Sounds like they’re still amazing, even if they do play the songs fairly straightforward.

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First things first, The Drastics have released another digital 7″  This time, hairstyles are the target of our favorite dub killers- in the new cut, Vibes, Love Music + Jheri Curl feat MC Zulu.  You can check it out on their MySpace page.  But you should also take a gander at their new blog, which is very pleasing to the eyes- and ears.

Next up, I’ve got a video of Dubmatix remixing John Brown’s Body, which was created by numerous animators from around the world.  John Brown’s Body is an Easy Star Records project that is getting the full remix treatment.  You can read more here.

Finally, a site that applies Dub and Remix techniques to the art of YouTubing. Thru-You.com creates music videos by chopping and splicing existing musical pieces on YouTube.  I think of it as “found dub.”  You’ll think of it as “neato.”

Click here to see What It Became on Thru-You.com

PS Sorry for any spelling mistakes this time through… my spell checker is wonky.

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…I am a skinhead girl and being in this subculture you here a lot of shit and stereotypes that just suck. Skinhead girls are supposedly all fat, butch and ugly, or so the stereotype suggests. I don’t believe this and I want to change that. You can be tough, able to care of yourself  and still be a beautiful, sexual individual. That is what this site is about and giving something that you don’t see a lot of- a skingirl proud of her sexuality and not afraid to show it.

I realized quickly that I shouldn’t be surprised that she contacted me at all- this skingirl loves Ska:

To this day Ska is my favorite music. It’s how I came in the company of Skinheads when I was a young teen. Ska can be amazingly happy or majorly depressing but it always got to my emotions. I have a tattoo around my belly button “Celebrate the Bullet” it’s a song by The Selecter. Pauline Black has the most amazing, soulful voice. I could not get over that song for a long time. “Fu Man chu” by Desmond Dekker, “One Cup of Coffee” by Bob Marley (before the reggae), all are just amazing songs. I love this genre of music.

Cadence fights racial and extreemist stereotypes that are often applied to Skinheads while also using fetish and sub culture in a non-exploitive fashion.  You can check out OiTomBoy here NSFW.

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But I write to share a sublime musical experience I had in the Kingston working-class neighborhood of Rae Town. As you may know, Sound System-style street parties (with massive banks of loudspeakers that are more comfortingly bassy than ear-splittingly treble) happen pretty much every night of the week around Kingston, starting with Uptown Mondays at a shopping plaza in New Kingston with current dancehall hits, and going right through the week.

The neighborhood of Rae Town has, for the past 20 plus years there, thrown a Sunday night dance and party. The local paper the Gleaner describes it as an oldies night, and the people reflect that, sort of. There are 70 year-olds, all the way down to much younger people. Classes mix: doctors and lawyers from uptown mingle with an array of characters out of Fellini. The crowd shows up around midnight. The people slowly line up along both sides of the main street running through Rae Town, almost like a dance showdown, and everyone begins a slow groove to the music. Grillers with jerk chicken, fish and pork are common, as are sellers of ganja who wander around with small bouquets of the herb still on the stem. As the crowd builds, so does the music.

It’s the music that really drew me in that night: mostly old school reggae and dub and anything ska: “Fiddler on the Roof” ska by the Soul Brothers, “Norwegian Wood” ska by Jackie Mittoo, you name it. There was also a seductive selection of oldies like Dionne Warwick’s “Wishin and Hopin,” Sam Cooke’s “Cupid” and “A Change Is Gonna Come” (a kind of plea to the hood that crime and poverty can be licked), Dionne Warwick’s et al “That’s What Friends Are For” (a neighborhood anthem, in which the DJ dropped the sound right before the chorus, leaving the entire block singing out loud), Maxine Brown’s “Oh No Not My Baby.” And the walls of speakers sent all this great music vibrating through my bones and making me feel inspired and happy, and isn’t that what music’s supposed to do? It was the best party I’ve ever been to. I find dancehall monotonous with a capital M. And maybe Rae Town put me in a time warp, a flashback to the great old days of this music that is disconnected in many ways to the fast and furious business of dancehall. But what a great scene and sound that was last Sunday in Rae Town. It’s wonderful to be reminded that the Loudest Island in the World isn’t just about the size of the sound system. It’s also about some of the coolest music ever made and the whole world of sound that boomeranged into it.

-Marco Werman, Music Editor, PRI’s The World

Editor’s note:  I’m a big fan of all things NPR- and for world news from your NPR affiliate, there’s none better than PRI’s The World.  It is an honor to include Marco’s piece (written a few months back) in our new Guest Blogger series.  Here’s an older post I did, linking you to several of the stories Marco did from the above mentioned trip to Jamaica. Ska Online: The World Loves JA Music

-JJ

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I am.

