Bookmark It

This was recorded (not by me) live at the KROQ Weenie Roast ’07 and features Tim and the Aggrolites performing a lot of songs from A Poets Life. Plus, for the last two songs, Lars Fredrickson joins the group for some old fashioned Rancid tunes. The recording itself is better than average, with only a little bit of noise and glitch- if I had to grade it, I’d give it a B.

Click here for the zShare link.

Related Ska Blah Blah coverage:

A Poets Live Review and Vids

Bookmark It

Legends of Ska: The Movie

This one looks to be a similar idea as the Rocksteady doc-  get all the heavy hitters from around the world, film a concert, record some music, and shoot some interviews.

The Birth of Ska in Britain

Here we have a doc that will cover the migration of Jamaican music to the UK, featuring Duke Vin, Count Suckle, and Daddy Vego, to name a few.

The Skatalites – Live in Sao Paulo

Here’s one I mentioned a few months ago.  Victor Rice and the folks at Radiola Records have put together a live presentation of this not-so-original line-up.  Release date is as soon as April 7.

Bookmark It

It’s Infinite Wheel, a Flash-based series of Games that puts you in the DJ drivers seat. There are 10 games in all, each with multiple riddim tracks and packed with friendly cartoon characters and urban landscapes that, when clicked, fire off signature dub FX. There is no goal to the games except executing your own track without dropping the beat.

It’s a blast! However, I’d like to see this idea expanded upon in just two ways: While the cartoony interface is fun, I’d go crazy for an interface that simply represented the mixing board. You know, a true Dub Simulator. And the main drawback to the Infinite Wheel games is the lack of record-ability. How cool would it be to carve out a flawless Dub track on IW and then export the song to show off to your friends?

Here’s the Link you’ll need, just click the different characters to play their game.

Bookmark It

Get the whole story from this 2004 Day to Day segment. Link

Fans of my favorite blog, Boing Boing, might recognize the name in this story’s byline is that of the host of Boing Boing TV, Xeni Jardin. Not only does she have the hottest voice to regularly grace NPR, but she is easily the foxiest of all the BB.net editors. But we love her for her mind, of course. She brings a unique perspective to tech journalism by focusing on the cultural side of science. Yes, I’m a Ska Geek, but I’m also a Geek Geek.

Bookmark It

After months without any new Slackers bootlegs, a new set hit the internet hit the internet like a cannonball. Recorded in Syracuse, NY on 11.15.07, the set has been dubbed Funk n’ Waffles, after the venue of the same name. I can attest to the live set’s quality, so feel safe clicking here for the .zip file, or here for the original post at Stubborn Records Forum.

Speaking of The Slackers, Dave Hillyard recently posted a very optomistic, State of the Scene-type blog post. What does he say? Ska is making a comeback. But you knew that. Link

This isn’t breaking news, but in light of Hillyard’s positive post, it serves proof of the scene’s recent strength. The popular series of Ska compilations, United Colors of Ska has just released their fourth installment, or 4.0. Much like my recent selections, the UCS folks have been using MySpace as the catalyst for finding new Ska music from around the world. Link

The Holidays are upon us (is Hanukkah really over, already?) and DC Ska is making it easy for you to find the perfect gifts for all the Ska Geeks on your list, with their handy Gift Guide. Link

Go Jimmy Go has gotten into the X-Mas mode, as well, giving us all the gift of a Holiday themed album, Holiday Hell Yeah. Link

Victor Rice is still bustin ass and maintaining his rep as the go to guy for all things Ska. Look for new recordings by Stingers ATX, Buford O’Sullivan, Chris Murray Combo, and Crazy Balhead (feat. Alex Desert, King Django, Steve Jackson, Bucket, and Vic Ruggiero) with Mr. Rice at the mixing board, next year. He’s also involved (to some degree) with a new Skatalites Live DVD.

It would seem that the rumors are sadly true, Lynette Knackstedt, founder and guitarist for Skankin’ Pickle died at the young age of 37. Here is the post where I found out. Here is Mike Parks personal blog post on the subject. And here is an odd turn of events effecting Lynette’s estate.

The other night, my roommate and all around cool guy, Jameson played about 6 Skankin Pickle songs for me and Dira at the 521A. We remarked at how long it had been since we played them. Jameson translated a few Korean lyrics for us. I commented at what a bad-ass guitarist the Pickle’s had. I would later learn that Lynette died sometime that evening. It was an eerie coincidence that my friends and I were missing Skankin Pickle while Knackstedt’s family was missing her.

Sources: DC Ska, Dancin Mood, Stubborn Forums, Asian Man Records, and Do the Dog Skazine

Bookmark It

It’s with this supportive spirit that I rcomend to anyone reading this, Sleeper’s Record Shack. Host/producer Mick Sleeper has a massive Reggae wax collections, and uses that as the foundation for his show. Episodes tend to follow a theme, be it a musical style or a single artist. Some of my favorite episodes have been, Far East Sound, Cuban Missle Crisis, and Motown Meets Trenchtown.

These episodes will have familiar artists but the tracks are fairly rare, and unless you have a hefty collection yourself, you are sure to be impressed with Sleeper’s selection. However, the element that completely sells this show, in my opinion, is Sleeper’s delivery. If you thought I sounded square on the air, you’ve got to hear this classic Kingston DJ style chat, read in a Ward Cleaver-type diction. I’m telling you, Sleepers Record Shack is worth a listen just to hear the intros, but the music will keep you until the progress bar hits zero.

