Skavoovie and the Epitones To Release 20th Anniversary Edition of "Ripe"!

Word has it that beloved '90s ska ensemble Skavoovie and the Epitones will be re-issuing their fantastic second album Ripe with unreleased bonus material. This album featured stellar tracks like "Blood Red Sky," "Japanese Robot," (Jimmy Liggins') "Drunk," (Duke Ellington's) "Bli-Bip," "Latvian Lullaby," "Riverboat," and many more. The album was originally issued on CD by Moon Ska and Moon Ska Europe in 1997; and in a slightly expanded form by its sister label Moon Ska Japan as Super Ripe (which included several tracks from their 1995 debut, Fat Footin'). A vinyl LP was issued a year later on Germany's Grover/V.O.R.

The image to the right appeared on Skavoovie and the Epitones' Facebook page yesterday--which highlights the fact that this will be a 20th anniversary edition of the album. It's hard to believe that it's been that long since this first came out...

If/when more details become available, we'll pass them along.

A Small Remembrance of Lloyd Brevett

My brief relationship--a few interactions, really--with Lloyd Brevett was all music business, but I like to think that it gave me a small bit of insight into this legendary Skatalite's life.

In 1997, Moon Records licensed Brevett's African Roots album from Grover Records (it originally had been released in 1978 on United Artists as a Skatalites record, though the majority of the cuts had been written by Brevett; the Grover version featured these tracks, as well as some additional Brevett-penned bonus cuts, but credited the album to Lloyd Brevett with The Skatalites). Back then, I was responsible for all of the promotions, marketing, and production for Moon, and oftentimes handled all of the nitty gritty of the licensing deals after Bucket inked the contracts. At this point in the label's history, my office was in the back of the East 10th Street Moon storefront (for years, I had run my end of things out of my apartment), and it wasn't uncommon for band members to stop by for business or to catch up on the latest ska news and gossip.

My first encounter with Lloyd was only a few weeks after Moon had released African Roots (which featured a cheeky shot of Brevett smoking a spliff on the cover). One of the store staff (probably Big Abby) came back to the office to let me know that Brevett was up front in the shop, mad as hell, and wanted to talk to someone about his royalties. I asked them to send Lloyd back as I finished up whatever it was that I was doing. He strode in, cursing in Patois and roared, "Where's my money?!" Lloyd was followed by an entourage (of family members?), no doubt there to back him in any circumstance. The incensed, six foot plus Brevett loomed over the not so imposing five foot seven inches me. Needless to say, it was kind of tense.

As calmly as possible, I explained that it was too early to expect to receive any royalties from his album, since the CDs had barely been in the shops long enough to sell in significant numbers--and also that the label's business office and warehouse were located out in Verona, NJ. The books and checkbook were out there (though Brevett knew we had money on site and may have expected me to pull a stack of bills out of the store's cash register).

I also gave him an over as to what we were doing to promote the record (sending it out to hundreds of college radio stations, as well as our extensive list of music press and zines--and if we had any reviews back already, I would have shown them to him). As our conversation continued, I could feel his fury slipping away. By the time he left with some promo CDs of some of our other recent releases in hand, he was all smiles.

It was quite a contrast to the serene Skatalite I had seen on stage, keeping the riddim steady and tight. But any illusions I had about musicians being anything but real, fallible human beings had been shattered years before (some were a pleasure to know, others weren't so much).

This scene repeated itself about a month later--though Lloyd was now yelling my name in anger as he ranted about not receiving his due. Even though there was wrath in those eyes that cut through me, I knew what was really going down. He was playing his part, doing what he'd had to do over the years in order to get paid by Jamaican producers and label heads (who routinely paid the musicians just for the recording session and kept all the profits from record sales, publishing rights, etc. for themselves). You had to get in their face, make some noise and unpleasantness, and they'd hand over some cash (that they, no doubt, owed you and much more), just so you'd go away.

It was another performance that Brevett had to give in order to make his livelihood.

There were several other visits, but they seemed to be further and further apart (maybe The Skatalites entered a period of heavy touring?). And I think Brevett must have either made a trip out to Verona or run into Buck on the road, because he eventually stopped coming around to threaten me. I missed our encounters, as they were kind of thrilling (who wouldn't want to be in the presence of a great musician who had made history?).

As fantastic as African Roots was, the record never sold that well, despite The Skatalites' tremendous resurgence and success during the 1990s. The ska bust at the end of the last century was soon to topple the label and upend the scene, with ominous signs just beginning to make themselves known (if we wanted to see them).

