Who The Heck’s Kyle?
Well before I answer the above question, I want to thank my friend Jason Lawless for pulling me kicking and screaming back into the ska world! Thanks man!
So, my name’s Kyle and I guess some of you might know me from a website I shared with my then-girlfriend, now-wife Kelly, called Ska Au Go-Go. The site was originally a collection of photos Kelly had taken at shows since like 1996-ish as well as lists of upcoming shows and a collection of old flyers, a radio station and things of that nature.
At the same time, I had a site called Full Up that was full of record reviews, interviews with bands, articles I’d written on different subjects relating to ska and reggae and all that. Well, her site had nothing like that and mine was severely lacking in anything to look at (or any kind of flair at all really) so we decided to join forces and that became the Ska Au Go-Go that a couple of people in the world remember fondly to this day!
So shortly after that, Chris Murray and Brian Dixon started the highly successful Bluebeat Lounge concert series (still going today!) at the Knitting Factory. It was at one of these shows that Chris Murray, Jason Lawless, Kelly and myself decided that it was kind of a bummer that the zine culture was (and sadly still is) on the decline in this new, rejuvenated ska scene (things right before the Bluebeat Lounge were kind of lean with shows few and far between).
If nothing else, the Bluebeat Lounge really was a huge rejuvenation. So with the upcoming Ska Summit festival (that was held in 2003 for those keeping count) in Las Vegas as a deadline, we worked long and hard and in a record-making three weeks came out with a zine called Ska World. Unfortunately, we only made the one issue.
After that, Kelly and I still kind of wanted to do the zine thing, but in a very low pressure, cheap, and well lazy attitude. So a few months later we came out with a Ska Au Go-Go zine, kind of keeping the focus on the rootsy traditional end of ska, which is where we were coming from anyways. And then after we rocked the world with that issue, we never made a follow up (though we did plan and write a bunch of stuff for a follow up some of which may end up here in Jason’s blog!).
So we kept plugging along at the website for a while until eventually things started slowing down for us, as far as the scene goes. Kelly graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a BFA in Graphic Design and she now works designing clothing and stuff at Paul Frank!
I am currently working as a warehouse manager at a bookstore. Unfortunately jobs and other responsibilities have slowed down our show going as it’s hard to get to Hollywood on weeknights now that we’re old responsible people. But we try to keep involved in little ways. We always go out for the big shows on the weekends (Hepcat last Dec anybody? Astonishing!), and we’re still buying records when we can (See Spots new one is their best yet! Crazy Baldhead’s isn’t bad).
This blog comes from a conversation Jason and I had where he basically yelled and screamed at me that we let Ska Au Go-Go die and all of our pictures and interviews and everything else along with it, and dag nabbit, he’s right! I still love ska and reggae and the scene it represents and even though I can’t do all I want to do or go to as many clubs or shows as I’d like to, I’d still like to represent someway.
So what we’re going to do is, I’m going to just give Jason all my old articles and interviews and things and we’re gonna put em up. Then maybe when I can, I’ll start doing some reviews or something again. There’s a lot of pretty rad stuff coming your way including some stuff that’s never been published.
An interview with Greg Narvas and Lino Trujillo of Hepcat from back in 2003, some band bios of some old school bands I was working on for a L.A. Ska encyclopedia project I had envisioned but was too lazy to complete (Dynamics, Rhythm Doctors, Jump With Joey, See Spot, etc), as well as full interviews that were published in zines but were chopped short to save room (Brad Pate, David Hillyard, Brian Dixon). I’m also going through all of Kellys old pictures (and there’s tons of them!) to see what I can put up as well.
So I hope you enjoy and hopefully I’ll see you guys at some upcoming show (as long as it’s a Saturday and doesn’t start too late!)
- Kyle Hickenbottom
EDITOR’S NOTE: About frickin Time! I am glad to have Kyle’s words back in the ska mix. I always liked his in-depth reviews and insight. I thought they were always very helpful and informative so I am looking forward to seeing some of that stuff again. We’re going to work on the LA Ska Wiki idea that we both feel very passionate about. I think it’s more then past the time for a new regular ska zine as well! What do the people say? – Lawless
