In Defense of Ska Ep 47: Mustard Plug

This month, Grand Rapids’ Mustard Plug celebrates 30 years of playing ska-punk. Though they often get associated with the late ’90s “third-wave” ska-punk boom, there is so much more to the group. We aimed to explore this in our interview with lead singer Dave Kirchgessner and guitarist Colin Clive. 

For starters, before ska was on the tongue of MTV VJs, Mustard Plug was blowing minds in their hometown with their blend of punk rock and ska. And to top that off, they brought a bunch of out-of-town ska bands like Skankin Pickle and Let’s Go Bowling to Grand Rapids before anyone in their midwest town had heard of them. 

During the late 90s, Mustard Plug nearly scored a hit with their cover of The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman,” but ended up staying in the indie category on Hopeless Records. During the 2000s, when ska was declared dead, Dave started the “Ska is Dead” tour, proving that ska was in fact not dead. The band even released one of their best albums during this era, the political In Black and White. 

Even today, as a new crop of ska bands revive the genre, Mustard Plug has seamlessly blended into the scene. At this year’s Fest, they shared the stage with a whole bunch of Bad Time Records bands. New bands and Mustard Plug. 

We discuss this important history and also touch on some other fun stuff like opening for Weird Al, getting in food fights with Green Day, and just how much mustard they poured on Craig DeYoung’s face for the Big Daddy Multitude album cover shoot. 

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