For many of us in the crowd that night at The Specials' show at Pier 26, it felt like we were taking part in the best high school reunion you could imagine. (Before, during, and after the concert I literally bumped into dozens of pumped-up, happy ska people that I knew--a who's who of the NYC ska scene and beyond--some of whom I hadn't seen in years.) But instead of our shared school experience, what bonded the several thousands of us together in the past and present was our relationship with The Specials, forged over the decades via LPs, cassettes, left-of-the-dial FM stations, fanzines, music magazines, CDs, TV appearances, YouTube, and live concerts. Yet, it was still a wonderfully shocking and thrilling thing to be united together in the audience that night--no doubt, a result of enduring these nasty, fractious, and divisive times (when it seems like the social contract with our fellow citizens has been completely shredded by powers that stand to profit from widespread fear and intolerance through a general Balkanization of the people).
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all was simply how damn fun it was (I was euphoric about the whole experience the entire following day). And wasn't that at the core of the whole Specials/2 Tone mission? Of course, their music also promoted multi-culturalism, tolerance, and social/economic justice. But who's going to receive it if no one shows up to listen and dance?
Dan Marotta and Chris "Kid Coconuts" Acosta of The NY Citizens
with Marc Wasserman and Roger Apollon, Jr. of Bigger Thomas
before The Specials' set.
Sure, the fact that it was a beautiful, sweltering summer's evening on a pier on the Hudson River off Lower Manhattan (with the new, phoenix-like Freedom Tower shimmering defiantly nearby) helped put everyone in a celebratory mood (even if a cup of beer was $8 a pop). But what was so brilliant was that just about everybody in the crowd was dancing madly and gleefully singing along with Terry Hall at the top of their lungs for the duration of the show.
For many of us forty-somethings in the audience, we had gone through our teen years with--and had been transformed by--The Specials' music and message. So, there was an additional nostalgic element to the night (and perhaps a bit of mourning over our lost youth and alarm at the passage of so much time). But The Specials' performance was so good (probably far exceeding the expectations of many fans that night) that it validated and reaffirmed our deep-rooted faith in and love for the band. I had never seen The Specials live before, but I'd compare The Specials of July 17, 2013 very favorably to the version of the band captured 30 years before in their stunning performance on Saturday Night Live in 1980--they were simply incredible; though having Neville Staple and Jerry Dammers there would have made things absolutely perfect.
One of my favorite moments that seemed to exemplify the whole concert--but one that I didn't capture on video, since I very much wanted to be part of it--was during a raucous rendition of "Enjoy Yourself." Everyone around me as far as I could see, people of all ages (it turned out that next to me with his young son on his shoulders was Ryan Reeves of The Exceptions who happened to be in town from Texas) and colors (the multi-racial couple dancing arm in arm in front of me), were shuffling their feet and singing the chorus loudly (and for us forty-somethings, the lyrics "the years go by/as quickly as you wink/enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself/it's later than you think..." sure have a sharper edge to them than they did 30 years ago). Live music experiences don't get much better than this.
It was especially heartening to find that The Specials were still fully committed to the anti-racist cause. When Lynval Golding "dedicated" Dandy Livingstone's "A Message to You, Rudy" to George Zimmerman, there was a hugh roar of approval from the crowd. And the band went on to play "Why?" in honor and memory of Trayvon Martin ("Why did you try to hurt me?/Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why/Did you really want to kill me..."); for those who don't know, Golding wrote this track after being severely beaten in a racially-motivated attack outside the Moonlight Club in 1980--his "offense" was walking/talking with two white women. "It Doesn't Make It Alright" was also sent out to Zimmerman (which Lynval and Roddy would do again at Electric Avenue a few nights later during their stellar semi-acoustic set). This is another track that points out how stupid it is to hate and fight with someone because of their color ("Just because you're a black boy/just because you're a white/It doesn't mean you've got to hate him/It doesn't mean you've got to fight"). It's certainly disturbing and dispiriting that The Specials' songs decrying racism remain so essential and relevant all these years later--the high school version of me would be appalled that much more hasn't changed for the better in 30 years (but I'm glad we've got these tracks in our anti-racist arsenal).
See the set list from the night in above (though they didn't play them exactly in that order)--there wasn't a bum song/performance all night. I shot several videos ("Concrete Jungle," "Blank Expression," "A Message to You, Rudy," and "Ghost Town"--all of which can be seen on the Duff Guide to Ska YouTube Channel). Probably the best of the lot is "Nite Klub":
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Earlier that afternoon, before The Specials' concert, I met up with my friend Marc Wasserman (Bigger Thomas, Marco on the Bass, Rude Boy George) for some pre-show drinks at the kitchy, trailer park-like bar (something out of a B-52s music video set) where our friend Megg Howe (Across the Aisle, Rude Boy George) works (I had my first can of my namesake beer--which didn't seem to be distributed in the NYC area when I came of legal age--and it actually wasn't awful; tastes a bit like PBR, which owns Schaefer). Since The Specials' concert was on a pier on the Hudson, we naturally started talking about the incredibly brilliant shows at Pier 84 in the 1980s, when we were in high school and college. This concert series often featured some of the best new wave and reggae bands (I caught UB40 multiple times, Peter Tosh, Echo and the Bunnymen, Midnight Oil, New Order, and many more) and the scene was really relaxed and cool (it helped that the drinking age was 18, so no one cared if you were 16 and buying and downing a couple of Millers; we also remembered that they used to give out half-packs of nasty Kool Menthol cigarettes to anyone and everyone, courtesy of one of the concert series' sponsors). This led to a discussion of how much better/more fun NYC was in the 1970s and 1980s (it was much funkier, grittier, and cooler) and to the travesty of what the city has become (essentially, a playground for the rich). This prompted the barfly to the left of me to start talking about Ugly George (a perv who used to roam midtown in what kind of looked like a spacesuit who somehow talked women into talking off their clothes in building vestibules while he videotaped them; he broadcast the results on Manhattan public access cable late at night; I never saw his show, but used to see him all the time when I was in middle school and all of my classmates and I knew exactly what he did...).
But I digress.
Post-concert euphoria with members of Bigger Thomas,
Across the Aisle, and Ryan Reeves (of The Exceptions)
The Specials' show was as great an experience as any of those concerts on Pier 84; it was like a bit of the 1980s in 2013. It's been said that recalling a memory is a bit like time travel--and this concert was like being transported back to my teen years for a few hours to experience one of the better aspects and purposes of being young: having fun. For the duration of The Specials' concert, nothing else seemed to exist or matter (though I'll cop to calling home to say good night to my daughter and I did exchange a text message with the wife). And that's an almost unknown pleasure in the adult realm (where you're always thinking and worrying about multiple things).
So, I'm grateful to The Specials for this rare experience--it was one of the most enjoyable and memorable shows of my lifetime (and rumor has it that the band thought it was one of the best of the tour). You can bet that I'll use the memory to the keep the spirit of the guy housed in this forty-something body young, happy, and alive.
