Reggae Cooper - She Loves You 7'' (1978)

A - She Loves You
B - I Need Your Loving

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Trio - Tutti Frutti 7'' (1983)

My fellow Americans who watched MTV in the mid-90s might remember that Volkswagen commercial where the two guys are driving around in a Volkswagen and they pick up a chair that somebody left by the curb but then they realize the chair doesn't smell so good so they drop it back off on the street. In the background the German band Trio's song "Da Da Da" from 1982 was playing and, even though Da Da Da was a pretty big hit in Europe and was pretty much well known everywhere throughout the eighties, this commercial introduced this song to a whole new audience.

Oh shit, the commercial is actually on YouTube:


And here is the original video for the song from 1982:


Trio put out a few albums and lots of singles but their cover of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" was their only ska song.

A - Tutti Frutti
B - Ich Lieb den Rock 'n' Roll



I included the Da Da Da 7" and 12" in this download because that's what you really want.

Incidentally there was an actual ska/reggae band called Trio + 1 that has nothing to do with this band.

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Two Tonne Bowlers - Mantifiluss (1994)

Very rare demo(?) from this Canadian band that I know nothing about. All tracks are uptempo 2 Tone inspired ska. No punk/distorted guitars.

1 Status
2 Styles
3 Luvin' in the Oven Train
4 Guys Like Us
5 Vassili Town
6 8's Enough
7 Fallopian Tube Fandango
8 Lion Tamer
9 untitled

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Take 5 - demo tape (1998)

This band was from Lexington, Massachusetts and I know nothing about them. If they ever put out anything besides this cassette I'd like to know. This tape starts off weak with a cover of Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood" - don't get me wrong, they did a good job of it, but it's the least interesting song on the tape. Then it gets good, really good with a few original ska tunes and then they end with Baba Brooks' "Country Town". The sound is low quality and a bit hard to listen to but the talent is high quality and I hope these guys recorded more than this.

1 Knock on Wood
2 Hour Glass
3 El Sol
4 Mars Invasion
5 Country Town (The Mood)

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The Turned Around Turtles

 The Turned Around Turtles were an unsung band from Germany that started in 1989. They put out 1 full length album in 1992 called "Ask" (an anagram for "Ska", obviously) with all tracks being sung in English. They were able to release a 2-song 7" in 1993 before breaking up with core members going on to form the band Frau Doktor.

This 7" rip is my own but the LP was graciously donated to us by Rude Rich.

 The Turned Around Turtles - Ask (1992) 
1 Rocksteady Beat
2 Hope My Friends
3 Betty
4 If You Wanna
5 K.K.K.
6 Live for Today
7 Popkings
8 Zummernight
9 A Little Bit of Soap
10 The Promise
11 One Drink Too Many
12 Fat Man
13 General Truth
14 Rude Boy Reggae

The Turned Around Turtles - De Working Monkey 7" (1993)
A - De Working Monkey
B - Bahama Drama


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¡Gracious Rude Rich!

Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power

Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power - also known as MB Hi-Power - was a British militant punk/dub band. Not reggae or ska as much as raw folk punk with a heavy dub element. They were very political and put on a great live show.

They only released two EPs in their career. This download includes both as well as some unreleased songs that were recorded live (that I nicked off of YouTube, I'll admit it).

Here Come the Blues (1985)
1  Here Come the Blues
2 4 Million on the Dole
3 No Justice for the Poor
4 Privilege
5 Franco's Fleet Street
6 New Face in Hell

Matchless Triple A EP (1986)
1 Ghost Train
2 Spring Heel Jack
3 Black Gold

Unreleased & Live Tracks
1 Black Gold (alt. version)
2 Woman of Straw
3 Under Pressure
4 Ambulance Chaser
5 Wordamouth
6 Gentlemen & Players
7 Teeth - Skin




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Nutty Skanker - Definitely Rude (1997)

I posted Nutty Skanker's first album "Who Am I?" which was a cassette-only release from 1994. I mentioned in that post that they have one other album (this time on CD) but I was never able to find a copy of it. An alert Tone-andWaver named Jean-François had the album and decided to share it with us.

1 Sound System
2 Tribute to Kraftwerk
3 Gospel Skank
4 Life is Too Short
5 Smart Drinks
6 Atomic (Blondie)
7 Definitely Rude
8 Mexicanos
9 Naturally Born Black
10 Billy the Kid
11 Nutty Ragga Mix
12 Quadrophenia
13 Who Am I?
14 Les Cadavres
15 Dogs of War
16 All Right

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Thank you Jean-François!!

