Duff Review: Kenneth Partridge "Hell of a Hat: The Rise of '90s Ska and Swing"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

[Full disclosure: I was interviewed for and am quoted in this book, since I was Moon Records' director of promotions, marketing, and production from 1991-1999.]

I'm really of two minds regarding Ken Partridge's Hell of a Hat: The Rise of '90s Ska and Swing (Hardcover, Penn State University Press, 2021). On one hand, it's a very good and engaging read, providing an excellent and oftentimes insightful overview of the bigger, mostly ska-punk, ska-pop, and swing bands that made it relatively big in the 1990s. In doing so, Hell of a Hat focuses on the rise and inevitable fall of acts that made it to major or major-label backed labels and flirted with or achieved stardom, such as the Bosstones, Sublime, No Doubt, Rancid, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, Goldfinger, Dance Hall Crashers, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Less Than Jake, Suicide Machines, Buck-O-Nine, MU330, Mustard Plug, Stubborn All-Stars, Hepcat, Pietasters, Slackers, Spring Heeled Jack, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Royal Crown Review, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and Squirrel Nut Zippers. During that decade, I was so immersed in all things ska that I knew practically zilch about the swing scene beyond that when ska was declared dead in 1998, swing was the music industry's next shiny thing, and that one of the former members of The NY Citizens was in the local swing band Dem Brooklyn Bums (Chris "Kid Coconuts" Acosta told me about 'em). So, I learned a fair amount from this book--in particular, the Royal Crown Revue's story is pretty compelling, and I had no idea that Gangster Fun's John Bunkley was in Detroit swing band The Atomic Fireballs.

On the other hand, as someone who was directly involved in promoting the ska scene, it's a bit maddening to read a history of this era of American ska and find that Moon Records is depicted as a minor player, almost a footnote, really. The chapter on Moon starts 174 pages in and is done ten pages later, and much of it is devoted to certain bands bellyaching that the label didn't do enough to make them stars, even though nothing of the sort was ever proffered. Though, to be fair, he does mention Moon on page four and describes the label as "a major driver in the ’90s ska explosion." (And I have to admit to being disappointed that Partridge didn't include my tale of how The Slackers' manager at the time allegedly stole Moon's promo list from my apartment office and brought it to Epitaph, where she was made head of Hellcat; we realized the theft/betrayal had gone down when a Hellcat promo mailer was sent to one of our dummy addresses--a fake name, but using Moon's post office box!--that we used to check that our promo mailings went out.) Moon was an indie ska label with a punk rock attitude, just like Lookout or Dischord, and it sometimes managed to punch above its weight--but we never sold ourselves as anything otherwise. Having said that, Moon built the foundation for much of what transpired in ska during the '90s and helped promote/establish dozens of well-known acts when they were in their infancy. No one was championing ska music like Moon was--particularly in the first half of the '90s. I'd wager that if Moon hadn't been around, that decade's ska boom would never have happened. 

While there are several key traditional and modern ska bands mentioned in the periphery of Hell of a Hat (who did quite well for indie-label acts), the premise of the book seems to be that only the bands who made it to the cusp of fame or superstardom should make up the story of that era. It's a capitalist's version of the history of American ska, based on record sales and Billboard charts, and it's incomplete (particularly since the music industry really only knew how to market ska that was more punk or pop--and the more mainstream music audiences were only into those kinds of sounds, not 2 Tone-influenced or traditional ska).

Having said all that, if you're a ska-punk and/or ska-pop fan, you absolutely will enjoy Hell of a Hat--it covers that aspect of '90s ska very well and is a valuable addition to the growing library of books on American ska.

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If you're in the NYC area on Tuesday, September 28, there is a Hell of a Hat book launch party at Mama Tried in Brooklyn from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm with DJ Ryan Midnight playing '90s classics.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: The Articles "Action Claw vs. Gorilla Grip"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

Detroit's mid-to-late '90s ska-jazz greats The Articles--who were often favorably compared to The Skatalites, Jump With Joey, and NY Ska Jazz Ensemble--released their debut album Flip F'Real in 1997 on Moon Ska, which was produced by Victor Rice and featured a mix of fantastic original instrumentals and covers of tunes by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Joe Henderson, Laurel Aitken, and The Skatalites. [Full disclosure: I had the great pleasure of working with The Articles when I was at Moon.] Tower Records Pulse! reviewer Norman Weinstein gave it four and a half stars and ranked it as the #1 reggae release of '97. While the band appeared on many comps (including Skarmageddon 3, Love and Affection, and the Bang movie soundtrack--all on Moon), they didn't get a chance to release a follow-up album before the bottom fell out on the US ska scene and Moon shuttered its doors at the end of that wild decade.

Unbeknownst to many, The Articles recorded their sophomore album in 2001 with Joe Ferry (he produced two mid-'90s albums for The Skatalites: Hi-Bop Ska and Greetings from Skamania), but the project was mysteriously shelved after completion. That is, until now. After 20 long years, The Articles have liberated their second album from the archives and unleashed the extraordinary Action Claw vs. Gorilla Grip (digital, self-released; limited-edition cassette, Jump Up Records, 2021) on an unsuspecting world. Action Claw vs. Gorilla Grip is full of superb originals and impeccable performances all around, though it's heavily tilted toward the jazz side of the ska-jazz equation (and may remind one of when Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra is in their big band/AM pop radio mode). Having said that, there are a good number of ska-ish songs, including the magnificent "Sophist" (which has a great liturgical-sounding organ intro), "Frantic," the slinky, reggae-ish "Jetta Girl,""Hand Me Down" (so cheery as it struts its stuff), "Hard To Get," and the wonderfully epic (and slightly menacing) "Slip'n'Slide." All in all, a wildly impressive album (which would be great to have on vinyl some day...).

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Duff Review: The Scofflaws "The Scofflaws"

(Review by Steve Shafer)

At some point in the latter half of 1990, the bottom fell out of the NYC ska scene. The packed March 26, 1990 "NYC Ska Craze" show at the now long-gone Cat Club on 13th Street and Fourth Avenue in Manhattan featured the best Gotham had to offer at that time—The Toasters, The Scofflaws, The NY Citizens, Bigger Thomas, Skinnerbox, Skadanks, and The Steadys—but instead of positioning NYC ska for success in new decade, it ended up being the last hurrah of the 1980s scene. The show yielded the excellent NYC Ska Live LP (read my review of it), but a planned Dance Craze-like film, which would have documented all of these New York bands for the world to watch and envy, fell through when the director Joe Massot pulled out at the last moment (Toasters/Moon Records main man Rob “Bucket” Hingley dubbed it "a fiasco"). In the months that followed, ska shows gradually became rare events and didn't draw like they had just a year before, and several of the groups big on the scene went dark (and others moved into other musical territory, like soul and funk). Some of this was due to demographics--many of the NYC ska groups in the '80s were made up of high school and college-age kids; by 1990, most were faced with navigating the stark adult world of 9 to 5 jobs and paying rent. But it was clear that it was in severe decline.

It didn't help that the band spearheading the NYC scene almost didn't survive 1989 and was still struggling to find its footing in 1990-1991. Even though The Toasters had managed to regroup and soldier on after the sudden, body-blow departure of the Unity 2 in the midst of promoting their superb second album Thrill Me Up (trombonist Ann Hellandsjo and alto saxophonist Marcel Reginatto also left in their wake), the band's future seemed tenuous. Since CBS/Sony had been courting The Toasters, they crafted a record full of pop-leaning ska songs—This Gun for Hire—that turned out to be "too commercial for the fans and not commercial enough for the majors," Bucket later admitted to George Marshall in Skinhead Times in August 1993. (CBS/Sony passed on the band and album.) More worrisome was the fact that this iteration of the band couldn't hold a candle to the Thrill Me Up-era band on stage. I saw The Toasters several times in 1990 and 1991 at CBGBs, The Cat Club, and SOB's, and while they put on a decent show, they just weren't the same and some of the new material strayed far from their patented "East Side Beat" sound. I always left a bit disappointed. The other dominant NYC ska/Moon Records act of that time was the NY Citizens, who released the excellent Stranger Things Have Happened EP on Moon in 1990, their terrific follow-up to their 1988 debut On the Move, but then seemed to go quiet for a few years.

