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Make sure to pick up a copy of MOJO on a regular basis, as its probably one of the best music magazines left in the business.
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:
Isnt it a bit hypocritical for you to rail against illegal music downloading and then scan and post an article illegally from Mojo Magazine? If I follow your logic, we should be buying songs from record companies (thus supporting the ailing record industry)instead of sharing them without paying for them right? If we follow the same logic, you are infringing on Mojo's copyright to this article and depriving them of their ability to earn more from those of us who should be going out to buy this issue instead of reading it for free on your blog right? There is some fine print in the front of the magaizine which reads 'All material published is copyright of EMAP Performance Ltd. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher.' Just saying...
Anonymous:
Your point is well taken...I will take down the link.
From the tone of your comments, I assume that you are pro-music file sharing?
Steve
More like free advertising than copyright infringement, if you ask me. I didn't even know that MOJO was still around until I saw this post.
Adam:
Anon had a valid point, so I took it down--though as you can see from a few posts later, MOJO posted on-line all of the interviews with The Specials that were used to create this article...
MOJO is still around and is essential reading!
Steve
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