Meta: Ace Was the Lead Singer of a Ska Band
Ace: "I only want to note that I didn’t write the lyrics for this song"
He hid it pretty well. And impressively, Ace's friends and Facebook friends stayed loyal through the entire search. But there are deep corners of the internet. Deeper than the places even an internet wizard like Ace knows about. I'm talking about Russian servers that downloaded everything free music sites were putting out in 2002 before the DRM people got good at it. Even if the servers have been wiped, the information is still there. Information like the names of band members (excavated from Twitter by kevin holt):
@cjane87 Holy crap, Jonny has made some major moves since being the drummer in our high school ska band.
— Ace Anbender (@AceAnbender) May 29, 2015
Like a woolly mammoth from the 2000th century BCE, it takes only a small effort to bury things and a massive coordinated project to dig it back up. This could not have been unearthed without the help of a massive team of excavators. In particular user Knight followed the crumb above to get where JZ, Dave and I did last night (we were working through a list of local ska bands), then took it a step further by finding a recording in the Ann Arbor District Library. A2Photonut and Skurnie both got the track from the library and emailed it to me. The latter, whom you may remember as the guy who writes our M soccer posts, also offered a suggestion:
Now we need someone to mash up this song with a Happy Gilmore montage.
Done. If anyone else would like to lose their dignity in solidarity, here's the thread.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:34 PM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^
It's everything I imagined it would be! MGoUser kevin holt excavating that tweet was the big break in this case!
October 6th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
So glad I posted it and it ended up being the key! Brilliant work
October 6th, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^
You sir, deserve all the MGoPoints.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^
This day will go down in the MGoHistory books.
October 6th, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 1:37 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^
Sorry, Ace. I didn't think he'd actually do it. I will never underestimate Seth again.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:57 PM ^
Okay two things:
1. That wasn't nearly as bad as the lead-in would suggest. Frankly, it wasn't bad at all.
2. Ace has the perfect voice to be the lead singer in a Weird Al Yankovic cover band. I mean it. I can hear him doing Yoda in my head already. And that's not an insult because Weird Al can actually sing.
Edit:
3. Was Ace a drum major at Michigan? If so, that should be on the front page. Okay, not really, but major respect (pun intended) if true.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^
Ace, you gotta get the band back together before you're all middle-aged and too old and know better.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^
Take it in stride. In highschool I put out a 18 track album of cover songs with one of my buddies, we sold them for 4$ each and moved about 300 of them -- mostly to freshman, sophomore, and junior girls. The lead song was me singing (in my baritone voice) my own rendition of Khia's "My Neck, My Back".
Lord help me if someone is able to find this stuff.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:06 PM ^
Me: "That's not so bad."
(gets to the part about the lead song)
October 6th, 2015 at 1:48 PM ^
I'm not really complaining, because you're doing God's work there, Seth, but I'm feeling like I didn't get Ace's full glory with the Happy Gilmore audio running in the background.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:03 PM ^
October 7th, 2015 at 7:57 AM ^
That shit wasn't too bad. Very 90s garage band (more Offspring with a dash of TMBG than Nirvana) but at least the instruments were doing something. There are even a few changeups. This was way better than 90% of the crap on radio where a computer's cycling a riff that makes the Mega Man 2 stage select loop blush.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:50 PM ^
As far as what people did when they were 10-15 years younger being dug from the dark corners of the Internet, Ace ain't no Joker.
October 6th, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^
That wasn't bad. Ace, now we know where the health issues started. Your inner Mick Jagger frontman was just trying to be seen!
October 6th, 2015 at 2:08 PM ^
Ace, did you guys do a version of "In the Big House"?
October 6th, 2015 at 2:08 PM ^
Not bad at all, Ace.
I guess it's a good thing the Internet did not exist when I was a teenager. Actually, even better, it did not exist while I was an undergrad in Ann Arbor.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:09 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
You're the real MVP.
Over/Under on getting Special K to crank this?
October 6th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
Is it bad that I actually found this pretty catchy?
October 6th, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^
Its not dad rawk but its got a good beat and you can dance to it
October 6th, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 5:31 PM ^
And that's the official judgement of the guy who newgrouped alt.music.ska-core on Usenet, to add an additional layer of mid-90s nerdery.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
Yes. Greatest blog ever.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^
... NSFW.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:40 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 2:41 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 2:54 PM ^
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget that Ace was in a ska band.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^
Can someone transcribe the lyrics? Can't really make it all out.
Also, I assume Ace signed off on this and wanted to say thanks for being a good sport about it Ace as this is hilarious.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:51 PM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 3:04 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 3:08 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^
I wasn't aware that's a secret. Like I think it's in his introductory post.
October 6th, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
his name is ace and bender right?
/original i'm sure
October 6th, 2015 at 7:05 PM ^
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October 6th, 2015 at 4:14 PM ^
The only reason I'm responding to this is because Ace said he "take[s] great pride in" his real name, and because I won't ever have another chance to be the MGoDetective twice in two days. I hope he doesn't mind:
"I probably should have addressed that - Ace is a lifelong nickname, to the point where I changed my entry in the U-M directory so I wouldn't have to correct every professor/GSI during attendance on the first day of class. My real name is Harry, a name I take great pride in (I'm named after my grandfather and great uncle, being the first-born son in my family), but my parents called me Ace before I was ever born. I've had relatives write me checks with 'Ace' on them, and it got to the point where I convinced the bank that they should just accept them instead of making me ask family members to re-send them using my real name.
"No, my brother is not named 'Deuce' - just had to head that one off before it was even put forth."
--Ace, in his Hello post (http://mgoblog.com/diaries/hello-me)
Apologies for ruining the mystique. Ace, if you do mind, seriously don't hesitate to delete this and I apologize with sincerity.
October 6th, 2015 at 4:17 PM ^
...was a navigator for nearly 30 missions over the Pacific in WWII. Love my nickname; also love my given name.
October 6th, 2015 at 6:13 PM ^
I imagine you got the same benefit I got as being Abe: being first alphabetically. You even got the last name for it too.
I spent a lot of time in the front left seat.
October 6th, 2015 at 3:14 PM ^
This is amazing. I'm glad the internet never forgets.
October 6th, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^
October 6th, 2015 at 3:52 PM ^
I've hated ska music during the (thankfully) short time it was popular and this sounded just like all the crap that was on the radio back then, which is a compliment, I expected this to be far more embarrassing.
October 6th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^
In some parts of the interwebs this would cause said focus to run and hide in scorn never to be heard from again. On MGoBlog? It makes us love you even more! Ace, your aces in my book.
October 6th, 2015 at 4:39 PM ^
Also, have there been any recent updates regarding Ace's health? I remember that there were some pretty serious issues a while back and reading Jamie's recent diary reminded me of that. Anyone know how he's doing?
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