Gangbusters - Sounded Good at the Time

 Gangbusters was one of California's first straight-forward ska bands. There were lots of other bands who played some ska but very few bands had a setlist that was almost all ska. The Untouchables, the Skeletones, the Uptones, No Doubt, etc. - they are known as the big California ska bands before the third wave hit but realistically ska was only a part of their set. Aside from Let's Go Bowling and The Donkey Show most of these 'big names' weren't full-time ska bands.

 If you know Gangbusters at all it's probably because of the song 'Bad Attitude' from the first "California Skaquake" compilation. 

When I hear bands like this I wonder why they are not one of the big names and I think it comes down to how much music they made available to take home. Gangbusters recorded a lot of their music but the only thing they ever put out for people to listen to at home or in the car or to share with their friends was one demo tape called "Vibes".

 I never found a copy of "Vibes" but around 2007 somebody sent me the MP3s of "Vibes" - or so they said. As it turns out the demo I was sent was just four songs that the band made available on their MySpace page and somebody took the time to do a mock-up of the cover using a picture from the MySpace page.

I fell for it because, first of all, I never knew what the demo tape inlay card looked like or if it even had one, and secondly, I had no way of knowing what songs were on the "Vibes" demo.

Recently I was looking for something else on eBay and this CD appeared. I had recently heard about it because one of my Facebook friends asked about it. I snagged it and I was really impressed with it. It is not an official release but a compilation of demos and live performances put together by the band on CDR.

The best part is that the "Vibes" demo tape (the four songs from MySpace) that I got years ago has three songs that do not appear on this compilation. I included that (with the fake cover) in this download. 

1 New Friends*

2 It's No Good

3 Real World

4 Children

5 Sally

6 Texas Ska

7 What Kind of Fool

8 Cities and Towns

9 Someday

10 A Million Miles

11 Bad Attitude

12 Bottle of Rum

13 Big Chicken

14 No Fun

15 Gangbusters

16 Texas Ska

17 Someday

18 Sally

19 Bad Attitude

20 Real World

21 Live Together

22 It's No Good

23 A Million Miles

24 Children

25 Texas Ska

26 Someday

27 On My Back

 

The fake Vibes demo

 

 

1 Look to the Sky

2 Spinning

3 Boris Chorus

4 Bad Attitude

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

 

* The first song New Friends cuts off in middle of the song on the CD. It's not an error on my part.