Sunday, February 26, 2017

Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Rhoda Dakar "The Lotek Four, Volume 1"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Rhoda Dakar The Lotek Four, Volume 1 (7" vinyl EP/CD EP, Pledge Music, 2016; available through Dakar's online shop): The latest release from Rhoda Dakar was inspired by a performance she gave with son Frenchie at his school of a version of Greenwich Village folk-rocker Fred Neil's 1967 anti-war/pro-environment/love song "Dolphins," with Frenchie on drums, his music teacher on piano, and Rhoda, of course, on vocals. (Apparently, Frenchie's first visit to a recording studio was with his mum when he was six months old, when Beth Orton and soul/jazz singer Terry Callier were recording "Dolphins" with Dr. Robert--of Blow Monkeys fame--producing; Dakar had appeared on several of Dr. Robert's solo albums in the '90s, around the same time Orton recorded "Dolphins" for her Best Bit EP.) That unadulterated joy of performing music for music's sake and pleasure of sharing both beloved old tracks, as well as amazing new ones, really comes through on The Lotek Four, Volume 1.

Fans expecting more tunes in the 2 Tone/Bodysnatchers mold should re-set their expectations (it has been decades since those heady days, right?). The EP is split between traditional ska/rocksteady tunes an side A (if you're using vinyl) and lush, moody, introspective '60s jazz on B (no doubt, due to the influence of her father, UK jazz musician André Dakar). All are stellar and performed expertly by Dakar and her wonderful collaborators: Louis Vause (piano) and Paul Tadman (bass) of Crunch aka the Nutty Boys and the Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra; Lenny Bignell (guitar) of Pama International and The Sidewalk Doctors; Mark Claydon (drums) from The Get Up--Frenchie sits behind the kit for "Dolphins," natch; and Terry Edwards (sax, flugel horn) of The Higsons and Madness.

The EP opens with the gorgeous, but bittersweet ska track "Fill the Emptiness (Lovers)" (if you buy the CD version, contains an equally stunning jazz version, "Fill the Emptiness (Reefa)"), written by Dakar, Vause, and Tadman about being emotionally rescued, but at great cost: "Kind words only leave your lips/And then you wrap me 'round your finger/You, darling, you/Fill the emptiness/Deep down inside." The group then covers Madness' "Tears You Can't Hide"--a real gem written by Cathal Smyth from their 1985 Mad Not Mad album that has a '60s Motown feel to it--smoothing out the original's odd reggae rhythm and giving it a rocksteady sheen ("Carry the world on your back/Heavy weights tearing you apart/Feel in a rage, can't speak up for yourself/All you're trying to do, it's no good anyway/Now I see tears you can't hide").

The lonely and detached nightclub narrator of "You Talking To Me?" (written by Dakar, Vause, and Tadman and sung in both English and French), whose credo is "an observer of souls," goes through the motions, but still hopes against all expectations to find real love: "The vicissitudes of urban life/Leave me cold, exhausted, tired of strife/The connect that makes it all worthwhile/Often absent, though I try to smile/The rough, the smooth, the twists, the turns/Oh the lessons we are here to learn/An epiphany, a flash of light/On occasions when we get it right." Before this recording, I wasn't familiar with Neil's (or Orton's cover of) "Dolphins," but am so glad that I am now. It's an extraordinary song of longing and sadness for what could be ("And sometimes I wonder/Do you ever think of me?") and Dakar's jazz version is beautifully haunting.

In sum, The Lotek Four, Volume 1 is a phenomenally good release, not to be missed. Here's hoping that the next batch from this lot comes very soon.

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Friday, February 24, 2017

The Duff Guide to Ska NYC Winter/Spring 2017 Ska Calendar #44

Photo by Jim Jocoy (Punks in car, San Francisco, late '70s)
Friday, February 24, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

The Skatalites, Organically Good Trio

Brooklyn Bowl
61 Wythe Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$15/21+

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Saturday, February 25, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Big D and the Kids Table, Stray Bullets, Crazy and the Brains

Knitting Factory Brooklyn
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$13

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Saturday, February 25, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Lonely Atom Records Presents: A Record Release Party for "Radical Chemicals, Vol. 1" with Incircles, The Pandemics, American Pinup, plus Agent Jay on the decks!

