The Funpark Five [Helsingborg, Sweden]

 

The Funpark Five - Glen (cassette 1998)

1 Temptation

2 Harry the Hitman

3 Dreamboy

4 Squaw

5 Spaßpark Fünf

The Funpark Five - Glen Again (CD-R 1999)

1 Saturday Night

2 Tribute

3 Books are Piling Up

4 Cup of Tea

5 Show's Over

 

toneandwave · Temptation

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Chowder Boy - The Soup is Off (2003)

 This is probably the worst cover I have ever seen for a ska album. This band is from the UK and they are heavily inspired by Sam Raimi films - Evil Dead in particular - but rest assured that this is a ska album. This isn't even "horror-ska" it's more along the lines of Less Than Jake. There are 8 tracks on this CD and 6 of them are ska-punk. None are punk/heavy metal. The cover is very misleading.

I think they were a great band but I think they screwed themselves with this CD cover. Ska fans would not have bought this if they saw this CD in a local record shop and any heavy metal fans who did buy this CD based on the cover would have been severely disappointed to hear ska music. 

1 Lesta Specs

2 Rock Mullet

3 Mike Kell's Sideburns

4 Bruce Campbell Sez

5 Kiss My Face

6 Kylie on Ice

7 Perfect to Begin

8 Uglee

9 (hidden track that plays after track 8) Chowder Boy

toneandwave · Lesta Specs

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD FROM Zippyshare

Angrybeans

Angrybeans (Angry Beans on the first tape, Angrybeans almost everywhere else) was a punk band from Italy who played lots of ska. Their first release was mostly punk with just a couple of ska songs but their second release was seven ska songs and three punk songs. Unfortunately my copy of the first tape came out really good but my copy of the second one is pretty poor quality. The tapes are a bit weird. On the first one the shell is printed with the band name and track listing along with other standard lettering but you can tell there was something else printed on the shell which was later scraped off. It said "Fabrizio Giagoni" under the band name and above the track listing. The second tape is exactly the same but the track list has also been scraped off but it's easy to make out that it's the same track list from the first tape.

So these guys recorded over their first tape for their second tape. Sadly, though the sound quality of the second tape suffers because of it. And it looks like they had an alternate cover for it at some point.

By the time they recorded their album they reverted back to playing punk with just a couple ska songs and the lyrics are primarily in Italian. 

They do have one other release which is an EP but all of the songs on the EP are on the album. The song "Baraonda Town" was on the second Italian Ska Invasion comp from 2002. 

 

 Angry Beans - Angry Beans cassette (1998)

1 HT 675

2 Unlucky!

3 The Great Angry Time

4 Class '78 (Some of Us)

5 Playin' Hooky

6 I Can't do Anything

7 Not so Responsible

8 The Day I Decided to...Kill You

9 My Dog

10 Brown Haired Girl

11 Campin' Alone

12 The Hottest Dog

 

 

 Angrybeans - The New Thing (2000)

1 No Scheme

2 Tritones

3 Baraonda Town

4 Game's Pawns

5 Float the Boat

6 Alien Skin

7 Tango

8 My Riddle

9 Honey-Full

10 Skyscraper

 

 

 Angrybeans - Crisi Stabile (2005)

1 Nobody's Perfect

2 Tango

3 Moskova

4 Insonnia

5 Contro Di Me

6 Dan & Debbie

7 Game's Pawn

8 Crisi

9 Stabile

10 Scream at the Queen

11 Flowers on Ice

12 Last Call

13 Malibu

14 Introspecttacolo

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Sugar & Spice - Rock into the Party 7" (1991)

 

Is this The Deltones?

I said in a recent post that I am not one to start rumors but I think this is The Deltones using a different name. The color scheme is the same that the Deltones used on all of their records and this one was released a few years after their final release. The picture on the cover shows an all-female band and listen to it...they sound exactly like The Deltones.

This record was recorded in Germany but it doesn't say anything about who was in the band. If there was an all-girl ska band in Germany in the early 90s wouldn't somebody have heard of them? 

I'm pretty sure this is The Deltones. I'm totally okay with somebody proving me wrong. 

