Squad Five-0

Squad Five-O was a punk band band from Savannah, Georgia. Like their initial Ska-punk stylings, their name was derived from a cross between the television shows Hawaii Five-O and the The Mod Squad. Between 1997 and 2006 the band grew lyrically and in popularity. Over the course of their career they moved from a very small indie Christian label to the general market label Capitol Records and released five albums in the process. The band's following grew quickly, spurred on by the growing popularity of artists such as Five Iron Frenzy, The OC Supertones, and third-wave ska in general. In 1997 they took HM Magazine's reader's choice award for "Favorite New Artist of 1997". From the outset the group ran into controversy. Their initial release, What I Believe, contained a song entitled "Our State Flag Sucks". The lyrical content of the song, which called the Georgia state flag (The 1956-2001 version was flying at the time) a banner of hate for its likeness to flags of the Confederate States of America, ironically caused the album to be banned from many Christian bookstores. What I Believe and the band's second release, Fight the System, were released by Bulletproof Music. Fight the System was unique in that, although it had 18 listed tracks plus a hidden bonus track, it had 31 tracks of silence before the bonus track, "Rock and Roll Anthem". This gave the album 50 tracks overall, a nod to the "Five-O" in the band's name. Drummer Jason Anderson left after Fight the System and was replaced by Justin Garbinski of Speedy Delivery; Justin's brother, Adam, who also played in The Huntingtons as A.J. Huntington, joined on guitar. The sound on their first two releases was characterized as ska punk, but that changed when the band moved from their indie label BulletProof to the major Christian label Tooth & Nail Records. Their 2000 album Bombs Over Broadway was produced by Duane Baron. The original cover art of "Bombs Over Broadway" showed warplanes flying through downtown New York. The album's title track described an attack on New York City and warned that other cities would also be attacked. Bombs Over Broadway also contained a card explaining the lyrics to the songs; Tooth & Nail did the same with The Deadlines' first album, The Death & Life Of..., which used death-related metaphors in most of its songs. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, occurred the following year, Tooth & Nail decided to change the album's cover to show a picture of the band members. The new release of the album still had the same songs as the original album had. Common themes in their music are the power of the youth, the effects of social ills, and Christian unity, though with Squad Five-O, their final Tooth & Nail release, the group had largely moved away from spiritual themes. After their contract was sold to the general market label Capitol Records their lyrics appeared to leave their Christian roots, but the band still professed to be Christians. Their web site went dead in early 2006, and they are presumed to have broken up.