Duff Review: Bim Skala Bim "Sonic Tonic"

 (Review by Steve Shafer)

Bim Skala Bim's new record Sonic Tonic (Vinyl LP/digital, Jump Up Records/Specialized Records, 2021)--their 10th studio album since 1986 (!)--promises the listener an aural cure for whatever ails 'em and then delivers a collection of fantastic, upbeat songs (done in Bim's signature style: post-2 Tone ska influenced by '60s rock and '70s roots reggae) that'll put a smile on your mug, make you want to move and groove, and lend you some relief from your troubles for a spell (indeed, Bim has donated this album to Specialized Records and some of the proceeds will go to support mental health orgs in the UK). Sonic Tonic is full of exceptionally crafted and catchy songs about longing to revisit past experiences and get a charge from their emotional punch; the "soft power" of food to bring us together; the thrill of being young and rebellious; and making sure to take the time to enjoy life (it passes by quickly) and tend to your own mental/emotional health. As someone who's been following Bim Skala Bim since the late '80s (Tuba City was my intro to the band and I first saw them at NYC's Ritz in support of that terrific album on a bill with The Toasters and NY Citizens), it's particularly striking and satisfying to realize how consistently good they've been all these years (read my review of their previous album Chet's Last Call). Sonic Tonic is among Bim's finest and definitely one of the best ska albums you'll hear all year.

While the feelings expressed in album opener "Go Back" are universal--the desire to relive specific moments in our lives that were particularly pleasurable, satisfying, or momentous--I suspect its relevance and unsettling sting are stronger for the tail-end Boomers and Gen Xers who are grappling with aging bodies, lives that haven't turn out the way we'd hoped/planned (and have worn us down), the loss of family and friends, and knowing that their expiration date is closer in the rearview mirror than one would like. ("Go Back's" thematic twin is "Too Sentimental"; the singer has a hoard of images and sounds on magnetic tape in storage that remind him of what is lost and can't ever be reclaimed.) Having said all that, it's still a joyful song, since the memories are so good:

Well, I met a girl from the Ocean State
With ocean eyes, didn't hesitate
The way she smiles
The sun it shines
Forget about the rest of time
'Cause it goes so fast
Making your head spin
Remembering every place we've been

I wanna go back now
I wanna feel something, somehow
C'mon and take be back now

"Cuz a You" is about a different kind of longing, the wanderlust that drives the road warrior musician ever forward to the next destination on their itinerary:

Sinking in a couch
And felt those ants in my pants
It's true
Keep it moving

Every day moving on
Any old way
Moving on
We don't stay

Up all night and half the day
When you get me I'll be ready to go

While "Lightning" tells a tale of running moonshine, it's really about being young and daring and getting off on the thrill of driving fast and evading the law (and the music and tempo make it feel like our tires are barely gripping the road as we careen at hair-raising speeds along twisty back roads):

When they put the lightning in the jar
And it's ready for delivery
Put the bottle in the box in the back of my car
Drive it away, yeah

Let me know when you get it right
It's a fine night for delivery
I can keep it to the right in the bright moonlight
Hauling it away and

Staying off the interstate
Getting late and dark
Heart is at a higher rate
Feeling great, acting straight

No, it ain't too hard to mix it up
Do it in the back yard
Do it in the graveyard
Do it in the school yard
I don't care
I just get it there

Up to date and in your face
That's the way they are
Shoot me with your radar gun
"Thank you, son
Let's have some fun"

Staying off the interstate
It's getting late and dark
Heart pumping at a higher rate
Starting to hallucinate

Sailing through the knotty pines
Moony white and pale
Way too fast to read the signs
Drive across the county line...

The answer/cure to some of this unease, restlessness, dissatisfaction, and tension is offered in the superb track "Letting Go (The Loon)" (and its version "It's a Mix of Things (The Tinkerman)"), which serves as the thesis of the album and features guest vocals from King Hammond. For some Native American tribes in the Northwest, the loon is symbolic of harmony, generosity, and peace, and this song suggests one way to achieve it is to get together with a friend, share a bottle, talk through things/embrace those feelings, and then consciously free yourself of them.

Brain is getting thirsty
Mouth is kinda dry
I don't need no glasses
Pass the bottle, give me a try...

