Something To Do

Something To Do is my favorite younger pop punk influenced ska band. They are from Milwaukee / Waukesha, Wisconsin and are naturals with very catchy melodic music. Their line up is guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, and trombone.

These guys are by no means new to the scene. Their 1st album came out in 2002 and their new EP “Souvenir” is their 4th release. I reviewed their most recent full-length album, 2007’s “I Command You To Dance” this past March. Normally I don’t reach that far back into the archives to review an album, but I made an exception for that one due to their being so many songs on it that you can’t get out of your head.

“Souvenir” builds upon the experience of the band’s early releases. 2002’s full length “13 Steps To A New You” and 2004’s EP “Naked Pigeons Inside!” are both good and brimming with potential, but the sound is raw. “I Command You To Dance” (ICYTD) saw the band realize its potential and really write the kind of music they were capable of. The songs are tight and the melodies are really well put together, but the tempo is never forced and the songs are under control. It’s been a staple of my ska listening the past several months.

“Souvenir” picks up where ICYTD left off. The EP kicks off with a tribute to everyone’s favorite tough guy Chuck Norris with “(Reflections On) Chuck Norris”. Any song by a punk band about Chuck Norris is going to be silly and this song is no exception, but it is very well crafted. The lyrics are smart, the writing is good, and I love the bridge and backing vocals to the chorus.

“How Many Times” is next up and slows the tempo down from “Reflections”. The song has more of a ska feel to the verse and the chorus is extremely catchy. Again, there are very well placed backing vocals in the chorus. This song is as good as the top material from ICYTD. The tempo is kicked back into overdrive with “Nicotine Blues” about the pains of quitting smoking.

Next up is a cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”. This is more of a punk rewrite than ska. I’ve always been a big Billy Idol fan and this song doesn’t disappoint. The ode to the beer of Jamaica, “Red Stripe”, brings the EP to a close. The tempo is slowed down for this one with extra emphasis on melody. This is maybe the most catchy song on the EP and is sure to get struck in your head. You may even want to crack open your own Red Stripe beer while listening to it.

I highly recommend this release. It’s very solid top to finish and sure to get stuck in your head and find itself in your regular rotation. If you have limited funds to pick up new music this summer pick this over the new Reel Big Fish Greatest Hits. It’s only $5 on MP3 through either amazon.com, iTunes or CDBaby and I think you’ll get more your hard earned cash. It’s also available on CD through amazon.com, but is not yet released through them digitally.
- DThrog Ska Review

The ska revival of the '80s and '90s brought us The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sublime, Less Than Jake and plenty of other bands that fused the Jamaican genre's penchant for offbeat rhythms with punk rock's offbeat sense of humor. In other words, there was a lot of goofy fun, plaid pants and outrageous dancing.

The five guys in the ska group Something to Do also channel the political consciousness many punk groups are known for—plus the driving tempo and thick guitar that make hardcore exciting—in their song "Pray for the Dead." However, they do it without losing the zany energy and absurdity of their genre. It's activism you can skank to.

Right from the get-go, the band's horn section blasts in with a minor-key melody, driven by a taskmaster of a rhythm guitarist. It feels a bit like a chase song from a James Bond movie being mocked in an Adult Swim cartoon. Even if you don't listen to a single word being sung, the melody conjures up images of gangster shootouts, dancing skeletons and international spydom. Not bad for four minutes, right?

It's hard not to listen to the lyrics, though, since the song's got a great little call-and-response of "Let's pray for the dead" running through it. Pretty soon, you realize you're dancing your butt off to a sarcastic war protest message of "Let's keep on losing lives until we're sure that we're ahead."

An interlude by the brass section about two-thirds through the track, followed by a wicked drum crescendo, erupts into a shout-along sing-along, then dissipates into five words, repeated in unison, that call out from the crypt quietly but urgently.

These ghostly words are part of the song's message, of course, but that’s not it: They're also evidence that ska itself isn't dead, according to the band.

"There aren't that many ska bands anymore, but pretty much every time we play somewhere new, people seem to really respond," says trumpet player Mike Barse. "It seems to have moved on from lame trend to 'Hey, cool! I remember ska bands!'"

An MP3 of "Pray for the Dead" is available at right. More music by Something to Do is available on its MySpace page. Skank with the band -- with a sausage in hand -- if you're headed to Brat Days in Sheboygan on Saturday, August 1.

MadTracks highlights and provides MP3s of songs performed by local musicians. All tracks here are provided with permission of the artist. If you are a musician based in the Madison metro area and are interested in sharing your work as a MadTrack, please send a message.

(original web address: http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=26438&sid=e77b16b01ee6686f034635e4f4be81db )
- Jessica Steinhoff - isthmus.com

It’s always exciting when I discover a band that really catches my attention and that’s exactly what happened to me this week when I found out about Something to Do (S2D). S2D is a ska/punk band from Wisconsin and they have had my foot tapping to their latest album since I got a hold of it earlier this week.

The album is called I command You To Dance, a title that stays true to its name from start to finish. There is some really great music to be found on the album and it’s a really fun listen all the way through. The thing that I love about the band is that they seem to have taken cues from some of the great ska bands of our time and incorporated those elements into their own sound.

Two of my favorite tracks off of the album are Robbed a Bank, and Leave Me Alone. Robbed a bank is a song that starts off with a relaxing ska beat which carries over into the verse and then it goes into overdrive when the chorus starts. Leave Me Alone is one of the harder songs on the album. It has the guitars plugged in with full distortion, breakneck drumming, and horns blazing.

While I don’t necessarily think that I Command You To Dance is the most groundbreaking ska album that I have ever heard, its certainly worth listening to for any fan of the genre. Pick up a copy and support the band!

(originally published at http://fistvstact.blogspot.com/2009/03/something-to-do-i-command-you-to-dance_07.html)
- Fist vs Tact

by Jamie Lee Rake
November 1, 2007

Though the furor over third-wave ska has subsided since its mid-'90s heyday, trumpets and trombones continue to be plied against pop-punk sensibilities to tuneful, semi-Jamaican effect. The young Milwaukeeans of Something To Do may call their music Midwest-style, horn-driven rock on their Web site, but if their brass charts don't give them away, their advocacy of bands such as Mustard Plug and Less Than Jake in the CD liner notes shows them to be ska cats. Especially engaging ones, at that, with enough diversity in their hooks, production and takes on boy/girl drama to keep ears perked and bodies skanking. If a hometown band is going to make it onto next year's Warped Tour, Something To Do is high in the running.
- Shepherd Express (Milwaukee)

http://www.fancypantsgangsters.com/msm/the-midwest-ska-moment-episode-13-brown-eyed-guy-by-something-to-do/ - Fancy Pants Gangsters

WAMI announces 2005 award nominees.

Posted: Feb. 7, 2005
The Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) today announced the nominees for the 25th Annual Award Show, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. April 25 at Milwaukee's Northern Lights Theater at Potawatomi Bingo Casino.

Following are the award categories and nominees:

Group of the Year
Exit
Out of Line
Paris, TX
Something to Do
Sunspot

World Ethnic/Reggae/Ska Group of the Year
Copper Box
Kojo
Mambo Surfers
Out of Line
Something To Do

- Milwaukee Journal/Sentinal Online