SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (23)
By:
December 20, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… ska records! PLAYLIST HERE. Series edited by Josh Glenn.
There’s a scene in the classic 1995 film Clueless where the suit-clad Mighty Mighty Bosstones are the house band ripping through some of their signature songs, including “Someday I Suppose.” The band was in the movie due to a sticky financial situation; according to vocalist Dicky Barrett, they “had just found out we had poor management who had failed to pay taxes for years,” he told Time.
The Bosstones made the best of their appearance, bringing their own alcohol for the marathon shoot and asking director Amy Heckerling to make their roles more believable. “She asked if we wanted to play at a frat party, but we didn’t, so she changed it to a regular party,” Barrett said. “We hated college, and in our minds we were the antithesis of frat guys, and we didn’t want to play a frat party.”
A few years after this appearance, the Bosstones were indeed the kind of mainstream band you’d hear at a frat party, given that 1997’s “The Impression That I Get” inexplicably became a hit. But circa Clueless, the group still had a defiant punk edge, as evidenced by “Someday I Suppose,” the first single from their major label debut, 1993’s Don’t Know How to Party.
The song has an unorthodox arrangement: It starts off with stair-step horns and saxophones and then taut drums. After about 30 seconds of this, electric guitars fade into the mix, bringing in the chorus melody before Barrett even starts singing. When he does, his gravel-toned vocals are sandpaper-like contrast to the easygoing ska grooves — untiL the first actual chorus, which explodes with exhortations that are both nonchalant and hopeful: “One day! One day who knows / Someday, someday I suppose.” This sonic contrast creates delicious tension that eventually culminates in the Bosstones staying at this electric, noisy peak; in fact, the song ends like the band members are celebrating at a raucous party.
On the lyrical front, this same tongue-twisting ambivalence in the chorus permeates the rest of the song. The narrator names off plenty of things he wants to do but isn’t too worried about getting them done: “There was a verse / That I was gonna write / I haven’t yet / But there’s still a chance I might.” Things he’s already experienced (e.g., places he’s been, a girl he’s loved) are also a bit of a blur, but he’s not concerned; there’s always another chance to reconnect, revisit or have a do-over.
Fittingly, the song was the Bosstones’ first charting radio hit, as it reached the top 20 of the modern rock (or alternative) chart. In the end, “Someday I Suppose” is a philosophy of life as much as it is a wish for the future.
SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Lucy Sante on Margarita’s WOMAN COME | Douglas Wolk on Millie’s MAYFAIR | Lynn Peril on Prince Buster’s TEN COMMANDMENTS | Mark Kingwell on The [English] Beat’s TEARS OF A CLOWN | Annie Nocenti on Jimmy Cliff’s MISS JAMAICA | Mariane Cara on The Selecter’s ON MY RADIO | Adam McGovern on The Specials’ GHOST TOWN | Josh Glenn on The Ethiopians’ TRAIN TO SKAVILLE | Susannah Breslin on The [English] Beat’s MIRROR IN THE BATHROOM | Carl Wilson on Prince Buster / Madness’s ONE STEP BEYOND | Carlo Rotella on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ THE IMPRESSION THAT I GET | Rani Som on The Bodysnatchers’ EASY LIFE | David Cantwell on Desmond Dekker’s 007 (SHANTY TOWN) | Francesca Royster on Joya Landis’ ANGEL OF THE MORNING | Mimi Lipson on Folkes Brothers’ OH CAROLINA | Alix Lambert on The Specials’ TOO MUCH TOO YOUNG | Marc Weidenbaum on Dandy Livingstone’s RUDY, A MESSAGE TO YOU | Heather Quinlan on Fishbone’s MA & PA | Will Hermes on The [English] Beat’s WHINE & GRINE / STAND DOWN MARGARET | Peter Doyle on The Skatalites’ GUNS OF NAVARONE | James Parker on The [English] Beat’s SAVE IT FOR LATER | Brian Berger on The Upsetters’ RETURN OF DJANGO | Annie Zaleski on The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ SOME DAY I SUPPOSE | Deborah Wassertzug on The Bodysnatchers’ TOO EXPERIENCED | Dan Reines on The Untouchables’ I SPY FOR THE FBI.
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