Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Tone and Wave is ten years old!

I toyed with the idea of doing a blog for a few weeks before I actually started it. I had some friends from back in the days that had left the state and were living in so many different places. In the 90s I used to love making tapes for friends. The idea of a blog was great - I could make mixtapes for several people at the same time.
I was talking to somebody about the Graduate's "Elvis Should Play Ska" and that became my first post on December 16th, 2007.
I didn't know much about computers. Some of my earlier covers that I tried to clean up in Microsoft Paint look horrible today but I still find them online every now and then.

This banner here was used for the first two years or so before my wife designed the one that's been at the header for the last eight years.

(...and this was the early Tone and Wave header with the original Marco on the Bass header)


People keep saying how I should change the blog. Monetize it. Change the background. Add this and that to it. Aside from changing the header the blog has been consistent for better or for worse. I like stability and I hope you do too.

I have posted some punk, new wave, reggae, and mod over the years but I try to maintain 90% ska.

Most of the feedback I have gotten from the artists themselves have been positive. A small percentage has been negative and I used to try and argue why introducing their music to people who like their style of music but have never had a way of hearing it before is a good thing. I have since stopped arguing. Instead I just eliminate their name from the blog and I don't include them in any compilations I make for the blog or for people I know in the real world. I passively disavow them. Good luck selling your music from 30 years ago without allowing people to hear it first.

Anyway...I have had three different jobs, have lived in three different houses, and have had two children since I started the blog. I have met a few of you guys that I never would have met if I never started the blog. I have made numerous online friends and have been able to see how your lives have changed over the years through Facebook and other things.

I have learned a lot from you guys and I hope I have taught you a lot about this subterranean genre.

Ska is alive and well and I still have so many things that haven't been posted yet not to mention the nearly 200 records, tapes, and cds that I am still looking for.

I did not expect Tone and Wave to last for ten years (to be honest I didn't see Blogger lasting this long) and, at this point, I sure as hell don't see it going for another five years. I'm thinking I might make it another 2 years but who knows. I aim to post old forgotten ska music. If I make it to 2020 the stuff from 2007 will be old. I'm all for keeping it going. What do you say?


I wanted to do something 'special' for this 10-year anniversary but I can't think of what I could do that would be considered special to you. I thought of posting my favorite 100 songs that I've posted over the last ten years. I started a great list but then I realized that it's not really about me. It's about the bands and it's about you. What songs do you know and love that you only know about because of the blog? Let me know in the comments and I'll put a compilation together for the people who may have come to the blog too late to absorb all of these great rarities.


   

8 comments:

HarderThanYou said...

If you asking for suggestions....personally I'd like to see Midwest ska bands from the early to mid 90's. There were quite a few of them around that I kinda remember seeing...it was blurry then too lol. I'd also like to see more obscure 2-Tone era bands. Sorry I can't be more specific.

WDM said...

Congratulations, ready for the next 10 years..
B.T.W., great blog, I add you to my Friend-List.

Happy New Year :))
WDM

goodie said...

hi
I have only been coming on your site for around 16 months and really enjoy and appreciate what you post most of the bands I had never heard of because I only got back into ska after 20 years or so when I saw the simmertones last year who massively rekindled my interest, so to find sites like yours was a godsend, as well as downloading from you it has led to me buying plenty of music from bandcamp, amazon and eMusic from some great ska bands, so thanks I for one really appreciate all your efforts, just wish I had stumbled upon you earlier, one band I would like to hear more of is Too Hot a devon UK band that are no more, so if you have any they would be great to include in your list.

Thanks Goodie

Rude Rich said...

Muchas gracias por estos 10 años de música,

Tone and Wave said...

Harder than you:
The obscure 2-Tone era stuff is my specialty. I have discovered some incredible gems over the last ten years and I have a list a mile long of things I don't have yet but the one thing I have learned is that, no matter how much I know about, there are so many gems that I've never even heard about yet. It's constant that I am stumbling across a band I never knew about. Not just ska bands but new wave and punk bands who the the occasional(or the one-off) ska songs. A few years back I started putting together a compilation of rare California ska from the 2-Tone era and, so far, I'm up to 80 songs.

I hear what you're saying about Midwest bands. Just like there's a "California sound" I think there's also a distinct "Midwest sound". I'll see what I can find you from that time in history.




WDM:
Happy New Year to you too! To be honest I really can't see this blog existing in 2027 but, like I mentioned, I didn't expect to make it this far. I'm just going to keep on going. Nobody knows when it will end.



Goodie:
I gave up on ska around 1998 (give or take a year) and I didn't start getting back into again until around 2005. I was going through some old cds and I put on The Scofflaws Record of Convictions. "In the Basement" came on and I thought "this is way better than I remembered" and I started listening to ska more often to the point I was asking friends if they had any of their old ska music. It took off from there. I thought it would be great to re-assemble my old collection but I didn't know much about eBay or blogs (or computers in general) so I thought it would be nearly impossible. I'm happy to say that I now have nearly every single thing I used to have but I also have a million times more. If there's anything you are having a hard time replacing from your past, (or something you want from my old posts with a dead link) let me know. If I don't already have it I will eventually and I'll make sure you get to hear it again.

File sharing doesn't keep people from buying music. It encourages people to buy music. It's like books. What best-selling author didn't get to where they are because their earlier works were passed around by people who took a gamble on a book or were just something that somebody checked out at a library? Libraries create best-selling authors the way that people sharing music encourages people to buy music. You're an example of this. In the eighties we would buy blank tapes and record music from the radio. We recorded Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Wham!, The Police, Culture Club, etc. - we got the music for free. But who were the biggest sellers in the 80s? Those same bands.

Simmertones are a great band that people need to pay attention to. TooHot released three albums and two EPs. I have all of it. I'll try to post it this weekend. If I don't get around to it email me and I'll send you the links.


Rude Rich:
¡Gracias! Creo que si hubiera una sociedad secreta de los Sabios del ska estaría ahí contigo en los primeros diez. Has contribuido tanto a mi colección que conseguí gastar mi dinero en viejos records. ¡Mantengamos este tren de ska rodando!

Talk The Ska said...

I appreciate everything you post to be honest. The one that really surprised me though was Top Secret. I think I listened to it for about a month straight. You also had Uptown Rulers featured. Something I have the LPs of, but never could get a quality rip of.

I can't tell you how many albums I tried to track down because of this blog. Far too many to count.

In search of the Ska said...

Happy anniversary Jason!

What about making a mix beginning from your first through the last post with the best song of each band or a historical discography of the birth of that all?!

However, i wish you all the best for the next ten years!

Keep on skankin'

Cheers, Burnhead

Mark L. said...

I'd been wanting to add a note of appreciation since I saw this post. I know this kind of thing takes a fair amount of time & effort and is a labor of love. I toyed with the idea of blogging, but never got into it, but served my time doing 10yrs of community/university radio and I wish I had the access to quite a bit of the info/tunes being graciously shared by dedicated people like you :) Cheers, M.