Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Destroy Babylon, Roger Rivas, Smoke & Mirrors Soundsystem, and Roy Radics' last recording with Dope Sagittarius!

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

Destroy Babylon--the powerhouse reggae/rock/post-punk band led by the Beaudette brothers when they're not doing their dub thing with Flying Vipers--have released a digital single that is a follow-up to their 2017 concept album Shapeshifters (read my review of it here). That album was about the Pandora's box of white supremacy, disinformation, lies, conspiracy theories, and potential for political violence that was unleashed by Trumpism and DB's latest extraordinary single "World's Straightest Line" b/w "Course Corrections" (Digital, Music A.D.D., 2021) continues in a similar vein with songs about the ongoing degradation of our society and disintegration of the social contract. At first, I thought "World's Straightest Line" (a fierce punk rock/hardcore-ish track) was about America's war on drugs, the mass incarceration of Black citizens, and the poverty-to-prison pipeline, but then realized it's about casting social media as a pusher--how it taps into people's lurid, insatiable desire for intimacy with other people's worst moments (and what it extracts from them/us in turn). If the post-punk cut "Course Corrections"--about giving in to authoritarian rule in order to survive ("If you want peace, don’t spare the rod/Closed fist--your new god...I have seen the awful truth/I would do the same to you")--had come out a couple of decades ago, you would have thought it was a good take on 1984. But listening to it in 2021, when it has become crystal clear that the right wing in our country is openly working to dismantle American democracy, is a chilling experience. The distorted, dubby, guitar effects that slip in and out of the shadows of this song are incredibly effective; they're the sounds of a slow-motion dystopian nightmare coming true. 

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Sean Flowerdew's Happy People Records is in overdrive lining up some of the best ska, rocksteady, and reggae singles one could hope for; I believe they're almost up to their 100th release already! (US fans--did you notice that there's a new Happy People Stateside imprint, so you can order these great records and not get killed by international postal rates?) One of the latest singles is Roger Rivas' terrific "Heading West" b/w "Last Goodbye" (7" vinyl single/digital, Happy People Records, 2021), which come from Rivas' out-of-print 2014 LP Last Goodbye (which is still available digitally on Bandcamp). "Heading West" is a bright, bubbly Western reggae/rocksteady trip to a better place that promises even better times, while "One More Dance" sounds a bit tentative and melancholy, as if someone's holding out hope that a rift can be patched up before the end of the night with a close and silent slow dance.

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I meant to write about the John Roy-driven Smoke and Mirrors Soundsystem project much earlier this spring. This is the relaunched New Normal Collaboration project that released the excellent Quarantined on Easy Street last fall (read my review of it here), but ran into issues with one of the people co-leading the effort. Roy (of '90s ska act The Unsteady) has since re-recorded all of the drum tracks and remixed the album, and the new version--retitled Strength in Numbers--can be heard/bought here (at some point soon it will be released on vinyl, too). Smoke and Mirrors Soundsystem also has been working on an album of awesome ska/reggae covers of '80s classics like Bowie's "Let's Dance," Echo and the Bunnymen's "Killing Moon," and Tears for Fears "Mad World," as well as cuts from Junior Byles ("Fade Away"), Sam and Dave ("When Something's Wrong with My Baby"), Smokey Robinson & The Miracles ("Second That Emotion"), Edwin Star ("25 Miles"), Spencer Davis Group ("I'm a Man"), and more.

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A few weeks ago, Luqman Brown (from the NYC "soul core" NYC band FunkFace, which includes members of Beat Brigade) reached out to let me know that another band of his Dope Sagittarius is re-releasing a special edition of their latest album that features Roy Radics' last recording. Radics, of course, was the beloved lead singer of the NYC ska and reggae band The Rudie Crew who passed away unexpectedly in the prime of his life in 2016. The Dope Sagittarius track that features Radics is "Sacred Places"--the title track of this incredible funk-electro-hip-hop-rock band's latest album (which is available from Buddahbug Records on vinyl and digital via Bandcamp). Radics delivers some wickedly fantastic toasting during a dancehall break in this cut about the place you're transported to when you lick the chalice ("I'm stuck between the now and the sacred space"). He sounds so good here and hearing him do what he did so well will make you miss Radics all the more. Anyone who knows about and is into the Black Rock Coalition bands (who incorporate "the spectrum of Black music" into their songs) like Living Color, 24-7 Spyz (I caught them opening for The Untouchables years ago and they were on fire!), FunkFace, and Fishbone will want to devour Dope Sagittarius' Sacred Places.

