The Toasters

One of the leading American ska acts, the Toasters helped bring the style to a wider underground audience during the mid- to late '80s and thereby paved the way for the third-wave explosion that featured groups such as the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and swept the genre into mainstream visibility by the middle and later years of the following decade.

British expatriate Rob "Bucket" Hingley started the band in New York City in 1981 once he realized that the 2 Tone ska sound he admired had barely registered with U.S. listeners. He recruited fellow workers from the comic-book store he ran to assemble the group's earliest lineup, which issued the debut single "Beat Up" in 1983. At the same time Hingley launched Moon Ska Records to bypass major-label doubts that ska could ever succeed commercially in America; the imprint eventually became the nation's biggest independent ska operation.

The 1985 demo EP Recriminations, produced by Joe Jackson—the first of several joint projects—appeared next, and two years later the Toasters delivered their initial full-length American album, Skaboom, through Celluloid. Follow-up releases Thrill Me Up (1988) and This Gun for Hire (1990) strengthened the group's support base while the New York ska community and Moon Ska's roster both expanded rapidly. Throughout the '90s the personnel fluctuated until guitarist/vocalist Hingley remained the sole founding member; the more consistent players during that period included bassist Matt Malles, saxophonist Freddie Reiter, trumpeter Brian Sledge, trombonists Rick "Chunk" Faulkner and Erick "E-Man" Storckman, keyboardist Dave Barry, drummer Johnnathan McCain, and vocalist Coolie Ranx, along with recurring contributions from saxophonist Lester "Ska" Sterling.

Alongside Hingley's Moon Ska endeavors, the Toasters kept issuing recordings such as New York Fever (1992), Dub 56 (1994), Hard Band for Dead (1996), and D.L.T.B.G.Y.D. (1997). Into the new century they continued with Enemy of the System in 2002, the 2003 compilation In Retrospect: The Best of the Toasters, and the 25th-anniversary album One More Bullet in 2007. Outside the studio Hingley and the continually changing Toasters lineup maintain an active touring schedule across the United States, Europe, and additional regions where ska retains a devoted following.