Don Pedro
90 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$10/21+

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Saturday, March 4, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Save Ferris, Baby Baby, Rude Boy George

The Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd Street
New York, NY
$20/16+

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Monday, March 6, 2017 @ 9:00 pm

Version City Tour w/King Django, Rocker T, Brian Hill, John DeCarlo, Alex Brander

Tobacco Road
355 West 41st Street
New York, NY

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Friday, March 17, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

St. Patrick's Day with The Pietasters

The Marlin Room @ Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street
New York, NY
$16/16+

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Saturday, March 18, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Dave Hillyard and the Rocksteady 7 Plays the Tommy McCook Song Book

Hank's Saloon
46 Third Avenue (at Atlantic)
Brooklyn, NY
$8

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Saturday, March 18, 2017 @ 8:00 pm


Roots Jamboree w/The Far East, Top Shotta Band featuring Screechy Dan, Special Guest Willow Wilson, plus selections by JonnyGO Figure, Dub Star, and more!

Don Pedro
90 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$10/21+

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Friday, March 24, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Voodoo Glow Skulls, Hub City Stompers

Knitting Factory Brooklyn
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$13 in advance/$15 day of show
All ages

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Friday, March 24, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

Fishbone

The Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd Street
New York, NY
$25/16+

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Horace Andy w/the R.P.M. Band w/JonnyGO Figure and Autarchii Howklear plus music by King Lion, Black Roots, King Adies, Supa Sound

Milk River Restaurant
960 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
$10 before 8pm, $15 after/21+

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Friday, March 31, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

The Theatre at Madison Square Garden
4 Penn Plaza
New York, NY
Tickets: $35-$95

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Friday, May 19, 2017 @ 8:00 pm

Askultura and The Ladrones

Tobacco Road
354 West 41st Street
New York, NY

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Saturday, April 29, 2017 @ 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm

ReadJunk 20th Anniversary Party w/Rude Boy George (two sets) and DJ Duff

Otto's Shrunken Head
538 East 14th Street (between Aves A and B)
New York, NY
No cover

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Saturday, April 29, 2017 @ 9:00 pm

The Ladrones Record Release Party

Tobacco Road
355 West 41st Street
New York, NY

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Friday, June 9, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

The Specials

Brooklyn Steel
319 Frost Street
Brooklyn, NY
$50/16+

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Friday, June 23, 2017 @ 7:00 pm

The Slackers

Rocks Off Concert Cruise
The Liberty Belle
299 South Street
New York, NY
$30/21+

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Monday, February 20, 2017

Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: The Sentiments "Hi-Fi"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

The Sentiments Hi-Fi (digital album/CD, Simmerdown Productions/Bandcamp, 2016): This Portlandian ska supergroup of sorts (comprised of members of Easy Big Fella, Francesca, Engine 54, Crucial DBC, and Cornerstone) released their all out fantastic debut album just prior to the Christmas holidays. So, of course, it got lost in my end-of-year mad blur and I'm just now becoming clued in to what I've been missing (which is a lot)! The Sentiments play a sweet and pleasing blend of ska, soul, rocksteady, and reggae (paging all fans of The Pietasters!) Indeed, with lead singer Erin Wallace's wonderfully soulful alto voice, one could imagine that The Sentiments came into being when she took a wrong turn backstage and ended up on stage being backed by a ska band, rather than a soul one...

