Duff Review/Ska Singles Going Steady: Eric Blowtorch & The Bodyguards, King Kong 4, Smoke & Mirrors Soundsystem

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Eric Blowtorch is always doing interesting and unconventional things out in his home base in Milwaukee. For the past decade or so, Blowtorch has been on my radar with incredible releases like 2018's 12" EP Horace Andy backed by Welders "Straight To Hell" and Big Youth backed by Welders "Pair of Dice" b/w Horace Andy v. Big Youth "Asylum Seekers" and Eric Blowtorch "Christmas in Ladbroke Grove" (read my review here) and 2021's triple LP (!) Quality Items (read my review here). But I feel like a dope for not realizing much sooner that I've heard his stuff going back to the '90s with his involvement with Highball Holiday (who released an album on Moon's Ska Satellite Records imprint that I ran and were featured on my comp Skarmageddon 3; and Highball Holiday are now back in action, by the way!).

With an opening guitar riff borrowed from Andy & Joey's "You're Wondering Now," Blowtorch & co.'s great digital single "Sanctuary City," is about welcoming refugees on America's southern border fleeing dictatorships and drug gangs ("Come one, come all/Lift your heart/Crack open the wall/Gunmen on the other side/But maybe love and amnesty, too/Sanctuary city opens/Millions of arms to you"). This track, released just weeks into Russia's appalling invasion of Ukraine, takes on even more significance with millions more people fleeing chaos, death, and destruction in their home countries. The question remains if America can ever find its bearings again to champion human rights and fully welcome and embrace large numbers of refugees from around the world, no matter what their color or religion. ("You're wondering how you should pay/For the way you did behave," indeed.) A portion of this single's proceeds is being donated to the International Rescue Committee, which was founded in 1933 at the suggestion of Albert Einstein (a refugee himself) to help people fleeing fascism in Germany, Italy, and Spain.

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It's really heartening to see singer/songwriter extraordinaire Mitch Girio return with new music from his incredible King Kong 4. It's been two years since Punch It, KK4's brilliant compilation of singles, was released by Jump Up (read my review here), and during this period Girio suffered from a virus that caused some sort of brain injury. Thankfully, he's recovered and back in action. This time out, in his fantastically searing "Paper Sky" digital single, Girio sings about an embattled relationship where there's no shelter from the biting lyrics or the metaphorical bombs that rain from above (I can't help from associating this song with nuclear war with Putin's recent threats to use the bomb):

Here we go as we run for cover
Somewhere underneath a paper sky
Is there a place that's the same for lovers
Who never really try?

And you will give your word
Then try to break it

This ska-rock track--shades of Emotional Fascism (aka Armed Forces) era Costello--culminates with an unexpected and thrilling, kick-ass instrumental outro.

Girio also has contributed a hauntingly lovely cover of Umbrella Heaven's "Soulmate" ("Breaking my back for you/You never asked me to") to Perverted Pleasures, a new tribute album to this cult 1990s UK indie rock band. 

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Smoke & Mirrors Soundsystem's quest for world dominance continues with a cracking new single released on Steady Beat Recordings. (If you don't believe me, check out the slew of records that have come out since their debut 2021 album Strength in Numbers--singles on Badasonic ("Second That Emotion" b/w "Mad World"--read my review here), Liquidator ("Mi Vida Sin Tu Amor" b/w "I'm a Man"--read my review here), and a forthcoming 12" on Jump Up Records featuring Roy Ellis and Monty Nesmith.) As Luis Correa's Steady Beat often focuses on Latin sounds, Smoke & Mirrors Soundsystem's new 7" picture sleeve single features two super crisp Spanish-language Latin ska cuts: John Roy's original "Nadie Te Lo Hizo" b/w a cover of Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe's 1973 salsa cut "El Dia de me Suerte." The theme running through this release is essentially that you should seize the day (side A's title in English is "Nobody Did It To You"; the flip is "My Lucky Day," a tale of passivity in the face of life-long woe: "Soon my lucky day will come/I know before my death/My luck will surely change"). With a never-ending pandemic, worsening global warming, and the looming specter of WWIII, it's probably time to lead your best life while you can. Everybody's got an expiration date.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Various Artists: "Do the Dog Ska-A-Go-Go, Volume 3"

