"Bang" was an independent movie from 1995 that was about a woman who had a bad day and she steals a police uniform and motorcycle and goes around L.A. for a day pretending to be a cop.
1 Ocean 11 - Hong Kong Lowrider
2 New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Elegy
3 The Slackers - Run Away
4 The Skunks - Dubz 57 Sauce
5 Dr. Sauce - Barret Yall's Ride
6 The Toasters - Brixton Beat
7 Los Pies Negros - Pesadilla [Nightmare]
8 Let's Go Bowling - Cumbia del Sol
9 The Toasters - Toast on the Coast
10 Isaac Green & the Skalars - Don't Count
11 House of Rhythm - Sign of the Times
12 Dr. Ring Ding & H.P. Setter - Louis Gone a Foreign
13 Skavoovie & the Epitones - Riversion
14 Dr. Ring Ding & H.P. Setter - Emergency Case
15 Isaac Green & the Skalars - Don't Count Dub
16 The Articles - The Ska's the Limit, Take 2
17 Dr. Ring Ding & H.P. Setter - Trombone Sound
Belgian rock band who only released this one record. I don't know what the rest of their repertoire was but the A side is power pop with a 2 Tone influence and the B side is power pop/new wave with a 50s influence that's kinda reminiscent of The Bay City Rollers' "I Only Want to be With You". Both songs are sung in English with a harsh but charming accent.
Not to be confused with the Skatterbrains from Colorado, these guys were from Canada and I don't know anything about them. This is probably the only thing they ever released and it's incredible. This should be right up there with everything that was released on Unicorn Records at the time this was recorded. There are 12 tracks on this cassette-only album and all 12 are ska. How did this go unnoticed for so long?
1 The Killer Beat
2 Theme Song
3 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
4 Love Thy Neighbour (But Don't Get Caught)
5 Scandal
6 Possessed
7 Cheesy Love Song
8 Questions
9 Messin' Around
10 Road Warrior
11 Skankin' for Family Pleasure
12 TV Preachers DOWNLOAD
Skapa - Ska Party (1990)
1 Easy Street
2 It's Your Round
3 Ska Polka
4 Easy Street (Extended version)
Skapa - Easy Street (1992)
1 Easy Street
2 Suzanne Beware of the Devil
3 Ska Jig
4 It's Your Round
5 Times are Hard
6 Step Lightly
7 Mr. Ed
8 Ska Polka
9 Jamaica Ska
10 Tear it Up
11 These Boots
12 Special Brew
13 Rudy Got Married
14 Shame and Scandal
15 Nite Club
There's a record store in Southern California called Dr. Strange Records that I have mined many gems from over the years. Many years back I came across this record in the back room (where all the good stuff is) but it had a price tag of $30.00 so I put it off for a few years. It has a rare song by The Loafers which was later featured on Skarities in 1990. I eventually stumbled across a copy for $2.00. This is that copy.
The Instigators are an amazing punk band from Dewsbury, England not to be confused with the ska/punk band from Auckland, NZ that I previously featured HERE.
There are only two records in this series and I have included a Frankensteined version of the first record which I know aren't the original versions but it's still good stuff.
A1 - The Crack - My World
A2 - The Instigators - Cry Freedom
B1 - The Loafers - Feelings Right
B2 - Frantic Flintstones - Honey Maker
*Incidentally there was an American band also called the Instigators who only put out one single in 1985 and I absolutely love it. It's campy new wave with naive lyrics but it's brilliant. We Don't Know What We Want.
This is a great German band who only ever released this one 7" and a 4-track demo tape. I don't have the tape but I have this and it's better than you might imagine. The A-side is sung in Spanish and the b-side is in English.
1 Dark Side of Hong Kong
2 Baby Face Nelson
3 Attack of the F.B.I.
4 Buggy's Theme
5 Murders of Chicago
6 Dillinger is Back in Town
7 The Vendetta
8 Chicago Stomp
9 Theme from The Gamblers
10 Stoned in Bangla Desh
This one has been overlooked by everybody. I don't know one person who has it or has even heard it and it's too good to be this unknown, not to mention that it is readily available. There are lots of copies out there and some are very cheap.
