Streetlight Manifesto

The name evokes something dark and revolutionary. Streetlights provide illumination in the darkness, to protect against would-be attackers that seek to catch you unawares. A manifesto is a philosophical compendium to provide insight and shed light on the truth, handed out freely on the street in peaceful rebellion. But both are also notorious for their limits. The shadows on the edge of a streetlight’s circle of protection are more menacing than the open night. And a manifesto is only pages long, unable to delve deeply into the topic at hand, only skimming the surface. Manifestos are meant to ignite rebellion, not provide the fuel.

Tomas Kalnoky rose to power in the world of ska as one of the driving creative forces behind the equally-powerfully named Catch 22 in their early years. This band would define the public image of the genre, and although they may not have invented ska, they inarguably came to represent the genre in the mainstream. Okay, maybe not inarguably. I’m sure the Mighty Mighty Bosstones would disagree. But they can go ahead and disagree – Catch 22 was God for a few years there. Their debut album, “Keasbey Nights,” was a raging success, and many of the songs on that album were written by Kalnoky. Unfortunately, Kalnoky discovered that he was not able to continue being in the band. Why? Only the original line-up of Catch 22 knows. But when Kalnoky left, he took half the band with him and forged a new band: Streetlight Manifesto.

Adopting members from another popular ska group, One Cool Guy, Streetlight Manifesto was a ska supergroup of epic proportions. Like all supergroups, the members’ previous successes drove their new project with little need to advertise or promote. Those who were interested in Catch 22 and One Cool Guy did not need to look far to find Streetlight Manifesto, and they began coming to shows. The band’s first full-length album, “Everything Goes Numb”, was the most logical progression from “Keasbey Nights”, and musically took the Catch 22 content to a darker, more sinister place. While many ska bands, like Reel Big Fish and Suburban Legends, are famous for being lighthearted and upbeat, “Everything Goes Numb” was an album deranged; themes of theft, suicide, oblivion, and violence played with the razor’s edge. Instead of blurting and popping, Streetlight Manifesto’s horns and brass are sharp, cutting, and pulse-pounding. The entire genre was turned on its head.

Streetlight Manifesto’s split from Catch 22 was not clean. Many fans and critics have pointed to lyrics from “Everything Goes Numb” songs, claiming that they are overt attacks on his former band mates’ characters. Other have pointed to Catch 22 songs as being evidence of the reverse. It is hard to tell, though, because the public is so very uncertain of why there is any bad blood between the two. But it is not hard to see that there has been some. When Victory Records announced that it was going to re-release the Catch 22 debut album “Keansey Nights” Kalnoky was not entirely pleased. He felt that his contributions to the album were what made it great – which is difficult to contend – and that his former band mates and label were butthumping him out of money (that’s right, I said butthumping – get over it!) So he went ahead and re-recorded the entire album and re-released it himself.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Streetlight Manifesto’s legacy is their propensity to being robbed. While asleep in a hotel room in Orlando, Florida, the band’s van was broken into and stripped clean. As if that weren’t bad enough, the trailer that had been hitched to the van was de-hitched and hauled away in its entirety. When the group woke up the next morning they had lost all of their instruments, all of their equipment, and a lot of their money and personal belongings. All in all they were down an astounding $80,000. I’ll put that into words for more effect: Eighty thousand dollars. Luckily they were able to scrounge together enough to keep playing shows. But then, while in Paris, France during the 2005 riots – only a few months after the last robbery – the band’s rental cars were broken into and the last of their expensive equipment stolen. The saddest part was the theft of the 24-track recording device the band had been using to record their shows on the tour. Some Parisian criminal now owns the only copy of the most valuable ska recordings ever.

But this wasn’t about to stop the band. They’ve released a new album on Victory Records called “Somewhere in Between”, and they’re heading out to the Vans 2009 Warped Tour – just for you!