...Give me sense and balance
Go with what you know
Here's to getting to it
Here's to letting go

The follow-up to this advice is found in Bim's cover of Bob Marley's "Easy Skanking" (from 1978's Kaya, an album full of songs about love and love of herb) that the band contributed to Specialized Records' 2016 One Heart compilation:

Excuse me while I light my spliff
Good God, I gotta' take a lift
From reality I just can't drift
That's why I am staying with this riff
Take it easy, easy skanking
Got to take it easy, easy skanking

"Gumbo" is a fantastic, New Orleans jazz-infused, anti-racist ska track that posits that the simple act of people of all races and backgrounds coming together to share food and companionship can help allay the fears and anxieties over difference and otherness: "No us and them/Just me and you/and some tasty stew."

The final track on the album is the stellar instrumental "Last Boat to Monkville"--Madness' "Night Boat to Cairo" meets a Thelonious Monk riff--that starts off in familiar 2 Tone territory and then takes you on an unexpectedly marvelous trip (and that's Chris Rhodes of Spring Heeled Jack, The Bossones, and Toasters on those great t-bone solos). Play this one and watch the dance floor fill instantly!

For all the hype of "ska is back" lately, Bim Skala Bim's Sonic Tonic is yet more proof to add to an already stratospheric pile of evidence that it never left. It's still being practiced by one of the foremost pioneers of American ska and they're even better than ever.

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"1985: The Year American Ska Broke"

A mock-up of the cover of Wasserman's book "Ska Boom:
An Oral History About the Birth of American Ska and Reggae"

In addition to my forthcoming new book The Duff Guide to 2 Tone, I've written an introductory chapter to Marc Wasserman's superb and absolutely essential Ska Boom: An Oral History About the Birth of American Ska and Reggae (DiWulf Publishing) that's titled "1985: The Year American Ska Broke."

The thrust of my piece is that if three incredibly influential 1985 US ska releases--namely, The Untouchables' Wild Child, and Fishbone's and The Toasters' debut EPs--hadn't come out when they did, the nascent, 2 Tone-inspired American ska scene would likely have flamed out, and the massive 1990s "Third Wave" of ska in the US would never have happened. That's all I'm going to give up here--you'll have to read Marc's book to read my case backing up this claim.

Also, I'm working on putting together a companion book to Marc's Ska Boom that will contain reviews of the first releases from the bands whose oral histories are featured, including Beat Brigade, Mephiskapheles, The Toasters, The Hooters, Bim Skala Bim, Heavy Manners, The Untouchables, The Uptones, Skadanks, Gangster Fun, the NY Citizens, Second Step, Blue Riddim Band, The Scofflaws, The Boilers, The Box Boys, The Shakers, Kyber Rifles, and Let's Go Bowling. This book (tentative title: The Duff Guide to the Music of Ska Boom: An Oral History About the Birth of American Ska and Reggae) will be released by Duff Guide to Ska Publishing in paperback this fall/winter.

Lastly, I'd just like to note how groundbreaking and important Ska Boom: An Oral History About the Birth of American Ska and Reggae is. Marc sent me a draft of The Toasters' chapter for my feedback, and I found it to be incredibly compelling and informative--a really great read. I worked with The Toasters for almost a decade in the 1990s and came across many things I never knew about regarding the early history of the band, and (finally) heard from band members whose perspectives have never been previously documented. Anyone interested in ska music will need this book!

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Duff Interview: Werner Rodríguez Del Toro of Los Pies Negros

Editor's note: Later this month, Los Pies Negros--founded in the early 1990s in Puerto Rico--will be making a rare appearance on the mainland US, with shows in Brooklyn, NY (on 8/31/18 at Brooklyn Bazaar with Mephiskapheles, The Pandemics, Ensamble Calavera, and DJ Ryan Midnight) and Chicago, IL (on 9/1/18 at Reggies with Malafacha, Nahuales Underground, and DJ Chuck Wren). So, we though this was a great opportunity to catch up with Los Pies Negros' bassist and founding member, Werner Rodríguez Del Toro. (Thanks to Chris "Kid Coconuts" Acosta of The New York Citizens and producer of Moon's Latin Ska comps for helping to make this happen!)

Duff Guide to Ska: How did this mini-tour of the US (New York/Chicago) come about? When was the last time Los Pies Negros played in the US mainland?

Werner Rodríguez Del Toro: "The Chicago show came about when we were contacted by someone at a club called Reggies who wanted Los Pies Negros to play a ska festival there. After approximately a year of conversations, it became real.

The last time that Los Pies Negros played in the US was in 1994, when we performed at the Skavoovie festival at NYC’s S.O.B.'s and one event with Spring Heeled Jack in New Haven Connecticut the following day."

