Skafish
| Skafish | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Chicago, US |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Years active | 1976–1985 |
| Labels | I.R.S. Records, Illegal Records |
| Website | link |
| Past members | Jim Skafish Barbie Goodrich Ken Bronowski Lee Gatlin Javier Cruz Larry Mazalan Larry Mysliwiec Karen Winner Mark Winner Greg Sarchet David Prochaska |
Skafish /ˈskeɪfɪʃ/ is a Chicago punk band, fronted by Jim Skafish, cousin of Chicago area DJ Bobby Skafish. The band was formed in 1976 and had their first performance that November.
In 1977, Billboard magazine printed a review of the band's performance as the opening act for Sha Na Na at Chicago's Arie Crown Theater. Finding Skafish to be a "peculiar appetizer for the straight, conservative crowd" that Sha Na Na attracted, the reviewer stated that "[l]arge numbers retreated to the lobby halfway through Skafish's set, while others approached the stage, threatening with missiles, gestures and denunciations." Jim Skafish himself was described as "a 20-year-old musician from Gary, Ind., who appears to be in transition between man and woman ... dressed androgynously, hair in a pageboy," who at one point in the show "strips down to a woman's bathing suit and nervously applies lipstick to the face." While describing the band's music as "strange, inward-directed lyrics [set] to a repetitious and often dissonant accompaniment", the reviewer noted that Skafish "gave the impression that he had something to tell the audience about itself. ... Yet it remains to be seen whether Skafish has something to say and to whom."
The band's first album on I.R.S. Records, Skafish, was recorded during the summer of 1979 in South Chicago's PS studios, a facility more widely known for soul, funk and pop music. Personnel on the album consisted of Jim Skafish on keys and vocals, Barbie Goodrich on vocals, Ken Bronowski on guitars and vocals, Larry Mysliwiec on drums, Larry Mazalan on bass guitar and Javier Cruz on keyboards. The sessions dragged on through the summer of 1979, eventually going wildly over the shoestring budget production style that was the I.R.S., Miles Copeland III trademark so successful for projects like early The Police and Wishbone Ash albums. Release of Skafish was delayed for many months under financial constraints, and the project was eventually mixed on low budget and released by IRS just before the band left for an extended European tour with The Police, XTC, English Beat, UB40, Steel Pulse and other post punk, ska and reggae bands. Public acceptance of the album was marginal, mostly due to the sub-standard mix that heavily diminished the album's power and originality.
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