The good news in the midst of all this was that after a series of near-disastrous independent distributor failures in the late '80s (that almost swallowed up entire pressing of Moon compilations like Ska Face: An All-American Ska Compilation and NYC Ska Live) and seeing Celluloid/Skaloid going under without paying any royalties for Thrill Me Up or Skaboom! (which had sold a very respectable 12K copies at that point), Bucket was more determined than ever to make Moon Records a viable indie label. And one that would not only represent the NYC ska scene, but the American one.

It’s worth noting/remembering that back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, recording, pressing, distributing, and promoting an independent album was an expensive and often daunting endeavor. It was the primary reason there were relatively few American ska releases in the 1980s. Without a label fronting the cash to print albums/singles/EPs that also had a connection to reliable and honest independent distributors who could actually get your release in the shops and then pay you for your product, you had very little chance of recouping any of your expenses (at the time, the major labels had control of their own distribution systems for their records and CDs which excluded independent releases). The Toasters’ first two albums had been licensed to Celluloid/Skaloid as a hedge against Moon’s ongoing cash flow and distribution problems, but they were still burned in the end when that label went bankrupt, with no royalties from either album ever making it into The Toasters’ pockets (and later in the ‘90s, the new owner of Celluloid flooded the market with bootleg copies of Thrill Me Up and the unauthorized Ska Killers on the Celluloid imprint Esperanto, which consisted of Skaboom! and Thrill Me Up).

While The Toasters’ This Gun for Hire may have been too much of an artistic shift from Thrill Me Up for the fans (I struggled to like it in 1990, but now think it’s a really great pop-leaning ska record), Bucket was able to secure distribution through IRD and the album sold 10k copies, earning the band and Moon Records a tidy profit. In turn, this allowed Bucket to start licensing albums from other ska acts (the deals back then were straightforward one-page agreements wonderfully free of legalese), since he had the capital to invest in pressing CDs (which was the format preferred by distributors and shops in the ‘90s) and could start growing the label’s roster in earnest.

In 1991, a rejuvenated Moon Records released two highly influential debut records that would help lay the groundwork for the 1990s ska boom and signaled the label's ambitious goal of establishing itself as the premier American independent ska label. Both bands had been perfecting their sound, songs, and live performances in the ‘80s (and were featured on Moon’s first-ever American ska comp Ska Face in 1988—read my review of it), and Bucket and The Toasters had been on many bills with each act. These albums, of course, were Let’s Go Bowling’s Music to Bowl By (read my review of it) and The Scofflaws’ The Scofflaws. Notably, they represented one of the directions that a segment of the US ska scene was taking beyond the new wave/2 Tone ska of the ‘80s—it was a new, distinctly American take on retro/1960s ska that incorporated a slightly off-kilter, modern outlook and an adventurous variety of influences. To give these groundbreaking albums context, the few 1991 ska releases similar in sound to Music to Bowl By and The Scofflaws were Jump With Joey’s Ska-Ba and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra’s World Famous and Live albums.

Huntington, LI’s Scofflaws started out in the early 1980s as The New Bohemians and mostly played a mix of '60s R&B and TV theme songs. But as the ‘80s progressed, they incorporated more and more ska into their set. In 1988, Geffen Records bought their name for Edie Brickell, who wanted the rights to call her band the New Bohemians (and had a big hit with “What I Am”). They rebranded themselves The Scofflaws and bought new instruments and gear with Geffen’s cash. Later that same year, they burst into the national ska consciousness with their raucous, celebratory, and anti-racist Rude boy anthem "Rudy's Back" on Moon’s Ska Face comp, which helped all the scattered ska fans on the fringes of the underground scene feel like we were part of something bigger and something great.

Rude boys! Are coming out tonight
They got the rhythm and they’re feeling alright
Hey, boy! Where have you been going?
I’ve got to water a little herb that I’ve been growing
Rude boys! Causing trouble downtown
The police don’t like them hanging around
Hey, now! I want to play my horn
Rocksteady, that’s why I was born

Some say that rudies have all gone away
But that’s just jive talk, I know they’re here to stay
Why do we do it, well it ain't for the dough
It’s cause we’re ska’d for life, man! Okay, boys, let’s go!

Rude boy! Collie in hand
He likes to party, likes to skank with the band
Rude girl! She’s all on the scene, yeah
She’s hanging out by the record machine
Skinhead! They like to stomp their boots
They dig that rhythm, ‘cause the rhythm’s got roots
DJ! Play it one more time
I don’t care if the lyrics don’t rhyme

Oh, dig that rhythm…I man got the beat…Can’t keep from dancing…
I got to move my feet…rocksteady, ska, blue beat, soul…
If you got the rhythm, you will never grow old!

Rude boy! Yeah, he’s misunderstood
The coolest guy in his neighborhood
Hey boy! Where have you been going?
Don’t you want a little herb that I’ve been growing?
Rude boys! They’re causing trouble downtown
The police don’t like them hanging around
Hey now, I want to play my horn
Rocksteady, that’s why I was born

It doesn’t matter if you’re black
It doesn’t matter if you’re white
‘Cause we’re The Scofflaws, rude boy
And we’re going to rocksteady tonight!

I first experienced The Scofflaws live at The Pyramid Club in Manhattan’s Alphabet City in May of 1989 with The NY Citizens (my friend and I were the only non-skinheads in the sweaty back room) and it remains one of the best live shows I’ve seen (both bands were on fire!), and took every opportunity possible to see The Scofflaws perform (their musicianship was off the charts and more than evident in all their solos—and they were always dressed to the nines in their two tone suits, skinny ties, pork pie hats, and shades—Victor Rice even wore a fez when he played the upright bass!). In October 1991, just before The Scofflaws was released, I reviewed one of their shows for the Bakersfield, California-based skazine Roughneck Business:

“New York City offers few bargains, but catching NYC’s finest ska band—The Scofflaws—for a mere four bones makes me realize why I pay almost half my wages in rent…When The Scofflaws opened for Bad Manners last year, Buster proclaimed them NYC’s best band. I’d take it further; The Scofflaws great original songs and their brilliantly tight live performances would give The Skatalites a run for their money any day—they’re that good. As The Scofflaws performed such soon-to-be classics as “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” “William Shatner,” and (what I think is called) “The Beer Song” [most likely “I Can’t Decide,” which was released years later on Record of Convictions], the skin/rudie crowd that filled the floor was packed for non-stop skanking and shuffling…Moon Records will soon be releasing The Scofflaws’ debut album—it should be one of the best ska records to flow out of the ska pipeline.”

Jump Up Records’ 2021 release of The Scofflaws marks the first time this album has been released on vinyl. Moon Records originally issued it on CD and cassette (when I first started doing promotions for Moon in late '91—that review above had caught Bucket’s attention—I was sending out review copies on cassette) and it’s a nice touch that the LP’s back sleeve prominently acknowledges that the album first came out on Moon.

Most of the originals on The Scofflaws were co-written by Richard “Sammy” Brooks and Mike Drance, who had a Lennon & McCartney-like push/pull between them that made everything work so magnificently (Victor Rice and Drance also contributed their own instrumentals to the album). Brooks’ knowing campiness/wackiness (he’s Macca in this equation) was balanced by Drance’s artistic aspirations and efforts at authenticity ("one foot in the door, the other one in the gutter,” as The Replacements so aptly put it).

