Out Of Order (8)

Out Of Order was born in 1989 in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Beaver McCoy was a young lad, engrossed in the Mod and Ska scene at the time, where he and his crew stopped at a gas station to fill up their Vespa scooters when the gas pump Beaver was going to use had a sign on it: OUT OF ORDER. The band was created. Over the years, guys came and went but traditional ska was the music that was heard coming out of the garage. Alas the final incarnation of Out Of Order included some guys from the local high school (Mira Costa) who were mostly South Bay punk junkies. Enter the punk influence on Out Of Order. Over the course of the bands lifetime, Out Of Order managed to get out of the small bubble that was the South Bay of L.A. and play numerous shows on the road often heading up the coast to Stockton and San Francisco where a fanbase rapidly grew. Playing in Northern California gave the band some excellent experiences as well as great friends and contacts in the scene. Playing with Skankin Pickle and the Rudiments up in the Bay Area led to friendships, loyalties... and in the case of Skankin Pickles Mike Park, a spot on one of his record labels compilation albums - Misfits of Ska which brought the bands music to many more ears. Then there was the big trek across the country to Florida and back. Many adventures were had. Ohhh Texas. When it was all said and done, the band had wound up with 3 albums released on the South Bay based Theologian Records and had entertained record deals with Hollywood Records and BYO Records and had garnered interest from Epitaph Records, Virgin Records, Island Records and Arista. Management and Booking Agent deals were in the works. And of course there was the big claim to fame: Remember that Airwalk commercial in the 90s with the punk band playing a show and there's a brave young man who decides to climb the HUGE stack of speakers to dive off of only to hit the ground when the song ends while he's in mid air and the crowd clears out of the way? The band on stage was Out Of Order; the song was "Our Town" from their 2nd CD, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (Interesting anecdote about the origin of this album name in a bit). The bands music wound up being used in about 5 more airwalk commercials and the band appeared in one of Airwalks print ads that appeared in Rolling Stone, Details and other magazines. Or maybe you remember a LOOOOONG time ago in the early 90s when a ska band appeared in a KIT KAT commercial? "Gimmee a break...". yup, that, too, was Out Of Order. Or perhaps you saw that B-movie, "American Vampire" starring Carmen Electra and Adam West (Batman) and noticed a ska band playing at a beach party? Yup... Out Of Order again. You might have even been playing the PC video game, "Foxhunt" and heard a very distinctive song that had punk and ska elements in it. You guessed it, Out Of Order. OK, so here's that anecdote I promised to share about the name of the 2nd album, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (I.I.O.E.D.) Back in the early 90s, Out Of Order would put on annual benefit shows to raise money over the christmas holidays to feed the homeless. They called it, "Bands for Bread". At the second annual event, all was going smoothly until a couple neer-do-wells were bounced out of the club, The Beach Boys Cafe, for acting, well lets say, "uncivilized". As they got into their truck to leave the parking lot, they pulled out a gun and shot 5 shots into the club. As you can imagine, the entire place hit the floor as bullets narrowly missed dozens of people, including the bouncers at the front door. he news of this hits the papers, including the Los Angeles Times, that week and its the talk of the town. It seems the entire South Bay is abuzz with what happened at the Out Of Order show. Shortly there after, lawsuits arose. Among them, one arose which was lodged by one of the bouncers from that evening. In it, the bouncer was attempting to sue Out Of Order for one count of Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress and 3 counts of Negligence. The logic being that since it was a show promoted and put together by Out Of Order, it was Out Of Orders responsibility to make sure that drive by shootings dont occur. The lawsuit was thrown out immediately. But the 1st count stuck around as the name of the 2nd album. Basically with Out Of Order, what you get is an ingenious and original mix of ska and punk. Some songs are strictly ska. Some are straight forward, asskicking punk and many are a mixture of the two. Everyone will acknowledge, however, that the ska/punk that Out Of Order performed was different than the "ska/punk sound" of the day. It was edgier, more raw and definitely not as formulaic as the rest of the scene at the time. None of this ska verse with crappy punk chorus that all the bands were doing. With Out Of Order there were no rules. Sometimes songs didn't even have choruses. (Our Town... which is a punk ditty with no real intelligible lyrics... you would swear there were words... but in actuality.. they are just yelling random sounds and phrases that SOUND like lyrics) Out Of Order was going the ska/punk thing before it was "cool". When the band started out, the only other bands in existence that were doing it were Voodoo Glow Skulls and Skankin Pickle. Were talking a time when people asked, "Ska? What is that? How do you spell it?" A time when people thought ska was a kind of "alternative polka". Have a look see and judge for yourself. If you are a fan of any of the following bands, Out Of Order played with them and perhaps this will give you reason to check them out: Bad Religion, Sublime, Fishbone, The Vandals, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Skankin Pickle, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, Youth Brigade, Good Riddance, Face to Face, The Rudiments, the Skeletones, Against All Authority, Mealticket, Jimmy Eat World, Incubus, Suburban Rhythm, D.I., Straight Faced, Millencolin, Homegrown, The Blue Meanies, Mephiskapheles, The Independents, Buck-O- Nine, the Aquabats (who Out Of Order sold their tour van to), The Untouchables, Dave Wakeling of the English Beat, Dick Dale, Eek-a-Mouse, Bouncing Souls, Janitors Against Appartheid, Slow Gherkin, Link80, 98Mute, War Called Peace, FYP, The Deviates, Too Rude/Rhythm Track, Zoinks! and many many many more. Check em out! Shawn "Beaver" McCoy - vocals Tobias Farmer - alto sax & vocals Mario Vitale - tenor sax & vocals Dave Stenhouse - keys & vocals Justin Cobb - drums Travis Fargher - bass & vocals Ryan Faye - guitar & vocals