Two sides of great ska-inspired power pop that get better every time you listen to them.
The Swiss band The Ventilators really is one of my favorite bands. They're right up there with Mr. Review. This tape was recorded when they first started out and it shows how amazing they were from the beginning. From what I know there were less than 100 copies of this tape made and the number of them that exist today is God's own private mystery. There are four songs on it and none of them were ever recorded in the studio. The only way to ever hear these songs is from this tape. Unfortunately my copy is warped pretty badly. I tried my best to adjust the sound to make it listenable but the sound quality sucks. Nothing I can do about it.
Most of you will want to skip this one, but Ventilators fans will truly appreciate it.
La banda suiza The Ventilators es una de mis bandas favoritas. Están ahí arriba con Mr. Review. Esta cinta fue grabada cuando comenzaron por primera vez y muestra lo increíble que eran desde el principio. Por lo que sé, hubo menos de 100 copias de esta cinta hecha y el número de las que existen hoy en día es el misterio privado de Dios. Hay cuatro canciones en él y ninguno de ellos fueron grabados en el estudio. La única manera de oír estas canciones es de esta cinta. Por desgracia, mi copia está muy deformada. He intentado mi mejor para ajustar el sonido para que sea audible, pero la calidad del sonido es una mierda. No puedo hacer nada al respecto.
La mayoría de ustedes querrán saltarse éste, pero los ventiladores de los Ventilators apreciarán verdad.
1 Jah War
2 In Heaven
3 Take Me Away
4 (Why Don't We) Start a Revolution
This is the very rare single from this Australian band. The a-side did get some airplay and they even made a music video for it, but I'm posting this for the b-side that you can hear HERE.
These guys were from Seattle Washington. This is 13 tracks of pure instrumental ska in the style of the Skatalites.
1 Escobar
2 Knuckles
3 Teen Party
4 Who Knows
5 Rude Mood
6 Misfit
7 Godfather Ska
8 Palladin
9 Vital Organ
10 The Beachcomber
11 Perdido
12 Night Watch
13 Freak Shuffle
J.C. Superska - self-titled cassette (1993)
1 I'm Silly
2 Power of a Union
3 Got so Much
4 No Parking
5 See You Dead
6 untitled
7 Theme
8 Speedball Train
9 Peace
10 Home (for Dave)
11 I'm Silly
J.C. Superska - Hepstepper 7" (1995)
A - Hepstepper
B - A Little Bit Nothing
J.C. Superska - demo tape (year unknown)
1 Sneakyman
2 Danger Zone
3 Feel Like Jumpin'
4 People Get Mad
5 Scooter Gang
6 Speed Ball Train
7 Home
8 Dancing Girl
9 Bartender
10 Fess Up
A - Life Could be Better
B - Life Could be Better (Instrumental)
Don't take this as fact but I think Joe Salvo was a blues/rock musician from the US who made this one-off new wave/reggae song in the UK.
I don't know anything more about it except that this song makes me happy. It sounds like it would be perfect playing over the credits at the end of an 80s movie. You can almost picture Emilio Estevez roller skating in shorts and striped socks into the sunset...
A - A Heart Can Only be Broken Once
B - Moving Target
It's all about the b-side for this one. Slow punk/reggae. Even though Discogs has this listed as being from the UK the singer sounds American and the whole record sounds like a demo.
DOWNLOAD
(Zippyshare is down so the link is for MEGA)
Thank you Edd Bartlett for informing us that the vocalist for this band passed away last week. There's really nothing online about the band so it's hard to put anything together as a tribute. At least we have this one record. If anybody else knows anything more, please leave a comment.
