Duff Guide to Ska: Year of Reviews--2019--Part III: Babylove and the van Dangos, Catbite!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Babylove and the van Dangos The Golden Cage (LP, self-released, 2019): The excellent sixth album from this Danish neo-trad ska/rocksteady/soul powerhouse of a band is a sharp critique of what it's like to live in a society where the accumulation of wealth, status, and power is everything--conveying great unease, ambivalence, sorrow, and indignation about the way things are through a collection of catchy and seemingly chipper tunes written mostly by vocalist Daniel Broman (that often sound like the singer is trying to woo a lady not decrying extreme income inequality or the spiritual emptiness of materialism). The record starts with one's end in "No God Above the Bottom Line" (think of how the sunglasses in the movie "They Live" reveal that "This is your God" is printed on all of those dollars) and that the ritual of publicly commemorating your own death is often the last opportunity to show off your deep financial resources: "It's the coins that we place on your eyes/And the check you write us to cry/The champagne you never get to taste/So, let's chuck another nugget on the scales and pray that we'll be fine/Because there's no god above the bottom line." "Golden Cage" points out the grievous damage that our unfettered capitalist system inflicts on the souls of the rich, the lives of the poor, and the very planet that sustains us ("Some may win but many must lose/I see dead eyes and expensive shoes... and when the sea's rising/and when the fields burn/What you gonna buy with the money you earn?"), while "Her Dress Is New" observes how women are confronted by a King Solomon-like choice between work and life when making a go of it in the corporate world ("She can't afford a boyfriend/To take time from her career/'Cause she's climbing up that ladder/And it's slippery up there"--shades of Perry/Romeo's "War Ina Babylon" in that last bit: "It sipple out deh"). One can't help but assume that "Lazy Little Me" is an autobiographical track--the singer can't fathom employing his talents "to write songs in a factory/Churning out generic bullshit for an industry/That's just looking for a hit..." He finds fulfillment and can eke out a living writing ska songs instead (rejecting capitalism's sirens' call to commodify his art), though not everyone has the luxury of opting out of the system in this manner (see the drug dealers and street kids depicted in "Cigarette Boy"). Of course, wealth's close companion is power (a currency of its own used to achieve/maintain wealth and social/political control). "Sledgehammer" addresses the Trumpian outrage machine that keeps manufacturing enemies and threats in order to manipulate followers for his own ends and prevent them from developing empathy for and solidarity with anyone outside the cult of MAGA dead-enders ("You've got to give the people what the people want/And keep their eyes off what it is they really need/You've got to keep them hungry, you've got to keep 'em mean/You've got to starve out compassion and keep feeding the greed..."). And the rise of authoritarian leaders around the globe is noted in "Old Man Trouble," which reminds the listener that the fascists are always with us, lurking, waiting for things to fall apart just enough so they can make their move ("It's the same old faces/In the same old lines/And the same old hatred/Trickling down through time/It's the same old bodies/In the same old graves/And the same old feelings/Making us their slaves/Oh and it's the same older leaders/It's the same old lies/And we say we won't forget/But my how time it flies..."). The Golden Cage also features love songs, mostly about relationships going bad ("The Cracks," "Bleeding Me"), but there's some happiness to be had (see "You Do, So I Do"), and several fine instrumentals (particularly, "Mexiskaner"). The choice of album cover artwork may be intended to remind one of the 1968 version of "Planet of the Apes" and all of its pointed commentary on humanity's tendency toward cruelty, selfishness, and self-destruction (much of it by Rod Serling). At the very opening of the film, as astronaut Charlton Heston prepares to return to Earth after they've been away six months but 700 years have passed on the planet, he wonders, "Does man, that marvel of the universe, that glorious paradox who sent me to the stars, still make war against his brother? Keep his neighbor's children starving?" (And later in the movie there's this passage read from the sacred scrolls of the apes: "Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death.") If you like sweet-sounding ska music to pack a lyrical wallop and speak to what's going on in the world around us, then The Golden Cage is for you.

Catbite Catbite (Pink, yellow, or splatter vinyl LP/digital, Bad Time Records, 2019): On Catbite's debut album, they sport this incredibly appealing and melodic 2 Tone-New Wave-power pop sound that's both retro and completely fresh. I hear echoes of Blondie, Elvis Costello, The Specials, The Selecter, King Kong 4, King Apparatus, and others (and you'll bring your own set of bands to the table after listening to this record), but this set of songs is fully theirs. Just about all of the lyrics on Catbite are about one's oftentimes complicated feelings for others--and the music (as well as Brittany Luna's singing) does an ace job of expressing the range of emotions behind them. The record races out of the gates with "Come On Baby" ("...let's have some fun!"), which is about the blast of out-of-controlness that hits you when you fall for someone hard (""I'm scared of losing/Like I've lost my mind/That's how I feel whenever I'm not near you")--it captures the same intense, ragged desire/longing/euphoria as X's cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Breathless." "Amphetamine Delight" compares the joys of being with someone to the rush/high of speed. The brashly unapologetic "As You Will" is about using revisionist history as a coping mechanism ("'Till I change memories to what I want 'em to be/I'm not lying if I'm lying to me/Take it as you will/But that's how it's gonna be"). "Can't Give You Love," with all of its '60s girl group-like touches, is devastatingly beautiful in its sharp clarity and honesty: "Is it bad/That I don't think of you when I'm out with my friends?/I keep my thoughts to myself lately/And let them fill up my head/Wish that I could change/And be the flirt that you want/But it's not written in the stars for us/And I can't give you love." I bet Costello wishes he could still write such a hook-packed song like "Sneaky Feelings" that would fit right in with tracks from his late '70s glory days; and the conflicted-ness about where one's true emotions lie is pitch perfect ("I can't let those kind of feelings show/I'd like to get right through to the way I feel for you/But I still got a long way to go..."). Don't let Catbite pass you by--and make sure to keep an eye on what this wonderful band does next.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: King Kong Girio, Boomtown United

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Before releasing two new, forthcoming EPs he's produced for Susan Cadogan and his own King Kong Four, King Kong Girio (ex-King Apparatus) has issued a sensational new single "When The Needle Drops" (digital, Bandcamp, 2018) that shouldn't be missed. Originally penned for another artist (who passed on it) and then shelved until Girio recently rediscovered it, the track is a slightly melancholy ("But time abandons/and leaves us here/Where we don't want to stay") but thoroughly nostalgic and heartfelt homage to the 1960s JA ska originators: "Was it the best of what you are/on a scratched up 45?/Because when that needle drops/Your music comes alive/When we look back/We can see where it all began/So long ago/You're not forgotten." Maybe it all was better then, but I'm pretty happy in the here and now with songs like this. Keep 'em coming!

