Streetlight Manifesto

Streetlight Manifesto is a ska-punk band formed by lead singer Tomas Kalnoky in 2002 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Discography
Albums:
 * 2003: Everything Goes Numb
 * 2006: Keasbey Nights
 * 2007: Somewhere in the Between
 * 2010: 99 Songs of Revolution: Vol. 1

Other releases:
 * 2002: Streetlight Manifesto Demo

The band and its work provide examples of:
"And it's the saddest song you'll ever hear the most pain you will ever feel but you grit your teeth because it don't get better than this."
 * Cover Album: Keaseby Nights by Catch 22.
 * Downer Ending: "As The Footsteps Die Out Forever" opens with a young mother waiting for her children to arrive home from school before their weekend, a dispassionate doctor calls her and tells her that she has only weeks to live. The news shocks her so much that she spends the rest of her life nearly catatonic, and her son imagines it's because she's trying to distance herself and make her death less painful. Her son spends his time trying to provoke her to smile, react, anything, before her unnamed disease takes her from him forever. The final lines are a slower repeat of the chorus, with her (or his imagination) telling him to leave her behind and live his life.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: "The Saddest Song". Entirely peppy, with lyrics along the lines of

""I know that you think that you're on your own But just know that I'm here And I'll lead you home If you let me.""
 * "As The Footsteps Die Out Forever" is an upbeat and happy song about the singer's mother getting sick and dying.
 * Motor Mouth: The band's singing in general, though there are exceptions. Exacerbated by Kanolky's dissertation-for-lyrics writing style, as there's so little repetition to the song (even the chorus, sometimes). If you want to listen to a new Streetlight Song, look up the lyric sheet first. You'll save yourself a lot of effort.
 * The only words not spoken at amazing speeds in the entirety of "Everything Went Numb" are "Na na na na [bunch more na's] na.")
 * This gets turned Up to Eleven during live shows, when the band will play songs 30-50% faster.
 * Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Streetlight Manifesto mix ska, punk, acoustic, big band, funk and hardcore. Fans of Streetlight Manifesto, and frontman Tomas Kalnoky's side project Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution (another genre-splicer, fusing acoustic, ska and Middle-Eastern influences), sometimes refer to this as "the fourth wave of ska".
 * The Something Song: "The Saddest Song."
 * You Are Not Alone: "A Better Place, A Better Time."