Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Snails' New EP "The River" Available for Pre-Order!

Philly's fantastic ska/soul/rocksteady 'n' roll outfit The Snails have a new four-track 7" vinyl EP "The River" available for pre-order directly from the band. (If I remember correctly, these cuts were recorded and produced by King Django at Version City.)

"The River" is being released on July 31, 2012 and if their smokin' debut, From Kingston to Memphis, is any indication, this EP should not be missed!

The Snails are currently on a tour of the Midwest with Sammy K and The Fast Four.

LA Latin Ska on the BBC

The BBC website has a short segment on the Los Angeles Latin Ska scene, which features a few bands on the ska-punk tip: Chencha Berrinches, Los Chiles Verdes, and Operation No-One Knows.

While I didn't expect this to be a comprehensive look at the scene, I was a bit disappointed not to see more traditional/vintage ska bands like The Delirians, Los Bullets, and The Allentons (you know, acts associated with the Steady Beat Recordings and Moondust Records labels) in the mix.

The video is worth a look, though.


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Skatalites Storm the Northeast this June!



New Yorkers: check out the booze cruise with The Skatalites on June 27! Chill to the Skatalites' musical vibes on the East River and New York Bay!


Thursday, June 14, 2012

NYC Spring 2012 Ska Calendar Update #24


Friday, June 15, 2012


20 South Virginia Avenue
Atlantic City, NJ

+ + + +

Friday, June 15, 2012 at 9:00 pm


Forte featuring Kevin Batchelor (Skatalites) & Rocksteady Freddie Reiter (New York Ska Jazz Ensemble) *DEBUT GIG!* 12am
Top Shotta Band featuring Mush 1 (ex-Slackers) 11pm
The Attractors featuring Rich Graiko (Westbound Train) 10pm

+ Crazy Baldhead & Deadly Dragon selecting the big tunes and reggae rarities all night!

B LOUNGE
837-839 Union Street (under 'Tea Lounge'), between 6th & 7th Avenues
Park Slope, Brooklyn
$10

+ + + +

Saturday, June 16, 2012 @ 9:00 pm


Barefoot Bar @ The Oceanic
4600 Ocean Avenue
Wildwood, NJ
No Cover
Destroy Babylon plays all night!

+ + + +

Saturday, June 16, 2012


6 Crannell Street
Poughkeepsie, NY

+ + + +

Sunday, June 17, 2012


60 North Park Avenue
Rockville Centre, NY

+ + + +

Saturday, June 23, 2012 @ 10:00 pm


Two Boots of Brooklyn
514 2nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 
Free

+ + + +

Saturday, June 23, 2012 @ 8:00 pm

The Rudie Crew (w/Ten Ton Mojo, Reserved for Rondee, The Arkhams)

Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston Street
Manhattan, NY
$12/21+

+ + + +

Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29, 2012


Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard The Harbor Lights
Boards: 7:00 pm/Departs: 8:00pm
East 23rd Street and FDR Drive
New York, NY

$30 advance/$35 day of show (for each night)
21+

+ + + +

Wednesday, June 27, 2012


Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard The Jewel
Boards: 7:00 pm/Departs: 8:00pm
East 23rd Street and FDR Drive
New York, NY
Advance: $25/Day of Show: $30
21+

+ + + +

Saturday, June 30, 2012 @ 6:00 pm

The Rudie Crew, The Void Union, Ruder Than You, Dave Hillyard, I Against Jive, No Comply

The BoneYard
20 South Virginia Avenue
Atlantic City, NJ
$12
All Ages Show

+ + + +

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 7:45 pm

PreDependance Party w/Hub City Stompers (12:00 am), Bigger Thomas (11:00 pm), Unit $ix (10:00 pm), The Pandemics (9:00 pm), and Obama Nation (8:00 pm)