After learning of the terrible murder of his son this past February (and his own poor health), I had the feeling that Lloyd would not be will us long. In a video interview with Lloyd and his wife made after the murder, you could see that the light and life were gone from his eyes.

May he somehow rest in peace.

Jump Up Reissues Toasters' 2 Tone Army (AKA Hard Band for Dead) on Vinyl!

While many of The Toasters' releases in the 1990s found their way on to vinyl through licensing deals with German ska labels Pork Pie (New York Fever) and Grover (Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down), the band's 1996 album Hard Band for Dead, which spawned two of their biggest hits--"2 Tone Army" and "I Wasn't Going to Call You Anyway" (a parting shot at a very difficult band)--never found their way onto wax (maybe Pork Pie didn't have the cash to press an LP?). At the time, the ska market for vinyl in the US was very small (even the series of numbered, limited edition 7" singles that Moon Records released in the mid-to-late 90s sold surprisingly slowly), so it made financial sense to import a few copies of the LPs from Europe (where fans still craved vinyl) to sell in the Moon store and through the label's healthy mailorder service.

We flash-forward about a decade and a half later, to when Jump Up Records main man Chuck Wren runs into Bucket at Chicago's Riot Fest. While talking shop, Chuck is very surprised to learn that Hard Band For Dead was never released on LP (the other notable exception is Dub 56, probably one of the most beloved Toasters albums ever). Long story short, Buck and Chuck broker a deal--and now Jump Up has just issued 2 Tone Army on black and green vinyl (the next pressing will be in white), which includes a card that allows you to download six more alternate tracks from the album recording sessions.

Of note, the iconic NYC Ska rude boy (which originally appeared on a Moon Records t-shirt back in the late 80s) on the 2 Tone Army LP cover is not Buck (I had always assumed it was), but Steve Hex (AKA Karl Stephen LaForge), The Toasters' co-founder and keyboardist who appeared on the "The Beat" 7", the Recriminations EP, and Skaboom, Thrill Me Up, and This Gun For Hire albums. Hex died in Berlin in 2005 under questionable circumstances (he was found with a severe head wound and was assumed to have been the victim of a mugging).

For your reference, here is the original 1996 track listing for Hard Band for Dead:

1. 2Tone Army (Hingley)
2. Talk Is Cheap (Hingley)
3. Friends (Hingley/Ugbomah/Toasters)
4. Secret Agent Man (Barri Sloan)
5. Chuck Berry (Hingley)
6. Mouse (Reiter)
7. Hard Man Fe Dead (C. Campbell)
8. Don't Come Running [Extra Intro] (Faulkner)
9. Properly (McCain/Ugbomah)
10. Maxwell Smart (Irving Szathmary)
11. I Wasn't Going To Call You Anyway (Hingley)
12. Speak Your Mind (Hingley/Rice)
13. Skaternity (Reiter/McCain)
14. Dave Goes Crazy (Rimsky-Korsakov)

The album featured guest spots by The Godfather of Ska himself, Laurel Aitken (on "Speak Your Mind"), The Skatalites' terrific saxophonist Lester Sterling (on "Mouse" and the cover of Prince Buster's "Hard Man Fe Dead"), The Ventures' guitarist Jerry McGee (on "Friends"), and King Django (chatting on "Properly").

From what I can tell (my copy hasn't arrived in the mail yet), two additional tracks have been added to the LP reissue proper:

15. 2Tone Army [Special Forces Version] (Hingley)
16. Skar-Toon [Unreleased] (Brown)

And here are the 2 Tone Army bonus digital download cuts:

Retroactive [Unreleased] (Reiter)
Speak Your Mind [Instrumental] (Hingley/Rice)
Skaternity [Demo] (Reiter)
Moon Ska Stomp [Unreleased] (Hingley/Toasters)
Speedy Gonzales [Unreleased] (Hingley/Toasters)
2Tone Army [Blues Reprise] (Hingley)

Megalith Records will be releasing 2 Tone Army on CD--which will include all of the tracks above--a little later this year.

+ + + +

There was a CD re-issue of Hard Band for Dead/2 Tone Army back in 2009 on Party House Records in the UK (a label that I think is now defunct). In response, back in July of that year, I wrote up some notes about Hard Band for Dead and posted them on this blog--and they might be worth revisiting here...