X-Legz - New (1983)

Very 80s sounding and very mellow. All ten tracks have a ska/reggae sound but each song is slower than the last. I'm a drinker, not a smoker, so I like things a little more hyper but I think you who appreciates the "powerful narcotic marijuana" will enjoy it.

This band was from Switzerland and they do have at least one other release - a 7" which has 2 songs that are not on the album. I do not have the 7" yet but it's in my wantlist. I'm in no hurry to buy it just yet. No hurry at all. Keepin' it mellow.

1 Fast Dogs
2 You'll be With Me
3 Because the Rain is Falling
4 A Bunch of Roses
5 Gagaf (Black Ivy)
6 Frankenstein's Bride
7 Sun, Wind and Music
8 Little Thieves Live Dangerous
9 Security
10 Sometimes

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Re-Ups

Reluctant Stereotypes

K & the Sauce Pan

va Stonehenge

Vital Disorders - Zombie

Ngobo Ngobo demos

Bette Bright

Deemus Mint

Local Operator

Heavy Manners - Say It 12"

I can't find Strange Tenants - Live at Pharoahs but I know I still have it somewhere. I'll re-post it as a proper post of its own when I find it.

Did I miss anything? Have you requested anything that hasn't been re-posted yet?

Soft Touch - It's My Life 7" (1980)

This is being posted by request. It is not very known but there is a copy currently for sale on eBay (possibly the only time it's ever been on eBay) so my guess is that it was requested so people can hear what it sounds like before buying it.

It sounds like slower British mod/ska. The a-side is more rockin' but it has that punky-reggae sound and, no, it is not a cover of Talk Talk's song - this was released three years before theirs. The
b-side is the better of the two if you appreciate mellow punk-reggae with out of place synth.
There were lots of different bands with this same name but I'm not sure if these guys had any other releases.


A - It's My Life
B - The Sus Song

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Incidentally I will be selling my copy on eBay in the next few weeks along with a lot of other stuff.

Also, I have quite a few re-up requests that I plan on getting to next weekend. I apologize ahead of time if I don't get to it but I have a 4-day weekend and not much else to do. So, unless an airplane crashes into my house or I get abducted by aliens or something, next weekend is all about re-ups. I'll post at least one new thing too. 

Best ska of 2017

This past year wasn't really a great year for ska as far as the number of releases but there were some great ones. It seems everybody slowed down and, instead of playing ska, they switched it up to reggae. Not that I don't like reggae but there was just too much of it. My list here is mostly reggae-free.

There are some notable exceptions I left off of the list because of the aforementioned "no reggae" but I want to add that I think King Kong 4 is an incredible band. They put out lots of great music in 2017.
So did Susan Cadogan.

The Phonosonics, The Erin Bardwell Collective, and New Limits also put out some awesome releases and I really loved The Stiff Joints debut album.

 The veterans The Selecter, Save Ferris, and the Busters also had new releases but I like to to draw attention to bands you may not know as well as these. You'll buy their stuff anyway.

And you know how I like it when bands with older rare music make those releases available. 2017 saw old material from the Bakesys as well as the first two demos from Napoleon Solo re-released - available at Jump Up Records. The Napoleon Solo record is limited to 100 copies so you might want to jump on that one.

In 2017 The Kingpins re-released their classic album "Let's Go to Work" entitled "Let's Go Back to Work". It is a re-imagining of the album which includes some remixes and alternate versions with some additional previously unreleased tracks.

A band I posted a lot about over the years was the 80s Swedish band T-Shirts. They had several EPs and singles and one full-length throughout 1980, 1981, and 1982 and then they broke up. There was nothing else from them until 2017. They recorded a 2-track 7" called "To My Love/Legal Rights" and it's actually really good.

 When these old bands get together again after all these years and try to record new material it doesn't always work out too well but this one does. It sounds like the same band from 35 years ago.



There were two debut full-length albums that I was really looking forward to. One was a really good album - Heavyball's  "When Can You Start?". The other one was terrible. I try not so say anything bad about bands on this blog so I won't say their name. I can't imagine what possesses a talented band to compose an album's worth of songs, then take the time and expense to record an incredible ska album, then, before releasing it to the fans, they put an electronic beat over every song. Not one or even a few songs, but every damn song. My most anticipated release of 2017 was the absolute worst "ska" album I heard all year. How is it that not one person in that band stopped and said "this isn't really what the fans want"?

