The Stingers ATX
This Good Thing (Grover)Remember back in the mid-to-late Nineties when ska became the flavor of the week? Back when bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Goldfinger, and the Dancehall Crashers were floggin’ it? Austin’s Stingers aren’t anything like that. Ska is all about the groove, not speed, and the Stingers mine a groove that’s 15 feet deep and 6 feet wide. A beautiful, sweet-and-sour trombone weaves in and out of the percolating Hammond, sandwiched between the rhythm section, guitars, and timbales that punch into the mix from time to time. “Just Ain’t Right” brings a Latin note into the Caribbean riddims; “You Naggin’ Me” calls to mind the thunderous ska bands of the late Seventies and early Eighties; “She’s My Only l6” combines a pop-ish melody with sardonic lyrics. That wry humor runs through a lot of This Good Thing, like on “Miss Melodrama.” In other words, this stuff will make your joints go loosey-goosey. It’ll make your liver quiver, your knees freeze, your heart fart, your bladder splatter, your hip slip, and your spine bind. The Stingers would be right at home on a 2tone album from 20 years ago, and that’s a good thing. The best thing.
This article appears in February 7 • 2003.