SKANK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (24)
By:
December 24, 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 are many versions of “Too Experienced” — I’ve found at least four, but there may be dozens. The version I know best is the one The Bodysnatchers recorded in 1980, which wound up on a cassette compilation I picked up at the drugstore, back when such discoveries were not only possible, but wouldn’t set you back much either. (Ask me another time about my gateway drug Go-Betweens album, purchased as a cutout at The Wiz for $1.99.)
Rhoda Dakar, the vocalist for The Bodysnatchers, seemed an exciting new role model for my singing persona, though that persona is seldom seen outside a shower stall. Other role models included Exene Cervenka from X and Sally Timms of The Mekons. I sought to emulate voices whose experience and jadedness would help mask my utter cluelessness.
I bought the compilation This Are Two Tone in late high school or early college. I started college in the fall of 1989, and in the brand-new dorm where I took up residence — a language house where the apartments were divided into clusters by your language of choice — I chose Italian, and geeked out by speaking it 24/7 with my roommates, even saying, “Pronto!” when I answered the phone.
I was also immersing myself, wide-eyed, in my new world. Most students in my dorm were older — upperclassmen and, exotically, grad students. My first weekend at school, everyone was giddy about our spanking new accommodations, running from the the Russian apartment to the Spanish one, having drinks and playing musical beds. I was 17 and had a lot to learn. I stayed on the sidelines until I picked up this new vocabulary and decided how I would use it.
A drummer for a local ska band, The Skunks, lived in the German cluster. My closest friend at the time was still a senior in high school, but she’d come hang out with me on campus over weekends. We started going to see The Skunks play, and gradually became less casual ska fans. The culmination of this period came on Super Bowl Sunday 1990, when, in spite of a bad case of bronchitis, I trekked down to the 9:30 Club in DC, at its original location at 930 F Street, for the Super Bowl of Ska. This was a lineup of 12 bands playing over six hours. The Skunks were there, and others — The Toasters and The Pietasters come to mind. I skanked my lungs out, and I was also thrilled to see a cute guy I’d just met in a writing workshop dive off the stage at one point. I was none too experienced, but that day it felt like I would eventually get there.
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 | PLUS: AL Deakin on SKANKING FOR YOUR LIFE.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!