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"Do You Remember the Good Old Days Before the Ghost Town?"

I recently came across several videos I shot at the last Electric Avenue show that I organized at Characters NYC before the pandemic. (Sadly, Characters shut down last fall--another victim of the plague. Linda and Finn made it a great place to be. Thank you for everything!). The Electric Avenue bill on July 26, 2019 featured Barbicide (read my review of their Fresh Cuts EP here), The Twilights (read my review of their Hear What I Say EP here), The Rudie Crew, and Beat Brigade (read my review of their Tomorrow's News EP here).

As you can see from the following videos, it was an amazing night of ska and reggae! Barbicide were terrific right out of the gate (it was their first show). The Twilights' version of Max Romeo and Lee Perry's "Chase the Devil" was epic! The Rudie Crew's "Radics in Space" tribute to the still very much missed Roy Radics really got the crowd going. And make sure to watch Beat Brigade's "Battle Cry" ("This is not a warning/This is not a test/Armageddon's coming...")--one of their newer (and brilliant) tracks--all the way through. Dave Barry and Ramsey Jones' performances in particular are mind-blowing.

These videos will whet your appetite for live shows. Hopefully, we'll start having them again later this year (go get your vaccine shot, if you haven't already!).

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: The Skapones/Detroit Riddim Crew "Eyes of a Child" b/w "Look Around" and The End Times "The End Times"

(Reviews by Steve Shafer)

"Eyes of a Child" b/w "Look Around" (7" vinyl picture sleeve single/digital, Cosa Nostra Records, 2021) is the terrific second split single from The Skapones and Detroit Riddim Crew (read my review of their first 45 here). The Skapones' cut is a surprisingly lush, slow-burning ska tour de force that reminds the listener how vital it is for adults to empathize with kids and shield their innocence as they learn and grow--to defend them from what they're not old enough to know might harm them: "You look at the world through the eyes of the child/Imagine it is all meek and mild/It's now that you start to realize, to do what's right/When you gonna learn that sometimes you have to fight?" When you flip the record, you'll find that the Detroit Riddim Crew's "Look Around" is a brisk, determined reggae track about keeping going on (through music and unity, of course), even as everything around us seems to be coming apart: "The world's aflame/And has a dying light/But we come together to find some fight/To the music that fills our souls/Dance, dance, 'till we overflow!"

Forged from members of NYC/NJ area bands Inspecter 7 and The Rudie Crew (RIP Roy Radics), The End Times produce a '90s ska sound that's a fierce mix of trad, modern, and punk-ish ska with blistering, Lee Ving-like hardcore vocals troweled on top (and the contrast works surprising well). Call it Armagideon ska. Their self-titled debut EP (digital, self-released, 2021) is pretty fantastic--and its first several tracks, in particular, are stellar. The EP is clearly a product of having lived through the horrendous Trump/MAGA years and all of its lies, corruption, gaslighting, and hate. But it also speaks to the disintegration of American civic society and how a major political party and around a third of our fellow citizens have embraced white supremacy and authoritarianism. In the uncompromising, "Eye for an Eye" (which takes "Racist Friend" a couple of steps further), The End Times spell out what they think it's going to take to take on the nazi goons in our midst: 

Eyes on the future what do you see?
Is it inclusive to people like you and me?
Or do we have to raise hell and bring them to their knees?
Yeah, we could just stand by and watch them cheat and steal and lie right through their teeth
What good’s your freedom, man, when they’re free to squash your liberty!

Eye for an eye!

We want justice! We want peace! We want your attention, so take a knee!
We gotta take a good look and acknowledge what they’ve become
And if you think they’ll listen and reason with our plight... Here’s a shovel
Start digging your own demise

You kick my shin?
I break your leg
And that’s the way it’s gotta be!

