Ska is alive & well on L.I.

Oceanside group Lucidity picks up where early 90s ska bands left off

Posted
Lucidity performed songs of their self-titled record, including the tune "AHAM," at its recent album release party at the Blue Parrot in Massapequa.
courtesy Youtube

When any millennial thinks back to growing up in the 1990s, he or she usually recalls watching the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers TV series, sporting snap bracelets and listening to ska music — a manically upbeat, brass-heavy genre that got kids moving to bands like Sublime, Save Ferris and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. While the genre seemed to be washed out of the mainstream by the early 2000s, nine teenage musicians, officially known as Lucidity, are helping to keep ska alive with their latest studio album.

The mostly Oceanside-based group — which comprises lead vocalist Elizabeth Webb, 17, drummer Alex Frondelli, 18, lead guitarist Gabby Kaplan, 19, bassist Andrew Leathem, 18, saxophonist Adam Allen, 17, trombonist Stephen Daskalakis, 17, trumpeters Andrew Hochler, 19, of East Meadow, and Jesse Klirsfeld, 19, of Long Beach, and Morgan Krupinski, 19, of Westbury, the group’s newest member, on the baritone saxophone — released its self-titled album on Dec. 25, six months after recording with producer Luke Zwelsky at Studio 418 in North Merrick.

The record features five of the band’s original songs — “With Your Eyes,” “AHAM,” “Stumer Rhapsody,” “Porn” and “What the Funk?” — each gleaning from ska’s stylistic pillars of jazz, funk and punk rock.

“We definitely wanted to switch it up, have some diverse styles of songs on the album — a few rock songs, a few ska songs, a funk song — but our vision really was to perfect it,” Webb said about the band’s intent on the record. “When we went into the studio, we were really focused on making it sound just exactly how we wanted it. That’s why it took us so long to get it out, because we wanted our listeners to enjoy it and really appreciate it.”

Page 1 / 3