I want to extend my most heartfelt condolences to former (and founding) Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett and his family following the terrible news regarding the murder of their 32 year-old son, Okeene, who previously that day had accepted an award on his father's behalf from the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association. (No motive is known for the shooting and there are no suspects in custody.)
Back in the 90s, I had the great honor and pleasure of working with Lloyd, as Moon had licensed his African Roots album (which was originally recorded and issued in 1975 and featured many of his greatest compositions performed by The Skatalites) for release in the United States. He was a frequent visitor to the Moon Records offices on East 10th Street and l always loved speaking with him about his record, as well as the latest things happening in The Skatalites' world.
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Brevett, who is not in good health, had been planning on spending the rest of his days in Jamaica, but now may be leaving the island for good.
It's actually a damn shame (and an embarrassment of riches, really) that there are two, equally compelling ska shows this coming Friday night (March 2, 2012) in NYC. Since I'm actually involved with one of them--the Bigger Thomas/Rudie Crew/Pidgin Dropping/Ini Mighty Lockdown gig in Lower Manhattan (details below), I'm pushing that one heavily. But I'm sad to miss two friends' bands in Brooklyn: the debut of Sammy K and the Fast Four and Mike Drance's punk act the XLerators (and I wish them both the best). So, if you're in Brooklyn on Friday and don't feel like coming into Manhattan, go to The Lake and see them--but if you're in Manhattan or feel like coming into the city, see the Reggae Meets Ska show!
Cin-M-Art Space 43 Murray Street (between Church and West Broadway) Manhattan, NY
$10 cover
This is a RARE Manhattan ska/reggae show with some amazingly good bands--and really easy to get to from New Jersey or Brooklyn, Queens or The Bronx (the venue is right near the PATH train, as well as the 1, 2, 3, A, N, and R trains). Plus, I'm spinning a kickin' mix of vintage, 2 Tone, and modern ska at this gig, while DJ Juggwise will have dem grooving to some deep, sweet reggay!
The Lake 258 Johnson Avenue (Between Bushwick Avenue and White Street) Brooklyn, NY
Take the L train to Montrose walk down Bushwick and make a left on Johnson or take the J train to Flushing walk towards Bushwick Avenue, make a left, and walk till you hit Johnson and make a right.
The Lake 258 Johnson Avenue (Between Bushwick Avenue and White Street) Brooklyn, NY
Take the L train to Montrose walk down Bushwick and make a left on Johnson or take the J train to Flushing walk towards Bushwick Avenue, make a left, and walk till you hit Johnson and make a right.
If you want to support this project, you have until Monday, March 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm EDT (the project goal is $2,500). There are many pledge levels available--though $14 will score you a copy of the EP (which will be delivered in June 2012) and $21 will snag you the EP plus their limited-edition Live at DC9 CD (which seems like a choice deal to me).
Since I'm a massive fan of the band (and love ska vinyl), I've already made my pledge (at the $40 level, since I want a dope Shifters t-shirt along with the EP and CD)--and I enthusiastically urge you to do so, too. These guys make good music!
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In case you've never had the good fortune to encounter the band, here are two videos I've shot of the band in action...
Not that I'm much of a big draw myself, but I thought I'd let y'all know that I'm going to be spinning some vintage, 2 Tone, and modern ska (thanks to DJ Juggwise who is sharing the decks with me and will be spinning some heavy reggay himself) at the upcoming "Reggae Meets Ska V" show on Friday, March 2, 2012 with Bigger Thomas, The Rudie Crew, Pidgin Droppings (NJ reggae), and INI Mighty Lockdown (Rockland County reggae).
In addition to this being a fantastic line-up, the show's venue is located in downtown Manhattan (and easy to reach for both Jersey-ites and Brooklyn-ites via PATH or the 1, 2, 3, A, N, and R trains) at Cin-M-Art Space, 43 Murray Street (between Church Street and West Broadway). The show starts early (8pm) and goes late. Not a bad deal for $10.
If you're in the NYC area, I hope to see you there!