St. Louis, MO's Boomtown United recently popped up on my radar through their contribution of "Work It Out" to the excellent Jump Up/Ska Brewing compilation Drink the Ska (read The Duff Guide to Ska review here). Their new, five-track, self-titled EP (digital, iTunes/Amazon, 2018) is full of extremely catchy and must-sing-along modern/post-2 Tone ska tracks. The urgent, slightly desperate (and shades of "English Civil War") "Outside" is fantastic rebel music: "Times are often tumultuous/A condition in the way in which we live/Searching for hope/Lost in the shadows/And the chances are rail thin/Down and out/That's how they found us/And they never really count us in...Oh, it may seem kind of ugly/That's just the way it is/We may seem kind of dangerous/From the outside looking in!" (An anthem for the resistance? You decide.) The unquenchable desire/lust in "Love Like Fire" (which boils down to: "Hot to the touch/I can't get enough") is conveyed in the dissonant trills of the sax, which are the aural equivalent of flames of fire. "Too Many Chances" lays out the inevitable after it's all gone bad ("The seeds of separation are starting to grow/Now time will tell us what we already know"), while "The Calling" is a soulful lament for musicians and their partners--I love you, but I've got to hit the road. Fans of bands like The Crombies and The Dirty Notion will be instant converts to Boomtown United (the Midwest ska scene has got it going on!). This is a band to keep an eye on...

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Duff Review: Susan Cadogan "The Girl Who Cried Over You" Single!

Stonyhill Records
Digital (vinyl 7" single to come from Jump Up Records)
2018

(Review by Steve Shafer)

The first day of 2018 brings two new shimmering ska tracks from Susan Cadogan (who, lucky for us, continues her incredibly fruitful long-distance collaboration with the wonderfully gifted producer, songwriter, and musician Mitch "King Kong" Girio). "I Don't Want Anybody But You" (co-written by Girio and Michelle McKibbon) is about coming to the surprising but profound realization that you've found the person to spend the rest of your life with ("When the TV’s barking the news and bringing me down/And I’m stuck at the bottom/You pick me up just to carry around/Saying you’re not forgotten/My heart is telling me something.../I don’t want anybody, but you"). "The Girl Who Cried Over You"--where the singer is devastated over a relationship gone bad but won't let go--is borrowed from the 2015 Fabulous Lolo (AKA Lorraine Muller of The Kingpins, etc.) Meets King Kong Girio My Favourite Heart to Break album. Few singers express the highs and lows of romantic love so well as Cadogan. One listen to these tracks and you'll already have heard some of the best ska that will be released in 2018.

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Duff Review: King Kong 4 "More Than Just a Plate Full" Single

Winterbeard Records
Two-track digital download
2017

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Given the unbelievably disastrous times we live in (at least here in America), it's hard for me not to think that the kids-learn-bigotry-at-home lyrics of King Kong 4's fantastic "Profile Of A New Elite" are anything but a blunt commentary on the current American president's pernicious and brazenly open cultivation of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Islamophobes, and their despicable ilk ("Well, boys it's not unlike your father to be hateful/So, eat up because it's not polite to be ungrateful/Deep under every home there's buried a secret/Daddy's digging them out, should they think to keep it/Every member of every family is guilty/Oh, guilty/It's a guilt that is not allowed..."). Then again, it could just be about the awesome power parents have to raise either good and decent human beings or menaces to society.

"Speaking for the Skeptics" is a charming--if melancholy--song told through a paranormal lens about unrequited love with a telephone psychic ("The medium is love/The message is extrasensory/Because you won't even look at me /Clairvoyance has its charm, you said/So does telekinesis, my dear/Use it to let me know you're here/I have had enough/J.B Rhine, or Mirabelli/Well, they might have seen the time/or the love that I'm sending you/But then you won't read my mind/What's the word that I'm searching for/When it's you I want to find/Trying to make that connection/But you're always on the line"). It reminds me of a sticker on a lamppost I see every day on the way to work: "The only magic I still believe in is love."

These are incredible songs (think late 70s Elvis Costello/Joe Jackson meets The Specials) by a stellar band that many more ska fans should make a point to know (and will then love!).

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Want more King Kong 4? Read The Duff Guide to Ska reviews of their There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It and You Like Awake EPs.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: King Kong 4 "There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It," Jackie Mittoo "Striker Showcase"

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

King Kong 4 There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It (Five-track digital EP, Winterbeard Records, 2017): I saw the harrowing movie version of Nevil Shute's post-World War III/doomsday novel "On the Beach" (where the last bits of humanity in Melbourne, Australia wait for the the nuclear fallout to reach and kill them--though most of the characters opt out via suicide pills, rather than suffering an agonizing death due to radiation poisoning) while in middle school at the end of the 1970s, when nuclear armageddon was a terrifyingly real possibility (and kept me up at nights). While King Kong 4's There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It EP and its song titles are all taken from Shute's bleak novel (note the mushroom clouds in the EP cover art), all of their instrumental tracks are actually pleasantly bright and cheery. "Going a Bit Mad in Our Own Way" (with its incredible ice rink organ line), "To Lose Before You Start" (which features samples of President Harry Truman talking about bombing Hiroshima), and "Sitting Behind the Wheel of Her Car" (plus two dub versions) are fantastic spaghetti Western ska tracks (appropriate, given America's cowboy image/mythology and notoriety as the only country to have used nuclear weapons in war). One imagines the KK4 up in Toronto, watching in resigned horror as its destabilized and unpredictable superpower neighbor wreaks havoc on the world, but opting to keep on creating (life-affirming) music rather than giving into helplessness and despair.

