Sparker [Santa Barbara/Goleta, California]

These guys put out two albums and released a few tracks on compilations. If you ever heard their name it's probably because you have the Ska Parade's first compilation CD which featured Sparker's covers of  The Vapors' "Turning Japanese" and 7 Seconds' "New Wind".
I really think they did good with those two covers but their original songs are even better.

I was at a record convention in Orange County, California many years ago and one of the vendors pushed one of theses records on me and said that it was his nephew's band. The record sounded terrible, like it was cut badly. Very raw and hard to listen to. But that's how these guys did it.They released two 12"s in a plain sleeve with a long-form 14" 'legal' paper copies glued folded around the record sleeve. Very DIY. Very 'punk'. And, yet, the music is not really punk at all. Just guitar, bass, and drums, and some light keyboard playing ska. Every song is ska. No distorted guitars. No punk songs. No funny novelty songs. Just ska.

They recorded three songs for a compilation called "Reality Control" which were as good, if not better, than the songs on the records.

Sparker - Sparker (1993)
1 Scrap
2 Ed
3 Traffic
4 Grovel
5 Turning Japanese (Vapors cover) / New Wind (7 Seconds cover)
6 Holiday
7 Grandma
8 Mommy
9 Nightstick
10 Wipe

Hear the song "Ed"

Sparker - The Ultimate Race to Control Time and Space (1995)
1 Belt
2 Stomp
3 Toys
4 Sniper
5 (There's a Prowler in My) House
6 Eye-Balls
7 Garbage
8 Sweep
9 Splinter

Hear the song "Belt"

Songs from the Reality Control (1996) compilation.
1 January
2 Tattoo
3 Igor's Theme

Hear "Igor's Theme"

DOWNLOAD BOTH RECORDS AND THE THREE COMPILATION SONGS FROM MEGA

DOWNLOAD BOTH RECORDS AND THE THREE COMPILATION SONGS FROM ZIPPYSHARE