Gandhi may not like it ("An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind"), but, then again, look what it took the last time to beat back the fascists (hopefully, we're not headed down that path). "The Melt" was recorded before the despicable seditionist insurrection on January 6 but is still very much about it, since it's about the enemy within--the call's coming from inside the house:

It started today
Digital bullies flex their muscles through broadband shields
And I’m sorry to say
Their wholesale market of belief won’t impress you
Oh, say, did you see?
It’s like they drew it up on blackboards in Hollywood
And they defined where the truth lay
Then redefined it ‘cause they could...

...Now it’s melting and we can’t escape ourselves.

"Black Hat" (what you'd call a malicious hacker) is a terrific Scofflaws-like instrumental, while the full-on punk track "Vampires" calls out the MAGA/Fox/right-wing media ecosphere that profits mightily off the garbage, gaslighting, and conspiracy theories that are spewed out daily, and reminds their followers that, "You don’t need a lie to believe in/You don’t have to lie to believe some one." The message is unlikely to be received, but it's definitely worth transmitting. Make sure to tune into The End Times.

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Duff Review: Hub City Stompers "Haters Dozen"

Altercation Records
CD
2018

(Review by Steve Shafer)

From the cover art of Haters Dozen--a baker's dozen of cupcakes with hands of various hues and genders giving us the finger--it shouldn't be a shock to know that New Jersey's Hub City Stompers have always clearly relished being the defiant bad boys and girls of ska, taking the piss out of everything and everyone (they refer to their fans as droogs), and letting the chips fall where they may. Their targets on their sixth album Haters Dozen are legion (abusers, cheaters, fakers, leaches, and haters) and they take them on with a mix of sharp humor and deadly seriousness--all delivered in this fantastic collection of catchy ska songs that will end up taking permanent residence in your head.

With an intro from Mr. Symarip--Roy Ellis--himself, the album kicks off with "Hub City Stomp," an "East Side Beat" of sorts for the New Brunswick scene ("This is your day of independence/For skinheads, punks, and their descendants/Let that wicked word be spread..."), but then, on a Judge Dread-sounding cut, HCS set their sights on "Mr. McFeely" (about a seemingly anodyne, older character on the scene--like the delivery man on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"--who's actually a predator: "Mr. McFeely, tell me where you been?/Fallen pied piper of the punks and skins...Mr. McFeely, in ya come to creep/When she's passed out drunk, when she's fast asleep/Mr. McFeely, won't ya come outside?/Or will you stay in and hide?"). Fake friends can't put one over on ever-vigilant singer Travis Nelson (the primary songwriter of the album) on "Keepers": "I see snakes creeping’, I ain't sleepin’ in the poppy field/I see the daggers flying towards, but they don't see my shield/With all the cold that I behold you'd think that I would freeze/But I'm just basking in the heat of all my enemies" (love the "Wizard of Oz" reference!). The always-great King Django guest chats on "Father's Day" (about victims of child abuse falling into similarly abusive relationships as young adults). On "What's She Got?" (a real showcase for Jenny Whiskey), rejection and jealousy have never sounded so good: "What's she got that I ain't got?/She's got you/That's what she's got, that's what she's got/Looking for a place in your will/That silly trick is just a midnight thrill/You'll be thinking of me every night/Once you bust your nut and turn out the light."

With its demented, but hilarious "Send in the Clowns" opening, "Bring Back the Dorks" calls out all of the Slackers wannabes: "Yeah, I hope that you’re ready/For my (pretentious) hipster rocksteady tonight...white noise from white boys"), while the ska-core-ish "Night of the Living" goes after scene hijackers and cultural appropriators with equal fury ("We’re zombies who reclaim this rotted wasteland of a scene/It once was fatty bacon, then you made it Sizzlean/A silly, plastic world of kissing ass and dropping names/We never puckered up and didn’t play your reindeer games/Your head went up your anus when ska went Hollywood...No white, suburban kid came off of the banana boat/And if you went to Kingston they would cut your poseur throat/Remember that next time you’re pushing your skathority").