This April, King Hammond is set to release his fourth album since his 2010 resurrection titled, Dancing in the Garden of Evil. King Hammond (AKA Nick Welsh) tantalizingly describes this collection of tunes as his "White Album" (if you were born too late to immediately catch this reference, go here, posthaste).
Below, you'll find the music video for "Dancing in the Garden of Evil," which features footage from King Hammond's recent visit to Gotham--sadly a bit cleaned up since its "Taxi Driver,""The Warriors," or "Style Wars" days, but still a den of iniquity if you're looking in all the right/wrong places. (King Hammond's music video also features his NYC performance at The Shrine in Harlem and a ride on the L train in Brooklyn--with me, his minder--after his gig at The Lake in Bushwick).
We hope to have King Hammond back in the US for a more proper tour of the Northeast (Boston, New York, Philly, DC) sometime in the fall/early winter of this year. Of course, his New York date will be at The Four Aces Club at The Wick.
The Allentons are a sharp vintage ska/rocksteady act out of LA that, since the mid-1990s, have released several stellar albums and a slew of singles on Luis Correa's essential Steady Beat Recordings (and I was lucky enough to be able to include their "Molly" on Skarmageddon 3, which I compiled for Moon Records back in 1997). "Dreams" b/w "Sleepwalk (Version)" is The Allentons' first release since their appearance on the Jump Up Records/Megalith RecordsStill Standing mega compilation in 2003--and it's a pleasure to discover that the band hasn't lost their deft touch for composing killer tunes and artfully delivering the goods in the studio.
"Dreams" is a great, almost shambling rocksteady track, where the bass line sounds like a fiercely thumping heart that's skipping a beat. So it makes sense that this track is about being knocked off your game. You're stupefied by your love for a woman who may or may not know that you exist...but hope in the possibility of it all keeps you from a fall into despair: "You're the one that I want/You're the one I'm dreaming of/Darlin', won't you let me in?/Every night and day I dream for you to be in my heart!"
The excellent flip side, "Sleepwalk (Version)," shakes off the somnambulist's lurching stupor (ironic, considering the title) with lively, get-up-and-groove toasting and boasting by the verbose Don Chico--whose style is reminiscent of the mid-to-late 70s deejays like Lone Ranger--over the "Dreams" instrumental track.
The Allentons' single is a brilliant return for one of the best traditional acts the US ska scene has produced. And it gives yet another reason for ska fans far beyond Southern California--like this crusty, die-hard Gothamite--to be secretly wishing they called the City of Angels home in order to have the chance to experience this band live on a regular basis...
I always find it a bit weird when I'm reading about a particular topic and then--seemingly randomly--I come across all of this additional info about the same thing, even though I'm not actively seeking it out.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm reading Garry Bushell's "Dance Craze: Rude Boys on the Road! How The Specials, Madness, The Selecter & Co. Conquered the World" (which you can pick up in the USA from Jump Up Records) on the subway, to and from work.
One of the more interesting chapters is about The Selecter's 1980 USA tour--particularly their swing through Texas, where they stop for a picture in front of the Southfork Ranch, which was the setting for the TV nighttime soap "Dallas," and a truck full of pissed-off "good ole boys" mumbling the "N-word" showed up in response to the band's non-white presence in the area. (Yet another low moment in the long and pathetic history of race relations in the history of the U.S.) Anyway, on my FB page today I came across a photo of that exact moment (via New Wave/post-punk site Slicing Up Eyeballs) taken by the band's manager at the time, Juliet Wills (who is now Billy Bragg's partner).
Check out the photos (which include some shots of the band in LA for their gig at the Whisky; making the "Missing Words" video; and on the Old Grey Whistle Test) here.
I just started a new job recently, so my time and energy has been pretty much devoted to that. Even so, I still feel bad that I haven't done a proper write-up on legendary deejay (and Coxsone Dodd and Clancy Eccles collaborator) King Stitt (AKA The Ugly One; born Winston Sparkes), who recently passed away at 72 after a long fight with prostate cancer and diabetes.
