beyond this one, my dad made sure I listened to Fishbone

March 21, 2024 3:18 AM

By all accounts, my father was not a punk. Nothing about the clothes he wore made me think he was punk. I don’t know much about his music taste. He saved a Prince concert ticket in a childhood photo album along with CDs by the Fugees and KRS-One that I found with his other belongings, which also included lectures from Islamic scholars of the early ‘90s. From the books he left behind, I knew he was political and very pro-Black. I knew he converted to Islam when he was young and had an affinity for ‘90s clothing. He was stylish, but it wasn’t anything I could explicitly link to a subculture. Yet somehow, he found himself listening to a band called Fishbone. from Finding Portals: Fishbone’s “Fishbone” EP [Bandcamp]

Fishbone EP [1985; Spotify]
Fishbone EP [2023; Spotify]
This is Fishbone [Spotify]

Exclusive: Interview with Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson - Directors of 'Everyday Sunshine: The Story Of Fishbone'
[2010; Marco on the Bass]
Interview: Chris Dowd (Fishbone) [2023; The Big Takeover]
Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher Recalls Saying “No” to Dave Grohl and Touring with Rappers: In Defense of Ska [2024; Consequence podcast]

posted by chavenet (24 comments total)

Fishbone is excellent! I first saw them in the guilty pleasure comedy movie "Tapeheads" starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins.

I often wonder which of the things that I tell my kids they'll remember, and what they will someday piece together of the things we never discussed. I tell them lots of stuff about when I was in the same grade of school they are in now -- but not, you know, everything. How much will they read between the lines and deduce? How much will they never know? And then I think of my parents and wonder what it would have been like to know them as peers BITD.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:21 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

This is a wonderful piece. Gearing up as I am for a new course in music and literature, I think this piece will make an appearance — as will some of the scholars linked within. Thank you for posting!!
posted by foodbedgospel at 5:00 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Fishbone is/was ungovernable, man. I saw them live once when I was fifteen. They were great!
posted by Kitteh at 5:15 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

Reflecting on the death this week of Hepcat's Greg Lee, I already had Fishbone's "All We Have Is Now" in my head when I got to this post. I got to see both bands at Punk Rock Bowling last year.

Also: Fishbone is in a lot of John Cusack's films because he's a huge fan and often gets creative input into the soundtracks of his productions.
posted by limeonaire at 5:46 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Circa 1991-2, Fishbone was one of the greatest bands in the whole damn world. If I had a time machine, I would go back to that moment and beg them to reconsider what was about to happen to them.
posted by delfin at 6:58 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]

Henry Selick of Coraline/Nightmare Before Christmas fame is a long time Fishbone friend/collaborator too. It's a shame that Wendell & Wild didn't get more traction as it is very Black punk-centric in terms of soundtrack and characters.
posted by Kitteh at 7:02 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Man, a small-venue Fishbone show in the 90s was one of the best musical experiences ever
posted by gottabefunky at 7:11 AM on March 21 [6 favorites]

"Everyday Sunshine" is just an astonishing song. During my favorite SNL era, the earlier Hartman-Carvey years, they would sometimes have the most mindblowing host/musical guest combos, and one in particular was Jeremy Irons/Fishbone. I remember it particularly because, during the final credits, Irons and Walter Kibby swapped jackets.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:17 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Fishbone at City Gardens in Trenton, in the 80s, was a mindblowing experience. The place would be packed and sweaty, we'd all be exhausted from opening bands The NY Citizens and then The Toasters, the band would come on and start jamming, then Angelo would come walking from the back, through the crowd towards the stage. It would take ages, he would stop and talk to anyone who wanted to talk, holding on to his walking stick, his mohawk flopping over....then he would get lifted onto the stage by the crowd, the band would turn it up about 6 notches, Angelo would explode with his mad energy, the crowd would go WILD and you knew, with a white hot joy, that you were gonna have a fucking FANTASTIC couple of hours of jumping up and down like a madman, with a few hundred fellow madmen (and women), until Randy Now would literally have to turn the sound off and the lights up to get them to stop playing.
And they did it ALL THE TIME. So many shows there. I've seen them in Philly, NYC, Passaic NJ, New Brunswick and even Bristol UK in 89 and they always brought everything with them, but nothing matched those City Gardens shows.
posted by conifer at 7:40 AM on March 21 [9 favorites]

Man, a small-venue Fishbone show in the 90s was one of the best musical experiences ever

ruined me

my first show: moved away from home in rural area to attend uni, somehow I ended up at a show at the small campus venue, Biohazard opens, I'm like "wow, this is pretty loud" but not much else. Then Fishbone happened.

