Sunday, September 27, 2020

Step Lively

 

Step Lively - Step Lively (1998)

1 Without a Doubt

2 Train to Israel

3 String Beans

4 You Don't Know Jack

5 Isabella

6 She Won't Give

 

 

Step Lively - The Trigger Effect (1999)

1 Price I Pay

2 Purple Book

3 Superficial

4 String Beans

5 Give You Up

6 Inside Me

7 Repeater

8 Parker's Last Stand

9 Headcase

10 Sea of Strangers

11 Scorpio's Revenge

12 Into Another

 


These guys were from Lindenhurst, New York. They played mellow and laid back and they played loud and fast. Fans of the traditional and rocksteady revival bands of the 90s and you guys who would say ska punk is more your thing will appreciate these guys the same.

If you caught me off guard and asked me about this band I would say that they released more than just this but it seems this is almost everything they recorded. They did have an earlier promo/demo tape but that same exact tape was re-released as this self-titled CD posted here. Aside from that they have a song called  "Steppin' Up" on the 1998 Pinball Records compilation called The Pinball Family and Distant Relatives which I have included in this download. 


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Sunday, September 20, 2020

Spithead

 

Spithead - Kill Two Pigs with One Stone (demo tape 1993)

1 Margarine

2 (I Can't Believe It's Not...) Margarine

3 God Made Me a Magnet

4 Just Making Traffic

5 At the Zoo



Spithead - Skascraper 7" (1994)

1 Sitting too Close to the Telly

2 Traffic

3 Margarine


Travis Cut / Spithead split 7" (1996)

A1 - Travis Cut - Mork 'N' Mindy

A2 - Travis Cut - Blister in the Sun

B1 - Spithead - Porky

B2 - Spithead - Some People Want Shooting


 Spithead - Swag (1996)

1 The New National Anthem

2 It's Time to Start Spying on Your Neighbors

3 Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

4 Call the Police

5 Inconvenience

6 Never Say Die

7 Work

8 God Made Me a Magnet

9 Liquidizer

10 Bonus Track Bogus Track


Jackbeast / Spithead split 7" (1996)

A1 - Jackbeast - Scrape #8

A2 - Jackbeast - Illicit Philtre

B1 - Spithead - Personal

B2 - Spithead - Hard Dog Club


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Max - Mono 7" (1980) -and- Max - Big Six 7" (1981)


Max - Mono 7" (1980)

A - Mono (Monotones cover)

B - Un Paso Más Allá (Madness cover)



Max - Big Six 7" (1981)

A - Big Six (Judge Dread cover)

B - Crucero Nocturno a Cairo (Madness cover)


This is a band from Argentina that brought the European ska and punk scene to the youth of Argentina. I'm not a big fan of bands releasing cover songs as singles but in this case I understand why it was done. The titles are in Spanish but the songs are sung in English. I don't know that this band ever released anything else but I think (don't quote me on this) that one or more band member formed the band Los Pericos. 


There was a time many years ago when I was certain that the Mono record is so rare that I would never see a copy. Then one came up for sale on Discogs and I jumped on it. That was 6 months ago. I never received it. Luckily somebody posted both records on YouTube so neither of the records in this post are from my own rips. 

 



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Pietasters - Strapped Live (1996) - Who is D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin?


I don't usually post the Pietasters because I just assume you would already have this but, for the few of you who don't, here you go.

 

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At the end of track 12 "Dollar Bill" Steve (vocalist Stephen Jackson) thanks a couple of bands (Ruder Than You, and The Instigators) and then mentions that "D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin" has a ska night "every Tuesday at the Poseur's Club". The Poseur's Club was a club in Georgetown that closed in 1989, many years before this show was recorded, so that's funny unto itself, but who was D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin?

I did a bit of serious hard-hitting investigative journalism and found the answer.

(Okay, that's not true, I was having a conversation with a random stranger online about ska music when he mentioned that he was a promoter and D.J. from DC whose biggest claim to fame is that he was mentioned on this Pietaster's CD.)

His real name is D.J. Ian Fenn. Aside from being a D.J. he promoted shows in and around Washington D.C. and elsewhere along the East Coast. Punk shows. Hardcore shows. And he was one of the pioneers of ska shows in the region. He met several bands along the way such as The Skunks, The Checkered Cabs, The Pietasters, and even Etch-a-Sketch. 

On the way to a gig on a military base in Virginia Todd and Steve from the Pietasters were talking with Ian about how so many DJs have stupid names. They suggested "DJ Ian Finn" wasn't catchy enough and eventually settled on "DJ Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin". Ian did not care for the name and never actually used it. As you can see:


I asked several questions and he was kind enough to waste a bit of his time by responding. 

