This weeks Campus Celebrity is the rocking band, The Skastitutes who recently won the first annual UMaine’s Got Talent hosted by Iota Nu Kappa. The event itself not only showcased many UMaine talents, but also raised money and awareness for the International Testicular Cancer Foundation. The Skastitutes performed a high school classic jam, “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies and an original song titled “Late at Night”. Their music lit up the Hauck Auditorium and won them the highest title along with a cash prize.
The Skastitutes consist of Kyle Stetson as bassist, Tom Merrow as drummer and provides backup vocals on a few songs along with Mark Rucci playing the trumpet player and lead vocalist on some songs. The band also is made up of a brother duo; Sean MacDonnell, is the trombonist and harmony vocalist and Nolan MacDonnell is the guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter.
The band has an unusually unique name and when asked what made them choose it, their lead vocalist Nolan answered,
“We chose our name as a play on words “ska” and “prostitutes”, as in “will play ska for money”. There is a tradition of making ska band names with puns of the genre name, such as the Skatellites, Ska-P and Flux Skapacitor. Puns in general are a big thing for us as a band, and lame humor keeps our practices lively.”
The band plays locally around Orono, frequenting Woodman’s Bar and Grill along many others. They enjoy taking about every opportunity to play on campus they can find, including two events with Wilde Stein and two openers for SigEp’s Rock Against Rape. Last year they also won the Sophomore Owls Battle of the Bands, and are looking to compete again this Spring.
The Skastitutes are all big fans of ska punk, reggae and a little bit of funk and the music they play reflects this. They really like taking songs they as a band listen to and re-doing them as ska/reggae songs.
“Fans of ours seem to really like our version of Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week”. We also do a reggae version of “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi that people always sing along to,” said Nolan.
‘Like’ them on Facebook to find out about their upcoming shows and band photos.