I first heard about The Specials at their end. Sometime during the week of July 11, 1981, when Britain was convulsing with riots due to a toxic combination of high youth unemployment and the police's abuse/oppression of people in non-white communities and The Specials' magnificently haunting and relevant swan song "Ghost Town" happened to top the UK charts, NBC Nightly News--of all places--ran footage of the riots with "Ghost Town" as its soundtrack (and commented on the irony of it all). I didn't see the actual music video for "Ghost Town," directed by Barney Bubbles, until years later (MTV didn't exist at the time), but if the sights of Brixton, Handsworth, Chapeltown, and Toxteth burning, with pitched battles between youth and the police in the streets didn't sufficiently portray the dread and apocalyptic societal meltdown conveyed in Dammers' song, I don't know what would've.
Even though I had been a middle schooler at a boarding school in Manhattan in the late 70s/early 80s (how I came to be there is a long story for another time), I had completely missed all of The Specials' NYC performances, such as their January 25, 1980 date at Hurrah's or their August 12, 1981 date at Pier 84 on the Hudson with the Go-Gos (and, much to my regret, The Clash's legendary residency at Bond's in June 1981)--my school wasn't very far from any of these venues (and during the summers I was home in nearby Yonkers). My friends and I just weren't plugged into these scenes yet (and info on non-mainstream, UK bands was really hard to come by). Much of what I knew about music, and new wave in particular, came by word-of-mouth or happy accident (my boarding school bunk mate introduced me to The B-52s at a time when most of my peers were into Kiss and Aerosmith; I first heard The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" at a middle school dance--where they also played "Rock Lobster" at least three times by popular demand; though I don't remember who lent me the cassette of Devo's Freedom of Choice--I played "Whip It" over and over until the tape practically disintegrated).
I heard much more of The Specials (and all of the 2 Tone-era bands) on WLIR, the brilliant modern rock/new wave station on Long Island that became my lifeline during high school in the first half of the 1980s (and introduced me to some of the greatest music ever produced). Since I hung out with a multi-racial crowd in Riverdale/Yonkers, I found one of the most appealing aspects of The Specials, The Selecter, and The Beat to be their strongly anti-racist stance (in addition to their incredible music). And even though it wasn't exactly ska, The Special AKA's "Free Nelson Mandela" and In the Studio were mind-blowingly good and hugely popular in my circle of friends. But my full-on passion for The Specials was revived/rebooted in the mid-to-late 80s (college years), as I discovered the stellar NYC ska scene (The Toasters, The Scofflaws, The NY Citizens, and Skinnerbox), Fishbone and The Untouchables, as well as the incredible post-2 Tone ska scene in the UK (Laurel Aitken, Potato 5, The Deltones, Bad Manners, The Loafers, etc.). Years later, Jerry Dammers' musical, political, and cultural vision had spawned so many extraordinary bands, so I made it a point to more closely examine/enjoy the source (which, of course, only led me back to genre's real origins with the 1960s bands in JA).
Several years later, when I was working for Moon Records, I found myself in the wing of the massive stage at the Manhattan Center watching The Scofflaws (I think!) perform at the NYC date for the 1993 Skavoovee Tour (Special Beat, Skatalites, Selecter, and Toasters). At one point, I looked around and the only other person nearby was Specials' drummer John Bradbury who was equally as captivated by The Scofflaws' performance as I was. I was too shy to approach him, but I found that simple moment to be pretty cool and memorable (I felt too awkward/intimidated to hang out with bands backstage then).
When The Specials MK II played out in the mid-to-late 1990s, I avoided seeing them (I had been scared off by the less-than-stellar Today's Specials and felt that they really shouldn't have been touring using The Specials' name with several key members missing). However, when all of The Specials (with the frustrating exception of Jerry Dammers) decided to reform and tour several years ago, I had desperately wanted to see the band at Terminal 5 in April 2010, but obligations at my job at the time kept me from going (I was running a fundraising event at a non-profit I worked for that same night). All of my friends who went were kind enough to tell me what an amazingly good concert I had missed. Much appreciated, guys.
So, The Specials' NYC date this week feels like a once-in-a-lifetime/last chance for me to see (most of) them live (since I can't really imagine that they'll do another big tour after this). I'll be the middle-aged guy in the 2 Tone shirt with a full head of spikey hair enjoying the hell out of himself and making up for a lot of lost time.
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Roddy Radiation
The Pandemics
(plus Selector Steve and DJ Marco on the Bass)
Friday, July 19, 2013 Electric Avenue at Characters NYC
243 West 54th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue
Manhattan
$10; doors at 9:00 pm
While I don't expect to get anywhere near the stage at The Specials' show this week, Roddy Radiation will be up close and personal at his solo Electric Avenue performance this Friday night. Roddy will be playing his own fantastic ska-influenced rockabilly tunes (usually played with this band The Skabilly Rebels), as well as the well-known Specials' tracks he penned ("Concrete Jungle," "Rat Race," "Hey Little Rich Girl"). NYC's terrific Pandemics will be opening the night and it's rumored that they'll back Roddy on The Specials' songs. I'll be sharing the decks with my friend Marco on the Bass--playing an eclectic mix of vintage and modern ska. Hope to see you there!
(For some background on Roddy, check out this interview I did with him for The Duff Guide to Ska back in 2011 here.)
Editor's note: In an attempt to catch up on the huge backlog of releases that are awaiting my review--and to counter my obsession with solely composing long, in-depth write-ups (something that I just don't have time to do as much as I'd like to, sadly)--I'm launching this new series of brief, paragraph-length reviews. Titled "Over the Transom," my inside joke with Marc Wasserman about sneaking in ska releases and merchandise to our homes without attracting the attention of our respective wives, these batches of reviews are intended to give props to the many bands still recording and issuing great ska music, as well as alert ska fans as to which releases are worth their hard-earned cash.
Pressed up to sell during their 2013 summer tour of the West Coast of the USA (and put a little money in their pocket and gas in their tank), this self-titled CD is actually a compilation of all of 2000 Tons of TNT's recorded output to date, including their boss 2012 debut Reggae Mysteria (read The Duff Guide to Ska review here), the 2013 "Harvest Moon" b/w "Wonky" digital single (read The Duff Guide to Ska review here), as well as the newish Lost Sampler, which was released in April and features, "Three lost (and very weird) tracks recorded in 2010-11" (the band's words, not mine). If you want to catch up on their crazy good garage rock-influenced dirty reggae (imagine The Caroloregians crossed with The Lyres), then pick up this disc at one of 2000 Tons of TNT's shows--or contact the band through their Facebook page to order a copy through the mail.