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Man, was I wrong.  Winehouse’s versions of Monkey Man, Hey Little Rich Girl, You’re Wondering Now and Cupid are clean and polished- spic and span.  Cupid is done as an upbeat Reggae tune while the others are arranged a lot like the Specials’ versions, but Winhouse’s vocal flourishes save the tracks from feeling unnecesarry.

But the tracks from iTunes from the Back to Black B-Sides Collection

Or if you want The Ska EP for Free.

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All of this Punk-Ska nay-saying didn’t sit right with my new listener, Steve. He wrote:

I’m not sure Punk-ska is going away any time soon. I’m a bit confused as to why traditional ska fans dislike punk ska. I liked (didn’t love) Bid D’s last album, and don’t see them going away.

I can’t answer for all of you, but I formed a few thoughts on the matter and sent it off to Steve in the hopes of enlivening a debate. I responded:

I appreciate you listening and especially commenting. I really don’t hear enough from my subscribers.

I’m not going to tell you that you are wrong. Tone can be misinterpreted in emails, so I don’t want to sound argumentative- I just want to state my point and ask a few more questions.

I was brought up on Ska-Punk. MU 330 and The Urge are big 3rd Wave style Ska bands from my city, St. Louis. I still love Skankin Pickle, The Bosstones… too many to mention. However, I realized around ‘98 that there was a huge deficit between Ska-influenced and traditional style ska. As the Ska-Punk bands stopped touring around the same time, I started looking back on older recordings. Discovering what was special about two-tone (no pun intended) also made me appreciate the distinctions between Ska and Ska-influenced. This older music spoke to me on a much deeper level than any ironic “ska” cover that Big D will ever crank out.

It wasn’t just the older ska that stuck with me after the third wave; bands like The Slackers and other bands playing in the traditional style were giving me something new to enjoy while staying authentic. I noticed that most of the newer bands were playing this True Revivalist Ska, Jump Ups catalog started filling up with neo-Trad artists, The Aggrolites hit the scene- I wanted to start a website with a focus on Trad, and I new that there would be an audience for it. I was correct.

I’m not trying to be divisive, but I am critical. I don’t want to run a site that simply loves all things ska, I want a site that recommends good music- that has interviews with great artists. I’m not going to listen to another Big D record- I’m not going to interview a guy from Less Than Jake- because I don’t like it. And I’ve found that there are a few hundred people in the world that seem to agree with me.

There are TONS of Ska sites that love everything Ska. Checkerboard this, and Rude Boy that, and Ska-Punk all over the place. Check out Silly Gillman, Ska Skank Radio or Just Add Ska for people doing cool things with a broader focus.

But tell me your story. You’ve made the move to defend this music, and I’d love to give you an opportunity. What’s good about Ska-Punk now? Am I wrong, and there are some Trad respecting Punks playing still? If you didn’t exactly love the new Big D album- are there any other new releases that you do love?

Write back. Tell me I’m wrong. Write me a new asshole if you want- I’ll publish our correspondence on SBB and see what people think.

-JJ

Steve responds:

“The Shit is Goin’ to the Dogs” –The Supaflies

Hey JJ,

I appreciate your e-mail back. I was under the assumption that your blog/site encompassed all aspects of ska, but it seems like in your response that your site is more towards trad ska. Which is fine, I personally like both types, or all types for that matter..

I have been a ska fan for years. It is all I listen too (aside from some hardcore), and all I will listen to. I vividly remember the first time I heard “ska”. I made a painting about it. It affected me that much. (I’ve attached the pic.)

This was my senior year of high school, so we are talking ’89. Bloomington Illinois (not too far away from st. louis) I was hanging out with some “punk rockers”, although how punk rock can someone from the Midwest be? Someone put Operation Ivy on the turn table and the rest is history. I now live in Evanston with a wife and two kids, but I’ve never let go of ska.

My experience is not “special”, there are thousands of little suburbanites who listen to Op Ivy. But the hectic tempo effected me like heroin, and I’ve tried to match that hectic beat since. Some bands have it, most do not.

For me, ska is about the beat. Either trad ska or punk ska, I’ve tried to gather music that makes you jump. It can be heard on “Do the Dog”, “Too Much Too Young” but I’ve found that the punk ska captured closer to the initial feeling. Bands like MU330, Slapstick, and Suicide Machines come close.

This is just my opinion, but a lot of the trad ska right now is too groove oriented. It doesn’t sound like a beat you can dance to. It sounds like reggae. In my opinion, ska should be danced to. Now, it’s hard to dance to punk ska, but a lot of it makes me jump.