This is a rare 7" from 1981 that nobody can seem to find a copy of. It's called "Galimatias Amoureux" from the Adelaide, Australian band The Jumpers. It was released on Smash and Grab Records and there are four tracks:
A1 - Girl & Toy
A2 - Every Time I Look at You
B1 - Me No Send, You No Come
B2 - Anytime
Band members include
Johnny Jumper -Vocals
Cathy Tune - vocals
Dave Lennon Drums (Later with Strange Tenants / Allniters / Club Ska)
Michael Hope
Jim Bowden
They had one song called "1966" which was released in 1980 on a compilation called "5MMM's Compilation Album of Adelaide Bands 1980" and was later released on the first "Ska Skank Down Under" compilation but the band was called The Jake Jumpers for some reason. HEAR "1966"
If anybody has some MP3s or if anybody knows of a copy of this single for sale please let me know.
Click Clack (not to be confused with the British band Click Click) were a Belgian new wave/disco/ska band who put out this 7" in 1982. I have seen it for sale quite a few times listed as a ska record but I had never heard it so I was reluctant to buy it. I found a cheap copy so I thought 'what the hell' and bought it.
I was very surprised...this is a great record. It's not exactly ska but it is definitely Tone and Wave type of stuff.
There are at least three other singles that I intend to get at some point and I'll post them when I get them. It won't be for a while. I have to put it at the bottom of my list with the other "not exactly ska" stuff like Otitis and Ex-Hole.
1 Mockers - Trendy Left 2 Swingers - Never Never 3 Newmatics - Playing the Champion 4 New Entrants - The Kids are Crying 5 Famous Five - The Girls 6 Instigators - The Israelites 7 Toy Love - 2nd to Last Song Toy Love Wrote 8 Screaming Mee Mees - Pointy Ears 9 Danse Macabre - ECG 10 Corners - Ward 11 Blue Asthmatics - Blue Asthma 12 Bongos - Familiar Strangers 13 She Collapsed - Save It 14 Riot 111 - 1981
Jil Thorp and the Beat Boys (also spelled Jil Thorp & the Beat Boys) were from Louisville, Kentucky. They were a five-piece new wave/rock/ska band that sometimes went a little psychedelic. They played everything and Jil Thorp sometimes sounded like Patti Smith. The reason you may know them is because the song "Central Intelligence" from this album was on the Jump Up Records compilation "Death of an American Skathic"
1 Father Knows Best
2 Music for Easy Girls
3 Play with Fire
4 Slippin' Away Boys
5 Tourists
6 Greasy but Fast
7 Central Intelligence
8 Moisture
9 Black Jeans
10 Tumours of Love
11 (Got to) Get Rid of Them
12 Mission Complete
This download also includes their 7" even though it doesn't have any ska on it. My record is in pretty rough shape so I apologize for the sound quality but since it's hard to find and usually sells for about $60.00 I'm in no hurry to replace it.
A - The Young and the Breastless
B1 - Stranded
B2 - Love Young
I don't know how we will remember 2016 in the future...was it a good year?...was it a bad year? I had a lot of really bad things happen in 2016 but I also had a lot of really good things happen.
I don't know how we will remember it, but we definitely will remember 2016.
The underground music scene in general was amazing but the worldwide ska scene was better than I've seen it in all the years of doing this blog.
I'll start with the older bands who have made an impact on the year:
I really like the Norwegian band The Monroes who released Sunday People in 1983 and were obviously inspired by Madness. They are not really a ska band but they did a lot of ska-influenced music in their early days (early-eighties). In 2016 they released a CD of their live performance from London from 1984. The sound quality isn't great but the performance is.
I have featured the U.K. band the Skanxters previously and I lamented that I had their rare cassettes "Spark in the Dark" and "Knights on the Run" but I could not find a copy of their only CD release "Call it a Crime". Thankfully for all of us, bandleader Erin Bardwell has released all three releases for purchase on Bandcamp.
You can buy all three rare recordings for the price of one marked-down modern pop CD HERE.
(Incidentally, Erin Bardwell has a new release slated for 2017!)
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One of the earliest posts I have ever done on this blog was for the British/California band The Hoovers. They released one album in the eighties called "Skin and Blisters" but, seriously, one of my favorite ska records ever released is their EP from 1981 called "Smut and Class".
