Streetlight Manifesto are a third-wave ska band from New Jersey, USA. They released their first album, Everything Goes Numb, on August 26, 2003, which was distributed by Victory Records. The band also headlined their first ever show at Rutgers University in New Brunswick on December 9, 2003. Several of Streetlight's members were already well known among the New Jersey ska community for their roles in past ska bands from that area, most notably Catch 22's Tomas Kalnoky, Jamie Egan, Mike Soprano, and Josh Ansley, as well as One Cool Guy's Stuart Karmatz, Pete Sibilia, Dan Ross, and Chris Paszik. The line-up has gone through several changes since the band's inception and currently consists of Delano Bonner, who plays the trumpet, Mike Brown who plays the alto and baritone saxophone, Jim Conti, who plays the alto and tenor saxophone, Tomas Kalnoky, who plays the guitar and is a singer, Chris Paszik who plays the bass guitar, Mike Soprano who plays the trombone, and Chris Thatcher who plays the drums.
Though the band have enjoyed no mainstream commercial success, they have received acclaim in alternative music circles, and their debut album is currently in Interpunk.com's top 100 items, over 2 years after its release. In addition, they regularly sell out their live shows, and their first few shows at Rutgers and The Stone Pony not only soldout, but had people coming from afar afield as Minnesota and Canada . They are currently in the studio recording their second original album, while their reworking of Catch 22's Keasbey Nights is due out on March 7.
Since Kalnoky is responsible for writing most of the music, it is his influences that most affect the songs. He first writes them on an acoustic guitar and then fleshes out the song structure on the computer and hums basic hornlines, after which the rest of the band come in and add their parts to the songs, eg. the horn section refine their parts and add harmonies . In an interview he called the Stand By Me soundtrack his biggest musical influence, and says when writing songs that he looks to the 50s and 60s for insipration. He also mentioned that Nirvana were a big influence . In an earlier interview conducted in 2002 he mentioned the 50s and 60s, in particular specifying The Drifters as one of his favourite bands, and also describes the Squirrel Nut Zippers as a big influence .