SKA MUSIC!!!! Ah, those were the glory days. Being a teenager and growing up in Long Island, New York in the mid to late 90s.
Here was my highschool band “The Lightweights”. The name came from some jocks at some party who kept calling people “lightweights”, meaning the people who could not drink a lot of alcohol. We all thought it was really funny, so that’s what we decided to name our band. That’s how we did things in high school.
The band became a somewhat small underground success in Long Island. There were seven people in the band. Ska music was kind of blowing up. But we were also really influenced by bands like 311 and Shootyz Groove. This song is called “Groove Is Light”, and I remember it was featured on some obscure Long Island compilation.
HERE IS DAS MP3 VERSION………..))):::::)))))))
Back in the day (mid to late 90s), it was tough for amateur bands to have a CD of their music. It was hard to make shirts and stickers and magnets. Now, everything is just a click of a button away on the internetz. A band can not play a single show, have not a single fan, but they can appear on the internet all professional with all the bells and whistles and a slick myspace page. Back when this song for came out, the internet didn’t even exist (well, it was like just starting to come out a little bit, but nothing like we know it today)!
This was was recorded and produced by Mike Sapone. He went on to record Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Straylight Run, all friends of ours. He also recorded Public Enemy, and at the time we were also impressed by his credit with Stuttering John. What I mainly remember about Mike Sapone was that he always wore hockey jerseys.
I think the Lightweights were nominated for Long Island ska band of the year? Wow, what a distant memory, and obviously not something that impacted me because I barely remember attending. It feels like a dream. I just searched google but can’t find any proof.
We all went away to college, and dis-banded, but then we almost got back together because we had a meeting with some exec from Sony or something. Another vague thing that I don’t clearly remember. But it never amounted to anything. All our musical tastes were changing. We peaked in high school, it was fun for a while.
One exciting moment I remember was playing a show with Coolie Ranks of the Pilfers (and ex-member of the Toasters).
I also remember that we played a bar mitzvah once too. That was great. We were a good band.
Hey look, there is a new Lightweights band and they are a punk band from Texas!! Here’s their myspace page!