Two bright topical spots are "Philly, What The Fuck?" ("...why is your accent so fucked up?") and the  kind of sweet, no regrets, love-song-of-sorts "Weeks Worth of Wednesdays" ("Lone Stars at night shine bright/And alter what's in your sight/What a mess, what a mess/There were a week's worth of Wednesdays up in that dress/I confess, I confess/That I couldn't have settled for less"). The centerpiece of the album, though, might be trombonist James Kelly's wonderful tribute to HCS' friend, the late Roy Radics of The Rudie Crew, in "Distance Water" (which was his nickname; a reference to how Radics had traveled across the Atlantic from his hometown of London to his adopted New York City). This largely instrumental track features P-Dub of Predator Dub Assassins, some Radics snippets, and phenomenal toasting by Coolie Ranx: "Hey, Mr. Radics, Mister Hot Topics/The law's on the lamb/No, they just try to stop it/You try to protest/Dem jumping on your chest/They don't want the truth to be told/Him try to shed the light on the black man's plight/When we standing up firm/When fight for your rights/No retribution when dem take a life/They don't want no civil war...Nah, we no love dem games that dem play/And the conversation is lame/We don't care what dem say/'Cause we've been fighting power from back in the days..."

Hub City Stompers bring their ace tunes, their considerable chops, and tons of barbed fun for a first-rate album that might just end up making them kind of respectable, despite it all.

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Radicsfest Coverage From Whatz Up NY!

I've had a few very busy days since Radicsfest, so I haven't had the chance to post videos and pictures that I shot (when I wasn't stage managing the show), as well as some choice videos captured by Radicsfest fans.

Having said that, Shaun Walsh of Whatz Up NY has posted his interviews and footage from the festival, which I'm happy to share below (and features interviews with me, Jah Point, CheckerPhil, Coolie Ranx and footage of the Shunklings, Reggay Lords, and Pilfers in action).

Radicsfest--An All-Day, Outdoor Ska Festival in Celebration of Roy Radics' Life and Music--Is One Week Away!

If you don't know already, Radicsfest is an outdoor, all-day ska festival/benefit in Bushwick to celebrate the life and music of Roy Radics of The Rudie Crew who passed away earlier this year! 

This is an outdoor event, there will be food trucks, and The Well has 60 drafts on tap and 100 bottled beers! If you buy your tickets in advance it's $10 or $15 day of the show (we're raising funds for Radics' family). 

All bands, selectors, and emcees are donating their time and talents in honor/memory of Radics. This is a true labor of love and we hope you'll join us for an amazing day of music!

Pilfers Headline All-Star, All-Day, Outdoor Ska Benefit/Festival for Roy Radics Family!

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This is the latest flyer for the Roy Radics benefit/festival that I'm helping to organize! More bands will be added to the line-up as details are finalized...

Advance tickets are available here: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1176989?utm_medium=bks.

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Skamela and The Duff Guide to Ska Present An All-Day, Outdoor Ska Festival at The Well in Bushwick Benefiting Roy Radics' Family!

As many of you know, Roy Radics of The Rudie Crew passed away very unexpectedly earlier this winter--leaving a huge hole in the hearts of his family, friends, and fans. To honor his legacy, The Duff Guide to Ska has teamed up with Skamela to organize an all-day, outdoor ska festival benefiting Roy Radics' family on Father's Day (June 19, 2016) at The Well in Bushwick. All of the bands, selectors, and emcees listed below (and more will be announced soon!) are donating their time and talent to celebrate Radics' music and life. We all hope that you'll join us for an incredible day full of great music for Radics!

Tickets can be purchased in advance here: https://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1176989?utm_medium=bks.

The First Duff Guide to Ska Show of the Year: The Rudie Crew All-Stars, Detroit's 1592, and Skarroñeros!

Hey, kids, we're putting on shows again!

The Duff Guide to Ska is producing it's first ska show of the year in June at one of our favorite places in New York: Otto's Shrunken Head tiki bar in Manhattan's still sort-of infamous Alphabet City.