Do the Dog Music
Digital
2021

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Since Kevin Flowerdew's essential Do the Dog Skazine is so thorough in its coverage of the global ska scene--far beyond what I'm able to digest and review each year for The Duff Guide to Ska--it only follows that I've only heard around half of the bands/songs on his fantastic new compilation Do the Dog Ska-A-Go-Go, Volume 3. This compilation features an extremely generous 47 tracks (!) of ska varying in style from traditional to 2 Tone to ska-punk from acts all over the world (some of them singing in languages other than English). Come for some of the better-known bands on Do the Dog Ska-A-Go-Go, Volume 3 like The Planet Smashers, Maroon Town, Cartoon Violence, The Bionic Rats, The Bruce Lee Band, Erin Bardwell, Crazy Baldhead, King Kong 4, The Co-operators & Friends, The Pomps, Detroit Riddim Crew, Catbite, The Skapones, Zen Baseballbat, Barbicide, The Abruptors,  Stop the Presses, The Players Band, Bad Operation, Some Ska Band, The Simmertones, Flowerdew's own Bakesys, and you'll walk away with many new faves, including acts like T-Killas, The Kubricks, RudeSix, GoGo 13, Los Fastidios & Elisa Dixan, and more. All participating acts contributed their music to help Kevin keep on publishing future issues of Do the Dog Skazine, which--in old school zine fashion--is only available in its print version from the man himself. 

Duff Guide to Ska Bullet Points: King Kong 4, and The Red Stripes!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

• After raving about their series of digital singles and EPs released over the past several years, I'm thrilled that King Kong 4--which features members of Canadian ska acts King Apparatus, Prince Perry, and Lo and the Magnetics, led by KA's Mitch Girio--have released Punch It! (Black or blue vinyl LP, Jump Up Records, 2020), a compilation that assembles all of these tracks on one knock-out slab of vinyl. If you've missed out on this band previously, King Kong 4's sound is 2 Tone plus power-pop, the dark ska tracks on More Specials meets the bite of This Year's Model, with songs that breathe life into stories about personal, everyday dramas (love, mostly), and some about matters that have more ominous implications for everyone. The lead-off (and best) track here is "Profile Of A New Elite," which is about the awesome power parents have to raise either good and decent human beings or menaces to society, while "Speaking for the Skeptics" (which features a new music video) is concerned with unrequited love with a telephone psychic (both are from the 2017 single More Than Just a Plateful, which I reviewed here). The spaghetti Western ska instrumentals "Going A Bit Mad in Our Own Way" and "To Lose Before You Start" were inspired by 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 (these are from their 2017 EP There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It, which I reviewed here). "Breaking My Heart Again" is about loving someone who's unavailable from a distance, and "Annabelle" is coming undone by mind-altering drugs and/or mental illness (both are from KK4's 2017 single You Lie Awake, which I reviewed here). "It's Quitting Time" celebrates the daily five o'clock whistle, "Taking Back the Ring" is about repeatedly forgiving a repeat cheater, the end of the night "Drink In Your Head" is about assessing what transpired while you were under the influence, and "Grenadine" is mean to you, but you love her anyway (all are from their 2018 EP Songs for Olly, which I reviewed here). And, even though I missed writing them up, "Lessons Learned" ("You promised to be my honey/Before you took all my money/Lesson learned and know I know/It's all for naught") and "All Those Wasted Days," which urges a friend to get out of the pleasant and easy, but soul-killing suburbs to fulfilling the longing for "someone or something, someplace else," are equally as excellent as everything else here (and are from the 2017 single If Those Rays Don't Kill You First). Can an album of tracks from several yesteryears be a contender for one of the albums of this year? I certainly think so.

• Hong Kong's Red Stripes have released a terrific, free (or pay-as-you-wish) album titled The Live Sessions (Digital, Mod Sound Records, 2020), which features a healthy mix of tracks from the band's two albums proper, In the Ska East and Made in Hong Kong (read my reviews of them here and here). These recordings, captured live in the studio in front of an invited audience, are both warm and bright, and the band's performances are spot-on and spirited--proof positive that The Red Stripes have the goods in performance. While the song arrangements don't deviate much from their album versions, it is good to hear some of your favorite tracks out in the wild, so to speak (particularly "Made in Hong Kong," "Don't Build Twice," "Rude Rude Rude," "Innocent," and "Big Boss Man"). And it sure sounds like these were fun nights to be in the crowd.