The Sentiments' Hi-Fi is an album stacked up with great songs (that seem so cinematic--some appropriate for films noir, others in the classic "let's put on a show" type musical vein, if the American song book had been written in ska 'n' soul) full of genuine emotion (the highs and lows of love) and razor sharp performances (by Mike Anderly on trombone, Sir Ryan William Bley on bass, Newel Briggs on guitar, Mike Birenbaum on piano, organ, and vocals, Tadd Enright on tenor sax and guitar, Matt Griffin on drums, Paul Howard on barit sax, Christian Lyons on trumpet, and Erin Wallace on vocals). The defiantly jaunty ska/soul of "Moving On" is all about being way past the pain of a break-up and eager for freedom again ("So, take all the time that you need/To try and get yourself straight/I'm out the door before/Before it gets too late"). Even the fast rhythm of the song sounds like the thump, thump, thump of the highway joints under the tires as you head out of town. If you're a citizen of a certain political persuasion during these dark, nonsensical times, the Doreen Shaffer with The Skatalites-like "This House" offers shelter, relief, and the chance to recharge your batteries of resistance (maybe an alternate reading could be that it's neutral ground, a place where we can all come together and figure out our way back to common ground?): "This house will be filled with love/This house can be an escape/This house will be filled with love/So come in/Sit down, and know it's okay...'Cause outside there's so much trouble/And outside there's heartache and pain/And inside there'll be no more struggle/'Cause inside this house we all share the same name..."

"You Don't Know" is a raucous showstopper--a fantastic duet between Wallace and keyboardist Mike (Mikey Sha Sha of Easy Big Fella) Birenbaum--about how hard each of them has it in life, but also that they need to get dressed up, go out and lose this stress with some fun. You'll swear "Why Did I Stay" was a Motown-era hit, but it's a heartbreaking original full of regret about two people who brought out the worst in each other ("You make me a liar/I make you a thief"). "Go On"--a ska pop hit if I've ever heard one--gives him enough rope to hang himself ("Go on/And tell me how you'll find another/Go on/And tell me I'm not your favorite lover/Go on/And tell me how we were only meant to be friends/Go on/Let me tell you how it ends..."). Nice little Bob Marley nod in there, too. The swing ska of "Every Time" is another terrific duet between Wallace and Birenbaum with a very Toasters-like horn line. The last two tracks have a decidedly '70s bent to them--"I Don't Want to Fight" has a bit of country and Latino pop in there, while The Sentiments' cover of Ashford and Simpson's 1968 song for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell "You're All I Need to Get By" is an amazingly inspired choice.

So, now I just need to figure out if The Sentiments' Hi-Fi should go on my best of list for 2016 or 2017...

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Monday, February 13, 2017

Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: King Kong 4 "You Like Awake"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

King Kong 4 You Lie Awake (digital single, self-released/Bandcamp, 2017): If you mention that Mitch "King Kong" Girio was a key member of early '90s Canadian ska act King Apparatus (which, of course, featured Chris Murray), most ska fans would know the reference, but some might not be aware that he's been the go-to songwriter and producer for a slew of mostly Canadian bands including The Planet Smashers, The Kingpins, One Night Band, Prince Perry, and more. His most recent work has been in service of Susan Cadogan (check out our review of her incredible Take Me Back EP; Girio co-wrote all the tunes, as well as performed, recorded, and produced them), but now he's just released a great digital single for his own Toronto-based group, King Kong 4 (which includes Brendan Bauer on bass, Andrew McMullen on drums, Ronald Poon on Hammond organ, King Kong Girio on vocals and guitar).

King Kong 4's sound is a cross between the late '70s New Wave angry young man songwriters Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson (both of whom recorded ska/reggae tracks early on in their careers) and the 2 Tone of The Specials, but this kind of sells Girio's songwriting short--he's got his own thing going and can compose hooks like mad. "Breaking My Heart" is about love from a distance--the singer with a crush on a girl in the audience who he can't quite compel to dance to his band's music, which would be kind of like them being together (but she's with her "dead weight of a boyfriend"): "So get your ass onto the floor, girl/You better shake those hips/So what you think we play this shit for?/Can’t you read my lips?/It’s time to make a move, so act now/You can do the Twist /Just a little bit of dancing/Then you can’t be wrong /Just a little bit of dancing/Dancing all night long." "Annabelle" might be about a girl losing herself on an LSD trip ("Your world has come undone/Quickly dissolving on your tongue") or to growing paranoia/mental illness ("With no one to absolve you/Because the problem still revolves around the fear/That’s floating in the atmosphere/That’s coming oh so near"). Whatever the issue is, she's worried about being forgotten: "When half the world is slumbering/You lie awake half-wondering/Who will leave something here for Annabelle?" Both songs have an undercurrent of longing and melancholy, but the music is wonderfully catchy and upbeat.

