Rockin' the Plank

Without the influence of ska and reggae, bands like the Clash, Rancid and even the Police would be without some of their biggest hits. In the ‘80s, bands like Madness and the Specials achieved a level of mainstream success, and in the ‘90s, bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Skankin’ Pickle revved up ska’s engines and combined it with punk rock, which formed a genre that became known as "third wave ska." Many ska bands popped up as this scene started to get a lot of hype in the press, much to the joy of some ska fans. It got to the point, however, where you couldn’t throw a rock in the air without hitting some a-hole who had started a skacore band — especially in Orange County. Now the hype that surrounded third wave ska has disappeared, and many of the soundalike ska-punk bands to come out of Orange County have disappeared along with that hype, much to the relief of the Mad Caddies.

In the mid-‘90s, the Mad Caddies combined ska, Dixieland and punk to create a sound that caught the ear of many fans, including one Fat Mike of Fat Wreck Chords. The band signed to Honest Don’s, an offshoot of Fat Wreck Chords, and released Quality Softcore, gaining many fans in the process. The band’s latest release on Fat Wreck Chords, this year’s Rock the Plank, saw them moving into a straight-ahead rock direction. The band just got back from a lengthy tour and one of these pirates, longtime guitarist Carter Benson, has decided he’ll never set sail again. I had a chance to speak on the phone with Caddies’ guitarist Sascha Lazor about why Benson left the band, why touring overseas is awesome and why he’s glad that the hype surrounding third wave ska has finally died out.

It was really good. We were gone for almost three months straight. We came back to California for like a day-and-a-half and we left again. We were going to new places that we hadn’t been to before, like Japan and Australia. It was a lot of fun, but it was a little too long. We were all kind of burnt out.

I think it’s a combination of things. I mean, he’s got a business, and by being on tour so much it was hurting his business. He thought it was a good idea if he left and we didn’t want to see him having to try to juggle two things, but it worked out well. I mean, I just hung out with him today for a couple of hours. We’re good friends. It wasn’t on bad terms or anything. Both parties knew that it was probably for the best.

Yeah, for the weekend shows it’s been just me and then Chris Rest from Lagwagon. Carter missed a tour last year, a Canadian tour, because of his job and he filled in for us then. I called him up a couple of weeks ago and he’s gonna fill in for this one too.

Those are the songs that we had at the time. Our band, we never really stick to one kind of style. We always want to try new things, and another thing is, we didn’t really have any killer reggae songs or ska songs or any Dixieland songs that we thought were that rad. So we decided that instead of trying to write some, and kind of half ass it, we’d put something on there that we’re proud of. We had these songs already and it was definitely different. We definitely didn’t want to delay the album, so we just put on all the songs that we had.

You know, I think it’s really good. I can understand why we kind of get lumped in that, because you’ve got to put a band into some kind of category, it makes things easier. I don’t mind that, necessarily. I hate . . . mutual feelings between me and the guys in the band, 95 percent of the bands that were out there in the whole so-called third wave, I thought [they] were horrible. In any genre of music you always have the good bands and you have the ones that come along and copy. I mean, how many bands can sound like Reel Big Fish, especially in Orange County? It got to the point where it was just horrible. I really hate that kind of poppy ska stuff. I like bands like Fishbone and Less Than Jake and the Suicide Machines and the Blue Meanies. They’re all different, they all bring something different to the table and then you have tons of bands that come along and copy them. People just get sick of it. I understand, I was sick of it myself. I think it’s a good thing that happened because the bands that still love to do it for the music, not because it’s the newest style or trend or fashion, they’ll stick around and come up with new creative ways to do what they want to do. Because it’s away from the spotlight, there’s no pressure. It’s not like you have to sound like Reel Big Fish, so I think it’s a very good thing. At the same time, we still have tons of songs that we’ve been writing, a lot more reggae songs and some ska songs. We’re not dropping that. I think we can bring something to the table that is different, as far as that kind of music is concerned.

(laughing) You know, I don’t really know how that became such a big deal. It was kind of like, "Okay, whatever." Someone was like, "Okay, I’ve got a good idea for this." I guess it’s kind of unfair. People probably think the whole album is full of sea songs, when it’s really only one song. And we had another song on there, an instrumental, that was really cool, but Fat Mike, he really wasn’t backing it, so we left it off, but it’s definitely going on the new album. At first I was kind of pissed, but then I realized it was probably better, because at first it was just a three-minute little instrumental that kind of repeated itself, but now we’re turning it into a ten-minute epic saga. Bring in a keyboard and symphony. It really is a cool sea song, but it could definitely be in a movie, like a score in a movie or something. We’re bringing back like the ten-minute Metallica epic ballad. Not enough bands are doing ten-minute songs anymore.

I’m sick of the minute-and-a-half punk songs. (laughing) Get back to the good parts of Metallica.

We were going out with Snapcase, but they just cancelled because they’re working on a new album and I think they realized they should wait until the record is done before they head back to Europe.

Yeah, we toured with them in Europe before on the DeconstructionTour. That was incredible.

Yeah, such an awesome band. I’d heard some of their stuff before, but seeing them live was so powerful and they’re really nice guys. So we were gonna tour with them. We were gonna do 12 shows with just us and Snapcase and both our bands were on the same festival. So there were gonna be about 12 shows with just us and Snapcase in a club or a theatre and then the big festivals with Rancid and Stone Temple Pilots and stuff. Now it’s just us headlining and I think a German band called Ransom, or something like that.

Yeah, totally. I don’t think there’s any way a band like us could tour with Snapcase and not have the crowd just like spit at us, and over in Europe I could totally see it working. We’ve always loved touring on bills that are different. I hate touring when the bands are all punk bands or all ska bands or whatever. You just get bored of it. And on the Deconstruction Tour, it was Snapcase and us and NOFX and the Bosstones. It was all bands that mix it up and do different things. I think that’s the most fun, to tour with bands like that. And I think it’s good for the kids, too. If they were Snapcase fans and always thought of us as a ska band or whatever and then they heard us. . . it’s a good way to get your music out to people who would never give you the time of day otherwise.

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