The album opens with Drance’s moody instrumental “Daniel Ortega” (a nod to the leftist Sandinista who helped lead the Nicaraguan Revolution that overthrew the US-backed Somoza dictatorship and became leader of that country from 1979-1990; The Clash wrote “Washington Bullets” partly about this revolution and named their 1980 triple-album in support of it), followed by a more polished re-recording of “Rudy’s Back” (I prefer the rawer one on Ska Face, but maybe that’s because it’s the first Scofflaws song I heard and fell for). “Ali-Ska-Ba,” which the band always played at breakneck speed live—practically daring the dancing crowds to keep up, is a slightly Middle Eastern sounding romp, while “Going Back to Kingston” was a sincere (though winkingly awkward and intentionally white-boy cliched) expression of longing to return to/be accepted by the land of ska’s origins (“I’m going back to Kingston/Just like Haile Selassie…I’m goin’ up on the mountain with that Rasta voodoo man…and when I get there man, every ‘ting will be irie”). Rice’s “Guru” is a fantastically mysterious, slow-burning track centered around his bass line.

Like “Rudy’s Back,” “Paul Getty” is another take on the rude boy record, though this one is about the experience of being a down-and-out, outcast ska fan struggling to get by in a typically square American suburb:

My name ain’t Paul Getty
And I’m living on spaghetti
Potatoes, rice and beans
I’m a rudie, not a skin
I like Ital, I drink gin
I live my life to extremes

I got everything I need
A black suit and a bag of weed
I got a pork pie hat
A smile like a Cheshire cat
My landlord wants to evict me
He wants the judge to convict me
Just because I live my life
The way I do

It’s a total culture shock
I’m the only rude boy on the block
Got any ganja, Rasta man?
My boss said, “take a sabbatical”
He said, “boy, you’re just too radical”
Now I gotta go out and find another job, again!

I’m going to go down to the unemployment office
I gotta stake my claim
Gonna go there on Monday
Gonna sign my name

The Paul Getty referred to here was the extremely wealthy founder of the Getty Oil Company, who was named the world’s richest private citizen in 1966 by the Guinness Book of World Records. In contrast, during the 1990s Brooks paid his bills by driving a school bus in the Long Island suburbs.

There are a fair number of covers on the album (they’re in good company, The Skatalites covered many pop standards!), but they make them their own and, boy, what great and sophisticated selections they made from the classic jazz repertoire and American songbook. The Scofflaws do Art Blakely ("Moanin'"), Henry Mancini ("A Shot in the Dark"—also famously covered by The Skatalites), Elmer Bernstein ("The Man with the Golden Arm"—which has some real menace and bite in the bottom end—the movie is about heroin addiction, after all), George Gershwin (a sublime version of "An American in Paris”)—and they even make Danny Elfman fit in quite well with this esteemed bunch (with a manic take on “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure”).

James “Red” Holloway’s phenomenal 1959 R&B sax stomper “A La Carte” (where he shouts out odd items to eat off the menu during the musical pauses: “Grasshopper toes…liver-flavored ice cream…and baboon eyeballs…Hmm, somebody give me the baking soda quick!”) is given an amazing reading by The Scofflaws (and is a perennial fan favorite live)—but they substitute types of sushi (“Tamago!…Uni!”) and Japanese atomic age movie monsters (“Godzilla!...Rodan!”) for Holloway’s gross-out choices. And even though Earl Bostic’s “Night Train” is well-trod territory (weirdly, The Toasters were playing a version around the same time and included it on their 1992 New York Fever album), The Scofflaws’ take is just brilliant and includes an unexpectedly wonderful tribute to their (and what should be your) musical heroes in the opening bars: “Ken Boothe…Desmond Dekker…Prince Buster…Toots Hibbert…Lee “Scratch” Perry…Don Drummond…Coxsone Dodd…Sir Lord Comic…You are the greatest!”

No offense to later iterations of the band, but this version of The Scofflaws really was the best. In addition to Brooks on tenor sax and vocals and Drance on bari sax and vocals (he also went on to form the awesome rocksteady-centric Bluebeats in ’94), the group included Paul Gebhardt on alto sax, Victor Rice on bass, Kerry Lafferty on piano, Brian Lavan on guitar, Tony Mason on drums, and Buford O’Sullivan on t-bone. Much of this extraordinary talent performed with numerous NYC-area groups later in the ‘90s and beyond, including NY Ska Jazz Ensemble, The Toasters, Stubborn Allstars, Version City Allstars, Crazy Baldhead, Easy Star Allstars, Brooklyn Attractors, and many more.

I’m forever thankful that I was able to see them perform numerous times and that everything in this small corner of the universe aligned so they could record what has become a true classic of ‘90s American ska. If you’re old now and loved The Scofflaws back then, it’s time to pick up this beautiful heavyweight LP—and if you haven’t heard this album before, what are you waiting for?! I’ve just spilled about three-thousand words raving about it!

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Duff Review: Aaron Carnes "In Defense of Ska"

Clash Books
Paperback
2021

[Disclaimer: Since I was the director of marketing, promotions, and production for Moon Ska Records for most of the 1990s, I was interviewed by Aaron Carnes on several occasions for this book, and am quoted in a few chapters.]

(Review by Steve Shafer)

One's enjoyment of Aaron Carnes' book In Defense of Ska mostly likely will be predicated on your opinion of ska-punk, and if you hold notions that any sort of affiliation with--or devotion to--ska music is something to be embarrassed about (the author loves the former and apparently has had to advocate on behalf of the latter on many occasions). Carnes is a music journalist (Playboy, Salon, Bandcamp Daily, Noisey) and former drummer for the '90s, Bay Area ska-punk band Flat Planet, who happened to catch a Skankin' Pickle show in 1992 and was converted to ska for life. So, his passion for the music is come by genuinely, and he's lived the life on both sides of the stage's edge.

Carnes' In Defense of Ska is less a linearly laid out argument for the legitimacy of the genre (and jab to the haters' noses) and more of a scattershot collection of essays that is part ska history, Flat Planet road warrior band memoir, elaborate love letter to Skankin' Pickle (whom Flat Planet played with and Carnes became fast friends with their prankster merch guy Kevin), and batch of sad tales of great ska bands almost hitting it big, but stymied by self-sabotage, or a music industry that still doesn't really understand the music or know how to market the genre (see The Untouchables, Fishbone, The Toasters, Blue Riddim Band, The Shakers, Heavy Manners, The Uptones, Crazy 8s, and others). It's a fun and oftentimes very funny, breezy, and compelling read that can be enlightening (particularly the chapters on the origins of Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice; DIY touring with Book Your Own Fucking Life; the Mexican ska scene; and a delicious skewering of MTV's hamfisted SKAturday special hosted by Carson Daley) or perplexing (he posits that Millie Small's one hit wonder "My Boy Lollipop" ruined ska's chances of later breaking big in the U.S.; strongly feels that Reel Big Fish really deserves your love; and spills a lot of ink on the story behind Whole Lotta Milk and Propagandhi's versions of "Ska Sucks"), and essentially makes the argument that like the punk underground, the American ska scene is filled with some amazing and talented musicians--completely deserving of your respect--who just don't care if they're perceived as uncool by the mainstream (unless they want to sell out and then ska becomes a liability), and are incredibly content with pursuing their labor of love, against all odds, in semi-obscurity. 