DGTS: The band has been in existence for about 27 years now. When you started it back in the early 1990’s, did you think you’d still be playing all of these years later (long enough that your most recent release was called The Grandfathers of Ska)? What has kept you going?

WRDT: "[At that time,] I did not think that in the future I'd be playing in Los Pies Negros. I ignored my thoughts and lived in the moment. I live every moment like it's a song and feel every note from the start to the finish--enjoying every detail, every second of the song. The same goes for my life and my band. And I feel that you can never get enough out of enjoying and playing the music you love, the music you feel. Without music, life has no meaning for me.

I think that what kept me in the music is the love I feel for it. And the reason that Los Pies Negros is alive is because every member is passionate about the band's music--and each of us is not just a member of the band, we are a family.

Regarding our last recording Los Abuelos del Ska (The Grandfathers of Ska), I want to mention that we wrote this single because two of our members became grandfathers and none of us expected ever to be a grandfather and still in a band playing ska music. And the song speaks to that feeling."

DGTS: Many ska fans from the '90s became aware of the band through Moon’s Latin Ska compilations and the Bang movie soundtrack. What have been some of Los Pies Negro’s highlights in the years since then (releases, festivals, etc.)?

WRDT: "After that era, we recorded one of the most recognized albums named Siempre Igual (1996).

We started to play some big events in Puerto Rico, and later with the help of underground distribution, our music was being recognized in Latin countries like Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc. In 1999, we played our first big show in Mexico with bands like Desorden Publico and la Vela Puerca. Some years ago, we played one of our best concerts ever in Mexico, the "Non Stop Ska Festival." Later we played another big event named "Skatex," in Mexico. We did some recordings like Un Alien me Rapto, Detras de ese Disfraz, etc."

DGTS: What is the Puerto Rico ska scene like? (And how have things been there for you, your family, and friends in the year since Hurricane Maria devastated the island?)

WRDT: "In Puerto Rico, the ska scene is very small. Only a few people follow ska as a lifestyle. But we have a lot of fans that are not necessary only into ska. We have fans from different genres like punk, reggae, rock, Latin rhythms, etc.--because I think our music is different. We have followers of all ages. We've played everywhere and have met people at our shows who had never heard of us and after seeing our show started to follow us. The events in Puerto Rico are for a few people, but are very interesting because the people here feel the music when we play.

The first months after Hurricane Maria were very difficult, but now we are good. As a country, Puerto Rico is a fighter and we are rebuilding it again with or without the 'mainland' help."

DGTS: What is the significance of the band’s name?

WRDT: "The band's name means liberation from slavery. Los Pies Negros (Blackfoot) symbolizes the two feet released from involuntary labor, abuse, and discrimination."

Thanks to Werner Rodríguez Del Toro for taking the time to do this interview!

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Los Pies Negros' current line-up is: Werner Rodríguez Del Toro (bass/founder), Wilmer Laboy Del Toro (guitar/songwriter), Mario Montalvo (guitar/backing vocals), Iván Salaberry (drums), Robert Ramirez (trombone), Ramón Acevedo (saxophone), Diego Borges (lead vocals), Luis Rodriguez (vocals), and Leonel Crespo (trumpet).

Discography:

1993: Los Pies Negros
1994: Moviendo los pies
1995: Siempre Igual
2004: Detrás de ese Disfraz
2005: Latin Ska Force II (split CD with los Vicios de Papa)
2009: En vivo y sin Disfraces (a live CD)
2011: Un Niño Solo (EP)
2012: Un Día Normal (EP)
2013: Kamikaze (split CD with Los Fiskales)
2015: Un Alíen me Raptó (EP)
2016: Los Abuelos del Ska (EP)
2017: Siempre Igual (Single)

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Duff Review: Bim Skala Bim "Chet's Last Call"

Bim Skala Bim Music
2013
CD

(Review by Steve Shafer)