In his own words:

"In high school I was friends/skated with this guy John. We’d occasionaly go to ska shows in DC, typically at the original location of the 9:30 club on F St. I already listed to ska, punk and hardcore. I’d go to Dischord shows at Ft. Reno, but going to see ska bands at 9:30 club with John was really my intro to the ska scene.

After high school he started playing sax with a local ska band. Most of the members when to Montgomery College inn Rockville, MD. Occasionally I’d tag along to band practice with John. Incidentally, I had also been in high school with their drummer, Sean, but he had transferred out to a different school in Germantown, before junior year if memory serves. I digress. 

Some years later, I was backing up deejay in DC several nights a week. It was primarily dance club venues, so mainly goth/industrial nights, and the occasional ‘80s night. I eventually ended up starting a ska night at Club Asylum in Exile on U street. It started off pretty slow. There were a couple skins that came every week. Will and Dustin. Will and I had actually met years earlier, but as far as I recall, neither of us remembered that. Will played the trombone for the Checkered Cabs. Will and Dustin were in the BSSC, and they ended up getting other BSSC folks to come.

At some point during that period, I started working door at Black Cat (the competing club to 9:30 club, started by Dante from Iron Cross, Dave from Scream/Nirvana and several others). Black Cat was typically a Dischord and Positive Force hangout. Anyway, I started deejaying in between bands at ska shows at Black Cat on rare occasions where a ska band got booked. So basically, one day I got a call from Steve from the Pietasters. Usually at their shows, their friend Sean (DJ Selah, who also toasts on some of their songs) would spin, but he wasn’t available for that gig at the military base that I mentioned before, when 'the name’ happened. Their contract for to provide 2.5 hours of entertainment (or something), so they needed someone to spin in between sets (back then I don’t think they had enough songs anyway. I seem to remember there being two sets, and some songs got played more than once). Steve’s wife Caroline picked me and my gear up from my place, and drove me to where the band was in VA, and we went from there. So, I knew that band from working in the scene before, but this is how we really got to know each other."
 

But every good thing must come to an end. Ian had promoted a Checkered Cabs show at the Black Cat in which a huge fight broke out and ended up being the last ska show at the club and one of Ian's last moments in the dying ska scene. 
 
His days of modelling are behind him.
...and gone are the days of being called a 'punk rock piece of shit' by Nick Welsh of The Selecter...

...but you can still catch his ska night every Tuesday at the Poseur's Club.
 
 
 
If you have any questions or comments for Ian Fenn here's his Twitter



Sunday, September 13, 2020

Flash Harry - Going Straight (1981)

This is a new wave/ska band from South Africa. They released a couple of singles and two full length albums. This is their first album.

I have their second album as well and one of the singles - both A and B sides are on that second album so, basically, I have all of their stuff except for that elusive first single that I have never ever seen for sale in my lifetime. The ska on this album isn't really ska in the traditional sense but it's more along the lines of "punk-reggae". The second album has less ska than this one, but it does have some. I'll post that album too...eventually.

1 Late Night Show
2 Success
3 Handlebars
4 Saving Up My Money
5 Hideaway
6 Hot Blooded
7 No Football
8 Feel the Pace
9 Beverly
10 Please...Don't Raise the Alarm!!

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Blister - Cosy Places

This is one of the worst album covers I have ever seen.
This was a German ska band who opened for big names like Mark Foggo and the Busters. They released three albums between 1999 and 2003. This is their second album and I don't know what year it's from but I'm guessing 2001. Who knows? I don't have their other two albums and it took me forever to find this one. If any of you have their other albums, let me know. Let's make a deal.

Despite the weird cover (come on, there's how many people in the band and not one of them said this cover sucks?) the title track "Cosy Places" is actually a really good song. But the winner here for me is the first track "Could it be You?" which I think should go down in history as a ska classic.

1 Could it be You?
2 Goin' Insane
3 Sun, Moon, & Cow
4 Listen to Me
5 Another Song
6 So Goodbye, Sober Day
7 Cosy Places
8 Hey You

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Dogz - No Encuentro Nada 7" (1987)

This is known as a ska record but it's really not ska. Ska-influenced, sure, but not ska. Anyway, it's really rare so I think it belongs here.

I received my copy severly warped. I didn't think it would play at all because of how warped it is,
but I managed to get a recording of it. All of those thumps at the beginning of each side are from those large waves in the record. I apologize for the horrible sound quality but if you can do better, please send me a copy of yours. I'll drink a beer in your honor.

A - No Encuentro Nada
B - Primavera

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Monday, September 7, 2020

Ska-Men - Skandal Street (1999)

2Tone style ska from Australia.

1 Sunday
2 Brighton Fling
3 SFJ
4 Day Tripper

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