When it seemed that public protests and debates on social media weren’t effective ways to voice their opinions and frustrations about alleged corruption in the Trump Administration, members of the Los Angeles-based band Ska ‘N’ Bones (a parody of the secretive political organization, Skull and Bones) turned to what they know best: music.
The contrast between songwriter/vocalist/bassist Jon Mohr’s experiences growing up in California during the Cold War and current day political reality are reflected in “State Of The Union,” which was released in January. To wit: “They said the Russians are coming/They’ve already come/I think they’ve landed in Washington/I hate to say it but it might be true/Democracy is already dead.”
Mohr describes the events leading up to the song’s composition: “One year ago I was driving to symphony rehearsal listening to the State Of The Union address by Trump. It was so full of bullsh#t that throughout the rehearsal I could not get it out of my head. Afterward, I drove to Mike’s….by the time I got there, the song was complete.”
Mike Moynahan, Mohr’s friend for nearly 40 years, plays trumpet and sings in the band. “Things have gotten so crazy in Washington,” Moynahan says, “that it really helps me to deal with it all to poke a little fun at it. Jon’s song does a great job of pointing out the ridiculousness of this president and his administration.”
Follow The Rubles
The upbeat tune follows the development of U.S./Russian relations, from the Cold War, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to alleged meddling in the 2016 election and beyond — which add up to much more than a hoax or a witch hunt, according to Ska ‘N’ Bones members.
“Follow the rubles,” Mohr says. “It seems there is a significant money trail from Russia to the Trump organization. He cozies up to Putin, relieves sanctions to oligarchs that are enemies of democracy, meets with them in private with no record of the meetings, and refutes what our intelligence services report about these enemies.”
Moynahan agrees. “What’s wrong with an investigation? If there’s nothing to hide then what’s the big deal? If it is indeed a witch hunt, we sure have a great witch hunter on the case, because he’s already caught a whole mess of witches!”
The impact of growing up during the Cold War gave Mohr some powerful material for the song’s verses. “It’s simple for me. We were taught that everyone in the Eastern Bloc countries were a threat. We were taught to be afraid of and hate them…I remember an underlying vibe, that we could be bombed into extinction at any moment. I had recurring nightmares of being bombed, seeing the bright as the sun flash, mushroom clouds, then being burned to cinder ash. A child’s psyche doesn’t just come up with that on their own. There was even a fallout shelter in my middle school.”
Old Friends, New Music
Music has a way of turning negative emotions into positive experience, and for Ska ‘N’ Bones, that’s what it’s all about. The band formed in 2017, with Mohr and Moynahan bringing together a group of longtime friends and collaborators, including Moynahan’s brothers Tim and Danny (trombone and saxophone), Doug Sanborn (drums) Jason Myers (guitar), Al Keith (percussion), and Keith Walsh (keyboards.)
The project came together in 2017 with the recording of “Smally Fingers,” which was released as a YouTube performance video in December of that year. That song achieved number one status on Dirty Radio’s “Ska Parade” program for several weeks (hosted by Tazy Phyllipz) , and in March 2018 the band headlined Ska Parade’s anniversary show at The Slidebar in Fullerton California. For Mohr, getting the band together came easily.
“Mike and I were out for a beer and we contacted Keith, who was in our first ska band in high school,” Jon explains. “Keith said he’d join us. Mike’s brothers, Timothy and Danny were a natural for the band, being that we played together in high school too. We recruited Doug, Al and Jason to join forces to record Smally Fingers. It was so much fun, we haven’t stopped. Our goal is to make satirical political and social comment. Ska is the vehicle.”
The idea was to capture some of the magic of second wave Ska, a genre from the early 1980’s that often featured political themes, from bands like The Specials, Madness, The English Beat, and The Selecter. Inspired by the political climate in the U.S. after the 2016 presidential election, Mohr and Moynahan came up with a concept.
Mohr explains:“The name Ska ‘N’ Bones is the Ska analog to the secret society ‘Skull and Bones’ out of Yale, known as the breeding ground for the most powerful, elite players in global business and politics. The way I see it, what ‘Skull and Bones’ is to global power, Ska ‘N’ Bones is to Ska. Check our pedigree.” Indeed. Members of Ska ‘N’ Bones have worked in various projects, including The Untouchables, Dave Wakeling, and The World Peace Posse, to name a few.
Engineering on “State Of The Union” was done by Danny Moynahan, with mixing and mastering by John Bird. Video image compilation by Mike Moynahan.
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