The Venkmans: Serious on Top, No Pants on Bottom Late in the fall of 2000, six disaffected youths from the suburban Baltimore area banded together to communally express their pain through catchy horn riffs and two-part harmonies. Armed with only their trendy scarves and messenger bags, they picked the only name that could possibly match their melancholy style: The Venkmans, a crude reference to the overtly emotional and touching Ghostbusters movie series. In constant musical denial, The Venkmans referred to themselves as a ska band, yet they only managed to play music that was solely catchy pop punk with clever melodic horn lines. In the three years following this schizophrenic formation, The Venkmans matured slightly, kicking and screaming, and they now play mostly a sexy blend of ska with a punk rock sensibility. No matter how emotional they try to get, though, they can’t escape the lure of insatiable and loveable hooks in their music, a trait that will forever prevent them from being true emo or true punk rock. Instead, they are stuck somewhere in between the sound of endearing ska pop and the harder edge of modern punk.