But here's the stuff I do like:

1. Last Edition - Last Orders

2. The Skalps - Plastic Fantastic

3. The Equators - Bed of Roses  (If I had to pick one song as my absolute favorite for the year it would be this)

4. Launchers - Dutty Mouth

5. Vegetable Collective - Penny (there is no video for this song but I love their video for the song Urban Squirrel)

6. The Breachers - Because of You

7. Interskalactic - Clad in Gold

8.  Mr. Wallace - Too Rude

9. The Funaddicts - All The Same

10. Heavyball - Top of Your Game

11. Moonhead Project (featuring Dani Radic) - On the Dancefloor

12. Death of Guitar Pop - Whatever Gets You Outta the House

13. And the Wasters - Lion's Share

14. Mercurius Rising - Old Blind Woman

15. Arthur and the Spooners - Going Down

16. Bombflower - Quit That Kind

17. The Crashmats - Watchmen

18. After the Ibis - Sober (if it wasn't for the Equators this would have been my pick for favorite song of the year.)

19. Chalk Outlines - Let the Feeling Show

20. Soundabout - Blizzard

21. Shoot the Moon - Can You Hear Me Now?

22. Archaic 3 - Focus on Me

23. The Big Takeover - Rubber Biscuit

24. Johnny Reggae Rub Foundation - I Can Tell You

25. Contra Fools - Geen Zin

DOWNLOAD THE COMPILATION OF THE STUFF I DO LIKE

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House in Orbit - Same Sun (demo tape 1991)

This one is so rare that I'm not thoroughly convinced that it exists (even though I have the physical copy).

The band House In Orbit was from Austin Texas that was voted Best Reggae Band in Austin in 1993. They released a demo tape in 1993 called "Turn Left at the Moon" which I don't have because nobody has it. I don't think one single copy of it exists. Despite how rare that tape is this one is even more rare.
See, the tape is titled "Same Sun" after their song of the same name, but that song is not on the tape. Like the Doors with "Strange Days" A live version of the song "Same Sun" was released on a compilation in 1991 called "KLBJ FM's Local Licks Live 1990".

There are only two tracks (repeated on both sides) on this tape:

01 Stand Front
02 Money

"Stand Front" is an incredible ska-punk song (one of those "how did this go unnoticed for so long?" ska songs) which did see another release. The label Reel George Productions put out a compilation in 1991 called "Tales From the Edge Volume III: Cannibal Crabs Crawl to Kill" that included it.

I'm guessing both songs were included on the official demo but I have no idea what the track listing is.

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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.


   

Skatologicals - What's in a Name? (1992)

Dutch ska/funk band who released a live album on vinyl in 1990 before they put out this studio album. I don't have the live one yet but I've heard it and there is a lot of original material that's not on this or any other recording. It's at the top of my wantlist. I'll post it when I get it.

1. Happiness
2 Screamin', Dancin' and Smiling
3 Skank it Away
4 Funk Jam
5 Time
6 Loveletter
7 Rastaman
8 Take it Easy
9 Elephant
10 Drunk Again
11 Have you Met the Williams'? / Kelele






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Suspect Bill - Mr. E (demo tape 1994)

1 Skamitzvah
2 Shipwrecked
3 Filler
4 City Light
5 What's Under Your Bed?
6 Mr. E
7 Pinnochio
8 Cement Shoes
9 Sing, Sing, Sing



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Thanks to SRP for this rip!

Lord Domino and the Ska Boys - I'm in the Mood for Love 7'' (1989)

A - I'm in the Mood for Love
B - Simply Funky

("Simply Funky" reminds me way too much of Madness' "The Prince".)

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Jamallad - Jah Creation (demo tape 199?)

Jamallad (Juh-mall-aid) was born and raised in the Ivory Coast in Africa. He was taught music by a folk singer named Lisa Sammet who was volunteering for the Peace Corps. He then traveled Europe and eventually got a degree in Music and Business at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

He spent time in L.A. and now lives in Hawaii. He released his first album "Global Citizen" in 2008 but he recorded this demo over a decade before then.  

I have no idea how many copies were made, where it was recorded,  or what year it was released. This is ultra-rare.


1 Jah Creation
2 Jamallad
3 Lion's Way
4 Children
5 Jah Creation

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