Welcome, friends, to day one of Skalopnik Week where we Jalops will be laying down the two-tone vibe so you can pick it up, pick it up, pick it up. I’m kicking things off with one of my favorite songs from one of my all-time favorite bands, which is sadly now defunct: Bomb the Music Industry!

This song, “Syke! Life Is Awesome,” is the ragin’ closer of the band’s generally unhinged and joyous second full-length, . It’s fantastic because it features all of the band’s early hallmarks like painfully earnest and heartfelt lyrics, weird arrangements with the inexplicable use of bad keyboards and a generally break-neck tempo. It also ends on one of the best sing-along parts in all of punk.

Bomb The Music Industry! was formed in 2004 out of the ashes of singer/guitarist Jeff Rosenstock’s ska band, Arrogant Sons Of Bitches, with a near-fanatical devotion to the idea of DIY punk. For example, if you wanted a copy of the early albums, you could download them for free from Rosenstock’s Quote/Unquote records or bring a blank CD to a BTMI! show. Want a BTMI! t-shirt? Bring a shirt, and you could spray paint one with a stencil at the show. Want to be in the band? Bring an instrument you can kind of play and hop on stage.

Things got marginally more organized as the band progressed, with regular members joining Rosenstock and production values going up, but the spirit of the band that blended earnest personal lyrics sung with raw-throated sincerity with the kind of pure, explosive joy that only ska and ska-adjacent music can offer never left. Being a BTMI! fan always felt like you were not only in on some , but like you were part of some larger force for good, and it’s something I miss a lot.

After 10 years, the band called it quits. Rosenstock continued to do his thing, releasing several critically acclaimed solo albums like (and its subsequent ska-tinged re-release , which rips) and snagging a spot as the composer for the beloved cartoon .

So, if you liked this song, you owe it to yourself to visit (with appropriate donations, of course) and start the week by rampaging around your apartment and shouting yourself hoarse.