A - Rock into the Party (Part 1)

B - Rock into the Party (Part 2)

 

toneandwave · Sugar & Spice - Rock into the Party (Part 1)

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

va This is Ska (2003)

 

1 Skarface - Beautiful Kung Fu

2 Ventilators - Sun is Back

3 Die Tornados - Beautiful Paradise

4 Spitfire - Dream

5 Malarians - Up and Down the Coalmine

6 New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble - Nasty by Nature

7 The Calamities - You Don't Leave Me

8 The Hotknives - Something's Come Over You

9 Pridigarji - Kto Koga Uboga

10 Hiccups - Mr. Fox

11 The Mood - Sometimes

12 Mark Foggo - What a Lovely Day

13 Tremende - Non ti Fermare

14 Sheep's E-Band - Wanna Wanna

15 Dr. Ring Ding & the Senior All-Stars - Moscow Nights

16 The Amphetameanies - Driving Home

17 Podworkowi Chuligani - Podworkowi Chuligani

18 Dr. Woggle & the Radio - Put on Your Shoes

19 Special Guests - Blue Flashing Lights

20 Rude Rich and the High Notes - I am What I am 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Caribbean Allstars - Paths to Greatness (1992)

 This was a reggae band from the Frisco Bay. I like some mellow reggae on occasion but this is a little too "adult contemporary" for my taste. The word "reggae" denotes ragga or rags. Poor folk music. Hearing reggae played with the most high-end instruments in a million dollar studio and over-the-top production takes something away. 

The tunes here are well-written. I like the songs themselves. But the production quality is just overkill. 

So who do we blame? Carlos Santana, that's who. Santana produced this album and he played on half the tracks. I didn't know this when I first listened to the album and I thought "that guitar sounds just like Santana" and sure as hell, it was. 

I grew up in L.A. in the late 70s/early 80s and Santana was not yet a god but he was a prophet and we are to say nothing bad about Santana or we could get la chancla. So I take back everything I said about the production. It's a great album. I love it and you will too. Oye como va... 

1 Paths to greatness

2 Sette Messgana

3 Caught in the Middle

4 Oh What a Situation

5 Ras Clatt Ridd'm

6 Keep a Good Man Down

7 Commercialization 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Lama - Island of Madness (2003) -&- It's Showtime (2006)

 

 Lama was a ska band from Switzerland who released these two albums before disbanding. 

 The song "This is My Family" on the second album is a re-recording of the first song "F.T.V." on the first album and I'm not one to start rumors but I think it's safe to conclude that this song inspired the song "Family" by The Interrupters with Tim Armstrong. 

Lama - Island of Madness (2003)

1 F.T.V.

2 Same to Me

3 Reggae is What I Want

4 Satan's Queue

5 Big Tree

6 Gently

7 Use My Own Two Feet

8 The Dance

9 Free Time

10 All in My Head

11 Crazy World

Lama - It's Showtime (2006)

1 Showtime

2 Reservoir Dogs

3 Reggae Soul

4 Sloppy Sunday Morning

5 M.S. (Martin Schmutz)

6 Triple Trophy

7 It Goes

8 What I'm Supposed to Do

9 Bush

10 Rude Boy

11 No Weed

12 This is My Family

13 Chicken Run

14 I Go Slow

15 For Christine

16 Alright

17 Beer Did Take My Life Away

18 I've Got You Baby

19 Happy and Free

20 Beauty Spot

toneandwave · Lama - Chicken Run

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Ye Wiles vs. Muttley's Dastardly Scam (2002)

Ye Wiles are probably best known for the song "Cry Wolf" which was on a couple of their releases but it's difficult to find anything by Muttley's Dastardly Scam. I know they have other recordings (as evident by Last FM) but I have never found anything else they recorded. Just these three tracks here.

There is a cover for this release which I stole from Discogs.
 

 But I have a promo version without the cover, just this sticker:

01 Ye Wiles - Microwave Meals: An Ideal?

2 MDS - Something Happened

3 Ye Wiles - Shuffle No. 2

4 MDS - Sleepwalking

5 Ye Wiles - 15 Years

6 MDS - Flick Knife

toneandwave · Flick Knife

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

The Varicoasters [Eugene, Oregon]

 

This was a ska-punk band who only ever released this one album which is very rare.

