Monthly Archives: November 2022

Neither Schwantes nor Erbach were strangers to ska and punk music—both were in a ska band in college and worked together on an online database for midwest ska bands in the early 2000s. Both also played pop-punk together until Erbach turned toward other creative endeavors and Schwantes moved to San Francisco. That’s when the whole skath idea crawled out of its tomb and stumbled zombie-like back into their imaginations. Schwantes started writing songs while Erbach put together a team of family and friends to fill in vocals, horns, and organs. They sent recordings and ideas back and forth halfway across the continental United States, intent on seeing this idea through. 

Thus, Grave Danger was born. Full of eerie organs and thick horns, their 2018 debut Let ‘er RIP! fulfilled their initial vision with surprising ease. A year later, the band finished Tomb It May Concern, their more realized five-song follow-up. And this fall, they will release “Wake the Dead,” the second of two long-awaited singles following last year’s “Spector Inspector.” With its driving beat and call and response horns, “Wake the Dead” is a song about the amount of coffee required to raise a Lovecraftian beast from its comfy bed that both blue collar and white collar monsters will relate to. The songs features everything a good skath song should: a wagging bassline, swaggering horns, and just enough organs synths make the song spooky, not cheesy (or, well, maybe just cheesy enough). Singer Chris Marcanti’s gruff, soulful singing conjures a Ckthulu-like protagonist to life with promises of caffeine—but will it be enough?