Ska Is Dead 3

Earlier this year it was revealed that pre-Bravery, singer Sam Endicott had played in a ska band called Skabba the Hutt, and judging by the hit the New Waver's reputation took, only the discovery of former Klan membership or a pedophilia rap sheet would have been more damning. Granted, it was largely an indictment of Endicott's brazen trend-hopping, yet it also reinforced the current notion of ska as a punch line -- a once-popular genre that has gone the way of the dodo and profitable stock options. Ah, but like Jason Voorhees and Tom Arnold, ska has a track record of springing back to life just when you think it's history. The success of two Ska Is Dead tours over the past year points to a vibrant underground scene. The third edition hopes to build on that momentum by offering up the Toasters -- New York trad-ska legends who have been at it for almost 25 years -- plus Montreal ska-punk heroes Planet Smashers, Orlando's Supervillains, and Gainesville's The Know How. Is a fourth-wave revival just around the corner? Stranger things have happened.