Orange County, CA · ska-punk

Save Ferris

1 upcoming festival →

Monique Powell's ska-pop outfit — brass-forward and built around one of the era's biggest voices, 'Come On Eileen' cover and all.

Save Ferris came together in Orange County, California, around 1995, after several other local bands broke up. Working under their own label, Starpool, they played underground Southern California shows and self-released the EP Introducing Save Ferris in 1996, selling close to 20,000 copies out of the trunks of their cars.

Fronted by singer Monique Powell, the band paired horn-driven ska-punk arrangements with pop songwriting. Powell's voice, big and brassy, closer to swing and torch singing than punk shouting, became the group's identifying feature, and heavy support from Southern California radio helped push the band toward a wider audience before they had a label deal.

A 1996 Grammy showcase award for best unsigned band led to a contract with Epic Records and the 1997 album It Means Everything, which went platinum and produced two Billboard Hot 100 singles. Its cover of Dexys Midnight Runners' 'Come On Eileen' became the band's most recognized recording and their widest point of exposure.

The band toured heavily behind that album, including mainstage slots on the Vans Warped Tour, before drifting from ska-pop toward pop-punk by the end of the decade and eventually going dormant. Powell later revived the name, releasing the Checkered Past EP in 2017 and continuing to tour and record under the Save Ferris banner.

Read more

ska-punk