K-Man & The 45s – Stand With The Youth

K-Man & The 45s’ debut was a refreshing reminder to dig out the old Mustard Plug albums and relive the days of carefree third-wave ska.  Their steady upstroke and unapologetic brass is unapologetic to the fact that porkpie hats and checkerboard pants stopped being cool twenty years ago.   Is there much of a market for K-Man & The 45s back in Montreal?  Who knows, I live on the west coast and haven’t heard another person utter the word “ska” in years.  That being said, the party lives on in my soul, and any new addition to my library is sure to find its way onto my patio during the summer months.  The band’s latest full length, Stand With The Youth, ensures that 2019 will carry on this sunny tradition.  

The K-man is back with another twelve tracks of toe-tapping, elbow swingin’ good times.  Stand With The Youth is just plain easy to enjoy.  Not much, if anything, has changed from their prior debut, and that’s exactly how it should be.  K-man’s voice retains that hash nasal strain that fits the genre so well, and the horns remain front and centre.  Opener “Stand With The Youth” is a buoyant call for generational allegiance between young and old, promoting dialogue and good faith for policymakers influencing a future that they won’t be a part of (the song was written in allegiance with recent youth responses to gun violence).  Ska bands aren’t usually this political, but it’s a strong call for unity spelled out in celebration and solidarity. While the song makes you think, fun is still the primary objective. “Hero With A Death Ray” is a wacky, far flung story of a vigilante crusader with sci-fi weaponry, while “Hooligans” is a slow burning description of living and resisting in a gentrification zone.  “Don’t Touch It” gets fast and raucous as they address homelessness and drug addiction, boasting the album’s peak tempos and punk-rock bridges.

A particularly fun highlight is the band’s cover of the Chuck Barry classic “Never Can Tell.”  It’s the slowest of the batch and K-Man’s brass takes the reins where piano and keys dominated the original.  The band really owns the song’s “teenage wedding” message, with the stylistic refresh taking the song into a whole new setting that somehow feels just as relevant today as when it was written back in 1964.

If you fancy yourself in need of something in the same light as The English Beat, Mad Caddies or The Planet Smashers, then K-Man & the 45s is for you.  Stand With The Youth is an energizing and socially engaging effort with plenty of blasting brass and upstroke tunage that will have you skankin’ in no time.