I know, this one has been out for a few years, but I just happened to stumble upon it recently while looking something else up on Amazon (it must have been the new Clash Sound System box set, housed in a cardboard 1980s-era boom box, which I had read about in Slicing Up Eyeballs--either a brilliant summary of their career or a despicable grab for cash; you decide). When I saw its clever appropriation of Give 'Em Enough Rope's cover, I had to at least check out The Clashification of Dub--my Clash obsession wouldn't permit anything less. After reading a review of the album on AllMusic by Rick Anderson (he used to do some nice write-ups of the Moon Ska promo CDs I'd send to him back in the 1990s) and listening to some of the song samples on that site, I was willing to fork over the cash for the import CD (and I even found and bought a new, thick, limited-edition vinyl LP version of the album--though with fewer tracks than the CD--for a few measly bucks from one of Amazon's Marketplace partners!).
Despite what album's cover might promise, Swiss reggae masters Dub Spencer and Trance Hill's The Clashification of Dub isn't a track-by-track dub version of Give 'Em Enough Rope (ironically, there are no tracks from that album here), but a selection of songs from throughout The Clash's brilliant catalogue. It should be stressed that this is not a remix of the master tapes (were that even possible!)--Dub Spencer and Trance Hill deconstructed these reggae and punk songs, recorded their own instrumental renditions, and then fashioned these dub versions at the mixing desk. The results are a sometimes radical re-working of some of the most revered Clash tracks, which may not always suit Clash purists. But if you approach these cuts with an open mind (a love and basic understanding of dub helps!), you'll discover a magnificent, inventive, and richly complex album that pays tribute both to The Clash and dub (that I find myself returning to repeatedly--since I seem to notice new bits every time I listen to it).
While some versions of these songs retain enough elements of their original melodies/riffs to be almost immediately recognizable ("Guns of Brixon," "Bankrobber," "Train in Vain," "Police and Thieves," "London Calling," "Rock the Casbah," and a fantastically upbeat "Armagideon Time," which unfortunately isn't on the LP)--and provide the listener with a means of easy access to the album--other tracks require more careful listening in order to discern subtle echoes of their source material (see "Lost in the Supermarket," "Magnificent Seven," "Should I Stay or Should I Go," or even "This is England," off the illegitimate Cut the Crap).
Probably my favorite track here is "The Call Up" from Sandinista, The Clash's haunting anti-conscription/anti-nuclear war plea ("It's up to you not to hear the call-up/I don't wanna kill!/For he who will die/Is he who will kill/Maybe I wanna see the wheat fields/Over Kiev and down to the sea/All the young people down the ages/They gladly marched off to die/Proud city fathers used to watch them/Tears in their eyes/There is a rose that I want to live for/Although, God knows, I may not have met her/There is a dance and I should be with her/There is a town, unlike any other..."). In Dub Spencer and Trance Hill's hands, their dub with its spooky effects evokes the Cold War paranoia, isolation, and dread of the first half of Reagan's presidency (the man who had his finger near the nuclear launch button--and who took a hard, sometimes extremely belligerent line against the Soviets, while massively ramping up the U.S.' military spending--freaked a lot of people out by declaring, "We may be the generation that sees Armageddon."). Back then, we really, truly believed that there was a good chance that we'd all perish in a hail of Soviet ICBMs...
Perhaps the best way to sum up/characterize The Clashification of Dub is that I imagine if Joe (RIP), Mick, Paul, and Topper (of course, massive fans of reggay) ever had the chance to hear this album, they'd completely love and embrace it. And for of all us Clash fans (myself included), courtesy of Dub Spencer and Trance Hill's inspired musical creativity, this is another take on--and excuse to revisit--some of the best music ever produced by the Only Band That Matters.
If you were following the UK ska scene in the late 80s and 90s, you knew that The Trojans--purveyors of what their singer/songwriter Gaz Mayall dubbed Gaelic ska (60s JA ska meets Celtic traditional)--were one of the best and most beloved ska bands on the planet (read some Duff Guide to Ska background on Gaz and The Trojans here and here). It's been 14 terribly long years since The Trojans released their last record (1999's Desiderata), but news comes via Do the Dog Music that the new Trojans album titled Smash It! will be coming out this August on Gaz's Rockin Records in the UK and Ska in the World Records in Japan. The Trojans also will be doing a short Japanese tour in October (if you didn't know, Gaz and The Trojans are big in Japan).
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Jump Up Records has just announced that it will be carrying the Black Butcher Classics (Germany) reissue of The Toasters Pool Shark album (originally released on Unicorn Records in 1987), as well as 7" vinyl versions (!) of the East Side Beat (first released on Ska Records in 1987) and Recriminations EPs (which debuted on Moon Records in 1985)--both with picture sleeves. Many of the songs on Pool Shark and the East Side Beat would form The Toasters' debut album, Skaboom, but there are a few cuts here (like my fave "Naked City") that were never released here domestically. If you buy all three releases, Jump Up will include a free Toasters or Moon Ska (RIP) turntable slip mat with your order. Also on deck is a vinyl reissue of The Toasters' underrated New York Fever (which I've written about at length here).
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The Specialized charity CD project to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK is spearheaded by the great Paul "Willo" Williams (author of "You're Wondering Now: The Specials from Conception to Reunion"). While the first CD in this project celebrated the music of The Specials, this time out its The Beat with Specialized 2: Beat Teenage Cancer. Bands/artists covering The Beat's incredible catalogue of songs include Rhoda Dakar, Nick Welsh, The Values featuring Neol Davies, Bigger Thomas, The Simmertones, Buford O'Sullivan, The Amphetameanies, The Talks, Orange Street, The Rough Kutz, The Pressure Tenants, Dirty Revolution, Swagga, and many more--plus both Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger contribute material! The double CD can be ordered here and you can check out the Specialized Soundcloud page for sound clips here. This is definitely a charity and a release worthy of your support.
Fans of King Hammond--and we proudly count ourselves amongst that crowd--will want to be in on the pre-order of the new album from Nick Welsh, titled The Life and Times of a Ska Man, which contains new acoustic versions of Nick's songs from his vast catalogue of stellar songs from the past 20 plus years.
Here are all of the details from the man himself:
"My album The Life and Times of a Ska Man is now finished and I am now taking pre-orders for it. The price is £10 (including p + p) in the UK or £12 for the rest of the universe. You can pay via the King Hammond webpage. The first 100 people who order will receive a free N.1. Records album and a lovely badge. All the money made from this release will go into funding the next N.1. album, which will be Hot Skin Music by King Hammond."
Nick has had an extraordinary musical career, spanning from the post-2 Tone days of the mid-80s to the present day (the cover of his new album is a collage of many of the fantastic records he's released over the years--some of which are my all time favorites). He's served as the bass player and songwriter for Bad Manners (Return of the Ugly), Buster's All Stars (Skinhead Luv-a-fair), The Selecter (The Happy Album, Hairspray, Cruel Britannia), and Big 5 (In Yer Face, Popskatic), as well as his own groups, Skaville UK (1973, Decadent, Devil Beat) and his skinhead reggae alter-ego King Hammond (Revolution '70, Blow Your Mind, The King and I, Jacuzzi, Showbiz!, Dancing in the Garden of Evil). Plus, he's worked with ska stars like Lee "Scratch" Perry (picking up a Grammy in the process), Dave Barker, Judge Dread, Prince Buster, and Laurel Aitken.