All of the details are to the right, but we'd like you to note that this is going to be a pretty special night, with appearances by The Rudie Crew All-Stars, who are honoring their fallen comrade Roy Radics by keeping on making the music that he loved with all of his heart and soul; the fantastic Detroit rocksteady group 1592, who are making a stop in the Big Apple during their summer tour; and one of our favorite groups from the NYC Latino ska scene, the left-wing musical and political activists Skarroñeros! (Also on hand will be DJ Ryan Midnight, who will be selecting ska music for your pleasure.)

There's no cover for the night, but I ask that you please bring some extra cash (in addition to whatever you need for the bar--remember to tip the barkeep well!) for when we pass the hat for each band--to show your appreciation for each band's music and work!

A few other Duff Guide to Ska shows will be forthcoming later this year. Stay tuned for details!

Bigger Thomas Recording Songs for New EP/Track for City Gardens Documentary Soundtrack

In NYC ska news, we're psyched to let you know that Bigger Thomas are prepping a set of new songs for an EP to be released digitally (and possibly on vinyl) early next year. Basic tracks will be recorded in New Jersey and then Bigger Thomas will work with Agent Jay of The Slackers on vocals, horns, and all other overdubs at his studio in Brooklyn.

The Duff Guide to Ska has been lucky enough to hear rough demos of two of these new tracks Bigger Thomas tracks--"Super Moon" and "Weird Lenses"--and is stoked to report that they're fantastic and will be sure to please fans of the band's super-charged, 2 Tone-influenced NYC ska sound.

In related news, an instrumental version of "Super Moon" will be featured on the soundtrack of the upcoming City Gardens documentary Riot On The Dancefloor (The Story of Randy Now and City Gardens), which includes interviews with Roger Apollon, Jr. and Marc Wasserman (since Bigger Thomas played this Trenton, NJ venue back in the late 80s/early 90s, along with other ska bands like The Toasters and The NY Citizens).

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Here are two videos of Bigger Thomas in action, performing "Simple Man" and "Can't Remember My Name" with Roy Radics of The Rudie Crew at the recent Electric Avenue show at Characters NYC:

Bigger Thomas and The English Beat at the Sellersville Theater, plus New Free Beat "Mirror" Remix!

Despite Google Map's attempt to get me lost on some dark, twisty back road in rural Pennsylvania (damn you, Google Maps!), I found my way down to the terrific Sellersville Theater yesterday for my DJ gig at the sold-out Bigger Thomas/English Beat show. For a trip that started out with a lot of wrong turns (in addition to the lack of clearly marked roads, the transformer on my mixer's power cord died--but the theater's awesomely nice sound guy Dan rigged things up so I could use his sound board as a substitute mixer), it ended up being a fantastic night.

Bigger Thomas (pictured here) is big in these here parts (their last gig at the Sellersville Theater, a benefit for Haiti this past spring, was also sold-out) and put on their usual spectacular show. The Rudie Crew's Roy Radics was also on hand to sing and chat, and he and Roger Apollon Jr. performed "Radics & Roger A Chat" (off Steal My Sound) live for the first time (it was so good that it deserves a regular spot in their set from now on).

I haven't seen Dave Wakeling perform since General Public debuted at the old Ritz in New York City ('84 or '85), so it was kind of surreal to catch up all these years later. (The Beat will always have a special place in my heart, as their music helped buoy me in my teen years when depression threatened to pull me under.) The ska fans attending the 2011 London International Ska Festival are in for an incredible show. Dave's backing band is exceptionally tight (they should be, since they've pretty much been touring the US non-stop over the last few years) and all the hits sound just as good and fresh as you want them to. For me, the neck-hair-standing-on-end moment of The English Beat's set was when "Hands Off She's Mine" segued into The Congos' "Children Crying" (which is one of the greatest songs in the history of music, hands down)--it was absolutely phenomenal. (And there is a cool Beat-Congos connection--The Beat's label Go Feet re-issued The Congos' Heart of the Congos in 1981, at a time when it was hard to come across copies of this reggae masterpiece--Island balked at releasing it in 1977, so producer/mad genius Lee Perry gave it a very limited release on his own label in JA; before the show, I had actually thought about playing "Children Crying" before The Beat's performance, which I had in my crate, but ran out of time...)

