Song of the Day: The Porkers, "Aporkalypso"

Ska music keeps threatening to come back, but though certain elements of the late ‘90s two-tone revival have wormed their way into contemporary music, there will be no reconsidering the relative legacies of Voodoo Glow Skulls or Reel Big Fish.

That’s fine, by the way. I can keep ska in a little box under the bed of my brain, occasionally cracking it open for a nostalgic charge but ultimately letting it age into nothingness. I fell hard for the ska revival; I was at exactly the right age and had just the right tastes to be taken in by its punk rock attitude and its theater kid energy. I worshiped at the feet of Dicky Barrett. I went to a ton of Less Than Jake shows. I became intimate with the tones of different brands of trombone. I skanked. It was a lot.

One of the things I loved about ska was that there were a seemingly endless array of bands appearing on an equally infinite number of compilations albums. I loved buying compilations during my CD-buying era: they were largely cheaper than regular records, they often contained tracks that didn’t exist anywhere else, and they usually introduced me to a band or two (which led to the opportunity to buy even more CDs, which always seemed to be the goal). Sometimes you’d get to know certain outfits only through their various artists output, and sometimes you’d fall in love with a song only to discover the band got dropped from the label before they got to release anything proper. The Porkers fall into the former category: I never owned a copy of their signature (and disgustingly named) album Hot Dog Daiquiri, but I sure did hear a lot of their songs pop up on mixes with titles like United Colors of Ska and Oi! Skampalation. “Aporcalypso” appeared on the excellent Moonshot! A Moon Ska Records Compendium alongside scene stalwarts like the Toasters, the Scofflaws and the Adjusters; more importantly, it has lived entirely rent-free in my head long after any memories of shouting “Pick it up!” during Spring Heeled Jack concerts and ska-splaining stuff to No Doubt fans had faded.