Fontana's Bar
105 Eldridge Street
Manhattan, NY 
$10/21+

+ + + +

Saturday, July 7, 2012 5:00-10:00 pm

The Rudie Crew

Mastic Beach Surf Camp
1 Blue Point Road
Mastic Beach, NY
$10

+ + + +

Thursday, July 12, 2012


149 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY
$25/21+

+ + + +

Wednesday, July 18, 2012 @ 8:00 pm

The English Beat and Bigger Thomas

24 West Temple Avenue
Sellersville, PA
$33

+ + + +

Saturday, July 28, 2012

The Rudie Crew @ The High Times Stage

Catalpa Festival
Randall's Island, NY
Weekend Festival ticket: $179.00

+ + + +

Thursday, August 30, 2012


The Crossroads
78 North Avenue
Garwood, NJ
(This is the King Django Birthday Bash)

Sammy K and The Fast Four with The Snails Hit Middle America!


...and Middle America will never be the same!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Boss Reggae from Non-Reggae Artists: Wild Belle, LeaLea Jones with Horace Andy

(Review by Steve Shafer)

We ska types can sometimes be a little parochial in our tastes and overly protective of our minuscule slice of the music world (it's the by-product of loving an often-maligned and ridiculed subcultural music form: they don't like/respect us, so we'll reject everything outside of our little realm). Plus, we can be overly obsessed with authenticity (but that plagues any non-mainstream band and its fans now, doesn't it?). I've always had an aversion to/suspicion of any scene that is focused on excluding that which doesn't conform to an unyielding set of requirements, so I'm pretty much open to any non-ska/reggae act that decides to venture into these genres as long as they do it well (see one of my older posts related to this topic, as well as this other one, and that one, too). Reasonable enough, isn't it?

My attitude, no doubt, comes from growing up during the incredible New Wave era that encompassed such an extraordinary amount of musical ground (essentially any underground, non-mainstream music from power pop to synthpop to post-punk to hip-hop to ska and reggae and much further afield) and being lucky enough to live within the broadcast area of a couple of left-of-the-dial radio stations and a hard-to-tune-in music video channel (here's to you WLIR and UHF-based U-86!).

Having copped to all that, you can see why I'm crazy about "Keep You," one of the newish tracks from the duo Wild Belle, which mixes roots reggae riddims (and sax!) with detached New Wave-y vocals and moody, ethereal synths (this is a must for Santigold and Hollie Cook fans). Natalie Bergman sings from a position of strength and confidence (she's more frustrated than self-pitying) about a sad, one-way, dysfunctional relationship:

"Same song, again and again
You wrong me twice and I keep coming back
Tell me what the matter is, little man
I've got a pretty face and I wear a nice dress

Why can't I keep you?
Keep you

Every minute that I spend on you
I give you honey and I give you truth
All the other women they get treat so rude
Cry, cry, cause you make them blue
Running over town like you got no nerve
Sleeping in the shanty of a brand new girl
Call me after Nancy, but before Rachel
Why can't I keep you for myself?"

(Listen to Wild Belle's "Keep You" here.)

My good friend Ned turned me on to this boss track, knowing my love of things Jamaican and I've picked up the 12" single to play if/when I ever DJ again. Little did I know that there's a big buzz about the band here and in the UK--and that they were one of the "must see" bands at this year's SXSW festival. But all you really need to be aware of is that this haunting and catchy track is an all-out winner.

While Wild Belle's "Keep You" follows more of a pop song structure, LeaLea Jones's dubby take on reggae in "The Road" (stream it here) is a looser, almost free-form jazz approach to the genre (check out her unusual vocal phrasing in the beginning, and while you're at it, recognize her wonderfully expressive, pure, and powerful voice). There's not a well-defined verse/chorus structure and the song goes through several shifts in melody and rhythm. All of this lends an appropriate tension to the song (there's no musical release, really), which is about a relationship at the crossroads: do they go forward or do they go their separate ways?

