Sturgeon General - “Live the Life”
Boycott Radical Records
1999
Third Wave Ska / Reggae
Although the bio from this group's Facebook page is kinda long, it really seems to capture a lot of the irreverent essence of being a small-time touring ska band in the 90s:
The decade of the 90’s was a distant time: the internet was in its infancy, “texting” was unheard of and climate change…was still a myth. Seattle grunge may have been an institution, but close on its heels SKA music was making waves. Nowhere else was this more evident than along the somewhat obscure, conservative Wasatch Front in Utah where the likes of Swim Herschel Swim, Stretch Armstrong, Insatiable and Sturgeon General were whipping crowds into a frenzy on a nightly basis. Formed in the early nineties by front-man and bari-saxophonist Craig Waddell, Sturgeon General epitomized the cozy underground followings SKA had generated around the country. In direct opposition to grunge’s baleful dirges and angst-filled bravado, SKA proffered a carefree, hyperactive outlet of brass energy underlying its reggae-on-steroids tempo. The band filtered many members through its fraternity over the years, but staples Zach Griffen, Bill Hosack, Ken Marvel, Devin Affleck, Joe Kaufman, Pablo Anderson, Nate Robinson, and Richard (Phish) McCallister were welcome anchors for a band that eventually toured for more than four years nationally while promoting two albums of original material.
Sturgeon began playing at Salt Lake City’s Bar-and-Grill (9th south), Ashbury Pub and their ever-staple gig at Burt’s Tiki Lounge. In the Sundance burrow known as Park City, Sturgeon regularly played to sellout rooms at The Alamo and Jammin’ Salmon where they attracted their manger, Ben Rosch. The energy of performances were electric and it was often difficult to determine who was more wired: the band or the ‘skankin’ crowds, as many a busted stage floor can testify to! Fan favorites Mojave, Edge of the Knife and Shut Up seldom left the dance floor empty or dry from sweat and spilled beers. One of the great advantages of watching Sturgeon play was that fans would sweat out as much as they imbibed, making the bartenders happy while accounting for an intense aerobic exercise session.
Life on the road was filled with all of the glory, frustration and insanity that many have come to associate with the rock-star life. Sturgeon General wandered far from Utah, frequenting the east coast and making a name for themselves in small college towns and metropolises alike, gaining fans wherever they went.
How crazy you ask? Band highlights from the road include streaking the campus at Mount Holyoke (a conservative women’s college), performing semi-regularly at the SKA Brewery in Durango Colorado, getting their own beer named after them by the Mt. Olympus Brewery: Sturgeon General Stout, 4th of July gig at the VFW in San Antonio, Texas with Monkey (band), and touring the east coast when 1999’s hurricane Floyd struck the region making for a crazy set of weeks! Sturgeon also recorded a radio commercial for Corona beer in the late 90’s featuring their song “Saturday” that teased with vaulting them into the national spotlight. Then there’s the time tenor player Jacob(his body still painted green from an Incredible Hulk Halloween costume, and currently lead in the E street band), nearly drove the tour van off the road in a blinding snowstorm. Kicked out of hotels, stiffed by club/bar owners, fights, music label disputes, out of money, getting lost; all in a day’s work for the indefatigable touring SKA band! Through it all, Sturgeon General endures.
Always particularly enjoy reading about bands that come from strait-laced places like Utah. It's just fun to imagine moms and dads and clergymen losing their cool because of the combined sequences of musical notes and words they just heard. Just a funny thing to imagine someone being pissed off about. There's something to the idea of a thing being cool and attractive because the people in charge find it objectionable and uncouth. Controversy rocks, and the more uptight a place is, the easier it is to rustle its jimmies. And at the end of the day, that's just plain ol' fun, right? A tale as old as time, really.
This silly song appeared on two albums in 1999: Sturgeon General's eponymously titled second and final album, and Radical Records' Boycott Radical Records various artist compilation. Not really sure why or how this particular song ended up on a Radical comp since SG never released anything through them, but it happened!
I guess the most striking and interesting thing about “Live the Life”—besides its "Dueling Banjos" open(??? 😂)—is that while "third wave ska" and "ska-punk" are terms that tend to get used interchangeably, this third wave ska song brings all the speed of a skatepunk type of jam, but without any of the actual punkiness; there's no scratchy guitars, no bratty vocals, and no fast-mashed drums. But it has fun breaks from all of that breakneck speed that see the song suddenly shifting in and out of varied bouts of chilled-out reggae grooviness.
Maybe you find Sturgeon General's choice to use this song as the title track to their second album to be a bit odd, but you gotta remember that they were primarily a touring band, and I don't think it's all that hard to imagine them tearing down every venue that they wound up playing it at. Gotta be a fun one to experience live for sure 😊.