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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Singles Going Skanking: Susan Cadogan's "Breakfast in Bed," Danny Rebel and the KGB's "Spacebound"

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Danny Rebel and the KGB's most recent album, 2017's Lovehaus, was a phenomenal ska-reggae-soul-pop gem packed with incredibly catchy and evocative songs, so it's great to finally see a new release (even if it's only one track) from this spectacular band. The beautiful but melancholy "Spacebound"  is a "Space Oddity" of sorts for our times (with a little "Man Who Fell to Earth" mixed in) and sequel to their apocalyptic track "When the Lights Go Out" from Lovehaus. Instead of tentatively reaching out to explore the final frontier, it's concerned with escaping the goddamn mess humanity's made of everything here below: "With this clock here going in reverse...When I'm fed up and wanna quit/I'll shimmy on down to my rocket ship/All the madness on this Earth just makes me sick." (Danny, how much room do you have on that ship? 'Cause there are a whole lot of people who want to join you on this ride...)

Over the past few years, legendary reggae singer Susan Cadogan has issued a string of consistency  amazing new releases in conjunction with producer-songwriter-musician-King Kong 4 man Mitch Girio (see The Duff Guide to Ska reviews of Mitch and the King Kong 4 here)--and her latest digital single ("Breakfast in Bed" b/w "Don't Burn Your Bridges Behind You," digital, 2019) does not fail to impress. This time out, she covers Dusty Springfield's classic "Breakfast in Bed" (written by Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts), which also has been recorded by Hortense Ellis, Lorna Bennett, Scotty, Bongo Herman and the Harry J Allstars, Sheila Hylton, and UB40 with Chrissy Hynde, amongst others over the years. This terrific rocksteady version of this song--about being the "other woman" comforting someone else's boyfriend/husband--is joyful, playful, and lusty, where Dusty's is tinged with heartache that their time together can only be sporadic and fleeting. I was completely unfamiliar with "Don't Burn Your Bridges Behind You" by 1970s, NYC-based soul/disco band Ecstasy, Passion and Pain, which apparently was a huge hit in Jamaica in 1974. While the original is offered as an admonishment (to someone who's going to light the matches, anyway), Cadogan's sprightly take is more like good advice from a trusted friend.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: The Captivators, Do the Dog Skazine, The Frightnrs, King Kong 4, and Well Charged!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

The Captivators Need a Lift? (digital EP, self-released, 2018): While I'm not sure how lead track "Ass, Gas or Grass" from Washington DC's Captivators' debut EP comports with these Me Too times, it is pretty smart-ass and funny (it's based on an old bumper sticker that you'd used to see back in the '70s and '80s when hitchhiking was a pretty common thing: "Ass, Gas or Grass: Nobody Rides for Free"--which pretty much sums up the American ethos). And it gives you the correct first impression that The Captivators are all about being completely entertaining while having a blast--which they definitely do on this release (the band is Alex Daniels on drums, Bill Wade on vocals and t-bone, Charles Freedman on bass, Dan Hauser on guitar, Jaime Soto on sax, and Mark Allred on trumpet and keys). The recording itself is a serviceable DIY effort (made in a band member's basement), but the songs and performances are definitely there (their sound, attitude, and vision lurks somewhere between The Scofflaws and Gangster Fun). Key tracks include "Piltdown Man" (about a 1912 paleoanthropological hoax--someone claimed they found the "missing link": "The Piltdown Man/Was such a scam/Skull of a man/Jaw of orangutan/It makes me sad to hear that gadgeteer/Could gain such fame from such a claim/The crowd he'd awed with his defraud/That charlatan Charles Dawson"), "Poor Jimmy" (about an innocent kid chewed up by one of America's foreign interventions: "He had to see things he never should have seen/He had to do things he never should have done/And at the tender age of 19/They were through with Jimmy when the war was won"), and "The Inbetweeners" (a nod to those kids not cool enough to be cool, but not nerdy/freakish enough to be outcasts). After hearing this EP, you'll be jonesing to see them live.

