I don't know the story behind this one. The words on the record say that this is from a soon-to-be-released album. Was it every released? Who knows? A quick Google search offers no answers.
Eddy Grant was involved with this project and it just really misses the mark for me. It insists that it is Two Tone but it's just not.
A - Twotonin'
B - Twotone Rappin'*
* Neither Two Tone nor rap in the same way that Grape Nuts cereal is neither grapes nor nuts.
They hand made this tape for their fans and they sold it at their last show.
I was holding off on posting this because I wanted to include both of their singles and a live tape which includes a compilation track (which is not ska) but I didn't have time today to work on a post so I just decided to put this out. It's very rare but a little hard to listen to because of the sound quality. The other stuff I have by them is even more rare but even more hard to listen to. I will post the other stuff at a later date. Sorry for the inconvenience.
1 We are Plumbers
2 Chips and Beer
3 Berserkers in Babylon
4 Pluggage
5 My Bicycle
6 Interval
7 Why is Life so Complicated
8 B. Brain
9 In My Oriental Garden
10 Oh Dear!
...
It seems that there was a reggae band in Cleveland, Ohio in the 80s called Kaya. I know nothing about this band and I can't find anything online about them. But I do know their lead singer Max Nuhu went solo and released one record in 1987. The song "Let Me Be the One" was the A-Side and "Give It Up" was on the B-side. It is highly sought after and I have never found a copy in my life. Thankfully somebody posted the A-side on YouTube.
He even had T-shirts.
Here's the full "War Games" demo tape by Max Nu-Hu with the re-recorded version of "Let Me be the One" from the record and a re-recorded version of the song "War Games" that would have been the title track of the album if he ever released an album, plus another song he recorded later called "Third World Woman".
Max Nuhu passed away in Jamaica in December 2020.
1 Blood Money
2 Retribution
3 Give it Up
4 Give it Up Version 2
5 Let Me be the One
6 Ezy Come
7 Go Getta
8 Island Summer*
9 War Games
10 Bubbla
* Let Me be the One 7" version
* War Games
* Third World Woman
* (The song Island Summer is very low quality. The quality of that song is much different than the other songs on the tape. I tried multiple times to get a good rendition of it but this is the best I can do).
Their song "State of Mine" was kind of their big hit. It was a pseudo-funk new wave tune. It was on the KSJO "Best of the Bay" compilation in 1985 and it was the A-side to their only record.
I haven't heard their tape so I don't know how much they dabbled in the ska sound but the B-side to their only record was a great ska song called "Should've Stayed Home".
I have heard their demo tape and, surprisingly, they had a full-on ska version of "Wild Thing" which I included in this download.
A - State of Mine
B - Should've Stayed Home
* - Wild Thing
A - Mamma Don't Dance
B - In the Beginning
No, this is not ska or reggae. I'm posting it because their first two records are ska/reggae and if you have them (I posted them here - the link is dead but I could find it in my heart to re-up it if anybody needs it) then you might want this one to complete the collection. It's not a great rip but I was so disappointed with it that I won't be re-ripping it. This is for reference only and not for enjoying on a long car ride.
Since Paul was familiar with different genres of music he knew that the emerging ska/reggae sound of the late 70s/early 80s was a path worth taking.
He encouraged Little Ginny to record a ska/reggae song. So, in 1984, she did a ska cover of Don Gibson's 1961 hit Sea of Heartbreak but she didn't use the name "Little Ginny", she used the name Ginette for this record:
This may or may not have been inspired by Paul's own ska reggae single presented to you right here and one might even go so far as to say this reggae/ska record was inspired a bit by old country music.
It seems both of them just kind of faded from the world of music after this.
Paul PK - Jumped the Gun 7" (1982)
A - Jumped the Gun
B - Pickin' up the Pieces
1 Soft Side
2 A Toast, a Prayer, and a Rhyme
3 On the Corner
4 I Warned You
...