(In addition, Nick is in the midst of writing his autobiography with Paul "Willo" Williams, which is also titled "The Life and Times of a Ska Man"--read an exclusive excerpt here.)
We've pre-ordered our copy of The Life and Times of a Ska Man...now it's your turn!
(Thanks to John V. for the cleaned up version of this cover.)
Editor's note: Shots in the Dark spotlights third-wave ska releases that should have been massive hits on the scene, but due to bad timing, poor luck, or a fickle record-buying public, were lost in the fray. "New York Fever" will soon be reissued on vinyl by Megalith/Jump Up.
(by Steve Shafer)
The Band: While the essential and groundbreaking Skaboom (1987) served as The Toasters' pugnacious ska manifesto that laid the blueprint for the whole post-2 Tone era in the USA and far beyond (inspiring countless bands to form in its wake), the stellar Thrill Me Up (1988) positioned the band for greatness. Any of the album's crucial cuts, including "Ska Killers,""Decision at Midnight,""Go Girl" (written by Sean "Cavo" Dinsmore about a pre-fame Madonna he knew when she was working and hanging out at places like Danceteria and Blanche's, The Toasters' headquarters in the East Village on Avenue A), "Frankenska," and the title track--plus you have to love The Toasters' breakneck ska version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"--could easily have been modern rock radio hits in the tail-end of the genre-bending New Wave years had everything played out right.
In short, The Toasters were well-positioned to break out of the ska ghetto and take on the alternative music scene without compromising their ideals or sound (read a short profile of the band from the September 1989 issue of Spin here--and, while you are there, check out all those ads for blank cassettes!). The Toasters were at the top of their game--ask anyone who had seen them play out live circa Thrill Me Up (I happened to catch them at the long-gone Cajun food/surf-themed club Big Kahuna on Broadway just above Houston Street--and it simply was one of the all-time greatest shows I've ever experienced, ska or otherwise). So, the terrible timing of the Unity 2's departure (for their own deal with Warner Brothers to capitalize on the very short-lived hip-hop reggae fad of '89-'90; bassist and trumpeter Greg Grinnell was lured away by the Unity 2 for his songwriting and musical chops; and trombonist Anne Hellandsjo apparently took this opportunity to pull up her stakes and head back home to Sweden)--coupled with a series of distributor failures (that severely impacted the releases on Moon Records, by almost completely swallowing up entire pressing of albums like Ska Face: An All-American Ska CompilationandNYC Ska Live) and the shuttering of The Toasters label, Skaloid (its parent company Celluloid, which had gone belly up, had created the Skaloid imprint specifically for The Toasters and their Skaboom and Thrill Me Up releases--and The Toasters' arranged for Bim Skala Bim'sTuba City to see the light of day on Skaloid, too)--dealt The Toasters such a series of severe body blows that it took them years to fully regain their equilibrium.
Indeed, Bucket (AKA Robert Hingley, guitarist, songwriter, singer and founding member of the band) recalls that the Unity 2's sudden departure was like they had "cold-cocked" the rest of The Toasters and "disrupted the unit intensely" (the Thrill Me Up-era band members soldiering on were band co-founder Steve "Hex" LaForge on keys, John Dugan on sax, Jonathan McCain on drums, and, of course Bucket). The only thing that kept things from falling apart was The Toasters' already scheduled first European tour (with Vince Fossitt of The Great Train Robbery), which yielded the live Frankenska album, recorded in London on 6/12/89 and released on Unicorn Records in 1990. This forward momentum resulted in the scaling up of national touring back in the USA and the formulation of plans for a new studio record.
The Toasters' 1990 follow-up album, This Gun for Hire (with new Toasters Matt Malles on bass, Erik Storckman on t-bone, and Cashew Miles on vocals)was released on a resurrected Moon Records during a curious lull following the mid-to-late 80s NYC ska explosion (which seemed to culminate with the triumph/misfire of the NYC Ska Live show) and before the rise of the so-called third wave of ska (whose genesis was marked in NYC by the phenomenal Skalapalooza show at The Ritz --AKA Studio 54--in early 1993). In reaction to the music industry's wholesale shunning of ska (which gave Bucket the impetus to create Moon Records in the first place) and the frustratingly near breakout success of Thrill Me Up, This Gun for Hire was consciously fashioned to attract major label interest (CBS/SONY was sniffing around at the time) and a more mainstream pop audience. Indeed, I asked John Vacarro of Hoi Polloi Skazine, who has an extensive ska print archive, if he could dig up anything to confirm this, since I remembered reading about it all--and, lo and behold, he unearthed this piece on Bucket from the August 1993 issue of George Marshall's Skinhead Times.
While This Gun... certainly contains some very catchy, well-crafted ska songs ("One Track Mind," Don't Say Forever," "Worry," and "Lies"), the pop-ish arrangements and not-quite-muscular-enough production not only failed to seal a major label deal and draw the desired pop demographics and sales, but served to alienate a good portion of the ska faithful in the process. However, it did secure reliable, national distribution from RED (a subsidiary of Sony), which was a huge development--the record was in shops, with little fear that it all would end up as landfill in another distributor failure. (It also should be noted that This Gun... has the dubious honor of containing The Toasters' sole skacid romp "Roseanne," which, I'll be the first to admit, is almost redeemed by its killer horn riff.)
In early 1991, I caught The Toasters with The Busters at Sounds of Brazil (SOB's) in Manhattan and found the band to still be very much in a transitional phase (and nowhere near the brilliance of the Thrill Me Up line-up or even the very good version of The Toasters that I had seen at the Cat Club in 1990 for the recording of NYC Ska Live). I had dragged along a friend--who had last seen The Toasters at the Big Kahuna with me--and he left SOB's afterwards very much disappointed and disillusioned with the band. But, for as long as I've known him, Bucket has always seemed to thrive in the role as the down-but-not-out underdog (the man's got grit) and his stubbornly determined and singular vision for the band already had seen the group through a decade of triumphs and tribulations. This rough patch was temporary; he was in it for the long-haul and prepared to take it on the chin while rebuilding his band, brand, and label.