They had a couple songs on compilations that weren't on the album which were included with a couple of other songs on a MP3 -only release called 4 songs that came out shortly after the album was released.

This download includes the album and the "4-Songs" EP so I think this is everything this band ever released.

The Varicoasters - She Loves Me Not (1998)

1 Sked St.

2 Lucky Penny

3 All Alone

4 Eugene Or

5 It's All Right

6 Fugitive

7 Beautiful Girl

8 Rhubarb Hubbub

9 Wicked Touch

10 Whisper

11 Me & Mr. Hammerface

12 Sundays

13 Tornado

14 (untitled)

 

 

Varicoasters - 4 Songs EP (1998)

1 Anyway She Can

2 Marco Polo

3 Oh Christine

4 Mary's Face

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

No Sports - The Tour de France Concerts (1987)

 

This is probably No Sports' very first release. I would assume that it's a demo tape but the production quality is incredible. I think they may have had a demo tape before this and this is their first studio release. I can't say for sure. It's called the Tour de France Concerts but it is not a live recording. It was recorded in a studio in Germany. 

I have a copy of the tape. The front cover is a sticker and the inlay card is hand-made written by an old type writer.

 I mentioned before that my scanner is dying (at this time it's completely dead*) so these images are respectfully stolen from Discogs. The images from Discogs for this release are really well done so I tip my hat to the uploader and on my copy the sticker is trimmed off on the left side so I appreciate that the images on Discogs are not trimmed and they show the full sticker.

No Sports - The Tour de France Concerts (1987)

1 Lack of Time

2 Television

3 Tour de France

4 Rattlesnake

5 Delta Men

6 Rudy (Rude)

 

This download also includes the rare bootleg EP from 1995. It's an unofficial release but the sound quality is  really good. 

No Sports - Live EP (1995)

1 Mandigo (Untouchables cover)

2 Summer

3 The Way of the Dragon

4 Stay Rude, Stay Rebel

5 Turn It On

6 Girlie Girlie (Sophia George cover)

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

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

*Our friend Rikard mailed me some physical copies of some old skazines and I intend to scan each and every page from each and every 'zine but my scanner just wasn't in the mood.

 Scanners were made with one purpose in life and that purpose is to scan things. But if you ask your scanner to scan things they get an attitude. I'm like "Hey scanner, can you scan this CD cover??" and my scanner is all "Umm..I dunno...I suppose I can try...maybe...like, can we just do this later?"

 Anyhoo I just bought a new expensive scanner that I'm hooking up this weekend. I bought it for the sole purpose of scanning Rikard's 'zines. Let's see how it goes. 

Soda Pop Fuck You

 This is a short-lived California band that only existed for just over 2 years. They were incredible but they get no attention in the worldwide ska arena. 

I'll put it like this: Imagine if Operation Ivy kept playing into the late 90s but they got a female singer.

 This band was from the same general geographic playground as OPIV and I'm pretty sure that the singer Christina Armijo was in a punk band prior to being in this band. I don't remember the name of this band and neither Google nor Discogs are of any help. I'm pretty sure they had a couple of releases with her on vocals. Anybody know what the hell I'm talking about?

From what I've heard she left her punk persona behind a long time ago and she earned an MD and is now a practicing pediatrician.

Soda Pop Fuck You had a total of three releases. They had 5 songs on compilations but all 5 are on these three releases:   

Soda Pop Fuck You - Soda Popium Fuckum Youium 7" (1997)

1 Ma Ma Age

2 Communication Breakdown

3 Terrance Stomp

4 Sweaty Palms

 

Soda Pop Fuck You - Soda Pop Fuck You (1997)

 

1 Bullshit

2 Nightmares

3 Song #1

4 Fuck You

5 Spanish Song

6 Theme Song

7 Nothing

8 American Dream Whore

Soda Pop Fuck You - Timing is Everything (1998)

 

1 Oi Song

2 Communication Breakdown

3 The Tail of Billy B.

4 Timing is Everything

5 I.D. Please

6 Purple Cow Haze

7 Not Quite

8 Thank God

9 Sweaty Palms

10 Rockabilly Breakdown

11 Suicide

12 Mama-Age

13 Blues and Badge

14 Psycho Duck Clown

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Blister - Agent Spencer in the Land of Brass and Beat (1999)

 

This is a German ska band that released three albums. This is their first. I posted their second HERE. I don't have their third one yet. 

