Stomping Into New Brunswick

Travis Nelson wasn’t finished making music when Inspecter 7 decided to cut back on its performance schedule in 2001. He had been a member of the New Brunswick-based ska band since 1994 and still had more to say musically.

“I wasn’t done yet, I wanted to keep going,” Nelson says. “I wanted to keep going with ideas I had for Inspecter 7 that didn’t come to fruition because we stopped. I literally went around and hand-picked members to keep going.”

That’s how Hub City Stompers, Nelson’s current band, got its start, and the group is still going strong, playing music that is based in two-tone ska, which combines ska with punk. But Nelson says elements from other underground music genres, such as Oi!, reggae and hardcore can be heard in the band’s music.

“I throw it all in there, we use all of it as an influence,” he says.

The band records catchy songs with titles like “Where’s My Hooligans?” “Tip Your Bartender” and “Last Train to Dorkville” with cleverly vulgar lyrics. The group is a regular at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick and will take stage there once again on Aug. 20 on a bill that will also feature No Redeeming Social Value, Torchbearer and others.

Nelson grew up in Trenton, in walking distance to City Gardens where he saw many bands. Around 1991, he started going to New Brunswick clubs like the Melody, the Roxy and the Court Tavern. He later moved to New Brunswick (these days, he lives in Bordentown) and started playing in bands.

“It was there at the beginning and it’s the only one left now,” Nelson says of the Court Tavern. “All the other venues fell victim to money and gentrification and being bought by hospitals and universities and whatever else — parking lots. The Court Tavern almost went that way but thank God it’s salvaged, at least for now.”

Hub City Stompers has released three albums, “Blood, Sweat and Beer” and “Dirty Jersey” on Megalith Records, and “Ska Ska Black Sheep” on Stubborn Records, which was released in 2009. The band records original songs and does some covers in concert. Nelson says he also writes parodies, in which he takes songs and gives them a ska sound while changing the lyrics.

“I think I have a penchant for ’80s music,” he says. One parody was to the Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” called “Skins Don’t Cry” in honor of the band’s skinhead following.

“It’s definitely a parody and it’s talking about the typical ways skinheads tend to deal with their emotions – drinking, fighting, what not,” Nelson says.

Another parody is “Pants Music,” based on Adam Ant’s “Antmusic.” The song, Nelson says, is inspired by the 1970s American punk band Black Flag, who on their early records made fun of the new wave movement, calling it watered-down punk rock and hardcore.

“There’s a little a cappella parody that they do and that inspired me to do ‘Pants Music’ about emo,” Nelson says. “Because that’s pretty much how I view emo these days, and a lot of people in hardcore seem to view emo, as this basically soft core version of hardcore that really had nothing to do with the music, that people kept viewing as part of the hardcore scene that was pretty much as opposite of the hardcore scene as you could get.”

Hub City Stompers have had national tours and also played in Europe. While their music is still going strong after eight years, jobs and family commitments have cut back on touring schedules.
“Even with our limitations, though, we get out there as much as we can,” Nelson says. “If it was just going to be a local band, I wouldn’t bother doing this. I want to get the music out there as much as possible, so we get all over the place.”

Hub City Stompers will perform at the Court Tavern, 124 Church St., New Brunswick, on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 9 p.m. Admission costs $12. For information, go to www.CourtTavernnj.com or call 732-545-7265.