A little later in 1991, after I sent a letter to Bucket via the Moon Records Cooper Station P.O. Box suggesting that he put together an international ska festival at CBGBs (they were happening at London at the time) and declaring in a review I cobbled together for the California-based skazine "Roughneck Business" that The Scofflaws (!) were the best ska band in New York City (at the time, they were), he invited me to sign on with Moon Records as their unpaid promotions guy (full disclosure: I did receive Moon releases and merch, and could get on the guest list for any Toasters show) and handed me a one page promo contact list containing a dozen college radio stations and a few fanzines (towards the end of the 90s, I had built that list up to several thousand key promo contacts). Chris "Kid Coconuts" Acosta of the NY Citizens, who had helped Bucket run the label for several years, was moving on to other things--and I set up my operations at a small desk in my apartment's kitchen (and still had a day job to pay the rent; though this changed a few years later, when I started working as a salaried Moon employee). Since Buck and I would meet to talk about Moon business at The Toasters' NYC gigs, I also began to witness the latest incarnation of The Toasters coalesce into a powerhouse unit (the band that recorded New York Fever included Brian Sledge on trumpet; Matt Malles, ex-Second Step on bass; Fred Reiter on sax; Dave Barry, ex-Beat Brigade on keys--plus Eric Storkman, ex-Beat Brigade on t-bone; Mo Roberts and Ivan Katz on drums; and Cashew Miles and Pablo D on vocals--prior to this, Steve Hex, John Dugan, and Jonathan McCain had called it a day, though McCain would soon rejoin the band for the rest of the decade), many of whom would go on to record some of their most celebrated and best-selling records ever: Dub 56, Hard Band for Dead, and Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down.
Issued in 1992, New York Fever was the album where The Toasters seemed to cast off the albatross around their collective neck, regain their musical mojo, and set a redemptive course for extraordinary success for the remainder of the decade. Yet, had New York Fever failed to deliver and prove to the fans that the 90s version of The Toasters was a credible and viable musical enterprise, none of the aforementioned albums would have followed--and it could be argued that the ska boom of that decade in the USA might not have been nearly as powerful and momentous. Around the time of the recording and release of New York Fever, The Toasters were on an upward trajectory again that would provide them with two enormous opportunities for exposure at the national level: a taped performance at NYC's Palladium with The Scofflaws for the USA network's Up All Night 1992 "New Year's Eve Ska Party"--just about every ska kid in America saw this; and the first big national ska package tour of the 1990s, put together after the smashing success of the Skalapalooza show at The Ritz, the triumphant 1993 Skavoovee Tour with The Skatalites, The Selecter, The Special Beat, and The Toasters--that played every major market in the US, attracted huge crowds, and proved to promoters and booking agents that there was a healthy and burgeoning market for big ska tours across America. All of this and more would spur Billboard to take note and declare ska "the next big thing" in a January 1994 feature on the genre.
The Sound: Sonically and lyrically, New York Fever seemed to pick up where Thrill Me Up left off (almost as if This Gun for Hire had never happened). It was back to the patented Toasters NYC Ska sound of the first two albums, but now following Bucket's songwriting/vision all the way (the only two cuts here that Bucket didn't compose are a laid-back, jazzy arrangement of the blues standard "Night Train" (at the time, The Scofflaws were playing a raucous version of "Night Train" that name-checked many of their favorite Jamaican musicians, which can be found on their fantastic self-titled debut; it was kind bizarre to catch both bands covering the same tune in their live sets, like they were in direct competition--and maybe they were) and the terrific "B27" instrumental (first written from an old jazz riff and Herbie Mann's "Comin' Home Baby" by John Dugan and re-arranged here by Storckman), which, for years, served as the intro to "East Side Beat" in The Toasters' live set). While New York Fever was recorded in Brooklyn by Buck and Matt Malles, it was mixed in Berlin by Buck's mate Joe Jackson, with Mathias Schneeberger serving as engineer. Of note, Schneeberger had produced albums for German ska bands El Bosso und die Ping Pongs (Dr. Ring Ding's first band), Blechreiz, and Yebo, and connected with The Toasters through their German label, Pork Pie. In the studio, Schneeberger helped Joe Jackson give the band a supercharged and brilliantly vibrant sound that came very close to capturing how The Toasters sound live. (It was such a successful and fruitful pairing that Schneeberger went on to produce Dub 56, Hard Band for Dead, and Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down.) And The Toasters served up some of their finest studio performances (the only odd note on the album is the rather straight-on, uncomplicated rock drumming on many of the album's songs).
The Cover: You can see NYC's extraordinary diversity simultaneously celebrated and parodied by cartoonist Bob Fingerman (who had previously illustrated the iconic NY Beat, Recriminations, Skaboom, and Ska Face album covers for Moon and would go on to create the cover for Skarmageddon 2) in that great unifier/equalizer of peoples, the NYC subway. Nowhere else do the races and classes come together more frequently and intimately than in a subway car. The irony is that Fingerman's artwork trades in stereotypes: the fat, sweaty Hasidic Jew; the giant, Lurch-ish, gold-chain-sporting b-boy; the disgusting, Mad Magazine-like, melting, homeless alkie bum; and the emaciated, gay AIDS activist--all of which I thought were going to generate a bit of controversy, but no one noticed or cared. (There are lots of small details that I do love here--how the metal pole that subway riders hang on to bisects the cover; the arm with the needle full of H sticking out of it in the lower left-hand corner; the rude boy's most excellent creepers; and how Fingerman works the titles of the songs into the subway car ads.) Two things are completely accurate here: how filthy the trains could be, and the tendency for perverts, gropers, and flashers to prowl the trains. (The Pork Pie album takes a more literal and ludicrous approach to the record cover: New York Fever is represented as a dancing thermometer in front of the city skyline...) But the overall message seems to be that the city is a degenerate freakshow--with the notable exception of the "normal" rude boy and girl, who appear to be either above it all or so accustomed to the state of things that it doesn't even register. (One last note about the artwork: Fingerman only illustrated the cover; the rest of the album's design--essentially blood splatter, which I assume was representative of all the violence in the city at the time--was created by an unsung graphic designer at DiscMakers.)
The Release: Around the time New York Fever was released on both Moon Records in the U.S. and Pork Pie in Europe, Bucket, ever the student of history, asked me if it was better to witness the rise or fall of a civilization (I replied, "rise," as I preferred to see humanity on an upward trajectory, striving to be its best). However, it very much seemed like our once grand metropolis was on the way out; and to begin to understand this album, one needs to be aware of the environment that helped birth it.
But what really threatened a full meltdown of the city was an unholy trinity of racially-motivated killings: Michael Griffith in 1986 (he was hit and killed by a car as he attempted to cross the Belt Parkway while fleeing a gang of white teenagers trying to attack him; his friend's car had broken down near Howard Beach and they encountered a group of white teenagers who nearly bumped them with their car as Griffith was crossing the street; racial slurs were exchanged and things escalated from there; Griffith's friend Timothy Grimes escaped and Cedric Sandiford was beaten with a bat--this incident spurred Fishbone to write "Slow Bus Movin' (Howard Beach Party)"); Yusef Hawkins in 1989 (he was beaten to death by a white mob in Bensonhurst that thought he was dating a white girl in the neighborhood, though he was actually there to look at a used car--not that it matters, he should have been able to see a white girl without being murdered), and Yankel Rosenbaum in 1991 (he was stabbed in Crown Heights by two black men during three days of anti-Semetic rioting following an accident involving the motorcade of the leader of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic sect which killed seven year-old Kevin Cato, the son of Guyanese immigrants--this traffic accident unleashed long-standing resentments in the neighborhood, where many in that poor African-American community believed that their relatively new neighbors in the Orthodox Jewish community received preferential treatment from the city; New York's first black mayor, David Dinkins, appeared powerless--or in the eyes of his critics, too slow to react or, worse, unwilling--to end the rioting; as a result he lost his re-election bid to former U.S. Attorney, Rudy W. Giuliani, who promised to bring law and order back to the city).