Do the Dog Skazine (Printed skazine, monthly, Do the Dog Music): This longest running skazine continues to be the best and most comprehensive source for info about the global ska scene. Nobody does it better. It's only available via subscription (you receive printed issues in the mail!), but worth every penny.

The Frightnrs "Never Answer" b/w "Questions" (7" black or color vinyl single, Daptone Records, 2019): These two tracks from The Frightnrs' stellar, digital-only 12/21/12 EP (which we reviewed here) have finally made their way to vinyl. The Lovers Rock-ish/Sugar Minott tribute "Never Answer" is about the tension in a relationship that arises when others try to sow the seeds of mistrust in order to destroy it (the solution: ignore the haters and focus on what you've got). The flip side is a fantastic dub version by Victor Axelrod (cheekily titled "Questions"). This single is yet another testament to late singer Dan Klein's considerable talents--and reminds one how much he is missed on the scene.

King Kong 4 Songs for Olly (digital EP, self-released, 2018): The four cuts on this EP were originally written by Mitch Girio for his friend Oliver Will in the German trad ska/calypso/mento band The Loveboats, but they broke up soon after Girio demoed them back in 2011. Fortunately for us, Girio revisited and refashioned these winning tracks for his own incredible King Kong 4 (Brendon Bauer on bass, Andrew McMullen on drums, and Ronald Poon on organ). Given their genesis, these songs skew a little more toward trad ska than their typical late '70s Elvis Costello/Joe Jackson/2 Tone sound (which is in no way a drawback). Like most of Girio's compositions, these are fully realized, universally relatable, everyday dramas--someone desperate for the Friday five o'clock whistle to sound (but they're dreaming of leaving for good: "I've been here all week/I can't take one more/I'm itching to leave/I'm scratching at the door"); lying in bed after an evening of drinking and assessing/regretting all the dumb things said and done ("Drink In Your Head"); being in love with someone who's just plain mean to you ("Grenadine," which thematically seems so calypso); and repeatedly finding someone cheating on you, even after you keep forgiving them ("Taking Back the Ring"). This is yet another dynamite King Kong 4 release in an ever-growing string of them. Highly recommended.

Well Charged Lift Up Sessions EP (CD EP/digital, self-released, 2018): First off, you need to know that this debut release from Charleston, SC's Well Charged contains some seriously good vintage ska, rocksteady, and reggae (founding members Vasily Punsalan on bass and John Picard on drums did a long stint backing John Brown's Body's singer Kevin Kinsella and it shows; they recruited David Hillis on organ, Andrew Link on lead vocals and guitar, and NYC transplant Megg Howe on backing vocals; Agent Jay of The Slackers, mixed, dubbed, and mastered this EP). The two keyboard-focused instrumentals remind one of Jackie Mittoo Evening Time-era tracks, while two of the rocksteady vocal cuts sound like songs Phyllis Dillon would have covered. "A Dozen Roses" and its melancholy version "Red Roses" are about falling in and out of love--check out these lyrics from the latter: "Fall in love, you can, fall in love/Just look out the stem has thorns/If she's really lovely, find it necessary/Check out her head for horns." Make sure to keep your eye on this band.

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Duff Review: Various Artists "Rudies All Around, Volume 1"

Happy People Records
CD/digital/LP
2018

(Review by Steve Shafer)

While Sean Flowerdew compiled Rudies All Around, Volume 1--a truly ace survey of current international ska acts--as a means to help promote and support his very worthy ongoing enterprise/labor of ska love, the London International Ska Festival (2019's edition is slated to feature Georgie Fame, Misty in Roots, Keith and Tex, Rudy Mills, The Steady 45s, Chris Murray, King Zepha, Masons Arms, Le Birrette, Erin Bardwell Collective, The Indecision, and many more to be announced over the coming months)--ska fans have the added benefit of encountering/being turned onto a host of incredible bands with minimal effort.

