Skafish

Skafish is a Chicago punk band, fronted by Jim Skafish, cousin of chicago area DJ Bobby Skafish. The band was formed in 1976 and had their first performance that November. In 1980, Rolling Stone magazine published a review of a concert where more column space was devoted to the opening act Skafish than to the headliner, The Stranglers. Later that year Skafish opened for The Police on their European tour. Also on that tour were XTC, English Beat, Steel Pulse, and other post punk, ska and reggae bands.

The first album on IRS Records, SKAFISH, was recorded during the summer of 1979 in South Chicago's PS studios, a facility more widely known for soul, funk and pop music. Personnel on the album consisted of Jim Skafish on keys and vocals, Barbie Goodrich on vocals, Ken Bronowski on guitars and vocals, Larry Mysliwiec on drums and Larry Mazalan on bass guitar and Javier Cruz on keyboards. The sessions dragged on through the summer of '79, eventually going wildly over the shoestring budget production style that was the IRS, Miles Copeland trademark so successful for projects like early Police and Wishbone Ash albums. Release of SKAFISH was delayed for many months under financial constraints, and the project was eventually mixed on low budget and released by IRS just before the band left for an extended European tour with The Police, XTC, English Beat, UB40, Steel Pulse and others. Public acceptance of the album was marginal, mostly due to the sub-standard mix that heavily diminished the album's power and originality. While on this tour, the band filmed their segment for the Copeland/Lorimar production of URGH! A Music War. The segment, shot at a Roman theater in Frejus France, featured the controversial song "Sign of the Cross." Band lineup for the movie was the same as the album, with the exception of Chicago bassist Lee Gatlin taking the place of Mazalan.

After Europe, the band did a few short US tours, headlining and opening for acts such as Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Stranglers and others. In 1983, they recorded a second IRS album, CONVERSATION, at Pumpkin studios owned and operated by Gary Loizzo (two-time Grammy-nominated singer for The American Breed and producer for Chicago, Styx, Survivor and REO). Personnel were Skafish vocals and keys, Ken Bronowski guitar, Barbie Goodrich vocals, Javier Cruz keys, Lee Gatlin on bass and Larry Mysliwiec (who was currently touring drummer for Iggy Pop) on drums. Conversation, co-produced by Copeland, Skafish and Loizzo, broke from the post punk style of SKAFISH toward a beat-based dance style, and was not well accepted, commercially. Following CONVERSATION, the band did a few West Coast tours, and called it quits 1985. Jim Skafish continued to perform as SKAFISH for a few years with a string of pickup musicians, eventually going solo.

Jim still records and performs in the Midwest. He has recently produced a jazz style Christmas album, and he promotes and distributes SKAFISH product to a small but loyal cult fan base. Mysliwiec is currently a Midwest policeman, Bronowski still performs, records and is currently a professor of AV production and art at Purdue. Goodrich passed away June 10th, 1995 after a long battle with cancer. Javier Cruz currently works in the IT department of Jane Addams Elementary school in Chicago Illinois, and from time to time performs with the South Chicago cover band Life,(of which Jim Skafish was a member for a time during the early 1980's) which is considered to be one of the best cover bands to come out of South Chicago. Additionally, Javier Cruz, records from time to time and is very well versed in computer technology, and is one of the few people in South Chicago to have owned an Apple computer, during the early to middle 1980's.

Discography

Albums

• Skafish IRS SP 008, I.R.S. Records (1980)
• Conversation IRS SP 70038, I.R.S. Records (1983)

Singles

• Obsessions of You/Sink or Swim IRS IR9011, I.R.S. Records (1980)
• Wild Night Tonight/Secret Lover & Lover In Masquerade IRS SP 70967 (Released 1983)

Compilations & Soundtracks

• IRS GREATEST HITS VOLS 2 & 3 (SP 70800): features "Disgracing The Family Name"
• Urgh! A Music War (A&M SP6019): features "Sign Of The Cross (Live)"
• THESE PEOPLE ARE NUTS (IRS 82010): also features "Sign Of The Cross (Live)"

Gimarc, George (1997). Post Punk Diary, 1980-1982. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 031216968X.