Anybody have any good suggestions?
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ska Merch
Anybody have any good suggestions?
Labels:
Crab Records,
Laurel Aitken,
Prince Buster,
ska merchandise
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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...
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.
4 comments:
Good suggestions? Probably not... but if the bands are on interpunk sometimes you can find stuff from there. You can also sometimes find stuff through amazon for more general type of stuff.
David:
Sure, I've picked up some stuff on Interpunk and Angry, Young, and Poor...but there doesn't seem to be one central place where you can find a lot of ska stuff...
Steve
I got desperate for a new Hepcat t-shirt. I came across one for toddlers on this site: www.badbaby.biz
I asked the guy to make an adult one for me...not great, but it works!!
Anon:
Thanks! What a great site (wish I knew about it when my son was younger). He should just include adult sizes for the parents and double his potential customer base (might be a problem with licensing the images and logos, but still).
I've tried making up my own shirts for personal use by scanning band/label logos and then having a one-off made, but a lot of these sites (Zazzle, etc.) really monitor what is going on as they are worried about copyright infringement--and rightly so.
I probably just need to learn how to silkscreen shirts myself...
Keep those suggestions coming!!!
Thanks.
Steve
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