This is the Israelites first release and the first thing released on their Kingston Beat label.
1 Salvation
2 Friend
3 When I'm with You
4 Rejoice
9 hours ago
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
The Israelites - Friend (cassette, 1993)
This is the Israelites first release and the first thing released on their Kingston Beat label.
Sunday, October 18, 2020
The Frits - Ebbie's Bluff (1993)
Who wants to hear The Frits do a ska cover of Guns 'N' Roses' "November Rain"?
1 Ebbie's Bluff (Take Him Again)
2 November Rain
3 Ebbie's Bluff (Queenshead Remix)
4 Most I Hate is You
Saturday, October 17, 2020
The Restrictors
The Restrictors were a mod/ska band based in and around Darlington, UK from 1984 through late 1986/early 1987.
They were active in playing live shows and had several line-up changes but, sadly, they didn't record much and God only knows if there are any recordings of any live shows.
The only proof we have of their sound are three songs that were recorded in 1985. Two were featured on the compilation "On a Wing and a Prayer" and one extra song that didn't make it onto the compilation or anywhere else and is only now available for us to hear thanks to the magic of the internet.
These three songs make up their entire discography.
Three members of the band started The G-Men so it wouldn't be too crazy to assume that maybe a song or two from the G-Men may have been recycled from The Restrictors. I'm not stating that as a fact, just supposin'.
The graphics in this download are from a sheet that was included in the compilation. Different copies of the record had inserts for different bands. I was lucky enough to get one from The Restrictors in my copy. I scanned it in greyscale and black & white and I can't tell which one looks better so I included both in the download.
1 Peanuts
2 Own Little World
3 Town Life
Friday, October 16, 2020
Bud's Balooxe
German ska band who only ever had one official release which is a 2-song 7" that was posted previously on Tone and Wave.
This was their demo tape that is primarily cover songs
1 Intro (It's titled "Intro" but it's the song "Freedom Sound")
2 Monkey Man
3 Magic Star
4 Rudy, a Message to You!
...and in case you didn't get the 7" when it was first posted I included it in this download.
A - Skamenco
B - The Ugly Bone
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Man In The Street - Johnny Too Bad 7" (1982)
From the back cover: "Man In The Street began when Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones encouraged Bobby Keys (Saxophone - Stones, Eric Clapton, etc.) to travel to Jamaica to record the rhythm tracks for a special project that eventually grew into a sort of "showcase" effort. The Dynamic Studio in Kingston, JA, Devonshire Studio in Los Angeles and A & R Studio in New York City were chosen for their splendid sound and proximity to the artists, Jerry Williams, the vocalist for the project, is a long time friend of Bobby Keys' and is a songwriter for CBS. The finest session men in Jamaica appear on this unique and soulful record... Have a listen and you'll agree."
A - Johnny Too Bad
B - Lover's Rockin'
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Linoma Mashers - Landlocked (1987)
This band was from Omaha, Nebraska. They released two full-length albums on cassette. This is the first. I'll post the second one at some point.
1 Patti O.
2 Talk Too Much
3 Okoboji
4 Good Golly
5 Apartheid Can't Win
6 Can't Stand It
7 Lazy Holiday
8 The Piston
9 Factory Beat
10 Openers
11 Change in the Weather
12 Fish Hut
13 Rock Cum Baby
14 Losing Sleep
15 Victim of Love
16 28th Street Girls
17 Herman
18 Lake McConaughy
Sunday, October 4, 2020
SkaDaddyZ - Pick It Up (1996)
1 Society
2 Lost & Found
3 Where Did You Go?
4 Two Lonely People
5 Last Dance
6 Grey Skies
7 Be This Way
8 Likes to Party
Go For Broke
Ska-punk from Atlanta. They released this one demo tape and then a mini-album on CD.
Strangely, finding a cover online for the demo tape was much easier than finding a cover for the mass-produced CD.
