The New Jersey ska-punk outfit
Streetlight Manifesto grew out of two similar late-'90s groups from the region,
One Cool Guy and
Catch-22. Delivering a brassy, upbeat brand of third wave ska -- complete with punk-styled melodies courtesy of vocalist
Tomas Kalnoky -- the band made its debut in 2003 with
Everything Goes Numb. Two years of touring followed as
Streetlight Manifesto played countless shows alongside
Whole Wheat Bread,
Mu330,
Bedouin Soundclash, and
Gym Class Heroes. However, personnel changes and equipment theft proved to be frequent setbacks. In October 2005, the band was robbed of nearly $80,000 worth of equipment and possessions from its van, only to suffer another robbery while on tour in Europe the very next month.
Streetlight Manifesto ended 2005 by touring alongside
the Tossers on the brief (and appropriately titled) Please Stop Robbing Us Tour.
Keasbey Nights, a re-recorded version of the 1998
Catch-22 album, was released in March 2006, and the band spent the summer opening for
Reel Big Fish and
MxPx on a national co-headlining tour.
Streetlight Manifesto continued to tour with
Reel Big Fish for much of the remaining year, as well as a large chunk of 2007. Frequent concert dates didn't preclude the band from returning to the studio, however, and
Streetlight Manifesto released the full-length album
Somewhere in the Between in November 2007. For
99 Songs of Revolution, Vol. 1, the seven-piece took a break from writing new material and compiled an album of ska versions of contemporary pop covers. Victory Records released it as the first in a series in March of 2010.
–
Richie Unterberger, Rovi