The Chinkees Release New EP “K.A. Music,” Now Available via Asian Man Records
The Chinkees released their K.A. Music EP via Asian Man Records, the band’s first new music in 18 years.
A pioneering force for ska-punk out of the Bay Area, The Chinkees first rose to fame by exploring their Asian-American identities through bouncy, bass-driven anthems about everything from casual racism to the pressures of Asian excellence. Even their name reflects this, meant not as a racial slur but a clear-eyed look at racism and the reality of its presence. Roaring back to life in the tinderbox that is 2020, their voices are as urgent and necessary as ever.
The four-track EP includes recently released singles “Trace the Morning Time” and “Our Lips Are Coming Right Through” and channels the same unabashedly ska-punk sound and volume that made The Chinkees a fixture on the late-‘90s California scene in their heyday. It’s a gleeful, charged-up sprint of a comeback, packing into less than 12 minutes all the pogo-worthy pop-punk choruses, intricate rocksteady basslines, and raw rhythmic passion that fans have been missing since The Chinkees went on hiatus in the early 2000s.
K.A. Music was also released as a limited-edition 12” random colored vinyl through Asian Man Records, all 500 records from the one-time pressing selling out dizzyingly fast in pre-order.
The Chinkees is Mike Park (Skankin’ Pickle, Bruce Lee Band) on vocals, Steve Choi (Rx Bandits) on keyboard and guitar, Roger Camero (No Motiv, Peace’s Out) on bass and guitar, and Kevin Higuchi (Jeff Rosenstock) on drums.
K.A. Music is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
When The Chinkees first burst onto the Bay Area punk scene in the late ‘90s, guitars grooving and amps rigged to blow, their ability to lace catchy-as-hell choruses with stinging rebukes of racism, family expectations, and social injustice – all observed from their uniquely Asian-American perspective – earned them coast-to-coast acclaim. On a tear, they skanked, riffed, and jammed their way through three albums and several globe-trotting tours between 1998 and 2002, cementing their place in punk history before parting ways.
To frontman Mike Park, founder of Asian Man Records, The Chinkees has always been a special project, nestled snugly within the third-wave ska sound also popularized by the Specials and Operation Ivy but also capable of thrilling experiments, both sonic and conceptual, from singing entirely in Korean on songs like “Norehapshida (Let’s Sing Together)” to ending their 1998 debut The Chinkees are Coming! by sampling a speech from Pulp Fiction, remixing it to call out its racist language.
So when Chinkees member Steve Choi – more recently part of punk-rock fourpiece Rx Bandits – got in touch with Park a few months ago to discuss new song ideas, reuniting The Chinkees was a no-brainer.
“Steve Choi called me up and said ‘I’m working on some ska punk tunes, let’s record for a new Chinkees release’,” said Park. “It was as simple as that. I went down to Long Beach and laid down the vocals. I wrote the lyrics and melodies, but Steve did the heavy work of producing and playing keys and guitars. It’s fun to be introduced to this project personally and though I’ve done so much ska with Skankin’ Pickle and Bruce Lee Band, The Chinkees sound is so unique to the project.”
And so it is with K.A. Music, which bears all the hallmarks of The Chinkees’ greatest hits – uncompromising bass, punky vocals, incisive lyrics, and an irrepressibly ska-punk energy – and pushes them forward into a new chapter with punch and purpose.
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