Don't let this terrific release from King Kong 4 pass you by!

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Monday, February 6, 2017

Shots in the Dark: The Offs' "First Record"

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, a fickle record-buying public, or other, unforeseen disasters, were lost in the fray. 

(Review by Steve Shafer)

The Band: The Offs were formed in San Francisco in the late '70s by openly gay Don Vinil (vocals) and Billy Hawk (guitar) with Chris Olsen and then Bob Steeler on drums--and a shifting set of bass players (including Fast Floyd, Olga de Volga, Denny Boredom, and Eric Peterson) and horns (Bob Roberts, Roland Young, and Richard Edson). While they were very much a part of SF's nascent first wave punk scene that spawned Crime, Nuns, The Avengers, Pink Section, Tuxedomoon, Vktms, Mutants, Lewd, The Dils, The Zeros, and more (the Dead Kennedy's first show was with The Offs at Mabuhay Gardens in 1978), there was ska and reggae in The Offs' wild mix from the start (according to a 1978 interview in Slash magazine, guitarist Billy Hawk was the one in the band who loved his reggae). The Offs' 1978 debut single featured a great punky cover of The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" (think of how The Clash covered "Police and Thieves")--though their follow-up single in the same year, "Everyone's a Bigot," was much more representative of what would become their almost unclassifiable post-punky, no wave, ska/reggae sound.

By 1980, The Offs were living part of the year in Manhattan on Prince Street (while maintaining their home base in SF--they were there to open for The Specials in February of that year at the Wharfield Theater) and had been quickly embraced by the downtown/underground Manhattan music and art scene (that brought together musicians and artists of every color and from every scene), where The Offs regularly performed at the Mudd Club, Danceteria, and Max's Kansas City, which released their third single, "You Fascinate Me" b/w "My World," also in 1980 (the former a loungy-jazz punk cut, the latter straight up ska). At some point in 1983, The Offs had their debut album in the can for San Francisco-based CD Presents (the CD standing for Civil Defense, not compact disc; the label was also home for The Avengers, D.O.A. and Billy Bragg in the US), but singer Don Vinil overdosed on heroin in NYC--prior to the record's release in 1984--and The Offs were no more.

The Sound: Think of Sandinista-era Clash plus the angular post-punk funk of Gang of Four, all heavily influenced by the early 80s NYC no wave/art jazz scene (see James Chance and the Contortions). The Offs are challenging and certainly not for anyone put off by transgressions of musical boundaries and genre conventions--but they had punk attitude to spare and a sound that was rebel music/ska 'n' reggae to its core.

The Release: I picked up The Offs' First Record (which has only ever been available on vinyl) in the late '80s at Bleecker Bob's based almost solely on the fact that it was in the ska section; there just weren't that many ska releases available at the time. Of course, it also helped that the back photo of the album clearly identified it as a ska record and NYC downtown artist Jean Michel Basquiat had illustrated the cover in his punky/primitive graffiti style. Even though The Offs' music exists in an uneasy, often dissonant intersection between funky post-punk, no wave jazz, and ska/reggae--and was like nothing else I was listening to at the time--I was hooked from first play and 30 years later find that First Record still holds up.