1 Nightblind

2 Spencer's Demented

3 Andy's

4 Phlebology Girl

5 Trip to the City

6 Arabian Nights

7 Hey Jack

8 E & A Went Away

9 I Know It

10 Can't Explain

11 Impressed Without a Mess

12 Biko Psycho 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

The Neighbors - Nuclear Family 7'' (1979)

 

This is a rare example of the ska influence in California in the late 70s. The A-side is a great female-fronted new wave/punk tune. The B-side is a ska-punk song that was way ahead of its time. Third wave ska punk from 1979? Awesome.

A - Nuclear Family

B - Punk in Paradise

toneandwave · Punks In Paradise

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Four Flush - 2000 Flushes (1998)

This is a punk-with-horns band from southern California who recorded this one and only album in the 3rd wave era. There are a few actual ska songs but mostly it's an amateur pop-punk album.

I'm posting it for the rarity factor in conjunction with the couple/few ska tunes. 

1 Destiny

2 Worst Day

3 Poser Boy

4 4-Line Ska

5 She's an Angel

6 Breaking Things

7 Johnny Bravo

8 Every Time U Come Ova'

9 Walk Away

10 Grocery Store

11 Just Another Day

12 A Kiss is All I'm Worth

13 Spanish Whipping Boy

14 Laurel Song

15 Ska-Core Show

16 Jaime's Song 

toneandwave · 4-Line Ska

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

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)

DOWNLOAD from MEGA 

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

 

 

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

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare
 

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)

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

 

 

 

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.

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

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

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare 

 

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)

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Mad Monster Sound [Germany]

 Mad Monster Sound was a German band that formed in the late 1980s in the "Unicorn Era". They started as a punk band but they played ska and other things. They ran the gamut between punk, ska, new wave, anarcho punk/ska, punk reggae, and even a bit of metal and skiffle. They alternated between male and female vocals and also between English and German. They recorded their first album in 1989. The A-Side was pure punk. The B-Side was pure ska. (I remember that when I was younger I sang "Come on come on all you bastards" but that's not what he's singing. It's "Come on come on all you Busters"). Long-time followers of this blog know that I am no big fan of bands recording cover songs but their song "Moonstomping" is actually original. It is a cover of "Skinhead Moonstomp" but they added their own lyrics to it. I approve. 

 They stopped performing in the mid 90s but came back in the year 2000 with a mini-album called "Ten Years Later" that really did pick up where they left off. It's as good as their earlier releases. 

This is the post I was supposed to make last weekend but I didn't post it because my scanner is failing and the scans in this post are very low-resolution and probably the worst scans I've ever presented on this blog. I was going to try to re-do them but the new scans were no better. It's not about the scans though, is it? It's about the music.  And the music sounds great as far as I'm concerned.

Mad Monster Sound - Mad Monster Sound (1990)

 

1 Alles Zu Spät

2  No More Pardon

3 Stories

4 Geld Regiert die Welt

5 F.C. Busters

6 Moonstomping

7 Love and Hate

8 Geisterstunde

9 Monkey Dance 

10 Sahara Ska

 

 

Mad Monster Sound - One for the Road - It's Party Time (1993)

1 Let's Have Fun

2 Subway Love

3 I Wanna Be

4 New Generation

5 Borderline

6 Crime City

7 Nutty Goes Reggae

8 Don't Waste Ur Time

9 Dreadful Terror

10 Anything

11 Eisbär

12 Ska-Skiffle

13 Monstergang

14 Bonus (Eisbär Extended)

Mad Monster Sound - 10 Jahre Später (2000)

 

1 Franziska

2 This is SKA

3 Stand By

4 Ghostclub

5 Fresse Verbeult

6 Laut + Lustig

7 Roomservice

8 Pied Piper

9 No More Pardon

DOWNLOAD all three releases from MEGA

DOWNLOAD all three releases fromZippyshare

Potlatch - Gringo (1994) -and- An Album by Potlatch (1995)

 

Potlatch was a ska-punk band from Sweden who put out an EP and a full-length album in the 90s.