Jackie Mittoo Striker Showcase (2xCD, 17 North Parade/VP Records, 2017): Back in the latter half of the 70s, producer Bunny "Striker" Lee arranged for Studio One's former musical director, arranger, and master keyboardist Jackie Mittoo (Skatalites, Soul Vendors/Brothers, Sound Dimension) to depart his adopted Toronto for the UK and JA to re-record/re-interpret many of his seminal riddims that he created for Coxsone Dodd in the 1960s ("Hot Milk," "Ram Jam," and dozens more) for a series of albums: The Keyboard King (1977), Hot Blood (1977), Showcase (1978), and In Cold Blood (1978). For these wonderfully loose, warm, and funky recordings, Mittoo was backed by a stellar band that included Sly Dunbar on drums, Robbie Shakespeare on bass, Winston Wright and Ansel Collins on piano, Earl "Chinna" Smith on guitar, and Tony Chin, Winston "Bo Pee" Bowen, Geoffrey Chung, and Carl Harvey on rhythm guitar--all providing Mittoo with the rock solid roots foundation for him to work his extraordinary keyboard magic. Even if you picked up Blood and Fire's Champion in the Arena, 1976-1977 back in 2003, which contains most of what's on the first half of this release, you'll want this comp for its second CD. You can never have enough Jackie Mittoo in your collection.

Let's Go Bowling's "Music To Bowl By" Revisited

Editor's note: With the recent release of Let's Go Bowling's Music to Bowl By on vinyl--for the first time ever--through Mike Park's Asian Man Records, we thought it would be a good time to revisit this essential American ska album.

Despite issuing some incredible releases in the late '80s--most notably The NY Citizens' On the Move and Ska Face: An All-American Ska Compilation (The Toasters' Skaboom! and Thrill Me Up were actually issued through Celluloid/Skaloid, since Moon was hard-pressed for cash)--by the end of the decade, Moon Records was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. A series of indie distributor failures--Greenworld, Rough Trade, and New World--condemned almost 75% of Moon's pressed product to America's landfills (and then Celluloid/Skaloid went out of business right after the release of Thrill Me Up, without paying The Toasters any royalties on either album--and Skaboom! had sold around 12K copies by that point).

Rob "Bucket" Hingley (The Toasters' founder/guitarist/songwriter and Moon label head) spent much of 1990 rebuilding Moon Records, which was beginning to find its footing and some financial stability again through a newly-struck distribution deal with IRD (later Relativity). The Toasters' This Gun for Hire became the band's first release on Moon and one of its best-sellers up to that time (another release that year was Dance Hall Crashers' debut album with the yellow cover and black Charlie Brown zig-zag stripe on cassette and LP--the vinyl was pressed in the UK as a Moon Release by Revolver and imported to USA for sale). With some money in the bank and the means to reliably deliver product to the record shops, the label was (finally!) well-positioned to move forward and promote ska bands beyond New York City's limits.

Buck also was serving as Moon's A and R person while on repeated tours of the US with The Toasters, which is how he first encountered Let's Go Bowling (LGB) in the flesh in 1990 (along with DHC and Hepcat, who released their debut on Moon in '93). Buck recently recounted for The Duff Guide to Ska, "I had met LGB at the Country Club in Reseda where they blew me away with their tremendous live show--they were among the more instrumentally proficient bands on the scene at that time. But what impressed me the most was their blend of Latino stylings, as exemplified by the stand out track 'Esta Noche,' where everybody sang in Spanish." Buck and LGB hit it off and a simple, one-page licensing deal was soon signed for their debut album to be released on Moon.

Let's Go Bowling already had contributed a track to Moon's 1988 comp Ska Face ("Bitch") from their demo cassette and released their classic debut single "Rude 69" b/w "Dance Some More" on their own Spare Records that same year (here's the Zoot Skazine review of it from issue 14: ""Rude 69' is a pleasantly familiar jaunt through Potato 5 country, a chugging instrumental harking back to the good old days of Sixties ska. The flip side, 'Dance Some More,' is must faster (too fast?) and you'd really need to be on something to keep up with it"). They even played CBGB's in November 1989, with The Steadys, The Toasters, and Potato 5; I found out about the show a few days after it happened--urgh!

By the time Music to Bowl By was ready to be put into production in 1991, IRD had "advised" Moon that they wanted all new releases to be issued on compact disc, as vinyl was falling out of favor with music consumers at the time (Buck states that LGB was "gutted" that an LP wasn't pressed up), so this album became Moon's first release on CD (to be almost immediately followed by fantastic debut albums from The Scofflaws and King Apparatus, also on CD). [Cassettes were still viable in the early '90s; many of the promo copies that I sent out for review at that time were on tape.]

By all measures, Music to Bowl By is Third Wave classic. LGB's sound is a supercharged modern take on traditional ska, with elements of jazz, swing, Latin--even some classical music via Carl Stalling--in its DNA. The songs are all top-notch (especially "Pin Stripe Suit," "Rude 69," "Dance Some More," "L.G.B.," and the phenomenal "Esta Noche") and the performances are all-out stellar. The only flaw is the somewhat anemic original recording; it would have been great if the album had been remixed and remastered for this reissue.

Soon after its release in October of 1991, Music to Bowl By was one of Moon's hottest-selling albums and became enormously influential on the then still nascent national US ska scene (just think of the slew of American ska bands who cropped up in the mid-'90s and could trace their modern trad sound back to Let's Go Bowling...).

Buck gets the final word here on LGB's Music to Bowl By: "I am thrilled to finally see this album on wax and it's a tribute to the longevity of the band and the durability of the tunes that this particular release can still be viable 30 years on."