some shows have approached that level, but never exceeded the whole experience. I was introduced to the band via "Fight the Youth" on one of those samplers, and Reality of My Surroundings was like my cub-imprinting phase, but their older stuff is so great. For today: Question of Life
posted by elkevelvet at 7:53 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Back in college, my flatmate and best friend at the time played jazz piano for a local improv group. When he wasn't messing around at the keyboard transforming a tune into something almost unrecognizable, dancing around the main melody and harmonies, he was playing Fishbone or Van Morrison on the stereo and working on some math or programming homework. "Those are the only two bands worth listening to", he might have said, as my memory dances around the main melodies and harmonies of truth. We graduated in 1991, so that was when Fishbone was at its prime, according to this article. Now, we're living on opposite coasts and don't see each other often.

Musically, I never understood Fishbone, or Van Morrison for that matter. But because of how much I respected my friend, they've always had a special status in my mind. I guess I read this article hoping to understand my friend better. Perhaps I do.
posted by brambleboy at 7:55 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Ugh, Van Morrison

and I say this as someone who hunted down a used copy of Veedon Fleece on vinyl, not a month ago
posted by elkevelvet at 8:02 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Fishbone is red hot!
posted by mazola at 8:23 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Man, a small-venue Fishbone show in the 90s was one of the best musical experiences ever

I never got the chance, so if anyone has information about boots that they, you know, could definitely not DM me, that'd be great.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:23 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]

Saw them in ‘88 or ‘89 at Harpos, a little bar/pub in Victoria. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The walk home afterward was a bit chilly as my clothes, even most of my pants, were soaked in my own and other’s sweat.
posted by house-goblin at 9:51 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

in my own and other’s sweat

that is what I remember from the show I attended! and I kept getting some guy's kielbasa breath up front of the stage
posted by elkevelvet at 10:46 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

My alma mater, N.C. State, used to do an outdoor concert event called Wolfstock on occasion. One year, Fishbone was the headliner. The attendees watched and waited through such notables as Information Society until Fishbone took the stage. Freddie's Dead started up, the mosh pit began to rumble...

...and security immediately broke it up and declared the concert over and everyone had to go home, because of "public safety" concerns.

BIG stink over that one all over campus.
posted by delfin at 11:35 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

ACampusCAB
posted by wenestvedt at 2:13 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

In the iconic scene from Say Anything, John Cusack holds a boom box up in the air to serenade his love interest, Ione Skye. But when they were actually filming the movie, the song he played wasn't "In Your Eyes" (that was dubbed afterwards) -- it was Fishbone's Bonin' In The Boneyard.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:17 PM on March 21 [3 favorites]

Awesome post, thanks!

Fishbone is so great, and especially that first EP. "Party at Ground Zero" is definitely in my top 5 or so songs of all time.
posted by equalpants at 8:54 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

and I kept getting some guy's kielbasa breath up front of the stage

You were hardier than the friend I went with. She very quickly noped out of the tight press of mostly dude bodies. It was pretty packed. At one point, the singer walked, waded across the top of the crowd on the dance floor, stepped up onto somebody's table, and gave some kind of n-word intensive, crowd hyping, rant.

Also, now that I’ve read the article, I agree that it’s pretty good. However, I think there were more category mashing/busting/defying bands around at the time than the author seems to think. Ska, funk, punk crossover was a fairly strong current back then.

Anyway, here’s hoping during her punk rock days she discovered Victoria’s NoMeansNo. I’ve read that Angelo Moore was something of a fan, saying, “Goddamn! Those muthafuckas are bad, man!”
posted by house-goblin at 10:11 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]

I saw Fishbone around 1991 in St. Louis at the Fox Theater and Angelo climbed up the freaking wall like two stories above everyone as if it was some kind of rock climbing exercise - with no type of safety equipment or rope or anything. Singing the whole time.
posted by Mid at 12:00 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Belated comment to say that the best concert that I have ever seen was Fishbone at Metropolis in Montreal in the mid-90s. That venue has an optimal size - small enough that you are in an intimate setting, large enough to fit thousands of people. So we had an intimate, face-to-face experience with Fishbone boosted by the energy of thousands of wild spectators. The band presided over a berserker moshpit. Good times.
posted by SnowRottie at 10:07 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]

I had to double check my comment because the Fox Theater seems too fancy for a Fishbone concert. It was the American Theater (aka Orpheum) in St. Louis. Still, Angelo definitely climbed up the wall I think near or into a balcony level.
posted by Mid at 10:40 AM on April 4