As with most carefully selected comps (and Flowerdew is particularly plugged into the global scene), there's a pretty wide variety of ska styles represented on Rudies All Around, Volume 1, which ensures that most listeners will find something to please them (though there's not much ska-punk--which is okay by me). On the traditional ska tip, things kick off with New Zealand's Atushi and The Moisties' "A Sound Of The Ska," which seems like it's been delivered to us in the present via a time machine from JA in 1964. Italy's all-female Le Birrette showcase their fantastic Deltones-y ska on "Mr A." Channeling Dr. Ring Ding, Masons Arms' "Von Vorn" is an incredible, amped-up Spirit of '69 skinhead reggae track in German. Mexico's Travelers Allstars' "Learned Lesson" is a great Jackie Mittoo-like instrumental, while Argentinians Los Aggrotones tread on great Western reggae territory with "Riding to Sonora." Italy's Uppertones joined by American Aggrolite Jesse Wagner do a fun rendition of the 1950's novelty song "El Cumpari," and the legendary and late Rico Rodriquez is featured on Pama International meets Manasseh's excellent futuristic sci-fi (via the 1970s) "Disobedient Dub" (from their Trojan Sessions in Dub album).

For those looking for 2 Tone/modern ska sounds, there's loads to like here. Ireland's Bionic Rats' phenomenally catchy "No Bottles No Milk" is about trying to get by in life with what (little) you've got (had to look up a lot of Irish slang to completely understand this one). Phoenix City All-stars' extraordinary dubby and haunted version of The Clash's "London Calling" drives home how the imagined dystopian/fascist/post-apocalyptic future of the original is closer to being realized than ever (I can't wait to hear the rest of the album this comes from, Clash Version Rockers!). "When It Rains" from the amazing Lions (whose members include Alex Desert and Deston Berry of Hepcat) is about how America's legacy of slavery continues to play out in all sorts of horrifically racist ways (and comes from their superb Soul Riot album--read our review of it). South Korea's The Rulerz's "Angels With Dirty Faces" may remind one of Euro-ska of the early 1990s. Capone and the Bullets (Scotland) turn in a great, deranged ska cover of Kraftwerk's "Das Model" (and emphasize the predatory creepiness of its lyrics), while The Scotch Bonnets (USA) transform The Ramones' punk anthem "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" into a mellow(er), but still very spirited rocksteady track. Dan P and The Bricks (USA) raucous and infectious "The Show" is about becoming an obsessive ska fan/musician. Italy's Miserable Man's broken-hearted acoustic-y/campfire ska song  "Heart in a Fire" is offbeat and completely winning. One of our favorite earworm cuts on the comp comes from Canada: King Kong 4's phenomenal "Profile of a New Elite" (think late '70s Elvis Costello meets The Specials), a cheery, but dark tale that points out how racists/fascists aren't born but raised.

Really, every song on Rudies All Around, Volume 1 is top-quality and I was introduced to a slew of bands that I had never heard from before. So, mission accomplished!

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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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The Duff Guide to Ska Year in Ska Reviews 2017, Part 1!

From The Duff Guide to Ska badge collection (click on image to enlarge)!

(All reviews by Steve Shafer)

Basement 5 In Dub (Five-track vinyl EP, PIAS Recordings, 2017 reissue; originally released on Island Records, 1980): Dub meets end-of-days post-punk in this really fantastic mash-up of styles (produced by Martin Hannett, who collaborated with the Buzzcocks, Joy Division/New Order, Psychedelic Furs and others). The source material is Basement 5's sole punky reggae album, 1965-1980, which is very much worth tracking down (it was also reissued this year on CD with these dub tracks), but it doesn't work quite as perfectly as this. (For those are interested in band ancestry, Basement 5 bassist Leo Williams went on to co-found Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones and Don Letts.)

Rhoda Dakar The Lotek Four, Volume 1 (7" vinyl EP/CD EP, Pledge Music, 2016): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

Jackie Mittoo Striker Showcase (2xCD, 17 North Parade/VP Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

King Kong 4 "You Lie Awake" (digital single, Winterbeard Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

King Kong 4 "More Than Just a Plate Full"(digital single, Winterbeard Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

King Kong 4 There's Not Much That You or I Can Do About It (Five-track digital EP, Winterbeard Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

Let's Go Bowling Music To Bowl By (LP, Asian Man Records, 2017 reissue; originally released on CD, Moon Records, 1991): Read The Duff Guide to Ska appreciation here.

Massive Attack v. Mad Professor No Protection (heavyweight vinyl LP, Virgin Records, 2016 reissue; originally released in 1995 on Wild Bunch Records): Read The Duff Guide to Ska appreciation here.