In 2016 they released a new album called Moonstomper that diverged so much from their original sound that I can't say I really care for it much but, then, they released a collection of five songs that they recorded in 1981 that were never previously released. It's one of my favorite releases of 2016:
Do you remember when you bought the CD "Skankin' 'Round the World volume 3" and you recognized all of the featured bands except for the one called M.S.Q.? Well I did and I did extensive research to find out who they were and what else they released but that went nowhere. I drew the conclusion that they were a live band that didn't record much in the studio - like the French band Verska Vis.
I was happy to find that they are still performing and have actually recorded music in the studio in 2016. I have included their newest song "The Blame Game" - released in 2016 in this download.
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I have posted some of the Suicide Machines' earlier releases on this blog but in 2016 the band made those releases available for download so I will not be re-upping any of the links. You can buy all of their early stuff in this one download HERE.
The Chicago band Rude Guest released 4 cassettes in the 80s with 4 songs on each release. These tapes are nearly impossible to find but, luckily for us, the band worked with Jump Up Records to release all 16 songs that they released on one cassette called Rude Guest: Lost Chicago Ska 1982-1993.
I bought this tape as well as the Crombies cassette that was released in 2016 from Jump Up Records but they were lost in the mail. I wanted to do a review on both of them but the postal service didn't want me to (here's the tracking number 9500111247136350071619 ). Jump Up records did their part but the USPS failed me. "Lost" Chicago ska indeed.
As you know Madness put out a great album this year and I was going to include a song on this download but I removed it to make room for an up-and-coming band instead. It's Madness. You'll own it some day anyway. The Beat - The English Beat - the Rankin' Roger version of the band put out the album "Bounce" and, just like the Madness song, I didn't include it because you will have it some day anyway regardless of my input.
If you ask me what the greatest album of the year 2016 I will have to say "Peg and the Rejected - 4th Wave". I know Marco made the same comment a few weeks back and I disagreed with him but now I agree. This is not to say that any song on this album was my favorite song of the year but it was the album with the most consistently good songs throughout.
I did not include any of their music on this download because you will be buying this release anyway. It would just be redundant.
(Speaking of Marco...another old thing that came back in 2016 was Marco on the Bass
that was dormant for a couple years is now being refreshed with new
posts. Marco's current band Rude Boy George released a fantastic EP this
year which includes one of my favorite songs of the year - a cover of
Howard Jones' "Things Can Only Get Better")
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My favorite song of the year is The Beat From Palookaville's "It's You Voodoo Working". This one is on the download.
1 54-46
2 Solomon Gundie
3 The Israelites
4 Boots
5 Wooly Bully
6 Chatty Chatty
7 Allniters are Allriters
8 What Gives You the Right?
9 Do the Dog
10 Police and Thieves
11 You Made a Monkey Out of Me
12 Ring Dang Doo
13 Rude Dude
14 Skinhead Girl
This is the Eclectics' demo tape. I am posting it by request. To be honest I thought I already posted it but I have searched the blog and found no evidence of any former post so - here you go. Obnoxious ska-punk done right. The first three tracks are on the vinyl version of their first single but the
song "Cutting" is not available on any of their other releases. The same
recording of the song does appear on "Misfits of Ska II" but it plays
faster on the cassette than on the cd version.
A1 - We Can Make it Happen
A2 - Boba Fett
B1 - Harry
B2 - Cutting
This is the Busters' first release. There are two studio recordings - Orion which was re-recorded and featured on their second album Couch Potatoes as Space Patrol Orion. The version on this tape is a different version from the one on Couch Potatoes. Then there is the song Keen on Games which is the same version that was on the bonus tracks of the Ruder Than Rude re-release.
A1 - Orion
A2 - Keen On Games
B1 - Guns of Navarone (live)
B2 - My Girl Lollipop (live)
B3 - Lip Up Fatty (live)
1 You Really Got Me
2 Dead End Street
3 Midnight in Ethiopia
4 Apple Ska
5 Carry Go Bring Come
6 Phoenix City
7 What a Desaster..
8 Sound Pressure
9 Famine
10 Rocker's Rumba
Who Observes the New World?
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Something from Deadbeat is a weekly thing with me. Recently I picked up
this one, another one from Deadbeat Scott Monteith with vocals here by
Athésia...
