Friday, July 29, 2022

The Sages

 The Sages was a band from Connecticut. I assume they are from Hartford but I don't know for sure. As far as I know they only released one album but they had a demo tape before they recorded the album and even though the album is full of ska/reggae influences the tape is almost strictly ska/reggae. 

There's a noticeable Police vibe but when I first heard the beginning of the song "Follow the Money" it reminded me of the Stewart Copeland/Stan Ridgway song "Don't Box Me In". Stewart Copeland was (is?) the drummer for the Police and Stan Ridgway was the singer for Wall of Voodoo (Mexican Radio - not to be confused with Gruppo Sportivo's impeccable cover). They collaborated on a song for the soundtrack to Rumblefish.  


The Sages - The Sages demo tape (1990)

1 Follow the Money

2 More the Things You do

3 Please be Near

4 What do You got to Prove?

5 Down by Law

6 Tomorrow Begins Today

7 College Radio


The Sages - Back from Nowhere (1992)

1 Back from Nowhere

2 Follow the Money

3 Felt & Heard

4 42b

5 Cold Silence

6 The Hunter

7 The Angels

8 Sounds of a City

9 Elvis (You did the Right Thing)

10 Whatever Gets You Through Your Day

11 Bustin' Deep

12 Down by Law

13 Hostile Heart

14 College Radio

 



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Speaking of Wall of Voodoo, if you don't have that first EP and the first two albums you're really missing out. But Stan Ridgway was more than Wall of Voodoo. He has done a million solo albums. After a time he drifted into what most would call 'country' but he has some amazing tunes from his early years as a solo artist. After working with Stewart Copeland he didn't do anything ska/reggae but there is one song with that influence. 


As you know when Stan Ridgway left Wall of Voodoo they continued on without him and his weird voice but it just didn't work and they broke up not long after they fulfilled their record contract but they did release a couple albums in that time with their new singer Andy Prieboy and, although I really prefer their stuff with Stan, they did release one of my all-time favorite songs "Far Side of Crazy". The lyrics of this song are based on a poem written by John Hinckley Jr. -  the guy who shot Ronald Reagan. Hinckley has since been released from prison and he fancies himself as a sort of rock star.


Here are my top five Stan Ridgway moments I think everybody must know:

Wall of Voodoo - Lake of Fire (...and I'm your host Ramsey Lewis. Thank you...)

Wall of Voodoo - Call Box 123

Wall of Voodoo - Tomorrow (live at the Us Festival) In fact their entire performance at the Us Festival is solid gold.

Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat

Stan Ridgway - Camoflauge

...and then there's "Lost Weekend". Aside from the fact that my wife has never smoked a cigarette in her life every second of this song tells our story. We got married at the Drive Through Chapel of Love in Las Vegas when we were evacuated from our home during a historically bad fire. On the drive from Vegas in my 1987 primer grey Dodge Diplomat we didn't really know where we were going so we did nothing but listen to music and talk about our plans about how we could make money. It was sad times. It was great times. This song hits so close to home.  She sat in the back seat reading a book. When I heard that in this song I was blown away. This song is about us but it was recorded 20 years before we met.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

va Rat-Sharp Ska (2005)

  This is a German ska compilation that has many tracks that you can't find anywhere else. Many of these bands have not released anything outside of this CD. 