These sounds were shared by your friend and mine Punk Guy who does that YouTube channel with the never-ending punk and ska rarities.
If you have several hours to get lost in it, his channel is HERE.
Go For Broke - Go For Broke (1997)
1 Intro
2 Go Away
3 Whorlick
4 Who Beat and Robbed Tom Harrison?
5 No Way
6 The Cartoon Song
7 The Dreamer
8 Parking Lot
9 Ska Na Na
10 Friday Night
11 Eric Likes Wool Socks
12 Live at the Masquerade - Saturday December 7th, 1996
Go For Broke - New Music with Old Chords (1998)
1 Whoa! Whoa!
2 Happy, Lookout
3 R U Still Down?
4 May 12th, 1998
5 The Cartoon Song
6 Libido in a Speedo
Customers - Customers 7" (1980)
A1 - Hold Me
A2 - Let it Down
B1 - Country Ska
B2 - International Relations
B3 - Smile in the Corridor
This is probably the only thing this Canadian band ever released.
Is it ska? Well, yes. I would say that it is ska.
Is it good? Well, it is rare.
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Step Lively
1 Without a Doubt
2 Train to Israel
3 String Beans
4 You Don't Know Jack
5 Isabella
6 She Won't Give
Step Lively - The Trigger Effect (1999)
1 Price I Pay
2 Purple Book
3 Superficial
4 String Beans
5 Give You Up
6 Inside Me
7 Repeater
8 Parker's Last Stand
9 Headcase
10 Sea of Strangers
11 Scorpio's Revenge
12 Into Another
These guys were from Lindenhurst, New York. They played mellow and laid back and they played loud and fast. Fans of the traditional and rocksteady revival bands of the 90s and you guys who would say ska punk is more your thing will appreciate these guys the same.
If you caught me off guard and asked me about this band I would say that they released more than just this but it seems this is almost everything they recorded. They did have an earlier promo/demo tape but that same exact tape was re-released as this self-titled CD posted here. Aside from that they have a song called "Steppin' Up" on the 1998 Pinball Records compilation called The Pinball Family and Distant Relatives which I have included in this download.
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Spithead
1 Margarine
2 (I Can't Believe It's Not...) Margarine
3 God Made Me a Magnet
4 Just Making Traffic
5 At the Zoo
Spithead - Skascraper 7" (1994)
1 Sitting too Close to the Telly
2 Traffic
3 Margarine
Travis Cut / Spithead split 7" (1996)
A1 - Travis Cut - Mork 'N' Mindy
A2 - Travis Cut - Blister in the Sun
B1 - Spithead - Porky
B2 - Spithead - Some People Want Shooting
Spithead - Swag (1996)
1 The New National Anthem
2 It's Time to Start Spying on Your Neighbors
3 Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
4 Call the Police
5 Inconvenience
6 Never Say Die
7 Work
8 God Made Me a Magnet
9 Liquidizer
10 Bonus Track Bogus Track
Jackbeast / Spithead split 7" (1996)
A1 - Jackbeast - Scrape #8
A2 - Jackbeast - Illicit Philtre
B1 - Spithead - Personal
B2 - Spithead - Hard Dog Club
Max - Mono 7" (1980) -and- Max - Big Six 7" (1981)
Max - Mono 7" (1980)
A - Mono (Monotones cover)
B - Un Paso MĂĄs AllĂĄ (Madness cover)
Max - Big Six 7" (1981)
A - Big Six (Judge Dread cover)
B - Crucero Nocturno a Cairo (Madness cover)
This is a band from Argentina that brought the European ska and punk scene to the youth of Argentina. I'm not a big fan of bands releasing cover songs as singles but in this case I understand why it was done. The titles are in Spanish but the songs are sung in English. I don't know that this band ever released anything else but I think (don't quote me on this) that one or more band member formed the band Los Pericos.
There was a time many years ago when I was certain that the Mono record is so rare that I would never see a copy. Then one came up for sale on Discogs and I jumped on it. That was 6 months ago. I never received it. Luckily somebody posted both records on YouTube so neither of the records in this post are from my own rips.