The original Jamaican ska musicians, and the bands associated with 2 Tone and American ska in the 1980s (which were often lumped in with new wave) have always been considered "cool" by just about everyone who's ever been aware of them. They've never needed defending. But a lot of Americans have a hard time comprehending ska. Unlike their British peers who grew up with Jamaican people, culture, and music, many Americans have found Jamaican ska and 2 Tone inaccessible, as for them it lacked context and didn't manifestly fit in with/relate to the history of American popular music, even if Black American, R&B, and early rock 'n 'roll directly influenced ska's birth. But a lot of Americans in the 1990s could easily relate to a hybrid of ska that incorporated and emphasized punk rock (after all, punk--in the form of grunge--finally broke in America in 1991). And this where ska-punk, for all of its merits, became problematic for ska.

As the U.S. music industry took note of the ska boom taking place on the underground in the mid-'90s, the only types of bands they felt were ripe for exploitation were of the ska-punk variety (because they knew how to sell punk--the majors had largely written off ska fifteen years earlier, when 2 Tone failed to catch fire here like it had in the UK, due in some part to their label's failure of imagination in marketing Black ska music made by interracial bands within a racially segregated music industry), or pop bands that had distant ska roots or a tenuous associations to the genre (and there even were some acts that were absolutely not ska, but bizarrely labelled as such in the hope of cashing in on the hype). And a fair number of the more popular ska-punk bands reveled in goofy costumes and comical/absurd stage antics, which seemed to make it all a big joke. I'd argue that some, though by no means all, of these high profile ska-punk and ska-pop acts became the definitive image of ska in the public's imagination--the stereotype of a ska band--and the vessels for all of the vitriol and disdain of people in the music press/industry and others who just didn't like or "get" the music, or realize that it came in a variety of flavors (several times Carnes notes the tension within the larger ska scene over who the music belongs to--rude boys/girls and skinheads vs. ska-punkers, etc.--and what it should sound like and how fans and bands should look and behave). So, all the haters who have been deriding ska and anyone associated with it are most often hating/shaming those from or loving ska-punk bands (there's a whole chapter about it in Carnes' book). 

And that's why no one has ever had to defend ska bands like Hepcat or The Pietasters from ridicule...there's no need to.

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Duff Guide to Ska Fast Takes: Mento Buru "East Bakersfield Christmas" EP

Self-released
Digital (this EP can be streamed here, and is available on The Hub of Bakersfield website as a free download from November 25 through December 31, 2020--all made possible by a generous grant from their “Cash for the Arts” program)
2020

"The Three Wise Bikers bringing gifts of Tamales, Salsa, and Mezcal." 

(Review by Steve Shafer)

The long-running Latin ska/reggae act Mento Buru--now in their 29th year--have released a really fun and wonderful six-song EP of popular Christmas songs and carols titled East Bakersfield Christmas. The title is a nod to this ethnically diverse Bakersfield, CA neighborhood that gave birth to the band (and is still where they're based), and the choice of tracks and the musical diversity they represent (Latin, country, soul, jazz, and rock--all given a ska or reggae interpretation) reflects all of the cross-cultural intersections and influences experienced by the people who are proud to call it home. East Bakersfield Christmas features English and Spanish versions of Augie Rios' fantastic 1958 cha-cha-cha song "Donde Esta Santa Claus?" (which is new to me), as well as a souped-up version of Jose Feliciano's perennial ear worm "Feliz Navidad." The centuries-old traditional English folk instrumental "Greensleeves" (the setting for the Xmas hymn "What Child Is This?") is skillfully performed in a vintage Jamaican ska-jazz style. Mento Buru transform "Jingle Bell Rock" into a great, muscular ska-billy cut, and their reggae rendition of "The Christmas Song" (popularized by Nat "King" Cole) is terrifically heartfelt and effective (and--trigger warning--likely to cause a lump in one's throat or bring a tear to one's eye). At the end of a tough, exhausting, and for some, devastating year, Mento Buru's East Bakersfield Christmas is sure to bring joy and hope into one's life during a season--and at a difficult point in time--when we really need it. (Thank you!)

Duff Guide to Ska Flashback: Various Artists "Mashin' Up the Nation"

Cover art by "Milk and Cheese's" Evan Dorkin.

(Review by Steve Shafer)

While Moon Records' Ska Face: An All American Ska Compilation was the very first US ska comp out of the gate in 1988 (read The Duff Guide to Ska review of it here), Razorbeat Records/Harvard Square Records' Mashin' Up the Nation was hot on its heels, coming out in '89, and just as vital and good. As with Ska Face, Mashin' Up the Nation served notice (to anyone paying attention) that the off-the-radar US ska scene was heating up and yielding some incredible acts--many of whom would go on to become major players in the mid-1990s ska boom.

Like The Toasters in NYC with Moon Records, Bim Skala Bim and their Razorbeat Records were helping to organize and promote the Boston ska scene, and during the mid-to-late '80s, both bands often worked collaboratively on projects in a socialist/"a rising tide lifts all boats" mindset (for example, when Celluloid Records created the Skaloid imprint specifically for The Toasters to release Thrill Me Up, Bucket also arranged for Bim's Tuba City to be issued simultaneously and he hooked them up with licensing and touring contacts in the UK). Both The Toasters and Bim were on a proverbial mission from god to spread the word about ska in America, and with limited resources and practically zero access to/interest from the music industry and press, it made supreme sense to join forces in solidarity and attempt to make as big an impact as possible.

As with many compilations, there are a few tracks on Mashin' Up the Nation that perhaps would be best lost to time, but the majority of songs here sound absolutely fantastic thirty odd years on--and a couple are now bona fide ska classics. Bim Skala Bim leads off the album with a brilliant live version of their you-gotta-persevere/it's-darkest-before-dawn "Diggin' a Hole" recorded live at CBGBs: "You're digging a hole so long, now it's so deep/Getting so dark here that nobody can see/This artificial light don't brighten our day/We're all the way down here with nothing to say/Got to keep it moving/It's gone too far." Bim's also featured on the lovely instrumental "Groucho (Dub)" with The Skatalites' Roland Alphonso--an outtake from their Tuba City album that was recorded in the tiny studio at Coxsone Dodd's Music City in the back of his old and long-shuttered record shop in Brooklyn.

The liner notes on the back cover of this LP state that the (pre-Mighty Mighty) Bosstones, "showed great promise with their early recording efforts and live shows...sadly they are no longer together." Obviously, we know this was just a hiatus for that band (who would reunite and release their breakthrough debut Devils Night Out in 1990), but their proto-skacore "Drums and Chickens" (AKA "Drunks and Children") is one of their catchiest songs and features their trademark warts-and-all honesty and emotional vulnerability: "Drinkin' just the other day/I said, 'I love you,' you turned away/Maybe the drinkin' made me cry/But I'm a happy, very happy, very happy guy/Drunks and children they tell you the truth/That's what I am, I'm drunken youth/And I'll be drinkin' 'til I die." While a lot of Bop (Harvey)'s music was too reggae-hippie-jam-bandy for me, the straight-up ska of "Bread and Circuses" may be their musically finest and most politically potent moment. It's about the Reagan administration's Cold War-era involvement in Nicaragua, where they were covertly and illegally funding/training the right-wing Contras who regularly committed horrific atrocities against civilians in their prolonged guerrilla war to overthrow the socialist, Cuban-backed Sandinista government ("Washington Bullets," indeed). All of this was revealed in the wake of a bizarre, clandestine scheme involving the sale of arms to Iran (which was at war with Iraq for most of the 1980s) that also included the release of American hostages in Lebanon, and some $18 million of Iran's $30 million payment was diverted by Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council to the Contras; this became known as the Iran-Contra scandal: "The secret war is only a sham/They swear it ain't another Vietnam/If nobody dies on the American side today/But the women and children who die/Are they too Red to get by?/The news is burgers and fries and it's genocide these days/It's bread and circuses time/Who's gonna pay for Ollie's crimes?/Freedom fighters only in name/The Contra's cause is killing in vain/The pressures increase as a few Sandinistas fall/If cover-up is only a crime/Did Colonel North work overtime?/I'm telling you, I think the President knew it all."