1 The Incredible Derrick - Caribbean Nights

2 Skin Ya Teet - Godfather of SKA

3 Essentials - Work Song

4 Brass Monkeys - On Your Own

5 Reefer Madness - Rise Up

6 The Bluebeat Remedy - Rise Up

7 Bulletproof Kitchen - Skapunk im Gepäck

8 Skapa Flow - Slightness

9 Big Banders - Make Your Choice

10 Skaprifischer - Porque Te Vas

11 Surfits - Pool Party Supreme

12 Kescher - Angelina

13 Me In The Bucket - The Chase Scene

14 Ska-Wars - Advice

15 Bad Shakyn' - Rock My Day

16 Sanitätskasten AG - Stichpunkt Vinyl

17 The Nicks - Sunday Stripper

18 Going Commando - Bam Bam Gigalo

19 The Quicksteps - Through & Through

20 K-Mob - Fistful of Satisfaction

21 The Skatoons - Tschüss

22 Outro 


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Thursday, July 14, 2022

Saxawhaman

 The first time I heard of the French band Saxawhaman was on the first "Skankin' 'Round the World" compilation with the song Le Robot. I'm willing to bet that's when you first heard the name too. In those days it was easy to find out information about every band on that compilation except for this band. When I first started exploring the internet this is one of the bands I was looking for but I never found anything about them.

Thankfully Discogs came along and I could, at least, know what else they recorded which eventually revealed that they released very little. 

The band later changed their name to Les Saxas and they released even less. Officially Les Saxas only ever put out two songs for the good people of the world. The song Chez Fefer from the "Vive le Ska" compilation from 1989 and the song Gueule De Bois which was not released as an audio track but on a video called Bar'ouffs from 1990 that was only released on VHS - probably Region 2 which means that American VCRs wouldn't have been able to play the tape. (NTSC as opposed to PAL) but, despite that, I have included the song in this download. 

 

The music offered in this download is a lot of incredible rare pieces of ska history but the sound quality of these tracks are not very good. If you are a casual ska fan you might want to skip this one but if you are a true skarcheologist (I forget who coined this term many years ago, but I thank them!) you will really appreciate this post. 

 

 Saxawhaman - Maquette* (demo tape recorded on the 11th of April, 1986)

1 Fuera de la Lei

2 Midnight Madness

3 Sweet Honey Moon on My Blue Bird


Saxawhaman - Saxawhaman* (demo tape from 1987 with re-recorded versions of two songs from the first demo tape)

1 Zombie's Night

2 Fuera de la Lei

3 Sweet Honey Moon on My Blue Bird


This, and the song Le Robot, is all I have by this band aside from a few live songs I found on YouTube:

*Fuera de la Lei (live)

*White Man (live) - Clash cover

*La Bamba (yes, this is a cover too - Richie Valens - but you knew that)



And then I threw in the first song that Les Saxas played the first time they played live. It's an instrumental and I don't know what the title of the song is. I stole it from YouTube. 

Then there are these three Les Saxas songs

*Chez Fefer

*Guele de Bois (from the VHS tape)

*Saint Kemar


They actually do have other songs floating around out there but I don't have them. If anybody does, please let me know.


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*For the record I do own these original cassettes and I am willing to part with them. If you need to own these artifacts - these museum pieces of ska history - let me know. We'll talk.


Friday, July 1, 2022

Müllerbeat

 This was a German ska band that had some noticeable influence from The Police but their overall sound - especially the vocals - is very much comparable to Fischer Z

Müllerbeat - Don't Call Me Müller (1992)

1 Call Me Müller

2 Shelter

3 Home

4 Outside the Door

5 Big Girl

6 Love on the 2nd Floor

7 The World is Too Big

8 Better Side of Me

9 1000 Words

10 It's Alright

11 No Care

12 Mackintosh

13 Night


 Müllerbeat - Jig 'n' Jostle (demo tape 1990)

1 Experts

2 The Earth is Round

3 Hometown

4 Love on the 2nd Floor

5 Just Look Around

6 1000 Words

7 (This is a) Song About

8 The World is Too

9 Big Girl

10 Outside the Door

11 untitled

12 untitled 




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Since we're on the subject of Fischer Z I must say that I am really a big fan. I have just about all of their music. It should be noted that one of their earliest releases was a ska-inspired song - The Worker - and they maintained a bit of a ska influence throughout their long history as a band. 

At one point there was a dispute between the band and the record label so the band renamed itself The Cry and their first release under the new name was a ska song called Take It Round Again.

 For my American friends I have to explain that the name "Fischer Z" is pronounced "fischer zed" or, more appropriately "Fishes Head".

 John Watts is a clever man and great song writer with as great unique voice. Watch this video where he explains the story behind The Worker