LeaLea sings:

"You're so nice
and I'm feeling right
but I don't want no nothing else than
your loving eyes
No, we won't go down that road"

The always amazing Horace Andy replies:

"I know I can't do without you
Let's full joy this love
Forever and ever, baby
Opportunity comes once in life
So baby, let's get it on
Don't let it go, no"

This "Road" is a bit more challenging at first, as it doesn't have the immediate hooks to seduce your ear, but the song definitely works its way into your head after just a few listens. And even though the couple's conflict is unresolved at the end of the song, there will be no doubt that this is an extraordinary track from a gifted performer.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Duff Review: Specialized EP w/Lee Thompson, King Hammond, The Values featuring Roland Gift, and Orange Street

Specialized Records/Jump Up Records
2012
Clear or black 7" EP single (includes a reproduction of the 2 Tone Club membership card)

(Review by Steve Shafer)

This terrific four-track EP features several cuts from the recent Specialized: A Modern Take on Specials Classics charity CD whose proceeds directly support the good work of the Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK. (For more background on this album, read this interview we did with Paul "Willo" Williams last December.)

The Specialized EP kicks off with a fantastic cover of Andy & Joey's "You're Wondering Now" by The Values featuring Roland Gift (I can't tell you how good it is to hear his voice again after all these years--he's been sorely missed on the music scene!) Roland's mournful tenor (one of the wonderful things about his unique voice is that it sounds like he's singing using whatever the vocal equivalent of a horn mute would be) is the perfect counterpoint to the band's upbeat interpretation of this track (which, for The Specials, was their parting shot on their first album at Margaret Thatcher, the National Front, and all the other haters of a socially/economically just and multicultural society: "You're wondering how you will pay for the way you did behave...").

The Jerry Dammers/Lynval Golding anti-racist/anti-violence song "Doesn't Make it Alright" (one of my faves) receives a spirited and muscular reading from Orange Street (best lyric: "Some people think they're really clever/To smash your head against the wall/They they say, 'you got it my way'/They really think they know it all"). Good stuff.

King Hammond's (and the Rude Boy Mafia's) bright, cheery take on the Terry Hall penned "Friday Night, Saturday Morning" is from the viewpoint of someone who's a couple of decades removed from the depressed and monotonous No Future of the UK in 1981. Life has turned out okay--the days of No Future have passed--and going out for a night on the town is actually satisfying and fun, as it should be (and perhaps they're enjoyed/treasured all the more with the knowledge that they're more days of the calendar behind one than ahead). Not only can your hear this sea change in the music, check out The Specials' lyrics against King Hammond's revised ones:

The Specials' original lyrics:

"When my feet go through the door
I know what my right arm is for
Buy a drink and pull a chair
Up to the edge of the dance floor"

King Hammond's version:

"As soon as I walk through that door
I know just what my life is for
Have a drink and hear some ska
and get on the dance floor"

But what's great is that the singer's lament, whether from the vantage point of someone in their early twenties or just hitting the half century mark, is that the night oftentimes ends the same: "Wish I had lipstick on my shirt/Instead of piss stains on my shoes..."

Madness' Lee Thompson cheats a bit by opting for Prince Buster's classic tune "Madness" (of course, what else could he do?). But instead of the expected rollicking music hall stomper, this is the "Naked Acoustically" version--really a lounge lizard/dubby take on the song, with Lee half singing/speaking the vocals with percussion, a bit of piano/organ, and sax. The setting could be a rundown nightclub at closing time or the rubber room at an insane asylum, but either way it works!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Pauline Black on NPR

This morning, I caught the tail-end of Scott Simon's "Weekend Edition" interview with Pauline Black on NPR regarding her autobiography "Black by Design," which has just been published in the United States (you can hear the entire NPR interview here).