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: King Kong 4 "You Like Awake"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

King Kong 4 You Lie Awake (digital single, self-released/Bandcamp, 2017): If you mention that Mitch "King Kong" Girio was a key member of early '90s Canadian ska act King Apparatus (which, of course, featured Chris Murray), most ska fans would know the reference, but some might not be aware that he's been the go-to songwriter and producer for a slew of mostly Canadian bands including The Planet Smashers, The Kingpins, One Night Band, Prince Perry, and more. His most recent work has been in service of Susan Cadogan (check out our review of her incredible Take Me Back EP; Girio co-wrote all the tunes, as well as performed, recorded, and produced them), but now he's just released a great digital single for his own Toronto-based group, King Kong 4 (which includes Brendan Bauer on bass, Andrew McMullen on drums, Ronald Poon on Hammond organ, King Kong Girio on vocals and guitar).

King Kong 4's sound is a cross between the late '70s New Wave angry young man songwriters Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson (both of whom recorded ska/reggae tracks early on in their careers) and the 2 Tone of The Specials, but this kind of sells Girio's songwriting short--he's got his own thing going and can compose hooks like mad. "Breaking My Heart" is about love from a distance--the singer with a crush on a girl in the audience who he can't quite compel to dance to his band's music, which would be kind of like them being together (but she's with her "dead weight of a boyfriend"): "So get your ass onto the floor, girl/You better shake those hips/So what you think we play this shit for?/Can’t you read my lips?/It’s time to make a move, so act now/You can do the Twist /Just a little bit of dancing/Then you can’t be wrong /Just a little bit of dancing/Dancing all night long." "Annabelle" might be about a girl losing herself on an LSD trip ("Your world has come undone/Quickly dissolving on your tongue") or to growing paranoia/mental illness ("With no one to absolve you/Because the problem still revolves around the fear/That’s floating in the atmosphere/That’s coming oh so near"). Whatever the issue is, she's worried about being forgotten: "When half the world is slumbering/You lie awake half-wondering/Who will leave something here for Annabelle?" Both songs have an undercurrent of longing and melancholy, but the music is wonderfully catchy and upbeat.

Don't let this terrific release from King Kong 4 pass you by!

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Duff Review: Susan Cadogan's "Take Me Back" EP!

(By Steve Shafer)

Susan Cadogan Take Me Back (digital EP and CD, Stonyhill Records, 2016): While she is best known for her Lee "Scratch" Perry-produced 1975 hit "Hurt So Good" (#4 on the UK charts) and her classic self-titled 1976 album of "romantic reggae" for Trojan (which was also produced by Perry and is being re-issued on heavyweight vinyl in late October in celebration of Scratch's 80th birthday this year), reggae singer Susan Cadogan has been fairly active in the 2000s (for example, see her recent single with Ken Boothe on Jump Up) and her voice is still in absolutely gorgeous shape. Having said that, it was still a wonderful surprise to find that she's released an EP's worth of really fantastic new tracks on her Stonyhill Records label--all co-written by Mitch "King Kong" Girio of King Apparatus and Prince Perry fame, who also performed on, recorded, and produced these tracks. (It's very much worth mentioning that Take Me Back was recorded in Jamaica, Canada, and Germany by an all star team including “Lucky” Pete Lambert of The Trojans on drums, Jammal Tarkington and Rodney Teague of Keyser Soze on horns, Ryan Chopik of The Harmonauts on organ, Meher Steinberg of Prince Perry/King Apparatus on keys, and Girio on guitars and bass--they've done Cadogan proud.)

As might be expected, Take Me Back is full of damaged love songs--all exploring the Venn diagram of ecstasy and agony delineated in "Hurt So Good." The EP opens with a sultry and ethereal version of One Night Band's "Crazy" (co-written with Girio and Lorraine Muller of The Kingpins, Fabulous Lolo, etc.), which is a stellar rocksteady track about taking stock of a relationship after it's done and one's head is clear: "I must have been crazy to beg you to stay/Crazy enough to take you in anyway... Standing by the open door/Waiting for you to hurt me once more." Things shift quickly to the irrepressibly optimistic "Take Me Back"--see if you can resist singing along with the backup singers during the chorus--a song full of eager anticipation for the good things that could come if all is forgiven. "I Don't Want to Play Around" sounds like it could be a recently unearthed 2 Tone single (that would have hit it big!). Cadogan's heartbreaking performance on the dark "Leaving" is simply devastating ("The hardest part of leaving you/Is knowing that you'll move on, too/Holding somebody's hand/Instead of mine"). And even though the subject matter is kind of bleak ("The neighbors still talk/My best friends ask/It's the worst it could be/But when you left this home/You also took the best from me"), the EP ends with "The Best of Me," a sprightly and crazy catchy early/skinhead reggae cut.

I am in no way exaggerating when I state that this is one of the best ska/rocksteady releases I've heard this year.

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Duff Review: J. Navarro and The Traitors "Criminals and Lions"

Asbestos Records
2016
CD/digital download

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Detroiters Jay Navarro (of The Suicide Machines) and Eric Abbey (of 1592) are the masterminds behind J. Navarro and the Traitors, which has just unleashed a collection of powerful, pissed-off protest songs--delivered in a sharp modern ska/punky reggae style--on their fiercely excellent debut album, Criminals and Lions (mixed by Agent Jay of The Slackers/Crazy Baldhead). Things have been rough going in middle America since the Wall Street/housing meltdown/debacle of 2007, but the rot has been setting in ever since the supply-side/voodoo economics of the Reagan era. Detroit, AKA "Motor City,"--once America's fourth largest metropolis with the highest per-capita income in the US, when it was the auto manufacturing capital of the world and the unions were strong enough to ensure that the workers earned middle-class wages--has been hit particularly hard. In the first decade of this new millennium, Detroit's population decreased by 250,000 people (leaving great swaths of it abandoned); the city went bankrupt in 2013; and the 2014 census revealed that almost 40% of its residents live below the poverty line (making it the poorest big city in the USA). Living in the American-dream-gone-bust, post-apocalyptic shell of a city like Detroit has to significantly color your world view--so, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that J. Navarro and the Traitors' response to all the suffering and devastation around them is to make rebel music. And, boy, do they do it well.