The English Beat are playing the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan this Sunday (1/9/11). WNYC has a preview of the show, as well as a free download of an exclusive, unreleased 2011 re-mix of "Mirror in the Bathroom" titled "Mirror Mirror." You can also listen to the track here:



(A big shout out of gratitude to Bigger Thomas for inviting me to tag along and DJ their party--and thanks to the Sellersville Theater staff and crew for being such kind and gracious hosts!)

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Update: here's a nice review of the show from the Tri-State Indie, plus a photo gallery of shots from the show.

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Duff Review: Bigger Thomas Steal My Sound

Self-Released
2010
CD

When I first listened to the new Bigger Thomas CD Steal My Sound, my immediate reaction--and I'm carbon dating myself here--was how welcome it was to hear a band keeping the late'80s NYC ska sound alive! (What is the definition of this style of ska? Short answer: put on a copy of Moon Records' NYC Ska Live LP or cassette on the ster-ee-erio and listen! Awkward longer answer: it's heavily 2 Tone-influenced, aggressive modern ska, with strong new wave tendencies and some incursions into vintage ska sounds--and with the exception of The NY Citizens, free of ska-punk).

From the start, it's been clear that Bigger Thomas are fanatic devotees of The (English) Beat. You can find all sorts of melodic and rhythmic Wakeling/Cox/Steele DNA strands in Bigger Thomas' music, from their first fan favorite, "Ska in My Pocket" off their wonderful (Wha'ppen-inspired) debut "Red" album, to several tunes on Steal My Sound (most notably, "Kings of the Klub" and "Radics and Roger A Chat"). However, anyone who has followed the band is well aware that Bigger Thomas are much more than Beat imitators.

Apart from the light-hearted lyrical boasting and toasting on a few tracks, Steal My Sound is a serious album filled with tales of crushed hopes and diminished expectations. It mirrors the ugly reality of adult life, when you realize that things aren't going to turn out as you imagined they would when you were younger. But amidst the reconfigured world of middle-age, the band has found a gritty determination to follow their path and find satisfaction and happiness on their own terms. And they make some incredible music in the process.

The fantastically upbeat "I Can't Remember My Name," one of the best cuts on the album, is ostensibly about stumbling around on a summer day so hot that your brain can't function properly. But it's also a metaphor--we're fallible beings making all kinds of missteps as we try to move forward in the blazing heat of everyday life. Yet, the band also is keenly aware that life is a great adventure to be enjoyed: "I never get lost/but I try to every day!"

"Kings of the Klub" (a great versioning of their own "King for a Day" off We Wear the Mask) is a manic DJ clash between Roger Apollon, Jr. and Roy Radics (from The Rudie Crew) for toasting and boasting supremacy that reminds one of "Pato and Roger a Go Talk," with a little Untouchables thrown in the mix ("Make room, make room when they play the rub-a-dub/We rule the dance, we are kings of the club"). It's fantastic. However, if you want to screw with their music, Roger and Roy turn deadly serious on the spare (love the haunting melodica line in there played by King Django, who did a stellar job recording and mixing the album at his Version City Studio) and menacing "Steal My Sound" ("When we come to town/You know we don't mess around/Like a king who holds the crown/Don't steal my sound").

The band's don't-give-a-damn underdog and outsider status is reflected in songs like "Matinee Idol," where Roger sings about pursuing a girl who's "running with the 'A' crowd/My 'C' plus is not allowed/But I've got the nerve/and I hope you're grading on the curve." He pictures himself as an overseas movie star (as opposed to the standard Hollywood leading man) in the "foreign films you do adore/Well, I could be a matinee idol/with the yellow subtitles/But when the subject turns to a date/it does not translate." "Crown Victoria" is a tongue-in-cheek, laid-back ska tribute to trombonist Chris Malone's late model American car that, despite its regal connotation, is not a mode of luxurious transport for the band ("The Crown Victoria/You are my joy and pride/The longer the trip, the rougher the ride/Is that smoke beneath the hood?/You know that can't be good...). In life, sometimes function has to trump style, no? "Permanent Error" is a soulful, reggae-ish lament about e-mailing under the influence, and realizing that there is nothing in the world you can do to patch things up. Just move on.