The album kicks off with a second stab at the "Taxi Driver"-like "You Fascinate Me" (about watching young hustlers: "I said all you kids/Out on the streets/Hunting around now/Trying to make ends meet/Hanging out on corners/Outside of bars/Cruising Johns drive by in their cars/I said, you fascinate me/I don't know why/You living your life, honey/It's live or die...You bringing me down")--which had evolved from its earlier incarnation into a funky ska-like track with a fantastically ragged "oh, oh, oh" line in its chorus and a sweet guitar flourish at the end of the song that resolves all of the previous musical off-kilterness and lyrical ugliness. The fantastic keep-a-lid-on-it "Cool Down" is a Augustus Pablo/Far East sounding reggae track that wouldn't be out of place on a punk re-imagining of "West Side Story" ("When he was young/It was so much fun/No cares in the world/Nothing tied him down/Today, he keeps it straight/For the fun that is done/For tomorrow he's a poor man/So, tell me, what's the poor man done?"). The tightly wound-up punk-no wave-funk of "True Story" (with drummer Steeler on vocals) is all bitter with betrayal ("Told me a true story/Said it was fiction/The girl you seem so sad about/I know that you're the one/You changed most of the names and places/But still the innocent have faces/Do I see through you and him/Just like a pair of aces/What are you expecting?/A true story?"). Side one concludes with the jazzy ska of "Why Boy," which is their "Friday Night/Saturday Morning," about a kind of aimless night on the town for a misunderstood youth just looking for something approximating fun ("People wanna know/Where you come and go/They don't understand/'Cause it's not their way/'Say, 'why boy?'/You go down to the park/As the night begins/You got money in your hand/You're looking for the man...Some strangers from the suburb/Wanna push your around/They don't understand/'Cause it's not their way/You better fight back boy...You go to the club/To see the band/The people there seem to understand/Tonight...").

The Offs' mash-up of musical styles and subcultures (note the hip hop/graffiti reference in the lyrics) is at its most Sandinista-like on the first track of side B with "Body Hesitation," a more reggae-ish "Magnificent Seven," if you will, written and sung by their saxophonist Roland Young ("This ain't no/Misguided energy/It ain't no/Running wild style/This ain't no/Lack of thinking/For our society/It is a sinking..."). The horrific misogyny/gender politics of The Heptones' sweet-sounding "I've Got The Handle" ("I've got the handle, baby/You've got the blade/So, don't try to fight me, girl/'Cause you'll need first aid, yeah") is blunted a bit when The Offs shift the song into a broadside against then President Reagan: "Ronald Reagan is Babylon/Babylon must fall/You must find the resistance to kill 'em/Fight 'em back, to resist him!" The tension of the funky James Brown-ish workout "One More Shot" (of booze, that is, and he'll be ready) is almost unbearable. Everything finishes with The Offs' incredible ska cover of Mary Wells' 1960 R and B cut "Bye Bye Baby" ("You know, you took my love/Threw it away/You gonna want/My love someday/Well, a bye bye baby"), which is somehow the appropriate bookend to the twisted opener "You Fascinate Me."

(Fun fact: Character actor/downtown musician Richard Edson--who was Sonic Youth's first drummer and also a member of Konk--played trumpet on this album; you'd probably recognize him as the parking garage attendant from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," as well as from "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Stranger Than Paradise," "Do the Right Thing," "Platoon," "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Dirty Dancing," and many other movies and TV shows.)

The Ugly Reality: Back in the late '80s, I always wondered why The Offs simply seemed to have vanished, since I never read about them anywhere or ever came across more of their music (it was like that in the pre-internet days; some questions would just never be answered). Don Vinil's 1983 death from drug overdose years certainly explains why. I would have loved the chance to see The Offs live and how they might have been embraced (or not) by the growing NYC ska scene in the mid-to-late '80s and in which direction their next album might have gone.

It's a sad but true story that drugs have killed off many a brilliant band. And The Offs' tale is yet another one.

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Despite being reissued a few years ago, The Offs' First Record remains pretty rare and expensive, so you might be stuck buying a digital copy on iTunes or listening to it on YouTube. There's also a 1997 German compilation of The Offs' singles and compilation tracks called Californian Skapunk Pioneers out there (I happened to have bought a copy of it in 2000 at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square) and a much cheaper and easier to find live recording of the band, Live At The Mabuhay Gardens Nov 7 1980.

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