The overarching theme of this book and Pauline's life is her search for identity and belonging. Born to a 17 year-old white British teenager and Nigerian engineering student, she was placed in an orphanage and then adopted into a working-class white family (it turned out that some of her relatives held racist views), and was the only black child in her school (in a larger society that was, how shall I put this, resistant to the realization that England was becoming a multicultural society). Add all this to the fact that she was one of the few female musicians in the 2 Tone revolution...

As someone who was given up for adoption at birth, her book and statement below have great resonance:
"I know [this] probably sounds a little bit like a cliche, but I feel that it's very, very important for every individual on this planet to know where they came from and who they came from," she says. "It just gives you a sense of belonging, and I think that sense of belonging is more profound than probably any of us give it credit for."

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Return of Dr. Ring Ding!

Big news for fans of vintage ska sounds--Germany's Dr. Ring Ding (a.k.a. Richie Jung) is back in the studio recording an album of new ska tracks. Here's the announcement from Dr. Ring Ding's Facebook page:
The recordings for a new, all-ska album of Dr. Ring Ding have started! It will be accomplished in Catalonia and Germany, comprising, among others, members of Barcelona’s own Freedom Street Band, as well as some of the Doctor’s longtime companions from the German ska and reggae scenes, and a few special guests from Jamaica and the USA. New compositions of old school ska in the vein of the legendary "Dandimite" release from 1995 – we will keep you updated!
The aforementioned Dandimite release (with the Senior Allstars) was definitely one of the best traditional ska releases of the 90s, and its follow-up, Ram Di Dance was in every way its equal (the more musically adventurous should track down Diggin' Up Dirt, which mixed hip-hop and reggae with incredible results--while a good compilation of Dr. Ring Ding's output from the 90s-00s can be found on Back & Forth).

Most of the good Doctor's work lately has been in the realm of dancehall (apparently there is a fairly huge German dancehall scene), but it's really welcome news that he's back on the ska tip again.

+ + + +




Friday, June 1, 2012

NYC Spring 2012 Ska Calendar Update #23


Friday, June 1, 2012

King Tony (of The Drastics) and The Pinstripes

514 2nd Street
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Free

+ + + +

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 @ 8:30 pm

Jimmy Cliff

Prospect Park Bandshell
Brooklyn, NY 
Free

+ + + + 

Friday, June 15, 2012


20s Virginia Avenue
Atlantic City, NJ

+ + + +

Friday, June 15, 2012 at 9:00 pm


Forte featuring Kevin Batchelor (Skatalites) & Rocksteady Freddie Reiter (New York Ska Jazz Ensemble) *DEBUT GIG!* 12am
Top Shotta Band featuring Mush 1 (ex-Slackers) 11pm
The Attractors featuring Rich Graiko (Westbound Train) 10pm

+ Crazy Baldhead & Deadly Dragon selecting the big tunes and reggae rarities all night!

B LOUNGE
837-839 Union Street (under 'Tea Lounge'), between 6th & 7th Avenues
Park Slope, Brooklyn
$10

+ + + +

Saturday, June 16, 2012 @ 9:00 pm


Wildwood, NJ

+ + + +

Saturday, June 16, 2012


6 Crannell Street
Poughkeepsie, NY

+ + + +

Sunday, June 17, 2012


60 North Park Avenue
Rockville Centre, NY

+ + + +

Saturday, June 23, 2012 @ 10:00 pm


Two Boots of Brooklyn
514 2nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 
Free

+ + + +

Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29, 2012


Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard The Harbor Lights
Boards: 7:00 pm/Departs: 8:00pm
East 23rd Street and FDR Drive
New York, NY

$30 advance/$35 day of show (for each night)
21+

+ + + +

Wednesday, June 27, 2012


Rocks Off Concert Cruise Aboard The Jewel
Boards: 7:00 pm/Departs: 8:00pm
East 23rd Street and FDR Drive
New York, NY
Advance: $25/Day of Show: $30
21+

 + + + + 

Thursday, July 12. 2012


149 7th Street
Brooklyn, NY
$25/21+

+ + + +