"Deeper" is a great, hard-driving ska track (that sounds like it could be from King Apparatus' debut album) encouraging the listener to find empathy for others and the capacity to see beyond the ridiculously superficial differences (read: skin color) that we use to divide/fear/hate ourselves:

"So, follow your heart and no one else
In this life, think for yourself
I have no time for your hate
what you give, not what you take
Man kills man most every day
Makes no sense, no sense to me
We're not black, we're not white
We're just human beings"

The furious ska/hardcore track "New America" offers a bitingly sarcastic critique (in the fine tradition of the Dead Kennedys or Fear) of what life in our country has devolved into (instead of what it could be):

"I hope the bank gives me a predatory loan
Along with school debt and they foreclose on my home
Give me war, give me family dysfunction
Give me freedom with rules and restriction
Capitalism, corporatocracy
All the grease the wheels of the war machine"

In a similar vein, "Right Apart" is a reggae lament about how we have the ability to address so many of our fellow human beings' problems, but greed and selfishness prevent the powers that be from actually doing something to resolve it all: "I see suffering everywhere/I see starvation/Looking for a better day/Hope a better day will come...The rich have it all/they don't want to share." (There's also a nice dubbed-out version of this track at the end of the album.)

"Water" refers to Detroit's 2014 water crisis (not the lead poisoning of Flint, MI's residents via their water system), which emerged after the city entered bankruptcy and was placed under the control of an emergency manager (appointed by Michigan's governor). In his search to find revenue for the city's coffers, the manager decided to go after Detroit's poorest black residents--again, about 40% of this city's population lives in poverty--who were behind on their water bills and turned off their water if they couldn't pay. This prompted the United Nations to issue this unusual rebuke: "Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights." What was particularly galling was the it appeared that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department wasn't pursing significant, overdue commercial and municipal water bills with as much zeal (and wasn't shutting off their water when payment wasn't forthcoming). After echoing the UN's declaration, "water is a human right--please don't stop the water," J. Navarro and the Traitors' terrifically upbeat track (very appropriately) segues into a spirited ska cover of Toots and Maytals' "Pressure Drop" that simultaneously recognizes and sympathizes with the plight of Detroit's residents, while calling out the powers that be for their inhumane actions:

"I say a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah, pressure drop a drop on you
I say a pressure drop, oh pressure
Oh yeah, pressure drop a drop on you

I say when it drops, oh you gonna feel it
Know that you were doing wrong!
I say when it drops, oh you gonna feel it
Know that you were doing wrong!"

The fantastic, buoyant ska cut "Oppressor"--it might be my favorite songs on the album--uses a quote by the (now retired) Anglican South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (a celebrated anti-apartheid, peace and social justice activist) as something of a mantra to encourage people to take action if they see injustice around them, since doing nothing is itself a form of complicity:

"If you are neutral
In the situation
of injustice
You have chosen
The side of
the oppressor"

If you see something wrong, do something right.

"Youth Not Wasted" and the incredibly catchy "Rude" are songs of inspiration for the young (we only go around once, so learn from others' life experience while you can!). The former essentially advises kids to not be in an anxious rush to become adults, but to fully enjoy where they're at ("Not knowing shit or where to go/The best times in life are often now/So, sing along and join the crowd/The only way to ever be free/Is to dance along and sing with me"), while the latter posits that the best way to live your life is to be "rude"--to stubbornly be yourself and not be knocked off/lured away from your own path.

The track that perhaps best sums up J. Navarro and The Traitors' reason for being (and serves as their mission statement) is "Write for You":

"Listen up
The hardest thing in this world
is to find yourself and just be you
The lion never fears the jackal
in Babylon, yeah I'm true
I'll never stop bringing all the noise
of a protest song
It's a revolution of the mind
20 year's lion strong
Because these words and these songs
are all I've ever had
Revolution songs, these songs of freedom
These songs of defiance
Criminals and Lions"

I hope J. Navarro and The Traitors' fantastic songs of truth and righteousness find their way to many receptive ears and heads (the messages are delivered inside some terrific tunes!). These days--and I suspect even more so in the future--we need an army of lions to set things right.

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"Unstoppable: An Oral History of Stomp Records"

Noisey has just posted a terrific piece on a certain indie Canadian ska label that's still going strong and now celebrating their 20th anniversary (!): "Unstoppable: An Oral History of Stomp Records." Matt Collyer of The Planet Smashers (and founder of Stomp) and Chris Murray (King Apparatus), who produced the first Planet Smashers album, provide great insight into the rise (and continued success) of Stomp and the Canadian ska scene. It's a great read!

NYC Screening of "Riot on the Dance Floor: The Story of Randy Now and City Gardens"

Check out The NY Citizens button on Randy's bag!

I'm sad to say that I never made it down to see a ska show at the legendary, but long-closed City Gardens in down-and-out Trenton, NJ. While in the 80s and 90s this venue run by promoter New Wave DJ and postal worker Randy Now showcased some of the best punk, hardcore, hip-hop, metal, New Wave, and alternative acts around, Now also put together tons of ska shows that featured bands like Fishbone, The Skatalites, The Toasters, Bim Skala bim, The NY Citizens, Panic/Bigger Thomas, King Apparatus, Dance Hall Crashers, The Skunks, Mephiskapheles, and many more. So, as the US ska scene grew in the late 80s and early 90s, City Gardens became a vital spot along the ska touring route along the I-95 corridor between NYC and Philly.

With this in mind, NYC-area ska fans will want to catch a screening of a new documentary titled, "Riot on the Dance Floor: The Story of Randy Now and City Gardens," which is playing tomorrow night (Thursday, August 28, 2014 at 7:00 pm) at the AMC Loews Village 7 (66 Third Avenue in Manhattan).

There will be questions and answers session after the film with the director (Steve Tozzi) and members of the Butthole Surfers (Gibby Haynes), Rollins Band (Sim Cain), and the Cro-Mags (John Joseph), as well as an after party at Bowery Electric with Gibby Haynes DJing.

Fans of Bigger Thomas (and Rude Boy George) will find this documentary of interest, as Roger Apollon and Marc Wasserman are interviewed in the film (they're also in a new book about City Gardens titled, "Notice: No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History of the Legendary City Gardens," by Amy Yates Wuelfing and Steven DiLodovico).