The NY Citizens' hard-charging, razor-sharp, Bodysnatchers-referencing "Rude Girls" was the first song the band issued after their terrific debut album On the Move (1988) and was a knock-out whenever they performed it live: "Rude girls/I get so planked when I see them in the subway station/Will she be free for some tea and a little conversation with me?...And when I see them in the street/With their Doc Martens on their feet/They're looking ruder than rude/My god, they're ruder than you!" At this point in time, Detroit's Gangster Fun had just seen their debut album Come See, Come Ska released in the UK by Roddy Moreno's Ska Records (which also released Mashin' Up the Nation as Ska-ville USA, Volume 4--and "Mario's Hideout" from that LP--about being snatched off the street by goons and taken to a mobster's headquarters--is a great example of their manic, slightly twisted, New Wave-y ska (think Fishbone's debut EP).

Let's Go Bowling, hailing from Fresno, CA, were represented by their own cheery, mostly instrumental theme song, "Let's Go Bowling" (from their 1988 cassette-only debut) that urges the listener over and over to head to the lanes for some wholesome fun (one can almost imagine this cut being the jingle from a 1960s TV ad for a local alley)! For this compilation, The Toasters reached into their vaults to fish out one of their first recordings "No Respect" (which was more than good enough to have been included on their debut Recriminations EP). It's from the early days when the band was a lean five-piece playing New Wave-influenced ska with some surf and rockabilly guitar mixed in, and because it was nowhere near representative of The Toasters' late '80s sound circa Thrill Me Up, Bucket must have jokingly credited the song to Not Bob Marley. Nonetheless, "No Respect" is great song, offering haunting social commentary on income inequality and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's cruel policies toward working class and down-on-their-luck Britons: "Well a rich man counts his time/While the poor man counts his money/Down on Leman Street the search for work goes on/For the poor man and his family/Life is a joke, no longer funny (ha ha ha ha)/When there is no respect, there is nothing to draw upon/There is only fear of unemployment/Bad times up ahead/It is cold in winter, it is cold in winter/When your queuing in the morning/Three hours just to sign your name/On the banks of the Thames, there is no self respect."

I've always really liked The Now's English Beat-sounding "Get Out," which shares a fair amount of DNA with "Best Friend" (whatever happened to this Washington, DC band?). This track, however, is about a romantic co-habitation situation gone real bad (and, no doubt, delivered tongue-in-cheek): "Now I don't know where things went wrong/But it doesn't make sense to try/To revive something that was obviously meant to die...You mean as much as lint lying in the pocket of my coat/You were once very pretty/Now you're just a big fat dope/Now, I don't mean to hurt your feelings or cause you pain/But this is the way it must be and I guess I have to say again and again/Leave town or I'll throw you out/There's nothing that I can't do/One of us has to go/And I've decided it's you..."

Mashin' Up the Nation is an essential document for anyone interested in the history and development of the US ska scene--and it's a damn fine record to boot.

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Duff Interview: Werner Rodríguez Del Toro of Los Pies Negros

Editor's note: Later this month, Los Pies Negros--founded in the early 1990s in Puerto Rico--will be making a rare appearance on the mainland US, with shows in Brooklyn, NY (on 8/31/18 at Brooklyn Bazaar with Mephiskapheles, The Pandemics, Ensamble Calavera, and DJ Ryan Midnight) and Chicago, IL (on 9/1/18 at Reggies with Malafacha, Nahuales Underground, and DJ Chuck Wren). So, we though this was a great opportunity to catch up with Los Pies Negros' bassist and founding member, Werner Rodríguez Del Toro. (Thanks to Chris "Kid Coconuts" Acosta of The New York Citizens and producer of Moon's Latin Ska comps for helping to make this happen!)

Duff Guide to Ska: How did this mini-tour of the US (New York/Chicago) come about? When was the last time Los Pies Negros played in the US mainland?

Werner Rodríguez Del Toro: "The Chicago show came about when we were contacted by someone at a club called Reggies who wanted Los Pies Negros to play a ska festival there. After approximately a year of conversations, it became real.

The last time that Los Pies Negros played in the US was in 1994, when we performed at the Skavoovie festival at NYC’s S.O.B.'s and one event with Spring Heeled Jack in New Haven Connecticut the following day."

DGTS: The band has been in existence for about 27 years now. When you started it back in the early 1990’s, did you think you’d still be playing all of these years later (long enough that your most recent release was called The Grandfathers of Ska)? What has kept you going?

WRDT: "[At that time,] I did not think that in the future I'd be playing in Los Pies Negros. I ignored my thoughts and lived in the moment. I live every moment like it's a song and feel every note from the start to the finish--enjoying every detail, every second of the song. The same goes for my life and my band. And I feel that you can never get enough out of enjoying and playing the music you love, the music you feel. Without music, life has no meaning for me.

I think that what kept me in the music is the love I feel for it. And the reason that Los Pies Negros is alive is because every member is passionate about the band's music--and each of us is not just a member of the band, we are a family.

Regarding our last recording Los Abuelos del Ska (The Grandfathers of Ska), I want to mention that we wrote this single because two of our members became grandfathers and none of us expected ever to be a grandfather and still in a band playing ska music. And the song speaks to that feeling."

DGTS: Many ska fans from the '90s became aware of the band through Moon’s Latin Ska compilations and the Bang movie soundtrack. What have been some of Los Pies Negro’s highlights in the years since then (releases, festivals, etc.)?

WRDT: "After that era, we recorded one of the most recognized albums named Siempre Igual (1996).

We started to play some big events in Puerto Rico, and later with the help of underground distribution, our music was being recognized in Latin countries like Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc. In 1999, we played our first big show in Mexico with bands like Desorden Publico and la Vela Puerca. Some years ago, we played one of our best concerts ever in Mexico, the "Non Stop Ska Festival." Later we played another big event named "Skatex," in Mexico. We did some recordings like Un Alien me Rapto, Detras de ese Disfraz, etc."

DGTS: What is the Puerto Rico ska scene like? (And how have things been there for you, your family, and friends in the year since Hurricane Maria devastated the island?)

WRDT: "In Puerto Rico, the ska scene is very small. Only a few people follow ska as a lifestyle. But we have a lot of fans that are not necessary only into ska. We have fans from different genres like punk, reggae, rock, Latin rhythms, etc.--because I think our music is different. We have followers of all ages. We've played everywhere and have met people at our shows who had never heard of us and after seeing our show started to follow us. The events in Puerto Rico are for a few people, but are very interesting because the people here feel the music when we play.

The first months after Hurricane Maria were very difficult, but now we are good. As a country, Puerto Rico is a fighter and we are rebuilding it again with or without the 'mainland' help."

DGTS: What is the significance of the band’s name?

WRDT: "The band's name means liberation from slavery. Los Pies Negros (Blackfoot) symbolizes the two feet released from involuntary labor, abuse, and discrimination."

Thanks to Werner Rodríguez Del Toro for taking the time to do this interview!

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Los Pies Negros' current line-up is: Werner Rodríguez Del Toro (bass/founder), Wilmer Laboy Del Toro (guitar/songwriter), Mario Montalvo (guitar/backing vocals), Iván Salaberry (drums), Robert Ramirez (trombone), Ramón Acevedo (saxophone), Diego Borges (lead vocals), Luis Rodriguez (vocals), and Leonel Crespo (trumpet).