Looking back, it seems like a miracle that NYC never experienced mass rioting like LA did following the Rodney King trial and acquittal of the cops who savagely beat him after a traffic stop. Around this time, my ex-work study boss from college, who knew that I lived in the Yorkville section of the dreadfully white and mostly wealthy Upper East Side--whose northern border of 96th Street immediately gave way to one of the poorest and non-white sections of the city--half-joked that it was going to be the first neighborhood to fall when the revolution came.
The city was seemingly on the brink and so were its people.
All of this heavily influenced Bucket--who, in the honorable tradition of ska musicians from the 1960s through 2 Tone, firmly believes that a crucial aspect of this genre of music is its powerful legacy of addressing socio-economic injustice ("Ska is definitely good-time music...but it's important to see that...the music is really working class-inspired and addresses real social issues like racism and unemployment...")--as he set about writing the lyrics to the songs that would form this album. So, while "New York Fever" and "Ploughshares into Guns" (and even more pointedly, "Ploughshares Version") reflected the city's host of troubles, its ills still managed to infect the personal lives of the people depicted on many other tracks (sick, dysfunctional societies breed sick dysfunctional people), including "Social Security" (more on this one below), "Too Much Happening" (being overwhelmed by life: "The fear of falling down is chasing me") and "Johnny, Forsake Her" (pernicious relationships: "She'll only bring you nights of pain")--while "History Book" traced some of the society-level problems back to the exploration and colonization of the New World.
A close reading of the lyrics reveals that New York Fever is an album concerned about money, class, power, and race. But in a much broader sense, it's about the price of life. How some lives are highly valued above others--as determined by class and race--and how many others are simply ignored and wasted. It reflects how our government and institutions are not functioning for the benefit of everyone (especially the disadvantaged/disenfranchised) and how they've been rigged to reward the selfishness and greed of rich and powerful over serving the greater good. It's a liberal, socialistic critique of how things are--and implicit in Buck's songs is how things should be.
The first three songs on New York Fever--the title track, "Ploughshares into Guns," and "History Book"--are some of the most powerful, relevant, and catchy Bucket has ever written. (The differently sequenced Pork Pie LP edition of this album has "History Book" followed by "Social Security" and then "Shebeen," making for a brilliant side A; the Moon version has "Too Hip To Be Cool"--which caustically predicts the rise of dreaded hipsterdom in NYC--and "Night Train" in their place.)
All of the insane crap that was going on in the city is expressed in the paranoid and manic "New York Fever," which depicts the singer as suffering from a somatic internalization of the city's dysfunction and pressures (and note in verse five how the kids aren't alright--Buck states that they need to take some responsibility for improving their own lives; their situation isn't entirely society's fault; free will comes into play):
I've got a problem that I cannot explain
A small metal slug tore a hole through my brain
I got heartburn, it's like a knife in the back
I like to ride the subway, but I might get pushed on the tracks
I got no money, I get so depressed
When a stranger steps up to me, puts a gun to my chest
I tell you doctor, am I going of my mind?
Is there anything for a pain of this kind?
New York Fever again
I've got a pounding on the back of my skull
I try to react, but my senses are dull
I hear voices I wish not to repeat
I'm too busy dodging bullets on the street
I've got to get out of this town
Something stinks, it's about to go down
Feeling sick, but I can't feel my pain
I've got the New York Fever, New York Fever again
It's quite outrageous and I cannot believe
Some kids can't read, but they're armed to the teeth
They keep complaining that they can't find no work
They don't go to school, they do drugs, act like jerks
I've got a pounding, a pounding on the back of my skull
I try to react, but my senses are dull
I hear voices I wish not to repeat
I'm too busy dodging bullets on the street
New York Fever...
Think of "New York Fever" as the ska take on similar territory covered on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message": "Broken glass everywhere/People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care/I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise/Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice/Rats in the front room, roaches in the back/Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat /I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far/Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car/Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge/I'm trying not to lose my head/It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder/How I keep from going under..."
Not long after the release of this album, Buck did escape from New York, after having forgone his apartments in Alphabet City and then in Chelsea that had also served as Moon Records' headquarters during the 1980s, for the suburban tranquility of Verona, NJ, where the label operated out of his basement (when not on tour, Bucket was packing up mail orders and responding to letters to the label himself). It was like "New York Fever" was his break-up song with the city he had adopted after coming here from the UK in 1980 to manage the Forbidden Planet comic book store on 13th Street and Broadway.
"Ploughshares into Guns'" title is an ironic reversal of the popular anti-war phrase from the Book of Isaiah: "...and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." It also refers to the fact that the Cold War had ended a few years earlier with the collapse of the Soviet Union and that reasonable people expected a "peace dividend," since the U.S. was the only remaining superpower in the world and was no longer engaged in a spectacularly expensive (and ginned up by President Reagan and his "Team B") arms race with the Russians. So, all that money for armaments should have been freed up for schools, roads, libraries, housing, health care, etc., right? Instead, it was used to protect our oil rich friends (and enrich a powerful and politically-connected corner of the marketplace).
The righteously angry "Ploughshares into Guns, one of Bucket's sharpest protest songs, was written in direct reaction to the first Gulf War in 1991 (remember that one, before our ginned up debacle in Iraq in the 2000s?), a massive international effort led by U.S. forces to oust Saddam Hussein's troops who had invaded oil-rich Kuwait. But it's also an indictment of the enormous political-military-industrial complex in the United States that siphons off desperately needed resources that should be directed to the education and care of its own citizens. The Toasters horn line in this song seems to channel Bucket's outrage and is particularly searing (since we're getting Biblical here, I imagine that this was how the horns that brought down the walls of Jericho would have sounded like...).
Well, they've taken all the money, turned the ploughshares into guns
Gone to an Eastern country, bombed them back to kingdom come
With a laser guided weapon, some million dollar bomb
It makes a poor man wonder, where is that coming from?
Lying politicians keep afloat this ship of fools
They've stolen all the money from the hospitals and schools
Don't worry about the hungry, don't worry about the sick
Just worry about the profits and a way to make them quick
Meanwhile in the city, the god of war looks down
The lack of education's gonna tear apart this town
The kids are getting restless, they're armed right to the teeth
The toll in lives is expensive, but the price of life is cheap
The deal is that unless you're rich, powerful, politically-connected or part of the wealth-generating war machine (which grinds up other people's kids, namely poor American youth, and targets non-white, non-Christian peoples), there's no reason to spend the nation's money on you.