"Shamokin" recounts how one night on tour the band played a sold-out show in front of thousands on a bill with The English Beat; the next, they were performing for a handful of punk rock kids in this poverty-stricken, no future ghost town of a coal town near Scranton, PA (even though the mines have been closed for years, a funeral pyre-like fire still rages in one of them a mile underground). "Shamokin" is the post-WWII 1950s American dream/teenage rockstar fantasy gone bust. The American manufacturing industries that once employed millions and allowed them to provide a decent and secure middle-class way of life for their families abandonded them in favor of cheap, benefits-free Third-world labor--devastating countless communities in the US its wake (how un-patriotic can you get?). Likewise, the music business, indie or major, essentially has been rendered obsolete by the terrible advent of file sharing--how can you earn a living as a full-time musician if your fans expect to download your music for free and can't tear themselves away from their computer, smartphone, or TV screens to pay a couple of bucks see you play a gig? "Shamokin" is the heart, soul, and conscience of Bigger Thomas wrapped up in one tune: what do you do when you can't do what you love to live?

For Bigger Thomas, the only possible response is to keep on making music, even if they have to "kiss their dreams goodbye": "The good old days we try to chase/they disappear without a trace/I hear the sound that we all make/its joyful noise cures my heartache."

For the forgotten kids and families across the USA stuck in dead-end towns and cities like Shamokin, the answer is far less clear.


The Duff Guide to Ska Grade: A

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Below is a video I shot of Bigger Thomas performing "I Can't Remember My Name"; the others were produced by the band.

Coming Down the Ska Pipeline: New Bigger Thomas Album Pure

Over the weekend, I met up with Marc Wasserman, bass player for Bigger Thomas (and 2 Tone/80s ska-obsessed blogger Marco on the Bass), at Dusk--a bar in Chelsea with a ska connection: one of its owners used to be in the A-Kings (hear them on the original 1985 New York Beat Moon comp) and Thick As Thieves (featured on Ska Face and the Francis Ford Coppola-directed segment of the 1989 movie "New York Stories"). Marc and I were discussing an upcoming ska event that will be announced via both our blogs in the near future--and he was nice enough to hook me up with a three track preview CD of Bigger Thomas' new album, Pure.

Produced and mixed by King Django at Version City Studios (he's putting the final touches on it right now), this 10-track album, which has been gestating for a few years, features guest appearances by Roy Radics from The Rudie Crew (chats/toasts); Django (melodica and chats); and Dave Barry of The Toasters (organ/keyboards, of course!). Plans are to have the album art designed by John 'Teflon' Sims, who created an extraordinary number of iconic images for all of the bands signed to 2 Tone Records when he worked in the Chrysalis Records art department.

Bigger Thomas are contemplating releasing Pure on-line as a pay-what-you-wish digital download (a la Radiohead) via Marc's blog, as well as through iTunes, eMusic, CD Baby, etc. The band also intends to release either the full album on vinyl or a few of its cuts on a 7" single through their own Exclamation Point Records (the vinyl will be pressed in Jamaica through Django's contacts there).

The three Pure tracks that I've previewed sound terrific. "Crown Victoria" is a tongue-in-cheek, laid-back ska ode to trombonist Chris Malone's late model American car that, despite the connotations of its name, is not a mode of luxurious transportation back and forth to gigs ("The Crown Victoria/You are my joy and pride/The longer the trip, the rougher the ride/Is that smoke beneath the hood?/You know that can't be good...). "Permanent Error" is a soulful reggae-ish lament (warning?) about e-mailing under the influence. "Kings of the Klub" is a battle between Roger Apollon, Jr. and Roy Radics for toasting and boasting supremacy that reminds one of The English Beat ("Pato and Roger a Go Talk"), The Untouchables, and even a little Fishbone--and is thoroughly enjoyable.

All of these cuts bode really well for Pure, which promises to be a smash ska release for 2010...