Discography:

1993: Los Pies Negros
1994: Moviendo los pies
1995: Siempre Igual
2004: Detrás de ese Disfraz
2005: Latin Ska Force II (split CD with los Vicios de Papa)
2009: En vivo y sin Disfraces (a live CD)
2011: Un Niño Solo (EP)
2012: Un Día Normal (EP)
2013: Kamikaze (split CD with Los Fiskales)
2015: Un Alíen me Raptó (EP)
2016: Los Abuelos del Ska (EP)
2017: Siempre Igual (Single)

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Pre-Order Hepcat's "Out of Nowhere" on Vinyl for First Time with Bonus LP of Victor Rice Dubs!

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the release of Hepcat's debut album Out Of Nowhere (which was originally issued on Moon Records), the band is making a limited-edition (1,000 copies), 180 gram vinyl version of the album available with a bonus LP of new Victor Rice dubs titled Dub Outta Nowhere. It should be noted that Out Of Nowhere has never been pressed on vinyl (when it came out in 1993, vinyl was out, though cassettes were hanging in there--CDs were the future).

You can pre-order the double LP now (and you'll be able to immediately download digital copies of Out Of Nowhere and Dub Outta Nowhere) and should expect delivery of the vinyl in May or June of this year.

Without a doubt, Out Of Nowhere was one of the first classic albums of the so-called American Third Wave of ska in the 1990s and deserves an honored spot in every ska fan's collection...

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Let's Go Bowling's "Music To Bowl By" Revisited

Editor's note: With the recent release of Let's Go Bowling's Music to Bowl By on vinyl--for the first time ever--through Mike Park's Asian Man Records, we thought it would be a good time to revisit this essential American ska album.

Despite issuing some incredible releases in the late '80s--most notably The NY Citizens' On the Move and Ska Face: An All-American Ska Compilation (The Toasters' Skaboom! and Thrill Me Up were actually issued through Celluloid/Skaloid, since Moon was hard-pressed for cash)--by the end of the decade, Moon Records was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. A series of indie distributor failures--Greenworld, Rough Trade, and New World--condemned almost 75% of Moon's pressed product to America's landfills (and then Celluloid/Skaloid went out of business right after the release of Thrill Me Up, without paying The Toasters any royalties on either album--and Skaboom! had sold around 12K copies by that point).

Rob "Bucket" Hingley (The Toasters' founder/guitarist/songwriter and Moon label head) spent much of 1990 rebuilding Moon Records, which was beginning to find its footing and some financial stability again through a newly-struck distribution deal with IRD (later Relativity). The Toasters' This Gun for Hire became the band's first release on Moon and one of its best-sellers up to that time (another release that year was Dance Hall Crashers' debut album with the yellow cover and black Charlie Brown zig-zag stripe on cassette and LP--the vinyl was pressed in the UK as a Moon Release by Revolver and imported to USA for sale). With some money in the bank and the means to reliably deliver product to the record shops, the label was (finally!) well-positioned to move forward and promote ska bands beyond New York City's limits.

Buck also was serving as Moon's A and R person while on repeated tours of the US with The Toasters, which is how he first encountered Let's Go Bowling (LGB) in the flesh in 1990 (along with DHC and Hepcat, who released their debut on Moon in '93). Buck recently recounted for The Duff Guide to Ska, "I had met LGB at the Country Club in Reseda where they blew me away with their tremendous live show--they were among the more instrumentally proficient bands on the scene at that time. But what impressed me the most was their blend of Latino stylings, as exemplified by the stand out track 'Esta Noche,' where everybody sang in Spanish." Buck and LGB hit it off and a simple, one-page licensing deal was soon signed for their debut album to be released on Moon.

Let's Go Bowling already had contributed a track to Moon's 1988 comp Ska Face ("Bitch") from their demo cassette and released their classic debut single "Rude 69" b/w "Dance Some More" on their own Spare Records that same year (here's the Zoot Skazine review of it from issue 14: ""Rude 69' is a pleasantly familiar jaunt through Potato 5 country, a chugging instrumental harking back to the good old days of Sixties ska. The flip side, 'Dance Some More,' is must faster (too fast?) and you'd really need to be on something to keep up with it"). They even played CBGB's in November 1989, with The Steadys, The Toasters, and Potato 5; I found out about the show a few days after it happened--urgh!

By the time Music to Bowl By was ready to be put into production in 1991, IRD had "advised" Moon that they wanted all new releases to be issued on compact disc, as vinyl was falling out of favor with music consumers at the time (Buck states that LGB was "gutted" that an LP wasn't pressed up), so this album became Moon's first release on CD (to be almost immediately followed by fantastic debut albums from The Scofflaws and King Apparatus, also on CD). [Cassettes were still viable in the early '90s; many of the promo copies that I sent out for review at that time were on tape.]

By all measures, Music to Bowl By is Third Wave classic. LGB's sound is a supercharged modern take on traditional ska, with elements of jazz, swing, Latin--even some classical music via Carl Stalling--in its DNA. The songs are all top-notch (especially "Pin Stripe Suit," "Rude 69," "Dance Some More," "L.G.B.," and the phenomenal "Esta Noche") and the performances are all-out stellar. The only flaw is the somewhat anemic original recording; it would have been great if the album had been remixed and remastered for this reissue.

Soon after its release in October of 1991, Music to Bowl By was one of Moon's hottest-selling albums and became enormously influential on the then still nascent national US ska scene (just think of the slew of American ska bands who cropped up in the mid-'90s and could trace their modern trad sound back to Let's Go Bowling...).

Buck gets the final word here on LGB's Music to Bowl By: "I am thrilled to finally see this album on wax and it's a tribute to the longevity of the band and the durability of the tunes that this particular release can still be viable 30 years on."

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Asian Man Records Releases Let's Go Bowling's First Two Albums on Vinyl!

Let's Go Bowling's first two albums--Music To Bowl By and Mr. Twist--are being issued on vinyl for the first time ever by Mike Park's Asian Man Records! These two stone-cold classics of the so-called Third Wave of American ska were originally released on Moon Records in 1991 and 1996 respectively, but only on compact disc and cassette, as vinyl was an unpopular (and assumed to be dead) format in the US during the 1990s.

In particular, Music To Bowl By was an extremely important album in Moon Records's history. Despite some incredible releases in the late 80s (such as The NY Citizens' On The Move and the Ska Face and NYC Ska Live comps), the label had barely limped out of that decade after a series of distributor failures and ill-fated licensing deals swallowed up the label's already limited product and capital. These brutal experiences made Moon Records' label head Rob "Bucket" Hingley all the more determined to build as strong an indie label as possible by going back to the basics (starting with a fairly busy mail-order operation out of his basement, fulfilled mostly by Buck when he wasn't on tour with The Toasters; taking orders directly from mom and pop record shops; and creating a one-man in-house promotion/marketing team to get the word out to college radio and zines--yours truly!). Let's Go Bowling's Music To Bowl By and The Scofflaws' self-titled debut album (also issued in 1991) were two vital releases from the then newly revitalized label that demonstrated to the ska world Moon's intention to go big (and be more than just a home to The Toasters and NY Citizens) and its renewed commitment to supporting high quality ska acts in the 1990s--both albums are superb from start to finish.

You can pre-order the Music to Bowl By and Mr. Twist LPs from Asian Man Records here. Both are slated for release the second week of February.

If you're unfamiliar with Let's Go Bowling, make sure to check out two of their best tracks below...





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Life's Little Victories: Record Collecting #6 (UB40's "Present Arms")

On one of my recent lunchtime forays to my favorite used record store near work, I came across a very good plus copy of UB40's Present Arms (with the 12" of "Don't Walk on the Grass" b/w "Dr. X" included) for a mere $5.00! I'd never owned or known much about this 1981 album, apart from its amazing "One In Ten" single--so I snatched it up (the price was certainly right). In a fortuitous coincidence, Present Arms has been on my radar lately, as I'd seen that it's scheduled for a deluxe, three CD re-issue in the near future (though no firm release date has been announced yet); obviously, it was time to become acquainted with the album.