Pietasters - Strapped Live (1996) - Who is D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin?
I don't usually post the Pietasters because I just assume you would already have this but, for the few of you who don't, here you go.
At the end of track 12 "Dollar Bill" Steve (vocalist Stephen Jackson) thanks a couple of bands (Ruder Than You, and The Instigators) and then mentions that "D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin" has a ska night "every Tuesday at the Poseur's Club". The Poseur's Club was a club in Georgetown that closed in 1989, many years before this show was recorded, so that's funny unto itself, but who was D.J. Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin?
I did a bit of serious hard-hitting investigative journalism and found the answer.
(Okay, that's not true, I was having a conversation with a random stranger online about ska music when he mentioned that he was a promoter and D.J. from DC whose biggest claim to fame is that he was mentioned on this Pietaster's CD.)
His real name is D.J. Ian Fenn. Aside from being a D.J. he promoted shows in and around Washington D.C. and elsewhere along the East Coast. Punk shows. Hardcore shows. And he was one of the pioneers of ska shows in the region. He met several bands along the way such as The Skunks, The Checkered Cabs, The Pietasters, and even Etch-a-Sketch.
On the way to a gig on a military base in Virginia Todd and Steve from the Pietasters were talking with Ian about how so many DJs have stupid names. They suggested "DJ Ian Finn" wasn't catchy enough and eventually settled on "DJ Poopypants Hurricane Aladdin". Ian did not care for the name and never actually used it. As you can see:
I asked several questions and he was kind enough to waste a bit of his time by responding.
In his own words:
"In high school I was friends/skated with this guy John. We’d occasionaly go to ska shows in DC, typically at the original location of the 9:30 club on F St. I already listed to ska, punk and hardcore. I’d go to Dischord shows at Ft. Reno, but going to see ska bands at 9:30 club with John was really my intro to the ska scene.
After
high school he started playing sax with a local ska band. Most of the
members when to Montgomery College inn Rockville, MD. Occasionally I’d
tag along to band practice with John. Incidentally, I had also been in
high school with their drummer, Sean, but he had transferred out to a
different school in Germantown, before junior year if memory serves. I
digress.
Some years later, I was backing up
deejay in DC several nights a week. It was primarily dance club venues,
so mainly goth/industrial nights, and the occasional ‘80s night. I
eventually ended up starting a ska night at Club Asylum in Exile on U
street. It started off pretty slow. There were a couple skins that came
every week. Will and Dustin. Will and I had actually met years earlier,
but as far as I recall, neither of us remembered that. Will played the
trombone for the Checkered Cabs. Will and Dustin were in the
BSSC, and they ended up getting other BSSC folks to come.
At
some point during that period, I started working door at Black Cat (the
competing club to 9:30 club, started by Dante from Iron Cross, Dave
from Scream/Nirvana and several others). Black Cat was typically a
Dischord and Positive Force hangout. Anyway, I started deejaying in
between bands at ska shows at Black Cat on rare occasions where a ska
band got booked. So basically, one day I got a call from Steve from the
Pietasters. Usually at their shows, their friend Sean (DJ Selah, who
also toasts on some of their songs) would spin, but he wasn’t available
for that gig at the military base that I mentioned before, when 'the
name’ happened. Their contract for to provide 2.5 hours of entertainment
(or something), so they needed someone to spin in between sets (back
then I don’t think they had enough songs anyway. I seem to remember
there being two sets, and some songs got played more than once). Steve’s
wife Caroline picked me and my gear up from my place, and drove me to
where the band was in VA, and we went from there. So, I knew that band
from working in the scene before, but this is how we really got to know each other."
But every good thing must come to an end. Ian had promoted a Checkered Cabs show at the Black Cat in which a huge fight broke out and ended up being the last ska show at the club and one of Ian's last moments in the dying ska scene.