Pablo D's chat version of "Ploughshares" is an indictment of the proliferation of guns in the projects and poorer quarters of the city (remember, this was recorded at the height of the crack epidemic):
Another murder pon da city corner
Who's the culprit?
Da nine millimeter
Da nine millimeter
It is a repeater
For turning a clip into most fire
Da nine millimeter
It is a danger
Said youth now wield in a manner to commit murder
Da nine millimeter
A blood red killer
Said little babies getting shot lookin' out da window
Another bystander gets caught up in the crossfire
What's the price I have to pay to live a little longer?
The implied answer is that one has to give up the freedom of venturing beyond one's apartment--and become even more isolated from the larger, American society, that oftentimes acts like it would prefer if all the poor, brown people would just go away, or kill off each other in a war of attrition waged in daily gunfights on the ghetto streets (but the gun manufacturers still reap their profits!). But it also reflects the city's/state's/nation's spending priorities. These lives don't warrant tax money spent on them for the opportunity to obtain a good education that could lead to a decent job; they're not worthy of access to decent medical care; and they don't deserve a safe place to live.
"History Book" begins innocently enough with Buck imagining himself as one of the early European explorers of the New World about to set off for an extraordinary adventure into either fame or oblivion, but the song soon transitions to illustrate the terrible and far-reaching results of the European exploration of the Americas: the genocide or enslavement of native peoples (considered to be less than human; savages); the wholesale theft of their riches, lands, and natural resources; and the establishment of the slave trade (non-white people bought and sold as property, and exploited in any manner the white man saw fit). The establishment of slavery in the "New World" eventually stunted and perverted the legal, economic, and social development of the United States (and has plagued it for its entire existence). Since it became the despicable "engine" of southern colonies'/states' economy, it led to the creation of enormous, almost fatal flaws in the U.S. Constitution (all landowning white men were equal under the law--though not non-white men or women of any race; two senators represent every state, regardless of the size of the population of said state, skewing some states' influence and giving the citizens of lesser-populated states more representation at the Federal level than more densely populated states); and it became one of the primary causes of the Civil War (the treasonous southern states seceded from the United States in order to protect slavery). Slavery's aftereffects were seen for decades (even to the present day) in the Jim Crow laws in the South and deeply-rooted racism/discrimination most everywhere else that often excluded most non-white people from a host of educational, vocational, economic, social, and political opportunities that their fellow white Americans enjoyed without question. (Note in the lyrics below how Pablo D offers a Howard Zinn-like counterpoint to the history recorded--and taught--by the dominant/white European explorers'/conquerers' side).
Here I stand on the deck of my ship on the Spanish main
I've got a charter in my cabin, signed and sealed by the King of Spain
That his standard be unfurled past the edge of the world
or I dare not go back again
History will be kind and bear me in mind
and remember my name
History book
History book
Let's take a look
At my history book
South Devon pirates, buccanneers on the Panama coast
With a cargo of potatoes and Indian princes
But what they want the most
Is to fill that hold with Spanish gold
And make proud their boast
That England will smile on their piracy while
They drink Elizabeth's toast
History book
History book
Let's take a look
At my history book
As a little youth, me used to walk to school
with my history book inna my book bag, Lord
What a mashin', what a crushin', what a killin' of an innocent mind!
History book
(So now we all gonna take a proper look)
History book
(and talk about the history you took)
Let's take a look
(About the half that has never been told)
At my history book
(About the gold and diamonds you stole)
Arab traders ply their weapons on the Africa shore
And hapless victims bound in chains on the galleon floor
That their blood may be spilled in the land of Brazil
And they'll see their homes forlorn
History will be cruel as it uses its tool
To shame the New World more
History book
(So now you're gonna talk this twist)
History book
(History teacher get dismissed)
Let's take a look
(Come talk your lies and your foolishness)
At my history book
(We want da truth and don't wanna see your lies)
My history book...
If you'd never had a chance to hear it before, you might guess that "Social Security" is about FDR's 1935 act implemented to ensure that America's elderly weren't condemned to live out their remaining years in terrible poverty (during the Great Depression, the poverty rate amongst senior citizens was as high as 50%). But it's actually one of Buck's cautionary songs (like "Decision at Midnight"). It's the lament of one of the damaged kids from "New York Fever" or "Plougshares into Guns" who wasted his youth and now as an adult is unable to achieve self-sufficiency; he's literally failed to create a safety net of his own making (career, family, home, etc.):
My girl says she's leaving because I haven't got a job
She got nothing for Christmas and I think she's feeling lost
She says I got no prospects, nothing that will last
I'm feeling pretty fragile, my heart is made of glass
Social security
Social security
I go looking for trouble, hanging out in bars
I end up seeing double, double, smashing up my car
It's not long before my friends are gone, I'm hanging in the street
Up is down and down is up, my circle is complete
Social security
Social security
Less the education, no examinations passed
Wasted all my school days smoking reefer in the back
Got no diploma in history or math
I end up with no future, just learning about the past
With its signature horn line brilliantly nicked from War's "Lowrider," "Shebeen" is another in a long line of Bucket's fantastic ska history tracks like "Ska Killers" ("It's the music of Jamaica and I don't mean Jamaica, Queens/and I heard it on an airwave coming up from New Orleans...") and "Chuck Berry" ("Forty years ago there was a jumping Jazz Jamaica scene/They could hear these tunes drifting down from New Orleans/Then they put the two together in a thing they called the ska/and sent it off to England in the back of Laurel Aitken's car"). On one hand, it's a tribute to Duke Vin, but it's also a celebration of the casual and commonplace mixing of races and cultures--all in the name of tracking down some fun (like Joe Strummer in "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais"). Yet, it should be noted that the shebeens, where the sons and daughters of Jamaican immigrants and sons and daughters of white, British working class families were mingling, drinking, and dancing to the latest and greatest ska and reggae songs, were illegal "clubs" trying to operate off the radar of the authorities/agents of the dominant white culture (as if there were no "legitimate" place where this type of social/cultural interaction could take place--even amongst society's least valued people--so it has to happen off the grid).
There used to be a shebeen
Next to the laundromat where I used to live
In London town, in London town
If you know what I mean
And there was an old man
Who used to big up the sounds
He kept those beats, he kept those beats
From when Prince Buster was around
And he said...
