It all started back in the spring of 1996 when Mike Iglar and Erik Swerdlow, two friends from highschool, decided they wanted to jump in on the band action that the world was experiencing.  Being in a band sounded like fun and they wanted to be a part of it.  They decided that ska was the best choice of music that they could play.  After all, ska was fun to listen to and the youngins just love it.  So, they came up with a band name, made t-shirts, and sold every one without making a profit.  But, they never wrote any music or even played any covers.  In fact, they didn't even know how to play instruments.  So they decided if they wanted to make a band, they needed to learn how to play.  Erik knew a guy with fifteen guitars so he got one for free.  Mike went to McCraken's Gun and Pawn Shop and bought himself a drum set and started banging it daily.  They had lots of fun.

One day, Erik got into an elevator to go riding up and down in.  When he got in, he saw Billy Mader standing there carrying a sax gig bag over his shoulder.  "Do you play sax?" asked the always inquisitive Erik.  Billy nodded.  "Me and my friend are making a ska band. Do you like the ska?"  Billy nodded again, probably just trying to get Erik to shut up and leave him alone.  Erik took the hint and left the elevator.  Billy wouldn't figure into the story until much later, but it's just neat that they bumped into each other like that.  And it gets a lot neater so keep reading.

Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice, Sean Kane lived in a dorm.  He liked it there.  He used to go to ska shows at the Covered Dish and he would dance around.  One day, he bumped into Erik at the show.  He had seen Erik before when they stood in line for SEC Championship tickets in 1995.  Erik mentioned something about the band to Sean.  Sean was excited because he knew how to play the guitar.  "I wrote a song," said Sean, "but I don't know if it will sound good on electric guitar because all I do is play it on the acoustic."  "Okay," said Erik, smiling as usual.  Sean was very happy about the band.  He lived on the same floor as Jason Candler, a slap-happy punk from Live Oak, Florida.  "You should get a bass, man." said Sean.  Jason nodded and ran to the music store and bought himself a nice lookin bass guitar which he tought himself to play rather well.  The band was coming along fine, they had everything; everything except for horn players.

Then one day in September of 1996, as fate would have it, Sean and Erik were at the Specials concert in Gainesville.  They were skankin to the Specials and having a fun time.  Phil Culpepper was there too, just watching and listening.  Phil had grown accustomed to the ska after playing trombone for the Holsteins, a crazy ska band from Orlando, for two years.  At the end of the show, the drummer for the Specials tossed his drum stick into the crowd.  Phil leapt high to catch it.  When he landed on his feet, he found that two other guys had their hands on it too.  Sean and Erik.  Phil didn't know either of the guys but he wanted that drum stick.  So he tugged and tugged.  But after a few mintues, his fingers started to break.  Plus, Sean was saying, "Please let me have the stick because I never win anything."  So Phil, being the gentleman he is, released the stick to let Sean and Erik fight over it.  Little did they know that the three of them would soon be together composing some fine tunes.  By the way, Erik let Sean have the stick but Sean lost it.

Anyway, Jason used to run up and down the halls of the dorm skipping and yelling, "We need horn players for this band."  One day, Melissa was eating some microwave pasta in the dorm lounge when Jason came running through.  She heard his cry for horn players and a light went off in her head.  She was from Orlando, and knew of the Holsteins.  She knew their ex-trombone player was in Gainesville attending school and that he was looking to join a band.  "I can help!" she said earnestly.  "I know the trombone player from the Holsteins!"  Jason clapped and did back flips.  Then Melissa told Phil to come and meet Jason.  He went over there one night in December after the statistics final exam.  It was the last day of classes in the fall of 1996 semester.  Phil met Jason and agreed to play trombone for this newly growing ska band.

Then the spring of 1997 semester started.  Jenny Williams was friends with Mike and she was joking around one day and she said, "Hey, can I sing for your band?  I'm damn good."  Mike said, "Sure."  Jenny was happy and she used to run around her dorm telling everyone she was the singer for a ska band.  She lived near Billy from the elevator.  Billy used to make fun of Jenny when she talked about the band.  Then one day, after hearing that the band needed still more horn players, Jenny asked Billy to play his sax for the band.  Now Billy felt dumb because he had made fun of her for so long.  Everything was coming together.  Sean knew this guy from highschool named Michael Bozza.  One day Sean found out that Bozza once played the trumpet in 8th grade.  "You're in the band!" he shouted.  Bozza said, "No I'm not."  They agreed that he would go to the first practice and if he didn't like it, he could quit.

Finally the day of the first practice came.  All of the band arrived at Mike's apartment except for Phil who went to the wrong complex because of faulty directions given to him by a nameless moron.  Phil knocked on the door and this old man without a shirt answered.  "What do you want?" the drunk one-toothed redneck said as he puked all over his feet.  "Ska band inside?" asked Phil as he started to back up to his car to get the hell out of there.  "Get outta here before I shoot your ass!" yelled the mean man.  Phil hopped in his ride and pulled out of there like a screaming banshee.  He found the real apartment and entered it.  The rest of the band was already there and were playing their instruments.  They looked at Phil all funny because they mostly knew each other but no one knew him, either that or Phil just looks funny naturally.

Then they started playing songs and composing beautiful music.  It was the beginning of some good times.  Bozza wouldn't talk and just stared at the ground and Phil thought he was some retard that Sean had brought for a community service project or something.  Erik was surprised to find out that Billy, the sax player, was the same guy from the elevator.  Phil thought it was funny that Sean and Erik were the same guys that had caught the drum stick at the Specials Concert. Mike just liked to play his drums.  They composed a song with two different chords and played it for hours on end.  Jenny wrote some words but she was shy.  The first time she sang in front of the boys, she had to look at the wall to do it.  But later she got unshy and she danced on tables as she sang.  Bozza wouldn't play or talk until the band went to Bennigans for dinner and he started naming all the news anchors on every station and every time slot.  This only furthered Phil's belief that Bozza was a retard, or possibly an idiot savant like Rain Man who just sat there quietly until blurting things out like news reporters' names and their respective channels and time slots, all with complete accuracy.

Finally the new happy ska band came up with a name, The Shifters, after debating for several minutes.  Some of the other names discussed were Hard Lickers, Menstrual Chocolate, and I want my Foreskin Back.  They decided against the latter name since Jenny was a girl and therefore never even had a foreskin to begin with.  They made stickers and posted them on their cars.  And they played a battle of the bands show and lost miserably to a band called Toxic Death Syndrome With Blood and Puss who threw chairs at the crowd.  All in all, it was fun.

Since that day, The Shifters have been composing more and more songs and looking for some practice space and some venues.  They are a happy bunch who really likes the ska and would love to entertain others with their ska.