Duff Review: Chris Murray, The Ladrones, and Rude Boy George at Electric Avenue on 11/16/13!

(by Steve Shafer)

While it would be outrageously self-serving to write a review of a show that I helped organize and that also featured a band that I'm in, I'll go the route of cobbling something together here that is somewhere between a just-the-facts-ma'am report and a first person experience of the night.

Rude Boy George, the band that I'm damn lucky to be a part of (singing back-up vocals and playing a smattering of melodica), performed their fifth live show at Electric Avenue on Saturday, November 16, 2013. We formed back in January, after I shared a crazy idea that had been bouncing around my head for a few years with Marc Wasserman, the bassist of Bigger Thomas and writer for Marco on the Bass blog: for kicks, let's form a band that does ska, rocksteady, and reggae covers of New Wave classics (we both were in high school and college during the 1980s and are still fanatic about the "modern rock" bands of that era). Marc loved the idea and almost immediately recruited many of his bandmates from Bigger Thomas (Roger Apollon on vocals, original BT drummer Jim Cooper, and guitarist Spencer Katzman) and keyboardist Dave Barry (Beat Brigade, The Toasters). I had the idea of approaching Across the Aisle singer and friend Megg Howe, who signed up with us on the spot!

After several rehearsals, we forged a respectable set list of tunes by Human League, Soft Cell, The Romantics, Billy Idol, INXS, The Smiths, Cyndi Lauper, Squeeze, Culture Club (we've since added songs by Gary Numan, the Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, and Berlin) and debuted at Electric Avenue on April 13, 2013 to a very enthusiastic crowd. Later that spring, we recorded three tracks at Bill Laswell's studio out in West Orange, NJ with ex-General Public/Special Beat/English Beat bassist Wayne Lothian producing. Our five-track digital EP Take One (with "(Keep Feeling) Fascination," "Don't Change," and "Talking in Your Sleep"--plus two remixes) will be released in the near future. And plans are in the works to record additional covers soon that will see the light of day on a more tangible format. Rude Boy George's set list continues to expand with each rehearsal and show (and our line-up has already changed a bit: we now feature Jesse Gosselin of Across the Aisle/The Royal Swindle and Jeff Usamanont of FunkFace/Daft Phunk/Electric Company on guitars). At our recent gig at Hat City Kitchen in Orange, NJ, we unleashed our goth-reggae version of the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way," which we had worked out in a three-hour rehearsal the night before (see the video of it from our Electric Avenue show below).

According to Roger, this gig featured some of Rude Boy George's best performances yet. Watch some/all of the videos of our performance below to confirm his assessment (big thanks to Sally Apollon for taping them!). This was our entire set that night, with the exception of Berlin's "The Metro" (which we'll capture at some future date, as it has an excellent Selecter vibe to it and Megg's performance is phenomenal on this track).























Electric Avenue is very interested in linking up with the Spanish ska scene in the NYC area (we've hosted Los Skarroneros in the past), so we were psyched to feature The Ladrones (The Thieves), who are a fantastic, anthemic ska-punk powerhouse (check out their excellent, new digital album Bestias del Chaos--I really dig "Tradicion,""Basta," and "No Hay Futuro," which is below)! The opened their set with a bad-ass rendition of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn Theme" and then ripped through a killer set of horn-heavy original tunes. I'm sad to say that my Spanish is very poor, so I can't tell you what they were singing about, but everyone present was captivated by their dynamic and muscular performance. Below are some videos of their performance...





If you didn't already know, Chris Murray was first the singer/songwriter for Canada's super popular King Apparatus (their 1991 debut album is an early 3rd Wave classic--check out my review of it here). Chris went solo in the mid-90s, forgoing Toronto's long, rough winters for the eternal sunshine of Southern California. When Chris approached Moon Records with his decidedly lo-fi, one man ska band debut album (The Four Track Adventures of Chris Murray), Bucket was very wary of releasing it. But Chris' incredible songwriting and lively performances won me over immediately. After some lobbying, I convinced a reluctant Bucket that the album was more than worthy of being released on the label (the saga of the album's release is, of course, memorialized on Chris' "Cooper Station Blues," which he snuck onto the release without our knowledge just before the CD was pressed at DiscMakers!).

Our paths hadn't passed since the late 90s, so when Chris indicated that he was planning an East Coast tour, I was ecstatic that he accepted our invitation to play Electric Avenue. At the last minute, Chris had taken on the opening slot on the Streetlight Manifesto tour. So on this night, Chris played his 30-minute set in Sayerville, NJ, hopped on a train to NYC, and then headlined our show. He performed for about an hour and a half and clearly had a blast (as did everyone in the crowd)--taking requests (see "Ex Darling" below, thanks to Bryan Kremkau of Ska Punk Photos, who also took some amazing photos of each performer), as well as covering The Toasters' "Thrill Me Up" and recounting how his first record came about ("Cooper Station Blues"). It was fantastic catching up with Chris after the show, talking about strategies for releasing his next album, and figuring out how he could get out to where he was staying in Brooklyn later that night/morning without the L train (which was suspended, due to construction). Here's hoping he comes this way again soon...

Next Electric Avenue Show with Chris Murray, The Ladrones, Rude Boy George (11/16/13)!

Here's my shameless plug for the next Electric Avenue show with Chris Murray, The Ladrones, and Rude Boy George on Saturday, November 16, 2013!

Rude Boy George--the band I'm privileged to be part of--does ska and reggae covers of New Wave classics and we're continuing our fall residency at Electric Avenue and should have some totally awesome new covers in our set (the crowd at our last show went crazy for our just unleashed versions of Berlin's "Metro" and Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer"!). To paraphrase Johnny Slash, "Ska-punk? No way. We're new wave ska. Totally different head. Totally!" (the relevant video clip you want is around the three minute mark here). We're fun. Come see us.

The Ladrones ("thieves" in Spanish) are a super-tight, horn-heavy NYC band with a brand new digital album full of anthemic, sing-along ska-punk tunes called Bestias del Chaos (available through their Bandcamp page). We've heard nothing but great things about their electric live show. Bring your ear plugs and be ready to dance.

