so...it's over. Its been a great ride over the years. we've done some pretty great things, met some awesome people, gone to some cool places. If it werent for the Mafia, i personally wouldnt have gotten into the local ska scene as much as i have, and because of that ive seen the best bands come and go, and ive made the coolest friends in the world. Here's a thank you list off the top of my head of people and bands from the Mafia's past:

Drew Skibitzky
Robbles Nyman
Darek Candelove
Marc at the Hamilton St. Cafe
Karl at the Hamilton St. Cafe
Ryan Soroka
Awful Waffle
Offbeat in Suburbia
Drive Thru Pharmacy
Inspector Hector
Ray Wojcik
Dan Zugale
The Bus
Staticdown Jackwise
The Space Toasters
Whistlestop Jackson
The Pikers
Bigger Thomas
Bombtown
The Executives
Ska Mom
Matt Wixson
Texas Pete and the Revolutionaries
the NJSKA Crew
Travis (for asking us to tag his car with our mafia stencil)
The Bloomfield Ave. Cafe
The North Caldwell Firehouse
Band Nite
Toquet Hall in Westport CT and all the CT kids that came out and saw us the only time we ever played CT
The Flaming Tsunamis
Ask Drew
All of our Westfield friends who used to come see us all the time

And all the other familiar faces i used to see at most of our shows. i dont know/remember a lot of your names, but you guys were the reason we kept playing for so many years. You knew more of the words to our songs than i did, and you made the shows worth playing.

I'm gonna miss this band, and this might be a stretch, because its not like we were very important or anything, but if you have any fun mafia memories, post em on here.

one of my favorite memories was the 6-7 hour drive up to CT the one time we played there because the traffic was SO bad on 95. Reber was driving, i was in the front seat, and drew, ryan, and someone else were in the back squeezed into reber's tiny car. The car ride was awful at the time, but we really had a lot of fun driving up there.

also, the show we played in the Westfield train station parking lot with Bigger Thomas, Bombtown and Chris Murray. That was one of the best sets we ever played, and we got to play with two of my favorite bands in NJ, Bigger Thomas and Bombtown, and Chris Murray was incredible. He played whatever the crowd wanted. and he was staying in westfield, so we took his to the diner afterwards and he was a really cool fun guy.

thats it for now. Make sure to stay tuned for whats coming next from the mafia guys. Various bands (old and new) will be happening such as a possible Ask Drew EP by the end of the summer, a spinoff band of the Ashtones called 100 Stitches, etc.

i hope youve had as much fun as i have. hopefully ill see you next time!

-James Kelly