Only after I pay down my credit cards after buying my kids a bunch of crap for Christmas - stupid shit like this . Watch the video. It's stupid, but that's what they want. My kids are weird. I'm beginning to think they were brought up wrong.
When I get a new record player I think I'll go back to getting an Ion. I've heard people say "I wouldn't let an Ion touch my record!" but all of the recordings I made in the first ten years of this blog were done on an Ion with a $30 elliptical needle. I think the recordings came out just fine. Ten years for one Ion and in the last 6 years I went through 4 Audio Technicas which are supposed to be way better.
Fuck pop-culture brand worship. Audio Technicas suck. I don't like them. Ion isn't great but they are certainly adequate.
Despite all that noise here is a collection of records that were sold online as "ska" records. I buy anything that says "ska" and sometimes I do strike gold buy most of the time I strike aluminum.
I will agree that all of these records have at least some ska or reggae influence except for the one in the center "Giant" but I saw it listed as either ska or reggae and I know a band from that era with the same name appeared on a Walkman recording. It may or may not be the same band but there is a similarity.
...
The first is THIS ONE.
A - And Then a Voice...
B - Kick it Up
...
1 One Way Flight
2 The Walk Home
3 Just Dancing
Pushkins - Pushkins (unreleased EP 1984)
1 UIC
2 Sometimes
3 My One
Pushkins - ...Inviting & Invading (1985)
1 Shoot You, Shoot Me
2 Romantic Zone
3 Scissorman
4 Buzzard Bait
5 I Said
6 Pain Bank
...
Earlier today I listened to some of these tapes and this one here stood out.
Every song is great. The voice sounds a little familiar but I can't place it exactly. This is 90s style 2-Tone inspired ska with female vocals played very fast. The last song is the A-Team theme song so that should give us a starting point but I have Googled this (or "done my research" as some might say) but I can't find anything about this tape.
There are four tracks of female-fronted ska from either the 80s, 90s, or early 2000s and they could be from any country. All lyrics are in English if that helps
1 - ?
2 - ?
3 - ?
4 - ? (The A-Team Theme Song)
UPDATE - I found an old folder with this tape that I had ripped previously and I have titles. I have searched these online to no avail. Do any of these titles sound familiar? Especially that first one? You would think that title would stand out.
1 Britishlessness
2 Er Uit
3 Mr. P.C.
4 A-Team
I thought her accent sounded Dutch and the title "Er Uit - "Get Out!" "Get outta here with that shit" -or- "Go on with your bad self" is a Dutch expression.
When I first said her voice sounded familiar I was thinking of Rebelation but now I'm reconsidering.
...
This was a band from Switzerland who released two albums and lots of singles in the 80s. I don't know if they had any other ska or ska/reggae-inspired songs. I have heard a lot of their other stuff but not all of it and from what I heard this is their only ska inspired endeavor.
My copy does not have the cover so I respectfully stole the image from Discogs.
A - I'm in Love with My Typewriter
B - Take Me Home Tonight
Soft Shoes - No Romance 7" (1984)
A - No Romance
B - Reggie Got News
A - Kojo
B - Fear of Flying
...
Assyne - Call it a Day 7" (1982)
A - Call it a Day
AA - Ask Me No Question
Assyne - Leaving 7" (1983)
A - Leaving
B - Good Living
...
A - Nik Townend - Gunslinger
B1 - Liberace Coughs Up Blood - Messerschmidt
B2 - Liberace Coughs Up Blood - Too Many Faces
Clive Langer & The Boxes - Splash! (1980)
13-track LP
Clive Langer & The Boxes - I Want the Whole World (1979)
5-Track 12" EP
Plus I included a b-side called "Even Though"
and a song called "Inside Houses" that was the otherwise unreleased song on their 1988 compilation.
This was originally posted in August 2009. I'm not going to repeat everything I wrote so here's a link to the original post.
A - Ever and Ever
B - My Friend
A - Jumbo
B - Wooly Bully
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I HAVE ALLOWED COMMENTS AGAIN
There is a YouTube channel called Skaville City that posts a lot of rare ska songs. It's a good channel and I have actually gained a lot of knowledge from that channel. There have been several songs posted on that channel that I didn't know about. I am a subscriber.