I was one of the many teenage Americans who were introduced to--and became crazy about--UB40 (and reggae) through their 1983 album, Labor of Love, which, as everyone knows, was a phenomenal tribute to many of the JA reggae artists who had inspired them as they were growing up in the 70s in the UK (if I remember correctly, the tracks that WLIR played heavily in their new wave mix were UB40's covers of Eric Donaldson's "Cherry Oh Baby" and--of course--Tony Tribe's version of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine"). I read somewhere that UB40's homage to their musical heroes ended up significantly rewarding many of the original composers; I wish I remembered which artist it was, but he was able to buy a large house with the songwriting royalties. I have a distinct memory of first listening to Labor of Love (back when you scoured the record sleeve for clues/info about the band and music) and being kind of delighted when I figured out that each part of the album's cover illustration referred to a song therein (I wasn't always so quick on the uptake...). Perhaps most momentously, Labor of Love marked the first time I'd heard a Laurel Aitken cut, as he wrote, originally performed (as the deejay Tiger), and produced the bittersweet "Guilty" ("...of loving you"). A little over a decade later, I'd have the incredible honor and pleasure of working with Mr. Aitken while I was at Moon Records.

From 1983 through 1986, I caught UB40's fantastic live show every time they performed in NYC (usually outdoors on Manhattan's Pier 54 on the Hudson River, right next to the U.S.S. Intrepid, always in a massive cloud of cheeba, cheeba, y'all) and eagerly bought each new US release: Geffery Morgan, Little Baggariddim, and Rat in the Kitchen (all of which contained great material and received strong airplay on WLIR). But, in the first half of the 80s, Signing Off and Present Arms hadn't been given proper US releases and I never came across imports of them at that time. I did pick up the North American-only compilation UB40 1980-83 right after buying Labor of Love, but only some of the songs connected ("King," "One in Ten," "I Won't Close My Eyes," and "Dubmobile"). Overall, UB40 1980-83 seemed disappointingly gray and dour (at the time, I didn't fully appreciate just how bad things were for the working class and poor in the UK under Thatcher after she privatized many government services, made deep cuts to the social safety net, and waged war on the unions), and not all of the songs included were winners (particularly in contrast to the ace material they covered on Labor of Love). So, in my adolescent rush to judgement, I wrote off UB40's first two albums as hit-or-miss affairs.

Listening to Present Arms today, I'm struck by how much the band had progressed since Signing Off. The songs, performances, and production on Present Arms are much improved--and it's as politically incisive as their debut, if not more so. When Geffery Morgan and Rat in the Kitchen were released, I loved finding that UB40 were writing sharp and catchy songs about political, social, and economic injustice that, like the music of 2 Tone, made you want to dance. But after this period, the fire in UB40's collective gut seemed to go out and they mostly produced albums of reggae pop covers (which did bring them many hits and financial success--over the years, they've sold over 70 million records!). Having said that, 2005's Who You Fighting For? (the anti-Iraq war title track is one of the best songs they've ever written) and 2008's TwentyFourSeven (see "Middle of the Night," which may be an anti-extraordinary rendition song) contained a lot of good-to-terrific original material and showed that the band hadn't completely abandoned their original mission statement or forsaken their concern for the wider world. Sadly, after much internal strife, UB40 recently fragmented into two versions of the band...(which may be the the reason the re-issue of Present Arms is delayed).

Present Arms' angry/mournful title track was certainly not an attack on British soldiers, but decried the terrible lack of opportunity--brought about by Thatcher's policies--that left many young men with no other way to earn a living than to join the army, become dehumanized in the process of learning to obey and kill, and not necessarily being used to defend England, but to shield the interests and do the bidding of the rich and politically-connected.

"You got no job, you got no pay
Join the military, sign today
They'll take you off to fight on foreign shores

Be your mother's pride and joy
Her armed and dangerous golden boy
They're paying to protect what isn't yours

Be your mother's pride and joy
Her armed and dangerous golden boy
A uniformed hero shows no fear

The khaki ranks of flesh and steel
Learning how to smile and kill
They'll teach you to ignore the screams and tears

Be your mother's pride and joy
Her armed and dangerous golden boy
A uniformed hero shows no fear

The khaki ranks of flesh and steel
Learning how to smile and kill
They'll teach you to ignore the screams and tears"

The character of Sardonicus comes from the 1961 William Castle B-horror film, "Mr. Saronicus," whose face becomes frozen in a "horrifying grin" after he robs his father's grave for the lottery ticket that was buried with him ("sardonicus" comes from the Latin medical term Risus sardonicus, a symptom of untreated tetanus manifesting itself through involuntary muscle spasms in the face, which can result in a rictus or "sardonic smile"). In January of 1981, a few months before Present Arms was recorded, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States and his hard-line stance against the Soviets (several neo-cons in his administration--including Dick Cheney--who were disdainful of detente, increased defense spending to such a degree and implemented provocative polices that ended up re-igniting the arms race with the Soviets, since they were convinced that America was preparing for a nuclear first strike against them), his use of end-of-days evangelical language (Reagan told TV preacher Jim Bakker in 1980, "We may be the generation that sees Armageddon"), and itchy-trigger gunslinger image exacerbated Cold War relations between the nuclear superpowers to such a degree that millions of people throughout Western Europe and the U.S. (and one had to imagine the Soviet Union) were very worried that they might die in a nuclear war (I was one of them). At the time, the caricature of Reagan was of this perpetually sunny and smiling actor-cowboy-madman who blindly believed his anti-Soviet/Commie rhetoric and would take all of us with him to oblivion in WWIII. Like many new wave and post-punk bands of this era, UB40 expressed this Cold War dread in the taut, tense, and somewhat spooky "Sardonicus"--Reagan as all cheery exterior distracting everyone from the perniciousness within:

"A human statue made of living stone
A paradox etched in human bone
If you could see behind the thin disguise
There's a hidden glint of madness in his eyes

Many men are fooled by his smile
His superficial grace, his charm, his style
Sardonicus is everybody's friend
Sardonicus keeps smiling to the end

A human statue made of living stone
A paradox etched in human bone
If you could see behind the thin disguise
There's a hidden glint of madness in his eyes

Many men are fooled by his smile
His superficial grace, his charm, his style
Sardonicus is everybody's friend
Sardonicus keeps smiling to the end"

The powerful and insistent "One in Ten" was directed at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her policies that favored the rich and powerful at the expense of the working class and poor. It's a potent protest song that gives voice to the disenfranchised and conveniently forgotten and, in doing so, reminds the more fortunate of us that we're not off the hook. But it's also a pointed commentary on how the process of categorizing people by the problems they're experiencing and tallying them up can numb/distance us from the real lives and horrific suffering behind the figures. This, in turn, can allow policymakers and those with power to think of large groups of people in great need as abstract construct--which can be more easily ignored while the resources that could help them can be diverted elsewhere.

I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don't exist
Nobody knows me
But I'm always there
A statistic, a reminder
of a world that doesn't care

My arms enfold the dole queue
Malnutrition dulls my hair
My eyes are black and lifeless
With an underprivileged stare
I'm the beggar on the corner
Will no one spare a dime?
I'm the child that never learns to read
Because no one spared the time

I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don't exist
Nobody knows me
But I'm always there
A statistic, a reminder
of a world that doesn't care

I'm the murderer, the victim
The license with the gun
I'm the sad and bruised old lady
In an alley in a slum
I'm a middle-aged businessman
With chronic heart disease
I'm another teenage suicide
In a street that has no trees

I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don't exist
Nobody knows me
But I'm always there
A statistic, a reminder
of a world that doesn't care

I'm a starving Third World mother
A refugee without a home
I'm a housewife hooked on Valium
I'm a pensioner alone
I'm a cancer-ridden specter
Covering the earth
I'm another hungry baby
I'm an accident of birth

I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don't exist
Nobody knows me
But I'm always there
A statistic, a reminder
of a world that doesn't care

Even though it was a charting single in the UK (#16), I'd never before heard the fantastic "Don't Let It Pass You By," which is a reality check/sympathetic and urgent call to action: you've only got one life to lead and a limited amount of time to live it, so don't be passive and complacent--particularly if you find yourself downtrodden and feeling powerless. (The track then segues into a fantastic dub with toasting that suggests that one should "burn two spliff, play Ital riddim" to help get in the right frame of mind to accomplish this...)