TREVOR KNIGHT - Sail Away LP 78
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Another from the FUNKMYROCK list I have been working on getting and
ripping. Hasn't really stuck in my brain yet as only one listen to record
but it i...
Trashcan Records Vol 16 "Lowland Losers" Part 2
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A killer collection of mostly uncomped rare Belgian and Dutch beat. Lots of
obscurities here... two wild bubblegum groovers by Mike Verdrengh (written
by 4...
VA - Rip Off Records Compilation (2010)
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*"Rip Off Records Compilation"* - сборник ранних североирландских punk,
powerpop и new wave групп конца 70-х годов. Пластинка была выпущена в 2010
году Нь...
They’re eating right out of your hand...
-
Splendid atmospheric, shoegazer-adjacent fare from 1992. Melody Maker
says: *...nerve-sizzling guitars and evocative soul voices.*
**Please do not revea...
V/A - Abstract Records Punk Collection 1995
-
One more great piece from the *Punk Collectors Series* and the material on
this beauty is dedicated to the equally high quality *Abstract Records*
label,...
GO! 47 CANADIAN HC BANDS Various Artists 1997
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*Discogs*
*Hardcore punk compilation from Canada on the Fans of Bad Productions
record label. - Blogatrix *
*Tracklist*
1 Soy (4)– Arbiters...
I'm From Barcelona - Forever Today
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Banda: *I'm From Barcelona*
Disco: *Forever Today*
Ano: 2011
Gênero: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Twee Pop, Chamber Pop
Faixas:
1. Charlie Parke...
Modcast #599: The Time Is Now
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Is there a new mod renaissance upon us? That is the question I've been
asking myself since last year. Sitting in Seattle casting my jaundiced eye
on the s...
Tough At The Top - Johnny B. Rotten (1988)
-
b/w Oh My Body
Self professed Glam/Punk/Pub Rock 3 piece from the Rushden area (Although
Northampton are laying a claim to them)
*Bryn Evans* (Voc Bass)...
The Skarantinos
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This is by request :
https://theskarantinos.bandcamp.com/album/the-skarantinos
Django Capone asked me to promote his new band and gladly i will do thi...
Skooch - Skooch EP (1999)
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*Posted by Request *
American 90s pop punk with a horn section. I don't know what state they're
from or if they have ever released anything else.
...
New single "Tell A Stranger"
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My new single "Tell A Stranger" is out now on Bandcamp and all the regular
streaming platforms. There is a B-Side that is exclusive to Bandcamp. It's
the...
Espiando en los 80's Venezuela Vol 2
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1-Jah Jah Children - Vamos a Bailar
2-Henry Stephen - I Don't Know
3-Fabrica de Sueños - Tu Estilo de Amar
4-Callejon 88 - Negrito Fiel
5-Colina...
# 569 Ricky & the Spitfires - Rock'n'roll singer
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Side a: Rock'n'roll singer
Side b: It's against the rules
DK 1978
Very fine powerpop record by this South African R'n'R group. It was
released on a danish...
Yo Sí Le Brinco - Desgracias, Gracias (2022)
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“Somos una banda de punk rock originarios de leon gto. Decidimos hacer la
banda en tiempos pandemicos con el pretexto de poder salir del encierro y
distra...
Ore Ska Band
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* ============================================================ Artist : Ore
Ska Band Album : ITOKASHI Genre : -=Ska-Punk=- Bitrate : VBR ~31...
New Heavensbee Album "We Mean Business" Released
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After nearly 2 years of writing and recording, I'm excited to finally share
a pre-order link for the new Heavensbee album "We Mean Business" which will ...
No Comply
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*Biography : *
No Comply are from Belgrade, Serbia. The band started in 2001, and made a
come back couple of years ago. A very good band from a country ...
AGGRESSIVE
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ALEMANIA
Aggressive son una banda Street Punk Oi! de Ruhrpott, Alemania.
2015- Spit Blood
01- Aggressive
02- Chain Reaction
03- Alone With The Wolve...