Bookmark It

Now, we find Dr. Ring-Ding exploring a more Rock persona here in a couple of YouTube videos:

Bookmark It

They also appear to have some degree of good taste, as evidenced by the inclusion of a live performance from The Slackers. Eighteen Slackers tracks from a 2006 show in Melkweg, Amsterdam, were digitized and streamed all for your online enjoyment.

Swing over to FabChannel.com to check out all the site has to offer, or click here to be taken to The Slackers show directly. Here’s a little preview of what to expect:

Bookmark It

Links of Interest:

Live Performance:
LIVE NOW: Toots and the Maytals in Concert
Dave Wakeling: Ska and The English Beat
Lily Allen in Concert with The Bird and The Bee
NPR’s All Things Considered: The Slackers
ERNEST RANGLIN

Profiles:
Ska Cubano
Gypsy Punk Group Gogol Bordello in Concert
Fishbone Flies the Black Rock Flag High
Jackie Mitto: Infectious, Philly-Style Soul, by Way of Jamaica
Ska Cubano: A Parallel Musical Universe
Bob Marley’s Music and Magic Endure
Bob Marley and the Culture of Reggae
Music Review: ‘Mento Madness’ from Various Artists
Jamaican Independence Day

Obit:
Desmond Dekker, the ‘King of Ska’
Remembering Reggae Pioneer Coxsone Dodd

Bookmark It

I’ve seen dead links to this for a while now, but this is the first active one I’ve found.

Yo Gabba is the best ska on cable since USA’s Up All Night: New Years Ska Dance Party or maybe that one time when Mtv played Mephiskapheles.

Bookmark It

Archive.org uses online tools to collect any kind of info that has fallen out of copyright. Old films and websites are compiled here, but its the Live Music Archive that I’m concentrating on, today.

Here’s some sets of interest:

The Allstonians from 1996
Camper Van Beethoven from 1985
The Toasters (2 shows)
Fishbone (5 shows)
The Slackers (3 shows)

Dub Trio (9 shows)
Dub is a Weapon (8 shows)
Antibalas (24 shows)
Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad (8 shows)
Matisyahu (94 shows)

This is several days worth of listening, and I’m sure that there’s more to be found. Browse by band and find what I didn’t.

PS – The archived link to Ska.About.com was provided by Archive.org’s Wayback Machine.

Bookmark It

Here’s an online live concert by AOL Music Canada Link (not a direct link, choose Bedouin Soundclash from the list of bands. A GoogleVid search Link Some of my favorites:

Bedouin Soundclash Official Links: Website MySpace Wiki page Amazon List

Bookmark It

I was most interested in the first episode which dealt mostly with the early ska days. The film takes us to the Alpha Boys School, and introduces us to the nun that helped raise the Skatalites, as well as many other notable Jamaican musicians. The cameras travel down the neighborhoods of Kingston where the original studios and clubs have been left to rot. We hear from likes of Lord Creator, and the then Prime Minister of Jamaica, before the film follows ska’s path to the UK, where we are privy to interviews with UB40, Paul Simonon, and many others.

If you have friends that need a good primer on Jamaican Roots music, I highly recomend this show. My only complaint is that the narrator states outright that Ska is Jamaica’s first type of music, even though the guests anecdotally refer to both Mento and Nyahbinghi in the interviews.

Here now, is the first episode of this great series, broken into four parts (as per Daily Motion rules)

UPDATE 05/10/08: DailyMotion is not cooperating with my embed plugin, but the links are still active:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

P.S. DailyMotion is a great site. They let you upload longer segments than YouTube, and I love the way they display their tags, making the more popular tags more prominent than the others. Try searching for obvious tags: Ska, Reggae, or your favorite band. But given their constant embedding issues and increasingly limited content, I don’t really advocate the site any longer.

Bookmark It

Greenstar is very cool, as far as I can tell. They have a very keen take on promoting culture, as well as commerce, education and agriculture. They find towns that are down on their luck and bring in Portable Community Centers:

“Using solar power generated by large photovoltaic panels, the center can drive a water purifier, a small clinic, a vaccine cooler, a classroom, a digital studio and a satellite or wireless link to the Internet. We work with the people of each village to develop an ecommerce website, employing local musicians, teachers and art professionals to record the voice of the community. Greenstar packages the materials for various markets, both direct to the consumer, and through licensing to businesses.”

This helps bring in money for the town, and gives them a way to show their cultural distinctiveness to the whole world.Greenstar has photos, art and music posted on their site. In fact the main reason I’m posting this is to point a few of you to the great collection of mp3′s. The people of Swift River have passed on the musical traditions of Mento and Nyahbinghi music through the generations. Here are a few from the Greenstar mp3 page:

- Mento tune, Banana
- Nyahbinghi version of Nobody’s Business
- Swift River child gives some solid advice, No Drugs
- A capella toasting from a local man, Skatel

Check out these and others at the Swift River, Greenstar site.

If you want to support this town, bring your business to it. Not far from Swift River is the Rio Vista Resort. An alternative to the sheltering Club Med style resort, Rio Vista is locally run, with authentic cooking and proximity to rural Jamaican life.

Bookmark It