I don’t want to go on too long, but there is a lot of trad ska that I love. Recent stuff that makes me dance include “reggae hit la” and “lucky Streak”. But a lot of it is instrumental, which makes me want to slit my wrist. “Strictly Rude” was uneven, but for some reason the beat on “Shining on” makes me jump more than any of Dr. Ring Ding’s latest.

It’s all about the beat.

I could go on and on. But It’s just my opinion.

Steve

What do you guys think? Are you a fan of both styles? Do you love one and not the other? Does Neo-Trad need to overpower Ska-Punk to be successful or can they both exist in harmony? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Thanks again, Steve, for sharing your thoughts and art with all of us- I hope you find your dancin’ groove in some of the music here on Ska Blah Blah.

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Top Ska Albums

1. The Pietasters – All Day I hesitate to call this a Ska album since it is largely Reggae with a fair share of Rock n’ Roll and Garage mixed into the track list. But the Pietasters will always be a Ska band at heart, and this album is their best yet.
2. The Pepperpots – Shake It! I’d really like to hear the Pepperpots get a bit rawer. Shake It! is fantastic all over, although sterile at times. These girls are onto something.
3. The Skatalites – On the Right Track I’ve reviewed this album previously, so to make a long story short: It’s far from the original line-up, but this album delivers new songs in the quintessential, straight forward Ska that you would expect.
4. Kingston Kitchen – Today’s Special Not a full album, but Dr. Ring Ding fronts this Jazzy outfit through 6 tracks that push the stylistic boundaries of Ska-Jazz.
5. Deals Gone Bad – The Ramblers These guys seem poised to be major players in the Ska scene. This album, once started, has a tendency to play all the way through. The soulful vocals and jazzy solos keep my fingers off of the skip button. But don’t rest on your laurels yet DGB, with power comes responsibility.

Top Dub Albums

1. The Drastics – Waiting Easily my most played album of last year, and I haven’t had it for very long. Their brand of Dub is heavy and multifaceted, but never a nuisance. It’s mellow enough to be background music, but experimental enough to pay attention too. It is perfect Dub.
2. Crazy Baldhead – Has a Posse Agent Jay has a very home made approach to Dub, and his recording aesthetic directly effects the end product. Warm and analog- very Version City.
3. Ticklah – Ticklah vs Axelrod Brilliant Ska and Jazz Dubs in the style of Victor Rice. Rice is, in fact, on about half of the tracks. However, unlike In America, TvA has vocal tracks by a handful of musicians, while Rice tends to play straight instrumentals. I predict big things for Ticklah in the coming years.
4. The Eternals – Heavy International This is not the mellow Dub Reggae that you used to see in the genre, this is noisy- circus style syncopation with mind warping effects, urban poetry and unsteady beats. The Eternals aggression has not fallen on deaf ears.
5. Unnamed – The Good, The Bad and The Queen Damon Albarn now has side projects to his side projects. Blur and The Gorillaz front man, teamed up with the Clash’s Paul Simonon and Danger Mouse. Not a Dub album, and certainly not a Reggae album, GBQ is slow tempo Rock with moody Dub elements that make it worth mentioning here.

Top Early/Skinhead Reggae

1. The Aggrolites – Reggae Hit LA My downstairs neighbor must hate it when I play this disc, because nothing gets my feet going like The Aggrolites.
2. Tim Armstrong – Life of a Poet This record, backed by The Aggrolites is like a night out with the band and Armstrong, themselves. The tempo is steady and the drop is Skinhead, but there’s a Punky- sometimes Clubby sound to Life of a Poet.
3. Green Room Rockers – Hoosier Homegrown These guys seemed to pop up out of nowhere, and now they’re winning over audiences on the East Coast. There is room for them to grow still, but a very impressive first album.

• I have to give Honorable Mention to a few other bands who had Early-Style Reggae offerings from 2006, but didn’t become easily available (to me) until this last year. The Upsessions and The Caroloregians both released records that would have rivaled The Aggrolites for the top spot. I hope that in ‘08 I will hear more from both bands.

Favorite Tracks

1. Dr. Ring-Ding and Vic Ruggiero – What it Takes
2. Tim Armstrong – Inner City Violence
3. The Slackers – Mind Your Own Business
4. The Pietasters – G to F
5. Bedoin Soundclash – Nico on the Night Train

Albums Worth Mentioning

Some of these listed here are being noted for being torch carriers in other revivalist genres; and some for adeptly mixing various traditional sounds. It’s this that I look for in music, Jamaican influenced or not.

1. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – 100 Days 100 Nights
2. Antibalas – Security EP
3. Beastie Boys – The Mix Up
4. Manu Chao – La Radiolina
5. Ozomatli – Don’t Mess with the Dragon

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It’s Bob Marley off-handedly clarifying the beats that differentiate Ska, Reggae, and Rocksteady, in a ’70’s interview.

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