His days of modelling are behind him.
...but you can still catch his ska night every Tuesday at the Poseur's Club.
If you have any questions or comments for Ian Fenn here's his Twitter.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Flash Harry - Going Straight (1981)
I have their second album as well and one of the singles - both A and B sides are on that second album so, basically, I have all of their stuff except for that elusive first single that I have never ever seen for sale in my lifetime. The ska on this album isn't really ska in the traditional sense but it's more along the lines of "punk-reggae". The second album has less ska than this one, but it does have some. I'll post that album too...eventually.
1 Late Night Show
2 Success
3 Handlebars
4 Saving Up My Money
5 Hideaway
6 Hot Blooded
7 No Football
8 Feel the Pace
9 Beverly
10 Please...Don't Raise the Alarm!!
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Blister - Cosy Places
This was a German ska band who opened for big names like Mark Foggo and the Busters. They released three albums between 1999 and 2003. This is their second album and I don't know what year it's from but I'm guessing 2001. Who knows? I don't have their other two albums and it took me forever to find this one. If any of you have their other albums, let me know. Let's make a deal.
Despite the weird cover (come on, there's how many people in the band and not one of them said this cover sucks?) the title track "Cosy Places" is actually a really good song. But the winner here for me is the first track "Could it be You?" which I think should go down in history as a ska classic.
1 Could it be You?
2 Goin' Insane
3 Sun, Moon, & Cow
4 Listen to Me
5 Another Song
6 So Goodbye, Sober Day
7 Cosy Places
8 Hey You
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Dogz - No Encuentro Nada 7" (1987)
I received my copy severly warped. I didn't think it would play at all because of how warped it is,
but I managed to get a recording of it. All of those thumps at the beginning of each side are from those large waves in the record. I apologize for the horrible sound quality but if you can do better, please send me a copy of yours. I'll drink a beer in your honor.
A - No Encuentro Nada
B - Primavera
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Monday, September 7, 2020
Ska-Men - Skandal Street (1999)
1 Sunday
2 Brighton Fling
3 SFJ
4 Day Tripper
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Monday, August 24, 2020
va French Ska L' Ete' Sera Ska (1980)
I had a copy of this that sounded pretty bad with all of the crackling and popping so I bought another copy and it didn't sound much better. The record looks to be in great condition but it sounds beaten-up. Oh well. I sat on this one for too long without posting it and some of you have asked for it so here you go. I didn't edit each individual track because it just sounded bad that way so it's on two tracks.
A comment on Discogs said it was edited like this for DJs, so they can just put the record on and go get themselves a drink.
01 Side 1
Chico - Tell Me What You Smoke
Tara - Ska Man
Bloom - Danskorla
Tara - Here I Am
Bloom - Bong
02 - Side 2
Chico - Fakin' It
Skunks - C' Est Eski C' Est Eska
Vodska - L'Espion Qui Venait du Ska
Skunks - Solenzara
Vodska - ThérÚse
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Friday, August 21, 2020
Active Culture - Power of Assimilation (1993)
I know they have a demo tape that I have never been able to find anything about. Not a tracklist or the cover or anything. Besides that, this is the only thing they ever released but they had four different songs on compilations. One of which (at least one) is from the demo.
There are only 10 tracks on this album but I have added the four songs from the comps so here is just about everything they ever released.
1 Redneck Ska
2 Skary
3 Bully Pulpit
4 Type of Joke
5 Work Rest and Play
6 Rudyscooter
7 Blessed
8 Blue Water
9 Urban Jungle
10 Bonus Track
11 Bully Pulpit (demo version)
12 Eat & Eat & Eat
13 Marshall Law
14 Dick Tracy Cues
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
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Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Jack Rabbit Slim - Dracula in Traffic 7" (1995)
A - Dracula in Traffic
B - Profolactic
C - Cutthroat Cafe
DOWNLOAD from MEGA
DOWNLOAD from Zippyshare
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