Some Duff Guide to Ska Notes to Hard Band for Dead:

In an attempt to capitalize on the intense music press/industry buzz in the mid-90s (Billboard and others declaring ska "the next big thing," and every major label wanting a ska-like band in their pocket), Moon Records produced two of its first music videos, "2 Tone Army" and "I Wasn't Going to Call You Anyway," to help promote this album (which also received a good amount of airplay from college radio, according to the CMJ charts at the time). In true DIY fashion, I shot "2 Tone Army" on Super 8 film at a Toasters show (with Lester Sterling in the line-up!) at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Chelsea; outside the first Moon shop on 2nd Street in Alphabet City; and in my UES living room. The footage was digitally edited with the assistance of the late video and performance artist Dieter Froese at Dekart Video in Chinatown (they typically did most of their work with PBS, museums, and video and performance artists, but occasionally edited videos for major label bands like REM). The whole production cost about $2,500--and it ended up premiering on MTV's "120 Minutes" and going into fairly regular rotation on MTV and M2 (hell, they even created a special "Skaturday," when they featured ska viddys for a couple of hours).



Contrary to all of the label's/band's expectations, MTV gave the "2 Tone Army" video an extraordinary amount of support because: a) they genuinely liked The Toasters' music and knew how long they had been plugging away on the scene; 2) they didn't want to miss out on ska craze (the hype really was brutally intense, even if the major labels really didn't know ska from Adam or how to market it)--and there weren't that many new ska videos being produced; and 3) they got a kick out of the fact that we had the nerve to submit this somewhat crude, low-budget video, while many other indie acts were lavishing tens of thousands of dollars on theirs trying to make the big time.

Originally, I had planned to shoot a music video for "Chuck Berry" (the single on the record player in the video is the limited edition "Chuck Berry" 7", which was released well before the rest of the album was finished), but switched it to "2 Tone Army" after hearing an advance copy of the song. Since these were untested waters, The Toasters were minimally involved in the making of this video (I came up with what little concept there was and basically showed up to film them at both the FIT show and their promo photo shoot on 2nd Street before they went off on a tour--one of these pictures ended up on the back cover of the CD--we never scheduled anything specifically for the video) and Bucket didn't see any footage until the editing was completed (either he had complete faith in me or was entertaining my flight of fancy). I spoke with him on the phone after he first saw the video and could tell that he was extremely underwhelmed--but as things progressed, he seemed pretty pleased with all the mileage the band/label got out of it.

Like "2 Tone Army," "I Wasn't Going to Call You Anyway" (which was directed by Drew Sentivan, who also made several higher-end videos for Moon in collaboration with Crazy Duck Productions, all of them great, including The Toasters' "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" and "I'm Running Right Through the World," as well as The Scofflaws' "Nude Beach," Isaac Green and the Skalars' "High School," and the Skoidats' "Last Night" ) went into regular rotation on MTV and M2 (remember that station--completely devoted to actually playing music videos, many of them from alternative/indie bands?). For better or worse, Moon also permitted MTV to use excerpts of several songs off of Hard Band for Dead for shows like Singled Out and The Real World, in the hopes of expanding the band's audience and stimulating CD sales.

After the recording sessions for Hard Band, the souring relationship between Coolie Ranx and the rest of the band hit an all time low--and he left/was booted from The Toasters soon after. (One memorable, cringe-worthy event from this period took place at The Toasters' Central Park SummerStage gig, a big deal back then since they were one of the first ska acts ever featured in this concert series, as when it came time for the band to hit the stage, Coolie was AWOL--Bucket and Sledge had to take over Coolie's vocal duties; he finally showed up several songs into the set, dramatically leaping onto the stage from the audience.) As a result, just before the Hard Band for Dead masters were sent to the printing plant, most of Coolie's tracks were dropped from the album (I'll always remember Toasters bassist Matt Malles telling me how bummed he was that one of the songs he co-wrote with Coolie was left off the record--he thought it was the best track of the bunch.) Interestingly enough, the "2 Tone Army" video inadvertently captured the transition between Coolie Ranx (who is in the photo shoot segments) and Jack Ruby, Jr. (who was on stage as a member of the band at the FIT show).

One last tidbit: a version of "2 Tone Army" (recorded months before the Hard Band sessions by the Moon Ska Stompers, which was comprised of members of The Toasters and NY Ska Jazz Ensemble, as well as Victor Rice and King Django) became the theme music for the very cool animated/stop action Nickelodeon show "Kablam!".