In with the skins

>> New Jersey's Inspecter 7 present the bald facts on skinheads

by Rupert Bottenberg

The presence of skinheads at ska shows seems to make a lot of people rather nervous. Operating on the assumption that skinheads are invariably racist, right-wing thugs, they wonder how a black musical style could possibly have any appeal for them.

"That's just a lack of knowledge about two things: ska and skinheads," says Travis Nelson, aka T-Dog, vocalist for New Jersey ska machine Inspecter 7. "If you know the true history of both, you'll know that ska was the skinheads' first musical identity."

Infusing their swinging ska sound with the boot-stomping, anthemic punch of oi (skinhead punk based on the chants of the football terraces of England), Inspecter 7 make no bones about their skinhead angle. "Skinhead was an offshoot of the mod subculture," Nelson explains. "Like most subcultures and styles, mod was changing toward the end of the '60s. Half of them went into the whole hippie beatnik thing, and the other half rejected that. These were white working-class kids who wanted to stay true to the their working-class roots. They tried to look like the model workers of Britain at the time, with their hair cropped short and the Doc Marten's boots. Basically, you could say they wanted to look downwardly mobile."

In order to further divorce themselves from mainstream society, the skins sought out cultural elements even more separated than themselves. In England at the time, that would have been the Jamaican immigrants filling up the blue-collar parts of town.

"The skins would see them on the street corners of their neighbourhoods with their radios, listening to the music they'd brought over from Jamaica, which was ska and rock steady," continues Nelson. "I guess you could explain it like white kids in America picking up on hardcore hip hop." Hence, the tag "skinhead reggae" is hardly a contradiction in terms.

Still convinced skinhead is synonymous with white power? Inspecter 7's multiracial makeup and pro-unity lyrics should provide ample evidence to the contrary. Not that preachy politics are going to get in the way of rambunctious fun. Colouring their ska not only with shades of oi, but of jazz, reggae and mod rock as well, the band's unique approach has turned heads everywhere from Moon Records to MTV.

As a result, I7's shows are high energy free-for-alls, open to anyone, regardless of race, religion, class, culture or even hair length. "We get a pretty mixed crowd," says Nelson, and that suits him just fine.

With guests 2 Stoned 2 Skank, at Foufs on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 8:30pm, $7