Pick up and dance
Come on rude boy do some drop legs with me
If you can, if you can
Take up a chant
We can do it now, man to man
There used to be a shebeen
Next to the laundromat where I used to live
In London town, in London town
If you know what I mean
And there was an old man
Who used to big up the sounds
He kept those beats, he kept those beats
From when Prince Buster was around
The Ugly Reality: Since New York Fever was released in the downtime between the 1980s post-2 Tone underground ska craze and the rise of the so-called third wave, many of the kids who were in high school and college in the first half of 1990s didn't really seem to catch on to The Toasters until the scene was in full gear, around the release of Dub 56 (1994)--which remains the fan favorite to this day. And the albums that followed Dub, Hard Band for Dead (1996), and Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down (1997)--all of which were released on Moon Ska Records and licensed to sister labels in Europe, Japan, and South America--were almost equally popular in the Toasters' catalogue. But it's vital to remember that New York Fever was the album that spawned those iconic records--and, in many ways, is as equally as brilliant and worthy of recognition and acclaim.
The Final Track: Over 20 years later, New York Fever remains one of my favorite Toasters albums--largely due to its outstanding songwriting and stellar performances, but also because this was the record where the retrofitted Toasters clawed their way back from the missteps and misfortune of the early 90s to achieve greatness once again. Maybe you had to have been one of the die-hard Toasters fans from the 80s who endured the band's early 90s lean years to truly appreciate the significance of this album? All I know is that from my perspective back in the day, it was incredibly satisfying to see them back on top of the scene with a vengeance.
+++++
This post was updated/corrected on 6/13/13. Thanks for the info, Buck!
What They're Saying About My Book "The Duff Guide to 2 Tone"
“An essential read…Stephen's eye for detail is incredible and his love for 2 Tone oozes from each page.” — Kevin Flowerdew, Do the Dog Skazine
“Written with a personal touch and with great passion about the bands and releases while giving a lot of emphasis to the lyrics, Stephen’s book is a great guiding hand to navigating your way to some great new music.” — Peter Walsh, 2-Tone.info
“It's some of the finest Madness analysis I've ever read.” —Donald Trull, Stateside Madness
“Steve's own story would make a great book, but instead he's written The Duff Guide to 2 Tone, a 250+ page collection of 2 Tone-related pieces from his blog. There are reviews of original pieces, but the book's real purpose is to show how the 2 Tone sound and—more importantly its ideals—carry on today...Get this book right away!" — Charles Benoit, Reggae Steady Ska
"...Shafer has definitely not forgotten how socially conscious issues were at the root of Ska even from the beginning. He makes certain to thread the political issues that motivated the development of Ska throughout his narrative; painting a picture that took both the oppressive political environments and the often ecstatic musical content into account. And in that, he nails down for me what the enduring pull of Ska was to its many fans. Was there ever a more upbeat dance music that combined its boundless energy with a push for progressive social values and calling truth to power?" —Post-Punk Monk
"...[The Duff Guide to 2 Tone is a] chatty, informative and knowledgeable work, one that you can either sit down and read or use as a reference source..." —Nik Skeat, Scootering Magazine
"During the reading of the book it is dangerous to have a screen open next to you with Discogs. I have found lots of ‘new music’ via the stories in The Duff Guide to 2 Tone which I must have." -- Peter Vrakking, Blue Beat & Ska
In the mail today, I received the first copy of my new paperback book The Duff Guide to 2 Tone --and am thrilled to announce that it is now...
About Your Duff Guide
Steve Shafer/The Duff Guide to Ska For most of the 1990s, I was the promotions, marketing, production guy for Moon Records (RIP). It was one of the best jobs I ever had. Seriously, I miss it badly. During 1999/2000, I ran 7 Wonders of the World Music, the first digital download-only ska label that was too ahead of the curve for its own good (RIP).
I filmed and edited this Toasters video for $2,500, which made its debut on MTV's 120 Minutes. I also put together these compilations for Moon: the first three Skarmageddons; Ska United: A Global Ska Sampler; Skank Down Under; This Are Moon Ska I, II, and III; and Moonshot!
Here's an old interview with Adam Monkey from Read Magazine that covers my days at Moon and 7 Wonders. I also did a somewhat more recent interview with Read Junk.
I've been interviewed about ska music and Moon Records for The New York Times, Heather Augustyn's "Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation," Aaron Carnes' "In Defense of Ska," Kenneth Partridge's "Hell of a Hat: The Rise of '90s Ska and Swing," and Marc Wasserman's "Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History" (I also wrote the introductory chapter "1985: The Year American Ska Broke" for Wasserman's book).
And I'm the author of "The Duff Guide to 2 Tone," which can be ordered from Amazon--and is available in the US from Jump Up Records, and in Europe from the 2 Tone Village Shop (Coventry, UK), Champion Sound Records (Hull, UK), Aggroshop (Nijmegen, Netherlands), and Copasetic Mailorder (Hamburg, Germany). Plus, my book was on sale in the museum shop for the "2 Tone: Lives & Legacies" exhibition (May 28 - September 12, 2021), curated by Simon Reynolds, Cory Barrett, Pete Chambers, Jennifer Otter Bickerdike and Daniel Rachel, at the Herbert Art Gallery Museum in Coventry, UK.
I'm now working on my next book, "Calling All the Rude Boys: The Duff Guide to The Toasters, 1981-1992," to be published in 2023.
If you have a ska or reggae release that you'd like me to consider reviewing, please send an e-mail to Steve at duffguidetoska@gmail.com. You should know that I am old school and prefer music in tangible formats (plus I might use your music when I DJ ska events). I'd also appreciate any news or tips you may have about bands.
All reviews and interviews posted on The Duff Guide to Ska are copyrighted and are the sole property of Steve Shafer. Please contact me for permission to reproduce anything on this blog.
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US ska fans, particularly those in the New York City area, are wondering why Ticketmaster no longer lists The Specials' show at Termina...
Visit The Duff Guide to Ska Video Channel!
Check out The Duff Guide to Ska Video Channel for footage of ska bands in action in clubs around NYC, as well as unusual and rare ska videos from the 90s! Bands featured include The Toasters, The Bluebeats, The Forthrights, Across the Aisle, The Caroloregians, The Moon Invaders, The Rudie Crew, Tip the Van, Hey Stranger, Beat Brigade, Bigger Thomas, King Chango, The Scofflaws, UB40, The Hard Times, Jah Love and the Valentinians, The Shifters, Rudies Don't Care, Big Audio Dynamite, Stranger Cole and Patsy with Crazy Baldhead, Queen P of Ocean 11, King Hammond, The Snails, King Django, Doomsday! The Ultimate Tribute to Mephiskapheles Consisting of Former Members of Mephiskapheles, Destroy Babylon, The Frightnrs, The Pandemics, Los Skarroneros, The Bullbuckers, The Scofflaws, The Reggay Lords, The Copacetics, Rude Boy George, Dave Hillyard and the Rocksteady 7, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, The Specials, Roddy Radiation and Lynval Golding, The Ladrones, Chris Murray, Radio Riddler, UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Astro, and Mickey Virtue, Barbicide, The Twilights, Bim Skala Bim featuring John Bunkley (Gangster Fun), The Pomps, and more!
Thursday, August 1, 2013 @ 9:00 pm