But the truth is that channel posts very little original content. The bulk of that channel is things that were taken from other sources. Mostly from other YouTube channels but also from blogs and other online sources. The arrogant creator of that channel rarely gives credit for the sources for the things that they post. They want you to believe it's all their own doing.
A significant number of things posted on that channel are from Tone and Wave. I think fans of this blog have already seen that. I like that the music is being shared and I don't need any sort of credit for spending my own money on these recordings, spending hours ripping and editing these recordings, or scanning the images and spending time editing these scans. I don't ask for credit for any of these things. It's the bands that deserve the credit.
But for somebody else to come along - sometimes within an hour of a post that I spent many hours on - posting it on their channel and wanting credit for it, it sucks.
Here's some context. The guy who does the Skaville City channel asked if I had anything in his wantlist. I mentioned that I had this record but I had not ripped it yet. On December 6th I told him I'll rip it and post it on the blog in a week or so. Because I have a job and a family and because it is the holiday season and this blog is not the most important thing in my life I didn't quite get around to ripping the record.
So I get these messages. Look at the date and times. This is strange behavior:
I don't quite get all of the references but I have made the joke many times in the past that "I've never been wrong about anything in my life!". That's obviously a joke. Why somebody doesn't recognize that as a joke says more about them than about me.
Anyway, this is not the first time I have had interactions with this weirdo in the past. In fact I get lots of messages like this. This is why I stopped comments on the blog. This is why I stopped Facebook.
I am not a ska expert and I never claimed to be one. I'm just some guy who collects and shares ska music. I've been told plenty of times that I need to correct something wrong that I posted on the blog. The shit I post comes from what I can find on the internet. If it's been on the internet for 22 years and I post it on the blog why the hell would I correct it because one single nobody says that the thing I posted is wrong? They could be right but I don't know and I don't care. I just like the music. That's it. I don't give a shit about the band members and what other thing they did. Most of the time I have interacted with ska musicians they say "Hey, you like that ska I did in the 80s? We'll here's the acoustic guitar singer songwriter horseshit I'm working on now! You should love it!" I don't love it and I don't care.
So here you go Skaville City. I spent the money on this record. I did the rips, the editing, and the scans. So go ahead and post it on your YouTube channel.
I told you before, you idiot, that if you ever start fucking with me again I will publicly post your comments and I will shut Tone and Wave down giving you full credit for the end of this blog.
This is the end. This is the last Tone and Wave post.
12/27/2022 is the 15th anniversary of this blog. I have lots more rarities that I haven't posted yet. Skaville City has made a conscious decision to end this blog. The only way I will continue is if I get a public apology from the asshole who runs Skaville City.
It's been fun. Thank you all for keeping ska music alive!
A - Cherry on the Top
B - Emotional Ocean
Prior to this single they contributed the song "Bingo Erotica" to the 1982 compilation album "Battle of the Bands".
They re-recorded Bingo Erotica for their unreleased album but I much prefer the 1982 version.
In 2015 they released the album tracks on CD Baby as "Cherry on the Top etc." with a slightly modified cover...
...aside from adding "etc." in an un-matching font, the cherry in the figure's hand is now red. It did look too much like a cocktail olive on the 7" cover so I understand this bold move.
This release included 8 tracks. The song "Cherry on the Top" is the exact same recording from the single but the B-Side "Emotional Ocean" is surprisingly absent which is odd because it is one of their better tunes.
The Creamies - Cherry on the Top etc. (2015)
1 Big Tough Toys
2 Clean
3 Tribesman a Come
4 Bingo Erotica
5 Kingston
6 Prosecution (Ain't No Solution)
7 Cherry on the Top
8 One World
This download includes my rip of the 7" plus the song Bingo Erotica from 1982 plus all 8 songs from the unreleased album. Remember, slow and mellow.
