When Dan Potthast moved to Santa Cruz in the early aughts, he was already a respected ska musician. His group, the St. Louis–based MU330, had established itself as a major force in the third wave ska movement thanks in part to a tour schedule that included more than 250 shows a year for most of the ’90s. But when Potthast pulled into town he wasn’t the only ska legend in the area code.
This was Slow Gherkin territory, after all. The band formed by four Santa Cruz High students had brought ska to the local concert halls long before it had caught on nationally. During the genre’s big boom of the late ’90s, Slow Gherkin had been one of the biggest acts in town.
Despite all this ska royalty living together in one city, there was no ska revival, no supergroup formed, no Ska Celebrity Death Match. Ska had peaked by the time Potthast arrived and was on an ignominious slide to uncool. And all concerned went about their business for almost a decade with nary a bouncy blast of horn to show for it.
That is, until late 2009, when Potthast, four ex–Slow Gherkin members (A.J. Marquez, Matt Porter, Brendan Thompson and Phil Boutelle), ex-MU330 member-turned-Santa Cruz-transplant Matt Knobbe and local reggae drummer Josh Lorey formed an all-star ska dream team known as Dan P and the Bricks.
“I’d been living in Santa Cruz for eight years, hanging out with these guys that have ska flowing through their veins,” Potthast says. “Both of our bands, Slow Gherkin and MU330, as they grew older moved away from traditional–sounding ska. When we got together many years later, it felt like this guilty pleasure to just play ska songs.”
In reality, neither MU330 nor Slow Gherkin had ever played only ska songs. Like the other prominent bands of the third wave movement, they were fusing ska with punk and other genres.
“Gherkin was aggressive. It was that ska-punk thing. Everyone was playing at every moment during every song, just hammering,” says founding Gherkin member Marquez.
MU330 took the ska-punk sound to a whole different level, dubbing itself a “psycho-ska” band and mixing manic punk energy with crazy circus music and hyper-ska. In later years, indie rock made it into their sound as well. It was all counterbalanced with Potthast’s penchant for writing in an Elvis Costelloesque New Wave style. “I have more of an appreciation of the bounce of ska rather than just the really fast punky stuff, the groove where it makes you really want to dance,” Potthast says.
When Dan P and the Bricks formed, they decided that, rather than reach back to the third wave movement of their heyday, they’d return all the way to ska’s source—back to that sweet, soulful, mid-tempo groove like it used to be played in Jamaica in the ’60s by artists like the Skatalites and Prince Buster.
“It is such a powerful musical genre. It’s so fun to play and watch people explode. My ears have grown a little. We’ll take some space and play less,” Marquez says of the new approach.
After a few shows, they added three more members to the mix: Liam Ryan, Eric Johnson and Kevin Zinn (horn players from local reggae band Soul Majestic). Now a 10-piece, the Bricks are a local powerhouse ska machine.
Ska of Hard Knocks
Back in the ’90s, MU330 and Slow Gherkin were all too familiar with the trials of making a living playing music. The bands worked hard and devoted years to their craft, not always with commensurate reward. They watched on while contemporaries like Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish went mainstream during the ska explosion.
Slow Gherkin got its start in 1993, when its founding members were all of 15 years old. They quickly became a local phenomenon and by 1996 had gone on their first tour.
“There was probably a good two-year period where everyone that could quit jobs, quit school, moved back home with their parents and we hit it as hard as we could,” Marquez says, “but not as hard as MU330.”
Few bands, famous or otherwise, have played as many shows as MU330. They played their first show in 1988. By 1991, they had become a touring machine.
“We’d go out for two to three months, then we’d be home for a week and then go out for another month and a half, then go to Europe,” Potthast says. “We made the decision to drop out of college and we were all living at our parents’ houses, so we didn’t want to be on the couch when our parents were coming home. That’s how it all started, the culture of nonstop touring.”
MU330 maintained this schedule for eight years, but they never broke in to that next level. Burnout was inevitable.