I first encountered Boston's Bim Skala Bim when I picked up the Skankin' Round the World compilation (Unicorn Records) in 1988 and heard their song "Bangin'," which is about two people in a relationship driving each other crazy, not the cruder meaning of the word: "You've got me bangin'/my head against the wall!" (This compilation clued me in on how there was a whole lot of ska music being created outside of the USA--I had assumed everything had pretty much ground to a halt in the UK after the demise of 2 Tone; imagine how psyched I was to find out that Bad Manners was still active; incredible acts like Laurel Aitken and the Potato 5, The Trojans, and The Deltones even existed; and that there were even other ska bands in Europe, like Mr. Review, Saxawhaman, Kortatu, and Spy Eye!). I heard more Bim on the first (and brilliant!) US ska compilation, Ska Face (Moon Records, 1988), which featured their "Shoes," and then picked up their tremendous second album Tuba City (1989) at either Bleecker Bob's or CBGB's Record Canteen because it was released around the same time and on the same label as The Toasters' extraordinary sophomore album, Thrill Me Up. (I caught both bands at The Ritz--along with the NY Citizens, who were supporting their debut LP On the Move--in March 1989, just before Tuba City and Thrill Me Up were released; I'm pretty sure the gig was supposed to be one giant record release party for both bands...) I had been a huge fan of The Toasters since first hearing their first EP in 1985, so their close association with Bim Skala Bim was significant and compelled me to learn as much as I could about them (which wasn't easy in the pre-internet days!). And it turned out that Bim's story was strangely intertwined with The Toasters'.

The parallels between Bim Skala Bim and The Toasters were striking: both bands formed in the early 1980s; their original line-ups featured male and female co-lead vocalists (Toasters: Bucket and Vicky Rose; Bim: Dan Vitale and Jackie Starr); their debut releases came out within a year of each other (The Toasters' Recriminations EP in 1985; Bim's debut LP in 1986); they helped foster vibrant ska scenes in their respective cities; both established long-running ska labels and issued some of the first ska compilations in the USA (see Moon's New York Beat: Hit and Run from 1985 and Razorbeat Records' Mash It Up! from 1987); and they worked collaboratively to support the burgeoning ska scene in America (that eventually gave rise to the so-called Third Wave of Ska in the 1990s).

After they had released the The Toasters' smash debut album Skaboom in 1987, Bucket had convinced Celluloid Records to give The Toasters their own ska imprint--Skaloid--which issued The Toasters' Thrill Me Up, Unicorn Records' Skankin' Round the World comp--and Buck arranged for Skaloid's release of Bim's Tuba City. Even though Skaloid's parent label went under about a year later (though Celluloid was revived in the mid-1990s and issued bootleg copies of all of these releases), it provided some desperately needed resources to some of the major players on the US ska scene--it had the money to press up LPs and CDs and a reliable distribution network that made sure the releases hit the right record shops and reached the fans, something Moon had struggled with for years (a series of distributor failures had plagued Moon in the late 80s, swallowing up whole pressings of releases like Ska Face and denying the label of desperately needed cash and ska fans of amazing recorded music).

While Bim Skala Bim was strongly influenced by 2 Tone like The Toasters, Untouchables, and Fishbone, their sound (and vibe/look) incorporated elements of 60s hippie rock (see their cover of Cream's "Sunshine of Your  Love"), making them stand out from their contemporaries (and, no doubt, giving them an avenue to appeal to those beyond the ska faithful). Like these other pioneers of US ska, Bim had an enormous impact on the American and world-wide ska scene (Bim were so popular amongst European ska fans that they played the first London International Ska Festival in 1988--a recording of the festival released on Buster Bloodvessel's temporarily revived Bluebeat Records captured one of their best early tunes, "Jah Laundromat," which features the lyric: "We'll wash all our sins away/down at Jah laundromat today"; The Toasters played the second LISF in 1989). Now, twenty-eight years (!) after their debut album in 1986 and thirteen years after their most recent album Krinkle in 2013, Bim are back with a fantastic new CD, Chet's Last Call, which serves up another set of terrific songs about everyday life and is sure to please their legion of fans.

Even though lead singer Dan Vitale now lives in Panama (Bucket now hangs his baseball cap in Spain!) and some other members of the Bim have spread out across the US, for the past several years, the band (largely unchanged since the early 1990s: Vinny Nobile on trombone and vocals, Jim Jones on guitar and vocals, John Cameron on organ and piano, Mark Ferranti on bass, Rick Barry on percussion, Jim Arhelger on drums, Dave Butts on sax) has reunited for summer shows in the Boston area and on Cape Cod, which, no doubt, yielded the laid-back, t-bone driven instrumental "Summer of Ska" and the more tense "Buses, Boats, Planes, Trains, and Taxis" (this upcoming summer is no exception--Bim's playing dates in Boston, Cape Cod, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island this August). But the best songs here concern work and play (mostly play, really)." Get Us Out" is a sweet, shambling, and chivalrous rocksteady cut about going to a party with a girlfriend/wife and promising you'll facilitate the quick exit if things go south ("I know how to get us out of here/if we need to get out of here/I know how to get us out of this/We can stick around for just a little bit/I know how to get us out of here/if it gets to late/if this party's strange/We don't have to stay." The upbeat "Dance with Me Darlin'" suggests that the party turned out to be alright--good enough to hit the dance floor for some close dancing that feels mighty good.

