From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Skanking for Israel

A Jewish kid from Brooklyn is an unlikely champion of third-wave ska.

by Bob Weinberg

August 3 2005

Shalom aleichem and aloha," manic Fenwicks frontman Steven Schub says, answering the phone at his Hollywood, Calif., apartment. For the next 45 minutes or so, Schub -- who has been known to take the stage in a burka that he rips off to reveal a Superman costume -- discusses influences from Ayn Rand and Groucho Marx to Aristotle and The English Beat as he gleefully relates how a ska-loving Jewish kid from Brooklyn, N.Y., was discovered by a Southern-rock icon -- in Jerusalem, no less.

An idealistic youngster, Schub volunteered for the Israeli army after graduating from high school. "I was, without question, the worst soldier in Jewish history," he says. "My commanding officer said the nicest thing I could do for the land of Israel is to [move to] Syria."

A student at New York University's School of the Arts, Schub returned to the Promised Land in his sophomore year to study at Hebrew University. Fronting a band called Jew 2, Schub met Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle at an Israeli battle of the bands that Pyle was judging. Apparently, Schub made an impression. A few years later, while he was working as a bellhop at a hotel in New York, he again ran into the drummer. Not only did Pyle remember him, but he flew Schub and guitar-playing pal Jimmie Corrieri to Jacksonville and hooked them up with his son, percussionist Chris Pyle, and other local musicians.

Thus were born The Fenwicks, a self-described "Afro-Celtic-Yiddish ska" band. Although the group officially broke up about a decade ago, with Schub beelining to the Left Coast to pursue his acting career, its members reunite every few years. The last time they did so, The Fenwicks recorded a bouncy 2002 concert at Arlene's Grocery in New York, filled with horn-driven quick-steppers such as "My Luck" -- "With my luck I'll probably live long," goes the typically Jewish-ironic chorus -- and bluesy burlesque such as "Mushy Tushy Baby," about falling for a transvestite hooker.

Titled Truth and Memory, the recording was initially available only on the band's Web site. However, demand became so great that The Fenwicks released a CD on their own Flip-Dog Discs imprint. Their current tour, which will bring them to Boca Raton Saturday as part of the Vans Warped Tour, is being billed as a homecoming; they haven't performed in South Florida since about 10 years ago, when they played the Stephen Talkhouse/Washington Square/Cactus Cantina circuit on Miami Beach.

Schub describes the band's inclusion on the Warped Tour as yet another quirk of fate. While attending a DIY convention this past February, Schub met tour founder Kevin Lyman. "I just walked up to him, and on a whim, I said, 'Afro-Celtic-Yiddish ska, guaranteed to make you giggle and sweat.' And someone else standing there, auspiciously, was like, 'Oh, The Fenwicks. I remember these guys.' And Kevin said, 'You're on the tour.' "

Schub attended his first Warped Tour a few weeks ago in Los Angeles. Skeptical at first, he was blown away by its eight stages of music. "It's a total circus, and the vibe is punk-rock summer camp," he relates. "It's a little scary in a sense. You show up, and you don't know what time you're playing till the day of the show. There's no sound check. Your set is literally between 20 and 25 minutes long. … But we're gonna wing it."

Still, The Fenwicks have faced bigger challenges. Nazi skinheads drenched Schub with spit at a club in Chicago. (His solution: hand them lollipops.) Then, of course, there was the band's filing for bankruptcy, which resulted from a series of near misses. In fact, Interscope Records had passed on The Fenwicks because the label had just signed No Doubt. "I was back to schlepping luggage at a hotel, and that's when third-wave ska hit the charts," Schub says with a laugh. "And when it ended, that's when we got back together. We have an impeccable sense of timing."

At the time, well-meaning individuals were advising him to drop the theatrical shtick. Grunge was the order of the day, but Schub wasn't about to don a flannel shirt, stare at his boots and write brooding lyrics. "Far as I'm concerned, you do what you do the way you want to do it and let the chips fall where they may," he declares. "We're gonna keep doing this. Literally, they're gonna prop up my cadaver and schlep it around the country."

The Fenwicks will perform Saturday at the Warped Tour; see details. For more on the band, visit www.fenwicks.com.

Fenwick Phil

While enrolled at New York University, Fenwicks frontman Steven Schub and guitarist Jimmie Corrieri roomed with actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who has starred in Boogie Nights, Almost Famous and Along Came Polly, among other films. Along with Bennett Miller, currently directing Hoffman in the soon-to-be-released movie Capote, the friends started a theater company called Bullstoi. "We actually were never able to get up a play," Schub says. "All we ever did was shave our heads, get drunk and get in fistfights." They also made a pledge that whoever was first to win an Academy Award would, in lieu of an acceptance speech, go up to the podium and bark like a dog. "Phil conveniently has pretended to forget this blood oath," Schub says. "Trust me, if you don't see him barking at the Oscars, The Fenwicks will be on him like horseradish on gefilte fish."

-- Bob Weinberg