“We eventually tried to slow down. People started getting jobs and had kids. Then it gets harder to say, ‘OK, we’re going out for a few months. Can you quit your job and drop your health insurance for your family?’” Potthast says.
Slow Gherkin slowed down too, opting more for weekend trips. Everyone had already lost steam by their third and final album, 2002’s Run Screaming. Then lead singer James Rickman moved to New York, and with everyone else’s priorities shifting too, the writing was on the wall.
Big Love
After relocating here in the early 2000s, Potthast continued to tour regularly, mostly without MU330. He’d lug his acoustic guitar into concert halls all over the world, often opening for ska bands like Mustard Plug and Streetlight Manifesto.
“I’d be onstage by myself in front of 1,000 people and playing guitar, feeling like I had to tell jokes and jump up and down to keep people’s attention. I was doing well, but the whole time I always thought, ‘If I had a big band behind me, I’d be slaying,’” Potthast recalls.
One night in March 2009, scheduled to play a solo gig at the Gilman in Berkeley, he decided to bring some friends. “I just showed up with a seven-piece band,” he says.
It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but Potthast invited them to play another show, and then another. Dan P and the Bricks was born.
“I feel kind of bait-and-switched,” Knobbe jokes. “The agreement was never, ‘Let’s start a band.’”
Potthast continues to tour as a solo artist because it’s too tough for the Bricks to go on the road. There are too many members, most of whom have careers and families to support. So they generally stick to playing Santa Cruz, occasionally venturing off to other parts of the Bay Area.
“The Bricks is a low-commitment band,” says Potthast. “If all 10 of us aren’t there, it isn’t a tragedy. If you can’t make it, you can’t make it. That’s how we’ve been able to make a 10-piece band work.”
One of their favorite spots to play in Santa Cruz is Pacific Avenue. They are quite the spectacle. Ten people on the street belting out ska with piano, upright bass, horns and a full drum set tends to stick out to passersby.
The large number of members led the band to make an important decision early on: They would generally play benefit shows.
“All of us have been in bands for so long we kind of knew the ridiculousness of trying to split up money if you have a 10-piece band. So rather than splitting up money, why not play charity shows?” Potthast says.
A few of the charities they’ve donated money to include the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hospice of Santa Cruz, Haitian and Chilean Earthquake Relief and Doctors Without Borders. One show was a benefit for a friend who had high medical bills from a skateboarding accident.
“With the Bricks we wanted to increase the fun factor. That’s what we’re all about. If we can help some different charities along the way, even better,” Potthast says.
Bricks and Vinyl
The Bricks never expected to record an album, but San Jose–based Asian Man Records was interested in putting one out. As the label that had released all of Slow Gherkin’s and MU330’s material, it made sense.
The hardest part was coordinating schedules. Potthast took the rhythm section down to Los Angeles to record with his friend, producer Chris Murray, famous from his days with the Canadian ska band King Apparatus, then spent the remaining part of the month recording horns and vocals in Santa Cruz. He’d then drive down to L.A. to mix the record with Murray.
The result is Watch Where You Walk, a lush, well-crafted, traditional ska record that remains authentic in its production and arrangements but still has Potthast’s early–’80s New Wave approach to songwriting. The album has already received positive reviews on several music blogs, including a “2011 album of the year” nod on Upstarter.com.
Potthast says he put more work into Watch Where You Walk than on any of his post-MU330 solo albums. It’s also the first ska album anyone in the Bricks has made in over a decade.
There’s a sweet full–circle sense to the whole project, he says.
“When MU330 really started going in 1991, we were always the odd band on the bill. There would be a metal band, a punk band, a whatever band. We were the anomaly. Then suddenly in the mid-to-late ’90s there were five ska bands in every small town in the Midwest. Now there doesn’t seem like as many bands doing what we’re doing,” he muses. “Maybe we had to get away from it, give it some time and get back to where it didn’t feel trendy.”
DAN P AND THE BRICKS RECORD RELEASE PARTY
Saturday 8:30pm
Kuumbwa Jazz Center
$9
All proceeds benefit Homeless Services Center of Santa Cruz