Monty Neysmith and The Bishops "Fung Shu" b/w "Skin Flint" (7" red or blue vinyl single, Jump Up Records/Mad Butcher, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

Monty Neysmith and The Bishops Monty Neysmith Meets The Bishops (CD/LP, Jump Up Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

The Offs First Record (LP, CD Presents, 1984): Read The Duff Guide to Ska "Shots in the Dark" appreciation here.

Rude Guest Lost Chicago Ska 1982-1993 (CD/LP/cassette, Jump Up Records, 2016/2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

The Selecter Daylight (CD/LP, DMF Records, 2017): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

The Selecter/The Beat "Breakdown" b/w "Side To Side" (7" PS vinyl single, DMF Records, 2016): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

The Sentiments Hi-Fi (digital album/CD, Simmerdown Productions/Bandcamp, 2016): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

The Ska Flames Turn-Up (vinyl LP, Sun Shot, 2016): Read The Duff Guide to Ska review here.

Various Artists: Recutting the Crap, Volume 1 (LP/digital, Crooked Beat Records, 2017 Record Store Day release): I first heard The Clash's Cut the Crap back in 1985 after devouring Big Audio Dynamite's This is Big Audio Dynamite (both were released within months of each other) and was profoundly disappointed to find that while Jones and company had taken the Sandinista and Combat Rock musical gumbo (punk, hip-hop, dance rock, reggae/dub) to the next evolutionary level, Strummer had made u-turn back toward 1977 punk (at manager Bernie Rhodes' urging), but had been t-boned by Rhodes' god-awful musical direction/production (replete with session musicians, synthesizers, programmed drums, and football terrace-like shouted choruses) and several profound life experiences Joe was dealing with at the time that distracted him from the task at hand (the deaths of both of his parents and the birth of his first child). History has not been kind to Cut the Crap (generally it's not considered canonical by fans and band members alike), but in many cases the acts on Recutting the Crap have revealed in their versions that there were some seriously decent-to-great songs buried under Rhodes' dreck--Strummer's tunes were solid at the core. The Scotch Bonnets' terrific, stripped-down reggae take on the anti-nuclear war cut "Are You Red...Y" alone is worth the cost of this LP.  Other notable tracks include The Violets' ska-ified "Cool Under Heat," Dom Casual's ska-jazz-punkabilly "Sex Mad Roar," Basnji's "Dirty Punk" is loads more faithful to the Clash's '77 sound than the original (Too Much Joy's version of the cringe-y "We Are The Clash" is a valiant effort in this category, too), and Winterdrinks' "Play to Win" sounds like a deep cut from Sandinista. There are even a few covers of demos for Cut the Crap (which was originally titled Out of Control before Rhodes unilaterally renamed it)--I particularly liked Sussed Out with Sol Roots' raucous cover of "Backwoods Drive." A second volume of Recutting the Crap is slated for 2018, which presumably will include the last good and legit Clash single, "This Is England." (If you're in the NYC area, Rock and Soul has a good number of this limited edition LP in stock.)

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Part 2 of our Year in Ska Reviews is up next...

(And Part 3 is up on the blog, too.)

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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 Review: Susan Cadogan: "Don't Know Why" Single

Three-track digital single/Stonyhill Records
7" single (the flip side is "I Don't Want to Play Around")/Parking Lot Sounds (Japan)
2017

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Masterfully produced by Mitch "King Kong" Girio and backed by the superb King Kong 4, Susan Cadogan's "Don't Know Why" is a phenomenal re-recording of her 1982 Lovers Rock single (written by her brother Paul Cadogan and released in Jamaica during an early 1980s resurgence in her career when she scored a series of hit singles, including "Tracks of My Tears," "Piece of My Heart," "Love Me" and two duets with Ruddy Thomas, "(You Know How to Make Me) Feel So Good," and "Only Heaven Can Wait"). This track and its two versions (my favorite is the "Don't Know Why Not Mix") are heartbreakingly beautiful ("I touch your body with my mind/A sad affair with a sweet memory")--Cadogan's voice is as resplendent and expressive as ever. According to Girio, despite having collaborated on several (excellent) releases now, the Toronto-based producer and JA-residing Cadogan have never met, but what incredible music they make!

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For more on Susan Cadogan, read The Duff Guide to Ska review of her Take Me Back EP (also produced by Girio and featuring King Kong 4).

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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.

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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