Funnily enough, on the subway ride home from work today, I was reading a review of Madness' gig in Edinburgh on November 12, 1979 by Garry Bushell in "Dance Craze: Rude Boys on the Road! How The Specials, Madness, The Selecter & Co. Conquered the World" (which you can pick up in the USA from Jump Up Records). And then I got to thinking how nice it would be to see them, since they are still around and still making amazing records (like the incredible The Liberty of Norton Folgate). But then I remembered that only the West Coast is feeling the love this time around...
Madness @ the House of Blues Las Vegas Saturday, 04/14/2012
Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 8:00 PM
Prices: $29.50 – General Admission Standing $33.00 – General Admission Day of Show Ages: 18+
Tickets go on sale April 2, 2012 at 10 am Pacific Time.
House of Blues Las Vegas 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 632-7600
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Madness Central is also offering a contest in conjunction with this show:
Courtesy of the House of Blues Las Vegas we have a pair of tickets to the April 14, 2012, Madness concert in Sin City, Nevada. One lucky winner will walk off with two general admission tickets to the gig!
All you have to do is visit our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/madnesscentral and share the ‘Madness Central’ link we’ve posted on our page. Not only do you get the opportunity to win the tickets, but you also get to spread the good word of Madness to all your friends. Share the link and your name goes in the virtual hat.
Don’t have a Facebook account? Don’t fret: You can still enter by sending your name and email address to admin@madness-central.com.
This competition will remain open to entries until February 20, 2012, giving the winner plenty of time to make arrangements to join us on the Las Vegas Strip and jam to the nuttiest sound around!
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Madness are also playing two performances at this year's Coachella Festival, as well as a show at Humphrey's By the Bay in San Diego on April 17, 2012. Two more US West Coast dates are still to be announced.
My comrade-in-ska-blogging Marc Wasserman (AKA Marco on the Bass)--who is the bass player for NYC area ska band Bigger Thomas--was kind enough to let me tag along (i.e.: hitch a ride from New York City) to their gig in New Hope, PA, where the band was scheduled to play three sets that night (apparently the standard operating procedure at Havana). Bigger Thomas had advertised on their Facebook page that this show would feature many cuts from deep in their catalogue that they rarely play live (they've been around since 1988!). If nothing else, I figured this would be a fantastic opportunity to experience and document material that some Bigger Thomas fans only know from their recordings.
I had first caught Bigger Thomas soon after their transformation from Panic to Bigger Thomas at the NYC Ska Live show at the long-gone Cat Club on 13th Street and 4th Avenue in Manhattan on March 26, 1990--and continued to see them sporadically in the 90s. But I lost their thread in the 2000s--Marc calls the first half of this decade their "wilderness years," when they mostly played bars along the Jersey shore--and I didn't reconnect with them until about 2009, when I started becoming more involved with the ska scene again through The Duff Guide to Ska.
I, too, had my figurative time lost in the Sinai after almost a decade at Moon Records in the 1990s and a couple of years with my own, ahead-of-the-curve digital download ska/reggae label 7 Wonders of the World Music (check out an archived, somewhat functional page from my label circa April 2001 here). I had to focus more on earning a living and raising my kids; but like Bucket says, ska is like malaria..."Once you get it in you, you never get it out." And I eventually found my way back to my musical home.
On the way down to PA, Marc told me a bit about New Hope--essentially, it's a funky, left-of-center oasis in a desert of conservatism. In high school (he grew up nearby in New Jersey), this was the place to come and escape the sterility and monotony of suburbia, and where you caught alternative bands and picked-up cool stuff at the head shop in town.
Bigger Thomas has played Havana dozens of times before, so there was a hometown-like fan base primed for the band. In fact, of the several groups of people who had shown up specifically to see the group--two were birthday parties (one of which was also celebrating the 22nd anniversary--to the very night--of first seeing Bigger Thomas in Hoboken with The Toasters). Needless to say, Bigger Thomas (with specials guests Roy Radics of The Rudie Crew on vocals and Jenny Whiskey of Hub City Stompers on sax) was extremely well-received by the audience, as they performed dozens of tracks culled from Bigger Thomas' debut cassette in 1989 through to their superb 2010 record, Steal My Sound (read The Duff Guide to Ska review of this album here). Bigger Thomas also included a few choice covers from the 2 Tone-era artists and their predecessors that inspired them, such as The English Beat's version of Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown"; seriously hot versions of The Specials' "Nite Klub" and their version of Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man"; and Rico Rodriguez's "Jungle Music."