My favorite track on the album, "On the Dance Floor" (and the one that reminds me the most of all of Bim's signature sound--as embodied by a song like "Diggin' a Hole") is a scorcher of a tune about having a crush on someone at work who seems demure and distant--and then bumping into them at a club and discovering they're a completely different animal: "I see your light on after quitting time/I wonder if you notice mine/Do you even know I'm here?/We share a wall, never talk at all, till you said/"I'll see you Monday, on the other side"...That night I went out to the dancehall place/Where I saw a familiar face/From the side, your profile/You're wild, on fire!/We all just can't believe what you've been keeping up your sleeve/and, good god, now you've revealed it and everybody knows/On the dance floor, on the dance floor/Now everybody knows."

"Phony" is a frenetic flip-off to all the soul-sucking fake people that plague us at times ("I see you coming with your plastic smile/I see you coming from a hundred miles/Phony, baloney/Oh, what a wicked way to start the day/So many words, nothing to say/Phony, baloney/I can see, I can you coming/I can smell, I can smell a rat/Can't afford all the noise that keeps on coming from your mouth..."). "Hat When You're Not" is a loping reggay-ish cut about the toll that long road trips take on your body and soul ("Driving all night and your eyes are bloodshot/You feel like you're wearing a hat when you're not"). I think the dancehall-ish "Papa Don't Put Too Much Pepper" is about doing the pepper seed dance ("It's such a fine line/the way you dance and grind/Papa don't like it/and says it that it has to stop"), but there are also references to food and cooking--are all the peppers making the dancing too hot? Could be... The album is bookended by the catchy rocksteady track "Everybody's Got Their Style" and its version--part mission statement, part plea for tolerance and multiculturalism: "Not counting colors/Not taking sides/So many various shapes and size/Culture-wise."

It's always great to see the ska greats back in action, creating new music, and not merely relying on past glories and nostalgia simply to help fill the coffers. Here's hoping that the members of Bim continue to go on finding the time to keep on moving forward and doing what they sure do best.

Preview the New Beat Brigade Album!

Beat Brigade circa 1987!

One of the albums slated to be released soon that I'm dying to get my dirty hands on is the debut long-player from NYC's own Beat Brigade. While they were really big on the NYC ska scene in the mid-to-late 80s, they didn't lay down many tracks in the studio for posterity (to date, their only two released recordings are the boss ska-calypso-rock of "Armageddon Beat" on the NY Beat! Hit and Run compilation in 1986 and the raucous ska of "Try and Try Again" on a split double A single with The Toasters' "Talk is Cheap" in 1987), which is a shame, since Beat Brigade were one of the top bands in the city at that time.

Beat Brigade were a great example--along with The Toasters, Urban Blight, NY Citizens, Second Step, The Boilers, AKings, and City Beat--of the gritty, aggressive, and adventurous NYC ska sound that had developed in the wake of 2 Tone (and helped bring about the rise of the so-called Third Wave of ska in the 1990s)! Yet, these were no Specials/Madness/Beat/Selecter wannabes--though they clearly loved those bands and built upon/expanded the 2 Tone sound to incorporate all sorts of diverse musical elements from funk to punk to New Wave and beyond. Indeed, Beat Brigade's sound can best be characterized as the modern, punky ska of The Specials crossed with the New Wave bite and verbosity of Elvis Costello, and the musical exploration of The Beat, all topped off with the political awareness/attitude of The Clash.

Fortunately for ska fans in the 21st century, Beat Brigade reunited a few years ago (with original members Carmelo Dibartolo, Jack Hoppenstand, Frank Usamanont, Erick Storkman, and Dave Barry, along with Ramsey Jones and Michael Kammers) and have been putting on some amazing shows ever since. Plus, they've finally been able to record many of their excellent, socio-politically aware songs from the 80s, along with some equally fantastic new tracks. You can whet your appetite on previews of several of their new tunes--including my faves "Keep Still Dark," "401 Kill," and "Another Cause," which are linked below--on Beat Brigade's new SoundCloud page!

We'll pass along details regarding Beat Brigade's album release when they become available...