His radio show helped break Sublime, No Doubt. Now, he’s bringing Ska Parade to Fresno
One could credit Fresno for Tazy Phyllipz’s love of ska music.
The first ska band he saw — back before he even knew what the genre was, or that it had a name — was from Fresno.
“They were called Let’s Go Bowling,” Phyllipz says.
The Fresno County ska band’s music helped set him down a path that would eventually lead him to bands like Sublime and No Doubt.
In the mid- to late-1990s, Phyllipz would help launch the careers of both bands with his radio show (which first aired on KUCI and later on Los Angeles mega rock station KROQ) and a series of compilation albums released under the moinker “Ska Parade.”
Three decades later, Phyllipz is still working to spread the word. His show can now heard 8-11 p.m. Sundays on www.DirtyRadio.fm and his Ska Parade 30th Anniversary Your stops at Fulton 55 on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
“There will always be multiple generations of ska fans,” Phyllipz says.
“It never goes away.”
This isn’t the first time Phyllipz has put together a Ska Parade anniversary. In 2010, he convinced Warped tour founder Kevin Lyman to let him host a stage for all of the tour’s California dates.
“And we did six hours of ska,” he says.
This time around, Phyllipz is doing two weeks on the club circuit with five of Ska Parade’s most popular bands — Los Kung Fu Monkeys, Monkey, Hans Gruber and the Die Hards, The Holophonics and Joker’s Republic. Each stop will also have a local opener.
Fresno gets South Valley ska band For The Record.
Each show will also get a sneak peek at the documentary “Pick It Up! Ska In The 90s.” The documentary is narrated by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and features interviews with Reel Big Fish, Sublime, The Aquabats, Travis Barker, No Doubt — and Phyllipz.
“They interviewed like 83 folks and I was interview number three,” he says.
The tour will serve as the film’s exclusive Blu-Ray release, so fans will want to check the merch table. The film’s director also created a series of unreleased 10-minute snippets that will play in between each of the bands, Phyllipz says.
While, ska doesn’t exactly rule the airwaves — or the dance floors — like it did in the ’90s, it is far from gone, Phyllipz says. Last year, The Interrupters had a top 10 hit with “She’s Kerosene.”
“They are opening up for, you know, some band called Green Day, on a stadium tour this year,” says Phyllipz, alluding to this summer’s Hella Mega Tour.
Details: Ska Parade 30th Anniversary. 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22. Fulton 55. Fulton 55, 875 Divisadero Ave. $15-$20. 559-412-7400, www.fulton55.com
Other noteworthy events
▪ Fulton 55 nine year party, with 44 Watt Hype, Strange Vine and more. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Fulton 55, 875 Divisadero Ave. $8-$10. 559-412-7400, www.fulton55.com
▪ The Reunion, a Beatles fantasy tribute. 6 p.m. Friday. Visalia Fox Theatre, 300 W. Main St. $15-$34. 559-625-1369, www.foxvisalia.org
▪ Amber Liu Tour X. 8 p.m. Friday. Strummer’s, 833 E. Fern Ave. $26. All ages. 559-485-5356, www.strummersclub.com
▪ Beethoven The Revolutionary. 3 p.m. Sunday. Saroyan Theatre, 730 M St. $25-$81. 559-261-0600, fresnophil.org
▪ Beat Sabre Challenge. imm3rse.in, 4010 N. Chestnut Diagonal, Suite 103. $22 entrance fee. 559-492-7275, www.imm3rse.in
▪ TLC. 6 p.m. Tuesday. Table Mountain Casino, 8184 Table Mountain Road, Friant. $35-$45. 800-541-3637, www.tmcasino.com
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 12:14 PM.