Before the EP they had a 4-song demo tape that, I think, was pure punk without any ska. I don't know for sure because the Japanese release of the EP included the four demo tracks and, of course, I bought that one. 

There are lots of copies of the 12-track Japanese version of "Gringo" available today on Discogs but that wasn't always the case. I ended up finding a copy on a site called From Japan that had all 12 tracks. It wasn't terribly expensive but it took four months to arrive and you can guess the end of this tale.

That's right. It was the wrong one. It was the 8-track mini-album/EP. It wasn't worth it for me to send it back for a refund so I kept it and I have found two of the other tracks on YouTube. Jesus and Friends, and Minor.  I like punk but for some reason I don't feel any pressing need to get the other version any time soon. Maybe someday, but here's what I have for now.

 Potlatch - Gringo (1994)

 1 Intro - Role Model*

2 Nazi Punks Fuck Off

3 You Never Know

4 O.P.

5 Grrl Burn

6 Right

7 Back to the Amanda Room

*8 tracks if these are counted as two separate tracks

Potlatch - An Album by Potlatch (1995)

1 Mr. Potlatch

2 Onetwothreefour

3 Wrong Time, Wrong Place

4 Think About It

5 Hey Dad

6 I Wish

7 Reason

8 Hope I Never See Ya Again

9 Pack It

10 Ghosts 'n Goblins

11 Emo

12 Fourtwenty

toneandwave · Potlatch - Think About It

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Atlantic Five - I Was Walking 7" (1979)

 Very rare record from this French band. I don't know what they were thinking with the A-side but the B-side needs to be heard. The B-side could have been a pop-reggae/ska hit in 1984 but it was released in 1979. People just weren't ready for it yet. I love that haunting keyboard, especially at the end of the song. .

Somebody on Discogs said that this might be an all-female band but that makes me wonder if they've actually heard it. Are these female vocals? I don't think so. 

A - I Was Walking

B - I Adore You 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Spliff Sound - Spliff Sound (1998)

90s Italian female-fronted ska. I love this band. Very original in their songwriting. Amateurish in the end but you can hear that they were probably a lot more professional than any other band in their scene at the time. Most songs are in English with a few in Italian with occasional male vocals taking the lead.

I don't know if they ever released anything else besides this tape. This tape is professionally made but I had second generation demo tapes that sound better than this tape. I ripped it three times on three different tape players and this rip is really the best I can do with the copy I have. I want to say that it's just mixed badly with the low ends being turned up way too high but, then again, I might just have a warped copy of this tape. 

If anybody else has a better rip of this tape I'd like to hear it. It really is a great album. A true classic!

1 Big Brother

2 La Violación

3 Mine

4 Not Many

5 Not Alone

6 Intolerencia

7 In a Cloud

8 Libertad

9 Bond's Ska

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

 

Crombie Bruisers - Crombie Bruisers EP (2013)

 This is more contemporary than what I usually post. It's not from the tone nor the wave era but I'm posting it for two reasons:

1. I like it (well...I like some of it)

2. It's extremely rare

This was a band from Denmark that had a respect for the 2Tone era as much as they did for traditional ska and reggae but their energy came from Oi! and punk. They didn't record much. In fact I think this is all they released. They may have recorded more but they didn't make it freely available, did they? I guess they liked playing live more than they liked being a studio band, which is just as well.

The reason I say that is because, if you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know I'm not big on bands recording cover songs. It's great to see them play a familiar tune live but if the band records it, well then, it better be pretty damn spectacular or we'll just listen to the original instead. And not play your music. 

The cover I'm bitching about here is 54-46. It's been done. It's been done too much. Don't. 

