In Defense of Ska Ep 86: Against All Authority (Danny Lore, Joe Koontz, Spikey Goldbach)

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Florida. Prior to the hurricane, bassist Danny Lore was playing in the punk band Grover Snatch. But the hurricane caused some members to move away. Rather than replace them, he decided to start a new ska influenced punk band: Against All Authority. For months they practiced acoustically--there was no power in South Miami for a while. And as the band got going, they booked their own shows at the Kitchen Club in Coconut Grove. No one else would. Besides, being punk meant being an active participant in the scene.

Today we talk to three members of South Florida political punk-ska band Against All Authority, whose records Destroy What Destroys You and All Fall Down are absolute classics. We walk through their entire entire career, get to the bottom of just what makes these guys tick, and find out why punk and ska are so important to them. 

We talk about 80s punk venue Cameo Theater (Same club that Cannibal Corpse played in the Ace Ventura Pet Detective), early rejected band names, their 1968 school bus that broke down at least 10 times on tour, and their legal battles with American Automobile Association. 

We also discuss issues with their labels, why they broke up in 2007 and what led to them reforming 15 years later. They also tell us a bizarre story that involves killer monkeys that escaped from a nearby laboratory! 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.