I had the honor to work with Chris Murray back in the 1990s, both when he was a member of the incredible King Apparatus (their 1991 debut album is an early 3rd Wave ska classic--read my appreciation of it here--it should be in everyone's collection) and then when he struck out on his own as a one man ska band (his 1996 debut, lo-fi solo album, The 4-Track Adventures, highlights Murray's prodigious songwriting skills, which are presented in all their stripped-down-to-the-bone glory; it took a lot of lobbying Bucket to put this one out, but I'm so glad he did). Chris has released a slew of solo records since then (4-Trackaganza!, Raw, Slackness, Yard Sale), plus one with The Chris Murray Combo (Why So Rude). This is a very rare New York City appearance for Chris Murray, so definitely make sure to come out and see his fantastic acoustic set (which, by the way, will be the second ska acoustic Electric Avenue has presented, following Roddy Radiation's and Lynval Golding's performance over the summer).

Hope to see you there!

2012 Montreal Ska Festival Boasts NYC Night with Victor Rice, The Forthrights, and The Rudie Crew!!

God, if I had a less complicated, responsibility-filled life, I would point the family station wagon due North and head straight up the NY State Thruway until I hit the Canadian border and beyond in order to experience the 2012 Montreal Ska Festival, which takes place between October 11th and 14th (see image at right for all of the glorious details).

Of particular note, this year there is a NYC night (!) featuring some of the finest bands Gotham has to offer: Victor Rice (who actually may be more Brazilian right now that New Yorker!), The Forthrights, and The Rudie Crew (plus Agent Jay of The Slackers is DJing each night of the festival).

Canadian acts that I would love to catch include Prince Perry, The Beatdown, The Planet Smashers, and Mitch Girio (currently of Prince Perry and formerly of the late and very great King Apparatus). If any of these bands are thinking about coming down to the NYC, I could perhaps hook them up with a gig at a certain monthly ska night called Electric Avenue (...just sayin'!).

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For some background on the festival (which is organized by a non-profit group staffed by volunteers), check out this interview I did last year with one of the festival's co-founders, Valerie Desnoyers, as well as festival volunteer/performer/booster, Lorraine Muller (of The Fabulous Lolo, Lo and the Magnetics, and The Kingpins).

New Prince Perry "Bee on the Bus" Remix/Free Download

Whether you're a long-standing Prince Perry fan or completely unfamiliar with the band, here's a chance to check out/legally download a free remix of "Bee on the Bus" (off their fantastic Love at the End of the Century album--read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.)



And while we're on the subject of Prince Perry, check out one of my favorite tracks from Love at the End of the Century...(and if you dig this track, listen to an equally cool alternate version from Prince Perry band member Mitch "King Kong" Girio--who wrote this song--from his King Kong Girio 1 EP).

Duff Review: Prince Perry "Love at the End of the Century"

Zebra Libre Records
2011
CD

(Reviewed by Steve Shafer)

Recently, I mail-ordered Prince Perry's Love at the End of the Century on a whim, since I had only become vaguely aware of the band while I was doing research for an interview I did with Valerie Desnoyers and Lorraine Muller regarding the 2011 Montreal Ska Festival. When I noticed that the band covered The Police's "Walking on the Moon" (a song from my teen years that still holds particular significance, as I can vividly remember listening to the track over and over on my Walkman as I walked home late at night from parties and dates where inevitably I had failed to express my true feelings of love and lust), it stirred all sorts of new wave-era and lost youth nostalgia, so I figured I'd give Prince Perry a shot.

While Prince Perry's skittish, wound-up ska revamp of "Walking on the Moon" (which jettisons the original's giddy, starry-eyed goofiness--"I hope my legs don't break/walking on the moon...") is a great introduction to the band's amalgamation of skinhead reggae, 2 Tone ska, and modern rock, their brilliantly catchy and strikingly original tracks are a true revelation here. Perry Gladstone's and Mitch "King Kong" Girio's (ex-King Apparatus!) wonderful non-standard-issue ska songs are mostly concerned with attempts to make a love connection (emotional and otherwise), but they process life through an off-kilter filter with sharp, funny, and engaging results. Don't expect the typical yarns of love, lust, and loss about the boy/girl next door or man/woman in the next cubicle--but you will find a lot of unvarnished honesty and emotional depth that resonates.

The opening shot from the album, "Whatever You Can Get Away With," posits that since we're living in a vast, chaotic/amoral universe, our actions have little impact, meaning, or consequence ("Will the world keep turning/if we stay home that day?"). But even though we're insignificant on a cosmic scale (and no higher being may be judging us), we certainly have the great capacity to screw up our own lives and others' in small and devastating ways that we know are wrong ("Will my lips turn blue/when I go astray/Can I still come home/Will it be okay?").

One might assume that the title track, "Love at the End of the Century," is about romance being thwarted by end-of-millenium dread, but it's actually a jittery track about a much older man ("My mom's old man") with a still very active libido looking for sexual release any way he can: "A shave and a haircut for fifty cents/A can of tuna lasts all weekend/Pinching a penny 'till it bleeds/but a little action costs three fifties." Despite the the song's lyrical randiness, the loneliness (and guilt) of outliving your peers and the desperate, primal need to connect with other human beings before your own mortality overtakes you is achingly palpable (like I said, you won't find your stereotypical ska song fare here).

"Spinning Girl"--shades of Rumpelstiltskin!--has the singer enchanted by a Brothers Grimm fairy tale-type woman whose story is brought to life within the rotating grooves of an LP ("Songs about her fill the air/The rhythms softly soothe my ear/The deer come running from afar/and nest themselves among her arms/Spinning girl, oh let me see/the mirror here won't talk to me/Spinning girl, you came along/and now I know how much I long, I long"). Who hasn't fallen in love at some point with that mysteriously encoded vinyl, tape, or digital voice emanating from your speakers? (During my teen years, I'll cop to falling hard for Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Pierson, Annabella Lwin, Patty Donahue, Terri Nunn, and Dale Bozzio...)