Thankfully Sugar Sugar is NOT a cover. It's not a bad song but the winner for me is the song Stitch.

Stitch is misspelled and the track list on the CD inlay is out of order with how the songs are ordered on the CD.  The band's name is misspelled on the spine of the CD inlay.

It's a CD-R with a photocopied inlay. I like it DIY like that. 

1 54-46

2 Stitch

3 Sugar Sugar

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

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

...and now it's time for a good ol' rant.

Devotees of this blog might have noticed that I no longer allow comments, I have removed links to my email and social media, and I no longer do re-ups. 

There's a reason.

I have done this blog for over a decade and I have had the incredible opportunity to interact with so many of you and it solidified my notions that ska people are the greatest people in the world. We are the punks, the skinheads, the Rastas, the musicians, the jocks, the nerds, the liberals, the conservatives, we are vegans as well as those who can bar-b-q some pork ribs better than anybody else. We can watch Bugs Bunny one minute then follow it with a Shakespeare play. We are more knowledgeable about world events than most people but we never let ideologues divide us. 

We are different in many ways and the same in many ways. 

We love music. All different kinds of music. We are not racist. We are not sexist. Some of us have religious beliefs but we embrace our brothers and sisters who have different beliefs. We don't care who you're attracted to no matter their gender. We accept that there are people out there who actually don't like Star Wars. We see people supporting the opposing sports team as a comrade with bad taste, not somebody to hate.

Unfortunately people who did not feel this way took advantage of my email address being on this blog. I was called all kinds of horrible things and some people made it clear that they knew everything about me. The names of my family members, where I worked, where I live. Veiled threats. 

Someone even started a YouTube account using my name that they used to start problems with other people. 

They got very aggressive and it went on for over a year. I initially decided to shut everything down. No more blog. No more social media. In the end I decided against it. I'll still keep posting but it's one sided now. That sucks for me because I liked hearing from you guys. I learned so much from you guys, not to mention all of the great music that you guys shared with me that I posted on the blog to share with other people. 

It was a real community. But a few people with their own selfish agenda had to ruin it. 

I wonder what they got out of it.

 

I will try to re-post things but the truth is my account on MEGA is nearly topped-out. If I want to keep posting new things I have to limit any re-posts.

Not only that, but for many years I got people saying "Hey, can you re-post this one thing?" which I had no problem doing but recently I got "Hey, can you re-post this list of 32 things?". People stopped asking for one thing here and one thing there. In the end people were seriously requesting that I re-do more than half of everything that I posted on this blog in the last 13 years. It took 13 years the first time. I can't do it again. 

I would like to though. If I had the ability I would make sure that everything I have ever posted on this blog remains consistently available. That's just not realistic.

The things I posted in the past were downloaded by hundreds of people. They are available somewhere, you just have to find out where. If you're serious about collecting this music you should be part of forums and social media groups (NOT Reddit/Ska - that's a wasteland that upvotes the living shit out of a post of a checkered belt but cares very little for actual ska music). It's out there. Find it.  

Anyway, (you're still reading?....really? ...why?) I have a lot more rare ska to post. I have demo tapes from The Riffs, No Sports, and more. Lots of records from the 80s (but believe me when I say this...I have already posted the good stuff. I have lots and lots of "ska" and "reggae" records that are very rare but not necessarily very good, - don't get me wrong, I have some really good stuff too), and lots of CDs from the 90s that I can't find anywhere else online. 

In my personal and work life I am more busy now than I have ever been so the posts won't be as regular, but there is lots, lots more to come! Keep checking back. 

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

There is a very famous female singer who released several blues/soul/pop albums over the last few decades but she started out in a ska band in the early 80s. The first incarnation of the band released a full length 11-track demo tape in 1981 and every track was ska but then they changed their name and put out a 4-track demo tape in 1982 under their new name and, again, all tracks were ska. But they went on to release several singles from 1983 through 1987 and the early singles were ska/calypso but they moved more in a pop direction as the years went by. 

I have everything this band released including all demos and vinyl singles up to their last single in 1986 - but then, in 2013, they released a vinyl 7" that had one song from the second demo as the A-side and an unreleased song as the B-side. 