There's no one coming with that freedom train
There's nowhere you can go where you feel no pain
Take the blinkers off your eyes
The power's in your hand
Stop waiting for your ticket to the promised land

Don't let it pass you by!
Don't let it pass you by!
Don't let it pass you by!

There ain't no heaven and there ain't no hell
Except the one we're in and you know too well
There's no one waiting on
Waiting on a higher high
Don't let the only world you're ever gonna live in
Pass you by

"Don't Slow Down" (the flip side to the "Don't Let It Pass You By" single) is cut from the same cloth, but explicitly concerned with mortality--you have an expiration date ("Impatience is a virtue/Catch me if you can/The seconds have been ticking by/Since your life began"). Despite the song's beauty, "Silent Witness" documents the bleak life on Maggie's farm--things are so bad that the mannequins--who "see" everything that goes down on the street--would flee if they could:

"The neon haze of city lights
The tribal sound of marching feet
Cuts through the gloom on cold dark nights
The tired and homeless roam the streets

The sirens wail, engines roar
A shadowed man just glances around
A victim of life's mindless toil
Lies cold and helpless on the ground

The window dummies' silent stare
Bears witness on the nights
If they could move, what it would prove
To see them all take flight

The neon haze of city lights
The tribal sound of marching feet
Cuts through the gloom on cold dark nights
The tired and homeless roam the streets

The walls shout loud with angry words
The people air their views
The poor can scream but no one hears
The concrete jungle sings the blues

The window dummies' silent stare
Bears witness on the nights
If they could move, what it would prove
To see them all take flight"

The irresistibly cheery, singsongy "Lambs Bread" is a plea of sorts for the legalization of marijuana (and elimination of the criminal drug trade) and the excellent "Don't Walk on the Grass" presumably makes the same case. The mysterious "Dr. X" (named after this movie?) is another incredible, bubbly, and lushly melodic instrumental reggae cut.

Maybe you can't stay angry and young (and poor) forever--the road to success is full of compromise that can eat away at one's mission and subtly corrupt one's noble ideals--the pursuit and acquisition of money absolutely has this effect. (I certainly struggle with being a good and decent person in a society that doesn't necessarily value these qualities.) But I miss this hungry and pissed-off version of UB40 and believe that we need these kind of catchy, socially-aware protest songs more than ever...

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Next on my list to (hopefully) find in the bins: Present Arms in Dub!

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Life's Little Victories: Record Collecting Edition #4

Editor's note: Forgive me, but this post is a little heavy on nostalgia and my own personal history. Read ahead at your own risk...

I have to admit that every once in a while, when I first slide out a newly purchased used record from its sleeve, I secretly hope that the record's previous owner accidentally left some weird and wonderful surprise in it--like clippings of reviews of the album or some band-related memorabilia--in addition to the original lyric sheet (which is always appreciated). In the past year or so, I've bought used LPs that contained someone's typed (on a typewriter!) and annotated lyrics for The Equators' Hot, as well as the free single that came along with the first pressing of XTC's Drums and Wires that was now in my hands.

Last week, I picked up a somewhat tattered, cut-out copy of The Untouchables' Agent Double OO Soul LP. I had bought the CD at Tower Records when the album was originally released in 1988, but never purchased the LP (I was in college, didn't have much extra money, and CDs were the special new format!). When I got around to playing the album the other day, not only did I find the vinyl to be in mint condition, but the sleeve also contained an Agent Double OO Soul comic book (which includes the songs' lyrics) and the very same promo poster that I had ordered back in 1988, which I eventually hung framed on the wall of the Moon Records store on East 10th Street (see it in the photo below). At some point in the mid-2000s, the poster was ruined--along with many other ska posters and t-shirts I had collected over the years--in a massive flood in my parents' basement. Water seeped into many of my Rubbermaid storage bins that I had been keeping there. By the time I realized what had happened a month or two later, everything was damp, rank, and moldy. I was forced to throw out bag after bag of ska history. So, I was thrilled to have another copy come into my hands all these years later.

My favorite musician Laurel Aitken at the Moon store on 10th Street
with The Untouchables poster on the wall in the background.

Coming across this record reminded me that I had written a review of Agent Double OO Soul for my Fordham University, College at Lincoln Center newspaper that was paired with my write-up for Moon Records' Ska Face: An All American Ska Compilation (see a screen grab of both reviews below from the 2/22/89 edition of the CLC Observer; you can also find my review of the NY Citizens' On the Move in the 3/23/89 issue). Even though there weren't that many ska fans at my college, The Untouchables were a familiar name to many, as they opened for UB40 at a concert at Fordham's Bronx campus in the fall of 1985 (unfortunately, I did my freshman fall semester at a college out in Ohio before transferring to Fordham in winter of 1986, so I missed this performance).

While my review of Agent Double 00 Soul might have been a bit overly positive and enthusiastic, it certainly wasn't the bomb that many deemed it to be. Like Fishbone's extraordinary Truth and Soul (which was released around the same time), Agent Double 00 Soul is poorly sequenced, burying all of the ska and reggae tracks on side two, many of which happen to be the strongest songs on the album (see "World Gone Crazy," "Cold City," "Shama Lama," "Cool Boy," "Education," and "Sudden Attack"). But, all in all, on Agent Double 00 Soul, The Untouchables had strayed too far from their brilliant and perfectly calibrated balance of Wild Child ska, soul, and r and b.

The UT's comic book!

When what may have been the last NYC Untouchables' date was announced for late April of 1989 at Joey Ramone's basement Downtown club (at the corner of Bond and Broadway), my friend and fellow ska fan Andy was reluctant to see the show, since he'd heard bad things about the record from some of his other friends. But once we were there, he was all in, as The Untouchables unleashed one of most brilliant and energetic live performances I've ever seen (Black Rock Coaltion funk-metal rockers 24-7 Spyz were also on the bill and were extraordinarily good). Much of the set was comprised of cuts from Wild Child, as well as the better ska/reggae songs off Agent OO Soul, but even some of their shakier tracks from Soul sounded pretty awesome in their live versions.

Walking in the rain back up Broadway toward Union Square after the gig (we were already soaked from dancing to the UTs), Andy and I passed a construction site across the street from The Cat Club (where Moon Records' NYC Ska Live would be recorded about a year later) that had a huge, many-layered section of wheat-pasted gig posters that was starting to separate from the plywood wall in the downpour. The Untouchables' poster for their Downtown gig was on the top layer, so we liberated what must of been a three feet wide by eight feet tall section of them (with countless other posters beneath them) and somehow got it back the apartment I shared with four other Fordham students up at 125th and Broadway (where my tiny bedroom was at eye level with the elevated number 1 subway train). This giant, sagging strip of posters was propped up against one wall in my room for the rest of the semester, but ended up in the garbage when our lease was up that summer. I was moving into my first post-college apartment with a bunch of friends and my girlfriend (now wife) and this large, dirty, and unwieldy bit of music ephemera had to go; we just didn't have the space.

My Untouchables shirt that I bought at their gig at Downtown in Manhattan on 4/29/89.