Some of my favorite songs of the night included their early hits "Simple Man," "Ska in My Pocket," and the calypso-ska of "Manhattan Holiday" (all from their debut "Red Album" in 1989); "I Live at Home" and "Fun" (from 2004's Resisting Success); "Say it Again" (from 2005's We Wear the Mask); and "Radics and Roger A Chat" (from Steal My Sound).
As you'll see from any of the videos I shot below, Bigger Thomas was in top form this evening. I had a blast (during all three sets, I was always torn between dancing and videotaping the band in action) and couldn't shut up about how great they were in the car ride back to Manhattan. I'm sure I was far from the only one raving about the band that night on their way home...
The weirdest thing about the night--and it's what I love most about seeing ska shows outside of the jaded NYC scene--was that the crowd (mostly "kids" in their 20s ska, plus the ska faithful-forty somethings) that danced with such fervor when Bigger Thomas played, stayed on the dancefloor in-between sets and grooved equally hard to the Lady Gaga and Katy Perry tracks that the DJ played repeatedly (note to band: I'd love to spin some ska and reggae vinyl the next time you do your thing there!).
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Special thanks to Juice for never steering us wrong with recommendations for food and drink!
Saturday, February 18, 2012:Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY
If you want to be in it to win it, all you have to do is figure out the answer to the trivia question below and indicate the venue/city where you want to see the band.
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To enter The Skatalites' ticket giveaway contest, answer the following question:
Which Skatalite appears in The Toasters' "2 Tone Army" video? (Hint, he also was a guest artist on The Toasters' Hard Band for Dead album in 1996.)
Submit your answer, along with the venue/city where you'd like to see the band on this tour (and your contact info), here.
The deadline for all submissions is 11:59 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012.
This spring, Boston's stellar reggae act Destroy Babylon will be issuing a dub version of their magnificent Long Live the Vortex album--which was one of the best ska/reggae albums of 2011, in our humble opinion (read The Duff Guide to Ska review of the LP here).
Dub Fader (AKA Craig Welsch, who has also worked with 10 Ft Ganja Plant and The Aggrolites) is at the controls for this project--and you can hear one of the forthcoming versions, "Barbed Wire Dub," here.
Stay tuned for details--this is a remixed album that you're not going to want to miss!
To help support Occupy Wall Street (which despite all the grumblings about its supposed lack of specific goals has succeeded brilliantly in framing the national discussion and forcing politicians and the mainstream media to acknowledge the dire problem of the extraordinary wealth/income inequity that currently exists in the United States), The Slackers and Crazy Baldhead (AKA Agent Jay, The Slackers' guitarist) have recorded a cut each and are donating all proceeds to this righteous cause. This vinyl-only release (as a 7" single) features The Slackers' "Volunteers" on side A, backed with Crazy Baldhead's "Cutback."
Matthew Griffin of Simmerdown Productions (who is also the drummer for The Sentiments--they have a new EP out, by the way--and he spins ska on the radio at KPSU on the "Rude Boy's Revenge & Coffee Hour" show) is issuing the benefit single on his venerable label.
Only 500 copies of this single are being pressed (and it will be delivered from the plant in a few weeks)! Pre-orders now being accepted. Send $7.00 check or money order (U.S.)/$11.00 international/Canada to: Simmerdown Productions, P.O. Box 344, Portland, OR 97207 (or via PayPal to djsimmerdown@comcast.net).
I want to extend my most heartfelt condolences to former (and founding) Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett and his family following the terrible news regarding the murder of their 32 year-old son, Okeene, who previously that day had accepted an award on his father's behalf from the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association. (No motive is known for the shooting and there are no suspects in custody.)