I do not have this single. 

I have sent messages to everybody on Discogs who said they have this single and I offered all kinds of things. Money, rarities in their wantlist, etc. but none of them got back to me.

I think I'll just post everything I have with the hopes that somebody out there will be able to mend the sore spot in this collection.

 

Can you guess what band I'm talking about? 

The Skalatones [Sweden] - Complete Discography

 This band formed in Landskrona, Sweden in 1995 and they recorded two albums and lots of other songs that were released as EPs, singles, and compilation tracks. At one point they boasted that Charlie Anderson who played bass for The Selecter was once a part of the band. 

The band broke up in 2001.

I think this is everything they ever released. 

 

The Skalatones - Non-Album Tracks (A Tone and Wave Exclusive)

1 Ruder Than Roots

2 4 of Them Outta Jail

3 Do the Carnivala

4 Hannibal Se (Lecta)

5 Rude Skank Wank

6 House of Fun

7 Mr. Probation Officer (Remix)

8 Gold

9 Saturday

10 Going Nutty

11 On Parole (The Nutty AnDead Remix)

12 What I Really Had to Do

13 Stereotypes

14 So Alone

15 Y2Ska

16 Persuaders Dub

17 Rude Boy Ska

18 Tune In(terview) from Jamaica

  

DOWNLOAD The Skalatones - Non-Album Tracks from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD The Skalatones - Non-Album Tracks from Zippyshare

 

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

 

The Skalatones - By Public Demand... (1997)

1 Start Skanking

2 Sophisticated Robbery

3 One Drop

4 (What Ever Happened) Last Night

5 4 of Them Outta Jail

6 The Geezer

7 Skalatones Theme

8 Mr. Probation Officer

9 The Key

10 Step Aside

11 Arte Bella

The Skalatones - Tune In... (1999)

1 Radio Ska

2 Common Fools 

3 Slip of the Finger

4 Casino Fatale'

5 Lipstick on my Collar

6 Prejudice

7 5 O'Clock News

8 Ayayay

9 The Spirit

10 Ska Patrol

11 A Train is Coming

12 Persuaders

DOWNLOAD both albums from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD both albums from Zippyshare

Colonel Hathi [East Anglia, UK]

Colonel Hathi's Dawn Patrol - It's a Bargain! (1992)*

1 A Day in the Life of...

2 Fever

3 Sunshine

4 Una Bella

5 Hathi Beat '92

6 One Way Love

 

 

 

Colonel Hathi - 170 Not Out (1995)

1 Hathi Beat

2 Tomorrow

3 Here She Comes

4 All I Wanna Do

5 Another Story

6 Suzi

7 T.V. Girl

8 Israelites

9 Simba

10 Pineapple Pizza

11 All Grown Up

12 Una Bella

13 A Day in the Life...

14 Fever

15 One Way Love

16 Sunshine

17 Flow

 

Colonel Hathi - Turned Out Nice Again (1997)

1 Alfie

2 Simba

3 Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious

4 Falling, Crawling

5 Sally

6 T.V. Girl

7 Turned Out Nice Again!

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare

Loin Groin - Arise Sir Loin (2003) -and- Long Kick EP (1999)

I think these two releases were only sold at shows. Not positive, but our old friend Merrick stated in THIS POST that Arise Sir Loin was only given away at their final show. 

Neither of these releases are on Discogs and I do not have physical copies myself. I cannot find a cover for the EP.

Loin Groin - Arise Sir Loin (2003)

1 Chelsea Stockball

2 Melbourne Shall We Give You All The Best Years Of Our Lives

3 Time Tough

4 Bruce Lee

5 Ken Oath's Lessor

6 Aiyefel Seat Covers

7 Stockball Stick-a-Bush

8 Face the Day

9 Love Beats Me Up

10 Pub-Tab

11 Keyboard Frenzy

 

Loin Groin - Long Kick EP (1999)

1 When Monash Comes Forging On

2 Origins

3 The Professor

4 Keith D.F.C.

5 A Surprise

 

DOWNLOAD from MEGA

 

DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare