Thanks to John at Hoi Polloi Skazine for pointing out today's significance in the ska world. It's been 10 long years since Bucket sent out this terrible news.In the mail today, I received the first copy of my new paperback book The Duff Guide to 2 Tone --and am thrilled to announce that it is now...
Steve Shafer/The Duff Guide to Ska
For most of the 1990s, I was the promotions, marketing, production guy for Moon Records (RIP). It was one of the best jobs I ever had. Seriously, I miss it badly. During 1999/2000, I ran 7 Wonders of the World Music, the first digital download-only ska label that was too ahead of the curve for its own good (RIP).
I filmed and edited this Toasters video for $2,500, which made its debut on MTV's 120 Minutes. I also put together these compilations for Moon: the first three Skarmageddons; Ska United: A Global Ska Sampler; Skank Down Under; This Are Moon Ska I, II, and III; and Moonshot!
Here's an old interview with Adam Monkey from Read Magazine that covers my days at Moon and 7 Wonders. I also did a somewhat more recent interview with Read Junk.
I've been interviewed about ska music and Moon Records for The New York Times, Heather Augustyn's "Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation," Aaron Carnes' "In Defense of Ska," Kenneth Partridge's "Hell of a Hat: The Rise of '90s Ska and Swing," and Marc Wasserman's "Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History" (I also wrote the introductory chapter "1985: The Year American Ska Broke" for Wasserman's book).
And I'm the author of "The Duff Guide to 2 Tone," which can be ordered from Amazon--and is available in the US from Jump Up Records, and in Europe from the 2 Tone Village Shop (Coventry, UK), Champion Sound Records (Hull, UK), Aggroshop (Nijmegen, Netherlands), and Copasetic Mailorder (Hamburg, Germany). Plus, my book was on sale in the museum shop for the "2 Tone: Lives & Legacies" exhibition (May 28 - September 12, 2021), curated by Simon Reynolds, Cory Barrett, Pete Chambers, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike and Daniel Rachel, at the Herbert Art Gallery Museum in Coventry, UK.
I'm now working on my next book, "Calling All the Rude Boys: The Duff Guide to The Toasters, 1981-1992," to be published in 2023.
If you have a ska or reggae release that you'd like me to consider reviewing, please send an e-mail to Steve at duffguidetoska@gmail.com. You should know that I am old school and prefer music in tangible formats (plus I might use your music when I DJ ska events). I'd also appreciate any news or tips you may have about bands.
All reviews and interviews posted on The Duff Guide to Ska are copyrighted and are the sole property of Steve Shafer. Please contact me for permission to reproduce anything on this blog.
5 comments:
10 years.. damn I'm old.
Thanks for the shout out Steve. And thanks for reading my blog. I'll hopefully have another post up about the next 5 Moon releases in a week or two.
Adam: Damn, I'm even older!
KJ: Cool! Can't wait to read the next installment...
wow. ten years. I remember the store closing, I remember having the distinction of being the last customer at the store.
my friend that night called me and reminded me it was moon's last day, we ran out there right before close spent an hour there rifling through the boxes in the back and filling up a couple of duffel bags worth of stuff. I still have a stack of moon bumper stickers in my drawer, and we still have those green dickies moon work jackets.
I still have pics of us drinking dragon stout and going through stuff that night sitting on my old angelfire account. When I get home hopefully I can remember my old login information for that account and I'll post the pics.
wow, getting stuff off of something as archaic as a ten year old angelfire was far too much work than it should've been. anywho, here's some pics if anybody is actually interested
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22343983@N07/sets/72157625516494283/
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