Beanstalk - What You Gonna do When the Reggae Breaks Your Heart 7'' (1982)

Beanstalk was a new wave/reggae/ska band from South Africa who probably never released anything besides this one record. 

The B-side is a self-written pop song with a reggae influence but the A-side is a 2 Tone style rendering of the Johnny Average Band's song from 1980. 

 Very rare and awesome record. I have to thank Rude Rich for telling me about this record. I might have never known about it if it wasn't for him. 

A - What You Gonna do When the Reggae Breaks Your Heart

B - Metal Streets 

toneandwave · Beanstalk - What You Gonna Do When the Reggae Breaks Your Heart? (1982)

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Space Ate Mafia - In the Good Name...of Bad Taste (1998)

Space Ate Mafia was a ska punk band from New York / New Jersey area. I'm not entirely sure. I think they had more than this one release but, again, I'm not entirely sure.
At one point they changed their name to Space 8. They could have released some more music under that name but I'm not entirely sure.

This is a CDR with a computer printed sticker label and an early computer printer style inlay card. The CD and packaging are beautiful. It's nice to find one this age that hasn't degraded or rotted yet.

There are four up-tempo ska tunes with a reminder that they were recorded in the ska-punk era but I wouldn't call anything on here 'punk' despite that punk/metal intro on the first song.
The last track is a mellow one with beautiful horn and jazz-guitar harmonies. 

1 Wait for the Sun

2 In the Park

3 Espionage

4 Moonglow

5 Kleinfeltersville

 

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2 Tonic

2 Tonic was a British ska band that was active for the better part of a decade. You probably never heard of them because they were not out for world domination. They played locally and they released three studio albums and two live albums that were released on CDRs with photocopy covers that were basically only sold at their shows. 

Being from California I would have, most likely, never heard of them in my lifetime if it were not for the awesome power of Myspace. 

Over the years I have been looking for their releases and I was fortunate enough to find three out of the five. As it turns out, I found the three studio releases and neither of the two live CDs. C'est la vie. 

2 Tonic - Welcome to My World (2001)

1 Welcome to My World

2 My Girl Lollipop

3 Here Come da Hurricane

4 Big Shot

5 Porkies

6 Dave & Mary

7 Boys

8 Death & Glory

9 Same Old Song

10 Who's Sorry?

11 Asta la Vista

 

2 Tonic - Factory Yarns (2003)

1 Who's Sorry Now

2 Sleepless

3 Gotta Get Away

4 Hurricane

5 No Way

6 48 Hours

7 Replay

8 Just Messin'

9 Hasta la Vista

10 Secret Lover

11 Big Shot

12 Porkies

 

 2 Tonic - Beneath the Desert Sun (2006)

1 Desert Sun

2 Blus Suited Revenge

3 English Boy

4 Dead End Job

5 The Boys are Back in Town

6 Secret Lover

7 Who's Sorry Now (JC Mix)

8 Bankrobba

9 Shine a Light (live)

10 Xmas Medley

11 Dead End Job (Baritone Mix)

 

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Unity - Tell-a-Star 7" (1980)

Believe it or not there was a large community of Jamaican citizens in Toronto, Canada in the 70s and 80s. They brought their music aptitude with them. 

One guy that you probably never heard of named Jay Douglas put a band together called The Cougars and recorded a single in 1969 that became legendary. They recorded an experimental reggae (ska) version of the Temptations "I Wish It Would Rain". I'm not certain but I think there were less than 100 copies of this record pressed (one website I found said it was less than 10 but I have my doubts).

Luckily for us (me) a record label called Light in the Attic put out a compilation that included the A and B side of The Cougar's record. I don't know how they tracked down the recordings but they have a Bandcamp page that has a lot of their releases and there is at least one other artist on that page that was included in their Jamaica/Toronto series. 

HERE's THEIR BANDCAMP PAGE

Jay Douglas played around Toronto in other bands over the years but there are very few recordings. I have this one little record by him and, as it seems, the few people in the world who have this record don't have the sleeve. I have a copy of the record in a tatty sleeve but, with my amazing talents in Windows Paint, I was able to restore the cover to it's proper standards. There is no other rendition to be found online.
 

Both sides are the same song - a cover of Edwin Starr's 1977 tune "Tell-A-Star". The A-side with vocals. The B-side has the instrumental version.   

A Tell-A-Star

B Tell-A-Star (Instrumental)

This download includes the 1980 Unity single and the 1969 Cougars single.

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Bamboo!!! - Je Suis Bamboo 7'' (1985)

 The A-side is a really good song but it isn't exactly ska. That B-side though...

 

A - Je Suis Bamboo

B - Time Bomb

 

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toneandwave · B - Time Bomb

Housewife's Choice - Housewife's Choice 7" (1999)

This is a ska band from the 90s that focused on covering old tunes in a 2 Tone style. They were from Finland and all four tracks on this record are cover songs. I don't know that they ever recorded anything else.
 

A1 -  Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Frankie Valli - 1966)

A2 - What a World (Busty & Cool - 1962)

B1 - Fire (Bruce Springsteen - 1985)

B2 - It's Raining (Three Tops - 1967)

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