Posted on March 21st, 2008 by JJ Loy
I had noticed the disc, Quite Notable, in the Ska section of Vintage Vinyl since ‘97. Despite the fun ska sticker on the cover and crazy named band members, I never ponied up the $13 that Vintage was charging for this mystery album. It wasn’t until last year that my buddy, Doug Morgan, from KDHX’s The Underworld, gave me a copy of this Skatalites influenced wonderfulness.
I was immediately disappointed in myself for letting such a great instrumental band slip through the cracks of my attention. Further research revealed that this “band” is actually a fantasy front for the two fellas behind the sound, and those crazy names are merely fiction. It’s an impressive feat to emulate an entire Ska-Jazz combo with only two musicians- and one that deserves comparisons to both Chris Murray and NYSJE.
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Mar 21 2008
Posted on May 4th, 2007 by JJ Loy
STL stands for two of my favorite things:
St. Louis, my adopted home town. And Ska’s The Limit, my absolute favorite Ska show.
In high school, when ska still seemed mysterious and new to me, Ska’s the Limit showed me how old some of those sounds were. And later, when the big clubs wouldn’t book ska shows, Paul Stark, the host of STL, generated local Ska Festivals. And in the early days of this century, when Ska was treated like a bastard step-child by corporate radio, Ska’s the Limit was the only source for Ska music on the St Louis air.
Fatlip once said, “You give respect, to get respect.” And in like fashion, Ska’s the Limit will be rebroadcasting Ska Blah Blah this summer. They’ll be played in order, the first Fri of every month.
If you’re a fan of Ska Blah Blah, I recommend bouncing over to KDHX’s Ska’s The Limit and checking out some back episodes.
If you live in St. Louis, tune into STL every Fri at 8 PM. That’s 88.1 KDHX.
May 04 2007
Posted on April 5th, 2007 by JJ Loy
You gotta love local community radio. Many ska fans have depended on public and college radio DJs to bring them some of the only shows dedicated to Ska and Reggae in the world.
One such DJ, Aaron Lakoff, contacted me recently about the rebroadcast of a couple episodes of Ska Blah Blah, on his station, CKUT, 90.3FM. His show broadcasts out of Montreal, bringing a fabulous selection of Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae and Punk with every episode.
He handled my interview with Victor Rice very respectfully, and plugged Ska Blah Blah so earnestly, that I just had to return the favor. I highly recommend downloading the podcast version of his show at: CKUT
Apr 05 2007