Despite all their efforts, the woman in "You Won't Say It" and our protagonist just can't seem to find the ability to communicate on the same wavelength: "I'm singing out of tune/and you say I've got the words all wrong/But I'm so in love with you/And you say it's all the same old song/Well, how can I tell the truth, if you won't say it?" Every time I hear it, I can't help but sing along with this cut's gorgeously catchy chorus-- plus "You Won't Say It" has one of the best, most evocative lyrics on the album: "I kiss your face/and you roll away/and howl at the moon." (His affectionate kiss turns her into a monstrous beast?!)

"Bee on the Bus" is a small moment (melo)drama as the singer checks out a "beauty" who boards the bus he's on and she ends up sitting on--and being stung by--a bee; she blurts out in the chorus (to the shock of the other passengers): "a bee bit my ass on the bus!" Both parties are aware that their relationship has almost run it's course in "Say You Won't," but the singer can't bear the pain of the split yet and begs for whatever scraps of dying tenderness he can get ("I can't take the sorrow/maybe next week/Well, things will be better/and I'll send you on your way/but please don't leave me today"). "Until It Don't Happen" is about mistaken and shifting perceptions of one's own identity and abilities. "Wire" is a Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello non-ska new wave/power-pop romp about burning bridges--literally cutting off all means of communication.

The final cut, "On it Goes," brings down the curtain on all the small vignettes depicted in all the preceding tracks, but acknowledges that the emotional turmoil, self-absorption, greed, and petty crap of stumbling through our messy lives is never-ending ("And all the time/we beg and whine/for all that things that seem to us to be sublime/And all the time/we seek to find/another way for people to believe we're divine"). But Prince Perry isn't bitter about it all--he's kind of resigned to the fact that it's just the way things are and will always be as long as there are people on the planet (the chorus may remind one of Billy Pilgrim's "So it goes" refrain from Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five").

Prince Perry's Love at the End of the Century is one of those albums that you'll find semi-permanently lodged in whatever device you use to listen to music--as well as your head. It's simply stellar--and one of the best and most unique ska records I've had the pleasure of randomly picking up in a long, long time.

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Duff Guide to Ska Video Vault: The Toasters' "Thrill Me Up" and The Scofflaws' "A Shot in the Dark"

For years I've been sitting on some live Super 8 sound film footage that I shot of The Toasters, King Apparatus, Desorden Publico, Dance Hall Crashers, The Skunks, and more around '93 or '94 at SOB's in Manhattan. All of these reels need to be professionally converted to digital files--which ain't cheap--but I'll get around to it some point soon and share this blast from the past with all the ska fans out there.

I also have a tape of The Toasters and Scofflaws performing live at NYC's Palladium in November 1992 for an unnamed television special (those in the know should try to spot some of the early '90s NYC ska scenesters dancing on stage between the bands). Every now and then, I will be posting short excerpts from this show, the first of which features The Scofflaws covering Henry Mancini's "A Shot in the Dark" and The Toasters performing "Thrill Me Up." Watch it here. See The Scofflaws in their glory days (Victor Rice in a fez and Mike Drance on bari sax!)--and check out what must be one of the few videotaped appearances of Pablo D., who was briefly in The Toasters, just after Cashew Miles and before Coolie Ranx (and he chats on a few New York Fever tracks).

Shots in the Dark: King Apparatus - King Apparatus

Editor's note: Shots in the Dark spotlights third-wave ska releases that should have been massive hits on the scene but, due to bad timing, poor luck, or a fickle record-buying public, were lost in the fray.

The Band: Toronto-based King Apparatus, Chris Murray's band before he ditched frigid Ontario for the warmth of Southern California, went solo (first as Venice Shoreline Chris, now the Chris Murray Combo), and found (relative) fame amongst US and international ska audiences.

The Sound: King Apparatus were one of the few 2 Tone-influenced third-wave acts to almost completely forgo horns and follow The Specials' revved-up guitar/keyboard-focused brand of ska. Interestingly, the Chuck Berry/Roddy Radiation guitar sound that drives Murray's songs often subtly incorporates elements of blues and country music.

The Release: Despite their obvious musical debt to The Specials, King Apparatus were by no means imitators to the throne--Chris Murray's powerfully original (and often sharply angry) songs coupled with the band's super-charged delivery proved that they were the real thing: a world-class ska band. From the first manic beats of "Non-Stop Drinking" to the defiantly misanthropic "Heartless," King Apparatus grab hold of the listener with their intense, compelling, and incredibly catchy songs and don't let go (after listening to the album for this review, I keep waking up at night hearing "Break Your Heart" running through my head). It's like being buttonholed by Coleridge's haunted Ancient Mariner in a dive bar--Murray is fated to tell you his tales about good and bad relationships ("Wasteland," "Hangin' On"), bogus televangelists ("Live Feed from Heaven"), a false leader urging ignorant kids to launch a racial war ("Tom Metzger's Big Plan"..."an Aryan time bomb/it's gonna get him rich/but it'll get you arrested"), all the characters hanging around waiting to be seen in the ER ("Hospital Waiting Room"), imagining his life as a TV movie ("Made for TV"..."and Nina Hagen/if we can name her price/could play my mother, my sister, my wife") before he can release you into the night, but it's all so good you'll end up buying him a drink because you want to hear more. It's a terrific album that sounds just as good, if not better, in 2008 as it did in 1991.

The Sad Circumstances: Originally released on Raw Energy Records in Canada in 1991, King Apparatus' self-titled debut--a big hit for the band north of the border--was picked up for distribution in the US by Moon Records (basically Bucket working out of his basement and me doing promotions part-time, after work out of my kitchen). Unfortunately, at the time, the American ska scene was small, disjointed, and disorganized (the pre-Internet days, baby!)--and this record went largely unnoticed and unsold. Having said that, several college ska DJs did pick up on the release and added it to their playlists and the odd skazine reviewed it, but few ska bands could venture out on the road for a national tour in support of their record (the best way to promote it) without losing their shirts--the ska touring circut just hadn't been firmly established yet.

The Grade: A-

Availability: In print and available from Asian Man Records.